FB: American Southwest Conference

[Riley Zayas]

"We always play as a team. We felt like we had to move the football and they gave us some opportunities with one-on-one matchups that we felt like we could capitalize on."

-Pete Fredenburg

A couple of takeaways from the win for UMHB over Linfield

-King really ran the offense well. After a couple of bad reads to open the game, he settled in for a 24-for-32 passing day, for 345 yards and 6 TD, which broke the single-game UMHB record. That was as good a performance as I've seen him put together this season.

-Linfield QB Wyatt Smith was exceptional...42-of-51 passing for 422 yards and 3 TD...defense just could not deliver for the 'Cats...but offensively, Linfield was as advertised.

-The Cru secondary will need to improve before facing Whitewater next week...but the pass rush was solid...4 second-half sacks

-KJ Miller with 12 catches, and Brandon Jordan had 7. 3 TD for Jordan. He is just an exceptional athlete. I expect we'll see him playing professionally somewhere in the future, considering his 6'6 frame, athleticism, and above-average hand-eye coordination.

Read more in our game story, which was published earlier this afternoon: https://truetothecru.com/2021/12/04/king-breaks-passing-record-in-umhb-footballs-49-24-playoff-victory-over-linfield/

[Ron Boerger]

Been doing it for years! Doesn't look good on ESPN when there's 1500 fans in attendance (if that) for a natty. Need the fans at the game. I'll never forget when Trinity played MU in Salem. Would have thought the game was in alliance on that cold windy day.

It wasn't all that cold (I was in the stands; it was in the low 50s just down the road at Roanoke at game time) but lordy you are right about the wind.  That plus a QB making his first start of his college career didn't make for a fun day (unless, of course, you were Mount Union).  About the only good thing to come out of that game was having dinner with Pat and Keith afterwards.

[02 Warhawk]

Mount gets rolled at home. NCC is too good.

I agree. MU doesn't look like the MU of back in the day with their air attack. However they always find a way to claw back. They just win. Each week I pick against them and they prove me wrong.

NCC is legit! However, they haven't played anyone to be honest. No disrespect to who they played, but the left side of the bracket was not the patty cake the east side had. I mean most of the 3 & 4 seeds on the left upper and lower could be in that match up if they played on the other side...just saying. The UMHB vs UWW will be a good measuring stick on how the teams should have been scheduled if it wasn't for the 5/600 mile rule. Each week west teams deliver great games. East bracket is blow out after blow out.

Te East side of the bracket is a "patty cake", but you still picked against Mount Union? I'm confused.

[Cowboy2]

Mount gets rolled at home. NCC is too good.

I agree. MU doesn't look like the MU of back in the day with their air attack. However they always find a way to claw back. They just win. Each week I pick against them and they prove me wrong.

Te East side of the bracket is a "patty cake", but you still picked against Mount Union? I'm confused.

That's what I said. Either the competition is better than all the games I've watched online, or the quality this year isn't as strong the two paths UMHB and WW had to take. I watched the Mules beat JH. So I had reason to believe both games would be similar against MU after watching the the Mules/Jays game earlier in the year. The Mules and Blue jays are both good teams. But I wasn't talking about them.

I also watched Ohio Northern almost upset MU. Maybe there's more parity than I'm seeing. Or maybe they're not as good as in the years past, so I thought they would have been upset. The John Carroll game wasn't as advertised, and neither were they this year. Just saying they have proven me wrong, but I don't see them having to beat a team that had to beat a Wheaton and Bethal, just to get to a position to play an opponent who had to beat a Linfield team who beat a STJ and Redlands is my argument.

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/football/d3/2021

They don't look to be the steamroller of the past this years. I dont see them winning against NCC either. Caught a few NCC games since they played a few in the evenings.

In other news I wish I could have caught some of the UWW games outside of their game against WLC. Have seen a lot of MHB to know what they are, but not enough to make a take on UWW yet. HSU vs WLC would have been a good measuring stick.

[BSCpanthers]

It's cool that the teams get to play at HoF stadium and all, but northern Ohio in late December can be a miserable place.  Why not put the game inside or at a better climate location???  I know Florida has no D3 football, but put it in Orlando, destination city with lots to do and easy to get there by plane.  And the weather should be much better than Canton Ohio.

[umhb2001]

Next week's game in Whitewater is going to be COLD! The wind chill at kickoff is supposed to be around 8 degrees above zero! As long as The Cru bring the right cleats it should be a great game. I'm thinking it's goinig to be a lower scored game. The winds are supposed to be around 15 MPH with gusts close to 30 MPH.

Just how we like it

Perhaps y'all will be more acclimated just as we would be in heat and humidity, but errbody gettin cold at that temp!

[MasterJedi]

It's cool that the teams get to play at HoF stadium and all, but northern Ohio in late December can be a miserable place.  Why not put the game inside or at a better climate location???  I know Florida has no D3 football, but put it in Orlando, destination city with lots to do and easy to get there by plane.  And the weather should be much better than Canton Ohio.

