FB: American Southwest Conference

footballfan413 · December 09, 2007, 11:16:00 AM

To the Cru players, coaches and fans. Congrats on a great season. You played like warriors yesterday. It was the great defensive stuggle that occurred in the first game. You secured the respect of this Warhawk fan and the rest of the Warhawk faithful! This has been an amazing 3 game series between two elite D-3 teams. Hope everyone who traveled to Whitewater enjoyed their time here as much as I enjoyed our trip to Texas last fall and safe travels home. Good luck to a great team and program next season.

Ralph Turner · December 09, 2007, 01:37:52 PM

It was a great game!

Basically, it was a "one-possession game" until the middle of the fourth quarter, when UWW QB Danny Jones took possession of the game and won it for his team.

Jones vs. Micheli is another feature of the Stagg that we can enjoy!

jaypeter · December 09, 2007, 07:00:34 PM

It's been tough to get on the boards the last day and a half, but I did want to take a moment and offer my congratulations to UMHB for a heck of a season, and for what sounds like a heck of a game yesterday. It's too bad Mount Union won't be seeing y'all on Saturday. I would have enjoyed the chance at some revenge...as oppossed to having to try and hold out against a chance at revenge. The voters would be fools to not have you a top 5 team in the preseason poll.

jaypeter

Teamski · December 09, 2007, 07:51:57 PM

Well hats off to UMHB for staying in the game!! Well done! You had a great season!

-Ski

umhb2001 · December 10, 2007, 01:14:19 PM

Well, it has been very frustrating over the last couple of days, knowing that we had our chances. I feel that we played a very good game and had a few opportunities to win this game. The defining moment was not getting the ball in on 1st and goal. That was tough to stomach. Oh well. The guys played great and gave themselves a shot to win. That is all you can ask for. This just shows our guys what type of teams we are up against and what they need to do to get over the hump. I am extremely proud of them and can hardly wait till next year.

As far as next year goes, what type of lineup are we looking at? I know that we are losing several seniors on both sides of the ball. What kind of recruiting class are we looking at, and what does the tallent look like for next year? Thanks.

gordonmann · December 10, 2007, 04:35:34 PM

I came away from the game feeling pretty good about the Crusaders for 2008. You lose Freeman but Jeremy Salinas played very well in Saturday's game. Williams and Henri, both very good, also return.

The biggest question mark is quarterback, of course. Even if you don't throw the ball a lot, it's very difficult to replace a long-time starter at that position without missing a beat.

umhb2001 · December 10, 2007, 05:09:29 PM

I have read about a kid from Kerens, TX, by the name of Jason Russell. I see that he was a two sport star and had commited to play with UMHB back in 06 with fellow teammate Fred Cumby. I don't see Jason on any of the roster lists. Is this guy no longer on the team? What happened to him?

After looking over our 2 Deep from the season, I see that we loose quite a few starters on offense and special teams.

A few names that stuck out to me that I researched are FR QB Kyle Noack. He looks to have had a pretty good HS career at Cuero. Does anyone know how he did on JV and if he will compete for a spot next year? Also, Doug Patton, 6-6 FR TE from Coleman. Get this guy the ball. We could have used him on 1st and goal from the 4 on Saturday!! I know we have Saenz and Estrada at QB, but if this guy Noack is any good, I'd love to see he and Patton get to know each other and become a good tandem.

Other than that, WR and DB look to be weak spots. Does anyone know?

Thanks, I appreciate any word you may have on any of these and other players.

cowboyfan · December 11, 2007, 09:09:57 AM

Congrats UMHB on a great season. I think that you represent your school, fans, and the ASC well. Thanks for all your hard work to gain TEXAS FOOTBALL as much respect as possible. So from a Cowboys fan and HSU alumnist. Congrats see you next year at your place. Go Cowboys.

soldier · December 11, 2007, 10:42:42 AM

Quote from: umhb2001 on December 10, 2007, 05:09:29 PM
I have read about a kid from Kerens, TX, by the name of Jason Russell. I see that he was a two sport star and had commited to play with UMHB back in 06 with fellow teammate Fred Cumby. I don't see Jason on any of the roster lists. Is this guy no longer on the team? What happened to him?

After looking over our 2 Deep from the season, I see that we loose quite a few starters on offense and special teams.

A few names that stuck out to me that I researched are FR QB Kyle Noack. He looks to have had a pretty good HS career at Cuero. Does anyone know how he did on JV and if he will compete for a spot next year? Also, Doug Patton, 6-6 FR TE from Coleman. Get this guy the ball. We could have used him on 1st and goal from the 4 on Saturday!! I know we have Saenz and Estrada at QB, but if this guy Noack is any good, I'd love to see he and Patton get to know each other and become a good tandem.

Other than that, WR and DB look to be weak spots. Does anyone know?

Thanks, I appreciate any word you may have on any of these and other players.

