FB: American Southwest Conference

[UMHB03]

As an NAIA'er, I was surprised at 2 things. I did not expect a W by Bethel, just a tight game. And, how fast the fall from annual contender for a D3 title to not making the playoffs for UMHB. Since they lost to Linfield in the title game about 20 years ago, the Crusaders have been a Top 5 or 10 team ever since.

But coaching at this level is everything.

Coaching absolutely matters.

I've never seen a program implode as quickly as UMHB has after Fredenburg retired. Harmon was left with talent from a dominant national championship team and a two-decade blueprint for long term success, and he has destroyed it almost overnight. Nebraska after Tom Osborne's retirement comes to mind, but they at least took 4-5 years to descend into mediocrity.

With a change of divisions looking imminent in the near future, this program has to get back on track post haste. It's now apparent that we would have a hard time competing in NAIA in our current state, much less in D2 or FCS.

[Crubacker]

Must have just been added, didn't see it yesterday and I double checked it twice.  Closed the browser and reopened but still not there.  But, I saw it this time.

[D3fanboy]

As an NAIA'er, I was surprised at 2 things. I did not expect a W by Bethel, just a tight game. And, how fast the fall from annual contender for a D3 title to not making the playoffs for UMHB. Since they lost to Linfield in the title game about 20 years ago, the Crusaders have been a Top 5 or 10 team ever since.

But coaching at this level is everything.

Coaching absolutely matters.

I've never seen a program implode as quickly as UMHB has after Fredenburg retired. Harmon was left with talent from a dominant national championship team and a two-decade blueprint for long term success, and he has destroyed it almost overnight. Nebraska after Tom Osborne's retirement comes to mind, but they at least took 4-5 years to descend into mediocrity.

With a change of divisions looking imminent in the near future, this program has to get back on track post haste. It's now apparent that we would have a hard time competing in NAIA in our current state, much less in D2 or FCS.

USC fell off a cliff pretty soon after their vacated title, this year's Michigan team also shares a lot of similarities as well

[crufootball]

As an NAIA'er, I was surprised at 2 things. I did not expect a W by Bethel, just a tight game. And, how fast the fall from annual contender for a D3 title to not making the playoffs for UMHB. Since they lost to Linfield in the title game about 20 years ago, the Crusaders have been a Top 5 or 10 team ever since.

But coaching at this level is everything.

Coaching absolutely matters.

I've never seen a program implode as quickly as UMHB has after Fredenburg retired. Harmon was left with talent from a dominant national championship team and a two-decade blueprint for long term success, and he has destroyed it almost overnight. Nebraska after Tom Osborne's retirement comes to mind, but they at least took 4-5 years to descend into mediocrity.

With a change of divisions looking imminent in the near future, this program has to get back on track post haste. It's now apparent that we would have a hard time competing in NAIA in our current state, much less in D2 or FCS.

I will admit to being the eternal optimist but I will wait to call this an implosion until we lose to someone we need to be embarrassed about. I realize that UMHB has very high standards but all of Coach Harmon's losses are to ranked teams, most of which were in the Top 10 of the country and on the road. 

Am I happy about last year and the first game, no, but we still have every possible goal in front of us.

[UMHB03]

As an NAIA'er, I was surprised at 2 things. I did not expect a W by Bethel, just a tight game. And, how fast the fall from annual contender for a D3 title to not making the playoffs for UMHB. Since they lost to Linfield in the title game about 20 years ago, the Crusaders have been a Top 5 or 10 team ever since.

But coaching at this level is everything.

Coaching absolutely matters.

I've never seen a program implode as quickly as UMHB has after Fredenburg retired. Harmon was left with talent from a dominant national championship team and a two-decade blueprint for long term success, and he has destroyed it almost overnight. Nebraska after Tom Osborne's retirement comes to mind, but they at least took 4-5 years to descend into mediocrity.

With a change of divisions looking imminent in the near future, this program has to get back on track post haste. It's now apparent that we would have a hard time competing in NAIA in our current state, much less in D2 or FCS.

