FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[bushman]

What has happened to the Rowan program?

[seventiesraider]

Hiram is in first place in the NCAC. I'll think of that and chuckle all week.

A note to the rest of the OAC: If you focus all your efforts on stopping Kmic, Shorts will kill you.

Congratulations to JCU. Everytime I think you have a chance, you lose a gimme game like BW.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Whatever may happen to Hiram, they are already the 'feel good' story of the season.  They have already matched their win total for the previous 6 seasons!

[OC_SID]

Capital vs. Heidelberg score just mentioned at the end of SportsCenter by Heidelberg grad, John Buccigross.

[pradierguy]

How nasty is Cecil Shorts III? Just a question.

[seventiesraider]

Cecil Shorts made two of the most amazing catches I've seen this year. One was catching a tipped ball as he was falling to his back in the end zone and another was threading through triple coverage to the one. And now that I think about it, he had another catch and run where he completely reversed direction so effortlessly, it was as if everyone should be able to do that at full speed. He is the real deal and he caught some of the hardest passes I've ever seen Micheli throw and did it at full stride.

BTW  ONU 13 yards rushing OMG

[mtfan]

Nice to see you at the game Seventiesraider! I couldnt being the rushing stats of ONU after seeing them, something like 25 carries for the 13 yards! WOW, after the first week I thought the Mt run D might be a little suspect but they showed in full force this time around. NOt only that but keeping Simmons on the run the whole night as well, very impressive. With the speed on D, Mount will be very capable of negating mismatches and dictating opponents offenses choices. though it stung me in the pick'ems it was way more worth it to watch the Mount D flex, bend and dominate!

BTW HsCoach......couldn't agree with you more about the flags.....GOTTA GO RED, LOL

[HScoach]

Boy, does ONU need a couple playmakers on offense!  They've turned into BW: a very solid team without any game breakers on offense.  RJ Meadows continues to disappoint me.  I know he had a great game as a freshman against MUC, but he hasn't shown anything in the last 3 meetings.  Not even a "flash" of game breaking ability.  MUC has shut down some good RB's over the years, but the good ones keep you on the edge of your seat as they seem to continually be 1 step away from breaking it.  That hasn't been the case for Meadows. 

Great game by Micheli and WR's in burning the ONU defense for concentrating on Kmic.  Shorts has defintely stepped into the game breaking role that Garcon filled.  Petruziello, Reynolds and Claycomb have provided a good production too.

Also have to give kudos to the O-line for their pass blocking.  They didn't open many lanes for Kmic, but ONU has a good defensive front and it's only their 2nd game together.  They'll get better.

Defensively, I continue to absolutely love VK's agressive nature.  Being undersized along the D-line and at LB, the attacking style plays to the speed advantage they have up front and hides their lack of bulk.

Was also impressed by Yoder and Chaffin last night.  Good, solid tackles at the line of scrimmage when ONU tried to run between the tackles. 

Hard to get a real good read on the secondary as ONU's offense didn't test them much.  Overall, it seemed like they played well.  Nothing spectactular or terrible that stands out.    The only negative that I can find is for the second week in a row the back-up secondary didn't look good.  But I guess that's why they're #2 or #3 on the depth chart.

The FG unit continues to be an adventure.  Hopefully they don't cost MUC a win sometime this season.

[HScoach]

Results for week 3 of the Pick-Em's and spreads for week 4 have been posted.

[section13raiderfan]

I want to see MUC with Shorts in the shotgun and Micheli at wideout. Cecil can pass and catch and run. Micheli can run and pass and punt. Hows that for versitility? How many teams can boast 2 athletes with that kind of talent? Poor Kmic, all he can do is run and catch and score.  Let Nate kick a PAT or something!Maybe Kmic can run a double pass once! He needs some pass stats to go with his running stats. I keep waiting for MUCs bubble to burst. It just keeps getting better every year. Long live the Purple Reign!