Well, lets start at the top. Fred Cumby and Jason Russel, both very talented players, quit at the end of last season. Neither of them stuck around for offseason. UMHB always has extremely talented players come in for fall camp, but very few actually make it all 4 years.

As far as the QB situation, there will be a 4-way battle between Saenz, Estrada, Noack, and Howard in the spring. All 4 are talented and it will be a war to see who wins it.

Doug Patton is a talented frosh, no doubt. But why not throw it on 1st and goal to either the Sr. or 2 Jr. TE's on the travel roster? Patton was a DE until late in fall camp and moved to TE. I don't knwo if you listened to the game, but it was a Sr. TE that put UMHB in the first scoring situation. There will always be taleneted freshmen. However, programs aren't built on freshmen. If you look @ successful programs, they are built on upper-classmen who have paid their dues and proven themselves worthy to play in big-game situations. There is so much that goes into being able to play in a game like the semi-finals. Unless you're forced to, you don't want freshmen starting in them because they aren't usually mature enough to handle that type of atmosphere.

Are you trying to imply that UMHB coaches don't play the most capable players that have proven themselves? I sure hope not. If you look at the starting rost for both the offense and defense, and compare it w/the all-confrence or all-region roster, you will see that we dominated both of them. I'm sorry to say it, but there are only a few on this board who actually know something about the program @ UMHB. umhbalum39 and yessir are two of them. If you aren't around there much, you won't know what you're talking about when you try and understand the things we do.

SRDAD · December 11, 2007, 11:47:40 AM

WOW, Soldier, take it easy on the guy. He's obviously trying to do his homework. I didn't know it was a top secret football program. As in Div' II , and I, I'm sure many players see the writing on the wall, and move on to somewhere were playing, not winning, is more important personally. I know it was for my son, now he's getting alot of play, and some winning too!
Congrats to UMHB on a great run! I suspect it gets tough to play schools from other states that don't have a big Div. II showing, and kids just go to III.
Does anybody have any input on that?

umhb2001 · December 11, 2007, 12:50:18 PM

I'm not saying that at all. I am just excited about next season. I drive by the practice field every afternoon, so I see the kind of things that are going on. I know and have known a few players and understand the grit, determination, and fortitude it takes to play for UMHB. We wouldn't be where we are if it wasn't for the type of practice and work ethic these guys put in. I was in the weight room for most of last summer and saw PO in there every day. I know what is going on. Obviously, I'm not in the day to day trenches, so no, I don't know what goes on at that point, but I do know that for a team that only has been around for 10 years, we have gotten places and done things that other ASC teams only dream about. I totally back this team, it's players, and it's coaches. I was at both live video watchs parties on campus when both games against UWW were shown and sit in the same seat for every home game. I travelled to Trinity to watch that game a couple years back and made to to Wesley last year. So don't question whether I support the team and all. I do. I just don't know much about the JV and who we have. I'm trying to find out information. I love the CRU, that is why I came to this school in 97. I want them to do well and will hopefully see them in VA next year!!

umhb2001 · December 11, 2007, 12:57:09 PM

Doug Patton is a talented frosh, no doubt. But why not throw it on 1st and goal to either the Sr. or 2 Jr. TE's on the travel roster?

The reason I talked about this kid is because he is HUGE. 6-6 or something like that. The kid towers above most DIII CB's and S's, so give him the ball. I don't think any of our other options are quite that tall. Plus, if he was a DE, then he must be quick. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying the other guys can't get it done, I was just talking about how tall the guy is. He would give us the same advantage that PO gave us.

All in all, thanks for the info. I am glad to hear that there will be a battle during the off season. I look forward to storming through the ASC again.

soldier · December 11, 2007, 02:09:00 PM

I wasn't being harsh SR. I was just trying to clarify some things that many people don't understand about the UMHB program. Coach Fred's ultimate goal is to not have any freshman on the varsity and very few sophs. He says that is when we will truly have a Program. You all have to understand that many freshmen are very talented, possibly even more so than some upper-classmen. There is just a large divide there between those upper-classmen who have been through a grueling off-season and boot-camp and a green freshman. Don't take my comments as harsh, I just want to make sure people who don't know, will know.

SRDAD · December 11, 2007, 03:55:26 PM

With UMHB numbers, location, and money, that should be possible. However, I was penalized in high school with that philosophy. I could kick the older center's _ss, but I was a freshman. Very , very good players will want to play right away in Div III, that is still one of the draws.
Where the h_ck is the spellcheck on this thing?

Ralph Turner · December 11, 2007, 04:17:46 PM

Quote from: SRDAD on December 11, 2007, 03:55:26 PM
With UMHB numbers, location, and money, that should be possible. However, I was penalized in high school with that philosophy. I could kick the older center's _ss, but I was a freshman. Very , very good players will want to play right away in Div III, that is still one of the draws.
Where the h_ck is the spellcheck on this thing?

SRDAD, I use Firefox as a browser which has spellcheck built into it.