We call that football weather in the upper Midwest.

[Etchglow]

It's cool that the teams get to play at HoF stadium and all, but northern Ohio in late December can be a miserable place.  Why not put the game inside or at a better climate location???  I know Florida has no D3 football, but put it in Orlando, destination city with lots to do and easy to get there by plane.  And the weather should be much better than Canton Ohio.

We call that football weather in the upper Midwest.

Us Texas folks might get some ptsd from our winter storm this year lol... ;p

[MasterJedi]

It's cool that the teams get to play at HoF stadium and all, but northern Ohio in late December can be a miserable place.  Why not put the game inside or at a better climate location???  I know Florida has no D3 football, but put it in Orlando, destination city with lots to do and easy to get there by plane.  And the weather should be much better than Canton Ohio.

We call that football weather in the upper Midwest.

Us Texas folks might get some ptsd from our winter storm this year lol... ;p

My parents live in Florida half the year so I get enough of the "oh it's 88 here, what's it there? It's 5, go die" lol

[Ralph Turner]

The weather for the UMHB-Linfield game was more like a D-1 bowl game held in a southern latitude!

[BoBo]

It's cool that the teams get to play at HoF stadium and all, but northern Ohio in late December can be a miserable place.  Why not put the game inside or at a better climate location???  I know Florida has no D3 football, but put it in Orlando, destination city with lots to do and easy to get there by plane.  And the weather should be much better than Canton Ohio.

Most indoor stadiums are either way to big or still located in miserable, boring winter places. ESPN's Wide World of Sports on WDW in Lake Buena Vista would be the best, most convenient place to hold a D3 Championship game. It would be a 10 minute drive from my home.    And the weather will be spectacular on the 3rd Sat. in Dec.

[wally_wabash]

It's cool that the teams get to play at HoF stadium and all, but northern Ohio in late December can be a miserable place.  Why not put the game inside or at a better climate location???  I know Florida has no D3 football, but put it in Orlando, destination city with lots to do and easy to get there by plane.  And the weather should be much better than Canton Ohio.

All of these things were selling points to having the Stagg Bowl in the Houston area in 2018/19.  Things that happened:
2018 - cold and windy, really wasn't much different than a Salem Stagg Bowl, tbh; super limited attendance from Mount Union
2019 - cold and rainy, super limited attendance by both teams- yes, airports are abundant in the Houston area, but week-of tickets during Christmas week are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive, even for fans traveling from another major travel hub (Chicago)

We learned that we can't guarantee good weather no matter where you go, the idea of convenient and accessible travel is pretty much a myth, and if there isn't a local-ish team involved in an area that is not a D3-heavy area, you can't count on walk up at the gate.  It might be cold in Canton on 12/17, but that game attendance is going to be over 1362 no matter which two of these four remaining teams advance because there are plenty of fans in the region that can and will get there. 

[Toby Taff]

It's cool that the teams get to play at HoF stadium and all, but northern Ohio in late December can be a miserable place.  Why not put the game inside or at a better climate location???  I know Florida has no D3 football, but put it in Orlando, destination city with lots to do and easy to get there by plane.  And the weather should be much better than Canton Ohio.

All of these things were selling points to having the Stagg Bowl in the Houston area in 2018/19.  Things that happened:
2018 - cold and windy, really wasn't much different than a Salem Stagg Bowl, tbh; super limited attendance from Mount Union
2019 - cold and rainy, super limited attendance by both teams- yes, airports are abundant in the Houston area, but week-of tickets during Christmas week are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive, even for fans traveling from another major travel hub (Chicago)

We learned that we can't guarantee good weather no matter where you go, the idea of convenient and accessible travel is pretty much a myth, and if there isn't a local-ish team involved in an area that is not a D3-heavy area, you can't count on walk up at the gate.  It might be cold in Canton on 12/17, but that game attendance is going to be over 1362 no matter which two of these four remaining teams advance because there are plenty of fans in the region that can and will get there.

i.ve had my plane tix for over a month

[zipmac22]

Question for anyone who might know...

From what I've read ESPN+ will broadcast the UMHB vs. Whitewater game. Since ESPN+ is broadcasting the game neither UMHB or Whitewater are allowed to stream the game. Is this the case? As I understand it ESPN+ is a subscription and those UMHB fans that aren't able to fly up for the game will have to pony up to watch the game on ESPN+. I really hope that someone can correct me and that the fans will have a choice of watching the game on ESPN+ or through either school's streaming.

[BSCpanthers]

Question for anyone who might know...

From what I've read ESPN+ will broadcast the UMHB vs. Whitewater game. Since ESPN+ is broadcasting the game neither UMHB or Whitewater are allowed to stream the game. Is this the case? As I understand it ESPN+ is a subscription and those UMHB fans that aren't able to fly up for the game will have to pony up to watch the game on ESPN+. I really hope that someone can correct me and that the fans will have a choice of watching the game on ESPN+ or through either school's streaming.

You may be able to get ESPN+ with your cable/satellite subscription.  But you'll still need to download the app.