FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[BearcatFan]

Living in Salem, OR (Go, Bearcats!) I don't follow the OAC much but thought this might be of interest to readers of this forum...

Gregg Easterbrook, aka Tuesday Morning Quarterback, on Mount Union from today's column:

Obscure College Score of the Week: Heidelberg 56, Mount Union 7. That, at least, is the way the Washington Post listed the score; actual was Mount Union 56, Heidelberg 7. The Purple Raiders have 10 Division III titles and are 309-23-3 since coach Larry Kehres arrived in 1986. The program produced NFL star Pierre Garçon. Last year, Mount Union's Cecil Shorts got TMQ's vote for the Maxwell Award. Division III teams don't give athletic scholarships. Kehres recruits by convincing Midwest boys to come to his school and be assured of winning their college football games.

That's the good part. On the flip side, Mount Union plays an extremely weak schedule, rarely facing an opponent with a chance of winning, then engages in bully behavior by running up the score. Already this season, Mount Union has wins of 62-0, 66-7, 58-7 and 56-7. TMQ's rule is that when a football team wins by 50 points the victor, not the vanquished, should feel embarrassed. Mount Union recently outgained Wilmington of Ohio 671 yards to 115 yards. What's the point of a "game" against an opponent that has absolutely no chance? That's not an athletic contest, it's a staged stunt.

Many college teams have a gimmick date on their schedule. First-ranked LSU hosted Division 1-AA team Northwestern State, for instance. But Mount Union rarely plays anything except gimmick games. If Kehres and his players were true sportsmen, they would test themselves against strong opponents. Instead they run up the score against teams certain to lose. Bully behavior is a sign of low character.

Here, Bill Pennington of the New York Times details what it's like for Heidelberg, which does not recruit, to be clobbered by Mount Union year after year. The Times has a mixed record on vital questions such as whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But in recent years, its coverage of high school and college athletics has been outstanding. More than any other mainstream news organization, the Times seems to understand how important high school and college athletics are to American culture, and often puts these issues on the front page.

Nice to see D-III getting some big-time national press on ESPN and the NY Times, but I think that Easterbrook is a bit harsh in his criticism. Is Mount Union really that much better of a team, or is the rest of the OAC really that weak?

I find Coach Hallet's quote from Bill Pennington's NY Times article to be very telling as to why Heidelberg hasn't defeated Mount Union since 1988:

"So I told the kids that we don't have a prayer of winning," he said. "I didn't want to give a typical gung-ho speech because I wanted them to know I wouldn't lie. So I said we can't win. But we can compete and prove to ourselves that we can get better."

If the head coach instills such disbelief in his players, what chance do they have of winning?

[Pat Coleman]

Veteran Mount Union fans are accustomed to Gregg Easterbrook's ill-informed screed. He can't be convinced of his stupidity.

[reality check]

Shame on Mount Union for scheduling so many "gimmick games".  Grow a pair and start scheduling three or four tougher contests a year Purple Raiders!!!




The Dayton Daily News also reported that Heidelberg won 56-7.  I called my Dad yesterday to wish him a happy birthday and he promptly said, "So the paper says Heidelberg took it to Mount Union.  The paper screwed up didn't it?"

[skunks_sidekick]

I think this may be the second, or even the third time that loser has written a similar rant.  I know previously people have contacted him to correct his misconceptions regarding Mount's schedule.  Evidently, he is one of those "great" writers that really doesn't concern himself with facts.   

[Pat Coleman]

More often than that. I'd have to guess I know of a half-dozen times and there are probably more.

[JK]

Cap beat Otterbein.  It's officially a decent year in Bexley! 

The Otters might be the best 1-5 team in the country.  They have played one double overtime game (a 6 point loss to JCU) and two overtime games (one win and one loss).  They lost to Cap by 4 and BW by 6.  The only game that was lopsided was to the Berg by 21.

I do not think this week will end well for my Crusaders.

Cap's defense has been torched in the passing department by, well, everyone- but especially by Witt, ONU and Heidi.  It seems like every QB that has played against Cap this year has thrown for 250+ and/or set a personal record for passing yards in a game.

I said before that the OAC is not getting worse, it's actually getting better- more competitive.  The difference between 2nd and 7th or 8th in the conference is miniscule right now.  Look at it- Berg lost to BW, BW lost to Cap, Musky beat ONU but loses to JCU and Berg.  ONU beat Cap.  THere are a bunch of evenly matched teams in the middle and anyone can beat anyone on any given saturday.

[PurpleSuit]

I'm with Pat, there are probably at least a dozen articles written about Mount. Slightly obsessive for a national writer to be so concerned with a small D3 school in Ohio, isn't there some big state school in Wisconsin he can focus on now?

[seventiesraider]

Playing the same "gimmick" games we did when we were 2-6

What's that expression? Ya can't fix stupid

[Bombers798891]

Veteran Mount Union fans are accustomed to Gregg Easterbrook's ill-informed screed. He can't be convinced of his stupidity.

Easterbrook is a hack. He's a lazy, ignorant writer who cares more about his schtick than he does the facts. I hope he goes up to Alliance (or down to Salem) for a game and gets denied a press pass

[BashDad]

This is non-football related, but I thought this board might be interested. My twin brother edited a great, gonzo book about LeBron James and the suffering that comes with being a 60 year old Cleveland sports fan, by the writer (and Cleveland native) Scott Raab: THE WHORE OF AKRON: ONE MAN'S SEARCH FOR THE SOUL OF LEBRON JAMES. Esquire has just published an excerpt: http://www.esquire.com/features/whore-of-akron-book-excerpt-1111

And you can buy the book here (out Nov. 15):
http://www.amazon.com/Whore-Akron-Search-LeBron-James/dp/0062066366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298260031&sr=1-1&tag=533633855-20

[ADL70]

Living in Salem, OR (Go, Bearcats!) I don't follow the OAC much but thought this might be of interest to readers of this forum...