I will admit to being the eternal optimist but I will wait to call this an implosion until we lose to someone we need to be embarrassed about. I realize that UMHB has very high standards but all of Coach Harmon's losses are to ranked teams, most of which were in the Top 10 of the country and on the road. 

Am I happy about last year and the first game, no, but we still have every possible goal in front of us.

Sure, all the team's we've lost to in the past two years have been good, but there was a time not long ago when we were capable of beating good teams. We have three remaining games tougher than the one we just lost. All possible goals are still achievable, technically, but not playing the way we have in our last 11-12 games, and we have shown no signs of progress since Harmon took over.

[IC798891]

One thing I remember:

The greats wouldn't be all-time greats if their success was easily replicable. The whole point is that they're able to achieve results most aren't.

[BSCpanthers]

Your weekly Westgate Christian update, sort of.  WCU was to play at Texas College this past weekend.  It is now Tuesday and no score has been posted for the game, no stats have been posted, does anyone know if this game was actually played? 

Is WCU a no show?

[justafan12]

Game was played and TC won 54-3. No stats online but I saw an article in Tyler paper where TC won.

[cruman32]

Texas College beat Westgate Christian 54-3. Info is online via Google. Short highlight clip.

[Ralph Turner]

... Texas College usually loses by that margin!

[Ron Boerger]

Here is the game writeup from the Tyler paper:  https://tylerpaper.com/sports/texas-college-goes-to-2-0-with-big-win/article_0b393eec-6e40-11ef-b53a-3f23d1f7ee8e.html

The game was called for "lack of sportsmanship" with 5:05 remaining in the fourth quarter.

[Riley Zayas]

For any who are interested, here are some of Westgate's highlights from the TC game from their Hudl page.

https://fan.hudl.com/usa/tx/houston/organization/181599/westgate-christian-u/watch?hr=SGlnaGxpZ2h0UmVlbFN1bW1hcnk2NmRmMDIxN2MxNTFjMjkzOGRlYjc0YWQ%3D&ot=TEAM&oi=815851

[BSCpanthers]

I'd liked to have seen a little more info on the "lack of sportsmanship" call.  How bad was it getting out there???  Which side was it coming from?  If it came from the WCU side, what disciplinary action was taken, if any. 

Good luck UMHB, should be an interesting game. 

[crufootball]

For any who are interested, here are some of Westgate's highlights from the TC game from their Hudl page.

https://fan.hudl.com/usa/tx/houston/organization/181599/westgate-christian-u/watch?hr=SGlnaGxpZ2h0UmVlbFN1bW1hcnk2NmRmMDIxN2MxNTFjMjkzOGRlYjc0YWQ%3D&ot=TEAM&oi=815851

Another thing that caught my attention on that page was the recap of their scrimmage of Hardin-Simmons in Abilene. Say what you want about Westgate but they must have a big travel budget as that means they will travel to 9 different schools the last of which is in Illinois. Frankly if this goes bad on them I am at least happy that UMHB plays them early so we are more assured that the game will take place.

[D3fanboy]

For any who are interested, here are some of Westgate's highlights from the TC game from their Hudl page.

https://fan.hudl.com/usa/tx/houston/organization/181599/westgate-christian-u/watch?hr=SGlnaGxpZ2h0UmVlbFN1bW1hcnk2NmRmMDIxN2MxNTFjMjkzOGRlYjc0YWQ%3D&ot=TEAM&oi=815851

Another thing that caught my attention on that page was the recap of their scrimmage of Hardin-Simmons in Abilene. Say what you want about Westgate but they must have a big travel budget as that means they will travel to 9 different schools the last of which is in Illinois. Frankly if this goes bad on them I am at least happy that UMHB plays them early so we are more assured that the game will take place.

I'm sure the rent in the strip mall isn't free, but not having buildings, faculty, athletic facilities, research or anything that an actual college would help with the "athletics" budget.  Those "tuition" dollars have to go somewhere.