[runyr]

I want to see MUC with Shorts in the shotgun and Micheli at wideout. Cecil can pass and catch and run. Micheli can run and pass and punt. Hows that for versitility? How many teams can boast 2 athletes with that kind of talent? Poor Kmic, all he can do is run and catch and score.  Let Nate kick a PAT or something!Maybe Kmic can run a double pass once! He needs some pass stats to go with his running stats. I keep waiting for MUCs bubble to burst. It just keeps getting better every year. Long live the Purple Reign!

Amen to Purple Reign.
Congrats to yesterday's conference winners:
Capital, Otterbein, and Wilmington definitely showed up to play on both sides of the ball.
BW, nice win for the OAC Championship of Cleveland.

[HScoach]

I want to see MUC with Shorts in the shotgun and Micheli at wideout. Cecil can pass and catch and run. Micheli can run and pass and punt. Hows that for versitility? How many teams can boast 2 athletes with that kind of talent? Poor Kmic, all he can do is run and catch and score.  Let Nate kick a PAT or something!Maybe Kmic can run a double pass once! He needs some pass stats to go with his running stats. I keep waiting for MUCs bubble to burst. It just keeps getting better every year. Long live the Purple Reign!

I imagine we might see Cecil throw the ball a couple times come playoff time on WR reverse/passes.

I will say I hate seeing Shorts returning punts and Kmic returning kickoffs with a 30 point lead.  With the depth that MUC has at RB, WR and DB, I'd like to see the starters returning kicks only when the game is in doubt.  Otherwise protect them from un-necessary hits and pile ups.

[section13raiderfan]

Maybe give the starters 1 kick/punt return per game, as long as we are in the lead. Come playoff time when the rosters are pared, you need those starters sharp. Kmic only rushed for 89 yards in the ONU game. ONU accomplished what most teams couldnt, but the outcome was still the same. How many teams have held Kmic under a hundred in his career? Cant be many. ONU might be the only one to do it and still lose! It may never happen again either!

KMIC FOR HEISMAN         BEANIE WELLS FOR SECOND RUNNER-UP

[reality check]

ONU held Kmic to less than 100 in their 44-0 loss last year too.  So they've managed to do it in their last two meetings.  We just got murdered by Garcon and Shorts in the process of containing Kmic. 

Your question made me curious so I checked it out:

2007: TCNJ held Kmic to 68 yards, Marietta held Kmic to 39 yards, JCU held Kmic to 98 yards, Wilma held Kmic to 85 yards, ONU held Kmic to 96 yards, Musky held Kmic to 39 yards.  6 total teams gave up less than 100 yards to Nate Kmic in 2007.

2006: Hope held Kmic to 43 yards, JCU held Kmic to 75 yards, Wilma held Kmic to 74 yards, Musky held Kmic to 61 yards and Averett held Kmic to 73 yards.  5 total teams gave up less than 100 yards to Nate Kmic in 2006.

In fact, to my disbelief and presumably the disbelief of others, Nate Kmic has yet to hit the 100 yard mark against Muskingum, Wilmington and John Carroll in his first three games against both schools.

Now in many cases Kmic didn't need to carry the ball enough to hit 100 but the fact remains that he's failed to hit 100 against more teams than most would probably think.  I was certainly surprised.

In 4 career games Kmic has 67 carries for 389 yards against ONU.  He's sitting on 40 carries for 177 against JCU in 3 games, 19 carries for 128 against Musky in 3 games and 23 carries for 159 yards against Wilmington although he didn't tally a carry in his freshman season against the Quakers.

So if Wilmington, JCU or Muskingum hold Kmic short of 100 in his senior season, do they brag about this fact and omit the fact that they were still 0-4 in that time and were outscored in those games 200 to 17 over those years?!?

[HScoach]

RC,  you know as well as I do that using the word "held" in relation to Wilma and Musky etc is a little misleading

The best defense I've witnessed against Kmic is JCU.  And the numbers bear that out:  40 carries for 177 yards  = 4.4 yds/carry

Ohio Northern has done a decent job of containing Nate but his 5.8 yds/carry is still pretty good.  Last year it was Wray that killed them.  This year it was Micheli's arm. 

What would have made for a tight game was playing MUC/ONU in the 60 mph wind we had 2 weekends ago.