Gregg Easterbrook, aka Tuesday Morning Quarterback, on Mount Union from today's column:

"So I told the kids that we don't have a prayer of winning," he said. "I didn't want to give a typical gung-ho speech because I wanted them to know I wouldn't lie. So I said we can't win. But we can compete and prove to ourselves that we can get better."

If the head coach instills such disbelief in his players, what chance do they have of winning?

That was only in his first year when Heidelberg was coming off a thirty-something game losing streak

[beardad]

ONU will need 10 qb, if line dosent improve, 2nd to last in sacks allowed, 3rd down conv< 38%, need to regroup, go bears

[emma17]

I'm with Pat, there are probably at least a dozen articles written about Mount. Slightly obsessive for a national writer to be so concerned with a small D3 school in Ohio, isn't there some big state school in Wisconsin he can focus on now?

From the perspective of regularly whomping conference opponents like Mt has done, there isn't a big state school in WI he can focus on.  He may have it in for Mt and he's ignorant to the facts of scheduling, but from the outside looking in he sees:
Just going back to 2007 season, Mt has won 28 conference games by 35 points or more- that's 5 touchdowns a game.  In 2007 Mt beat every OAC team by 35 or more. 

I don't hold Mt responsible, but certainly the rest of the OAC needs to get it going. 

[BearcatFan]

Living in Salem, OR (Go, Bearcats!) I don't follow the OAC much but thought this might be of interest to readers of this forum...

Gregg Easterbrook, aka Tuesday Morning Quarterback, on Mount Union from today's column:

"So I told the kids that we don't have a prayer of winning," he said. "I didn't want to give a typical gung-ho speech because I wanted them to know I wouldn't lie. So I said we can't win. But we can compete and prove to ourselves that we can get better."

If the head coach instills such disbelief in his players, what chance do they have of winning?

That was only in his first year when Heidelberg was coming off a thirty-something game losing streak

Pennington -- later in the NY Times article -- went on to further quote coach Hallet, and the author indicates that this was a recent "motivational speech" from Tuesday -- "At the conclusion of Heidelberg's practice Tuesday, the players dropped to one knee as Hallett stood next to a goal post."

"There are two kinds of teams that play Mount Union," he told them. "The first are teams that are beaten before they even take the field. They don't believe they can win. The other teams think they have to be a bunch of Supermen on every play to beat them. They lose, too.

"Don't be either. Be yourself. If we play our best and lose, I have no problem. Just don't squander the opportunity. That's what is important, on this field or in life — don't squander the really good opportunities."

Somewhat more confidence-inspiring, but really not the kind of "winning attitude" I would expect in a coach who is trying to win!

[ExTartanPlayer]

Veteran Mount Union fans are accustomed to Gregg Easterbrook's ill-informed screed. He can't be convinced of his stupidity.

Easterbrook is a hack. He's a lazy, ignorant writer who cares more about his schtick than he does the facts. I hope he goes up to Alliance (or down to Salem) for a game and gets denied a press pass

Funny thing is, I used to enjoy much of Easterbrook's column, but he does stick to the same themes a lot & tends to cherrypick things like this without learning all of the facts.

I sent him a rather lengthy note declaring that a 50-point margin is not necessarily a sign of bad sportsmanship; in fact, I'm aware of several lopsided games where the winning coach displayed exemplary sportsmanship.  My alma mater (HS) won a game this year 70-7, which Easterbrook would no doubt decry as bad sportsmanship unless he checked the facts.  The starters played three offensive snaps and scored on all three, plus an interception return (the score was 28-0 less than three minutes into the game).  JV's played the rest of the game; if our coach had wanted to, he probably have run up 120 points or more.

There was another high-school game in PA in which the starters played one quarter and took a 49-0 lead.  At that point, the coaches met and agreed to play with a running clock for the rest of the game (which wouldn't normally occur until the second half).  The coach of the winning team also agreed to kick off to start the second half, when it was his choice and he could have received.

Point being, a 50-point margin is not AT ALL a sign of bad sportsmanship without knowing all the facts, and unless the starters were still in the game racking up touchdowns with two minutes to go, it's probably not that big of a deal.

I also included several notes about the strength of the OAC (and, by extension, the absurdity of the notion that UMU plays a weak schedule), but I doubt that he'll pay much attention.  A reader just commented with the following:

"Gregg, once again, you are not judging Mount Union accurately. You've made the "they have a cupcake schedule" argument before, and you don't seem to understand the teams they are creaming ever week are almost all CONFERENCE opponents (in this case, Wilmington and Heidelberg are both in the conference). In other words, they don't have control over the scheduled opponent, other than one or two games at the beginning of the year. They play in a conference, and for over a decade they've been the best of it in football. Please stop implying they somehow choose weak opponents. The reality is they just have a better football program than the others in their conference. By the way, I'm not an Mount Union grad, but instead graduated from one of the teams they routinely beat. It's the rest of the conference's fault they win so often, and by so much. Don't like it? Develop programs to compete!"

Easterbrook ignores the fact that several of the opponents that UMU has blown out have pretty good records (JCU is 4-2, Berg is 4-2...hell, the UW-Oshkosh team that they beat in their lone nonconference game is 5-1 and currently 3-0 in what might be the toughest conference in Division III).