FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Ric]

Assuming HScoach doesn't decide to end it all and take me with him because Mount has no chance we'll be there before kickoff. When depends if he sets the cruise right at the speed limit or feels like a rebel tomorrow and goes for one over. Can't believe this is my 17th trip to Salem, VA in 21 years. Safe travels all.

[HScoach]

Assuming HScoach doesn't decide to end it all and take me with him because Mount has no chance we'll be there before kickoff. When depends if he sets the cruise right at the speed limit or feels like a rebel tomorrow and goes for one over. Can't believe this is my 17th trip to Salem, VA in 21 years. Safe travels all.

Be nice or I'll leave you in WV

[Ric]

Assuming HScoach doesn't decide to end it all and take me with him because Mount has no chance we'll be there before kickoff. When depends if he sets the cruise right at the speed limit or feels like a rebel tomorrow and goes for one over. Can't believe this is my 17th trip to Salem, VA in 21 years. Safe travels all.

Be nice or I'll leave you in WV

On the way down or the way back?

[HScoach]

Depends on whether you buy breakfast or not.

[Raider 68]

Safe travels for all those Raider and Warhawk fans, I wish was going, but I'll be watching!

[02 Warhawk]

Found this on twitter (Shorts to Blanchard):

Cecil Shorts III ‏@CecilShortsIII 3m @Matt_Blanchard_ lets make a bet. Loser puts up a picture on there avi of the winning team?  For a week! Bet good??

[mr_mom]

Updated weather forecast for Salem tomorrow:

Hi of 61, low of 48.  Wind about 10 mph.  And down to a 20% chance of rain.   

[mr_mom]

And here's your Friday nag a day early ... Mom says to pick and travel safely!

[Kehresma]

We'll be cheering from beautiful downtown Medina (thanks for the five year shout out, Joe Tait!), the first time in our seven season ride. Looks like finally this year the weather in Salem will be what this Ohioan always expected of Virginia in December.

What great seasons for the (almost) perennial purples to get to tomorrow's game. Great respect and sacred season blessings to UMU's play-off challengers: former preseason buddies W&J, Ohio neighbor (if Lutheran) Witt, Wesley Dad's favorite sons and the formidable NCC.

Congratulations to the unsinkable Kevin Burke, Gagliardi winner.

Go Raiders!

[RoyalPurple]

Safe Travels to all you that get to go. Home Sweet Plasma Screen this without any of Olinemom's cookies.

Congrat's to Kevin Burke on the great honor. And I hope the Raider team that has refused to lose throughout the playoffs showup at 7 pm tomorrow

[raiderpa]

Be careful to trust the weather forecast...be prepared..'93 Stagg in Salem....65 degrees Friday and beautiful Friday evening with a promising forecast..... Saturday at noon...chill factor of about 10 and snow blowing limited visibility....just sayin....
GO RAIDERS

[Desertraider]

Watching the Gagliardi ceremony. And the winner is....well first we need the history of the award and Jostens....mention Coach Gagliardi....talk some more....re-emphasize the importance....all are worthy...the winner is......Kevin Burke!!!!!!!

Have you never watched an awards ceremony before?

In all honesty - no. I have zero patience. I tried watching the emmy's (maybe oscars) and even tried watching the Heisman but I don't get why they don't do it this way:
Announcer- You all know why we are here tonight. The nominees are: yada, yada, blah, and blah. And the winner is Kevin Burke, Mount Union.
Kevin Burke - Wow, thanks. This is a great honor. Thank you.

Done. I could cut the Oscar's down to 12 minutes flat. Oh well. Though it was nicely done, I probably won't tune in again for an awards show.

[amonachino]

My only stat. that I would like to see is no turnovers for the Raiders. It would look like this  0-0.   This is the is the biggest challenge to Mount in it's football dominance.  0-3 is the stat. that must be changed. The only issue is many  of the frosh and soph. have not felt the sting of 3 losses in a row.  The jr. and sr. have one or two losses.   Our def. MUST play their best game by far in the playoffs.  Continue to stop the run and play solid pass.def.(what is that)  I hope Nemeth gets to run the ball more. I hope B. J. will dance a little less and run the hole for the 3-5 yds.   Kevin has to be ready to play his best.  If he does this game could be a 2-3 td. difference.   In the end, as always, as we have seen this year, however Mount gets one more point, 55-54, 12-11 or whatever score, that is what counts.  What ever it takes.  GO RAIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To all the Mount faithful in Salem, have a great time and cheer the Raiders to victory.  All have a safe trip back home and bring the trophy.

[Craft_Beermeister]

OK ... I was only going to post this to the OAC Pick-Em list, but I figure a few of you might find this interesting:

TALE OF THE TAPE

Category	Whitewater	Mount Union
Scoring Offense	35.8 (#30)	49.0 (#1)
Scoring Defense	8.7 (#1)	19.0 (#49)
Total Offense	394.1 Yds (#89)	528.6 Yds (#2)
Total Defense	237.5 (#3)	282.1 (#19)
Rushing Offense	164.9 Yds (#110)	271.9 Yds (#13)
Rushing Defense	76.1 Yds (#6)	71.4 Yds (#4)
Passing Offense	229.8 Yds (#92)	256.7 Yds (#47)
Passing Defense	161.4 (#27)	210.6 (#133)
Kickoff Returns	27.5 Yds (#2)	14.1 Yds (#240)
Kickoff Defense	20.1 Yds (#147)	15.7 Yds (#21)
Punt Returns	13.4 Yds (#18)	8.8 Yds (#96)
Punt Defense	7.4 Yds (#97)	9.8 Yds (#157)
Net Punting	30.8 (#147)	29.3 (#195)
3rd Down Efficiency	43.8% (#46)	57.4% (#1)
3rd Down Efficiency Defense	26.6% (#6)	28.1% (#11)
Penalty Yards	39.9 Yds (#23)	63.1 Yds (#169)
Turnover Margin	2.2 (#2)	0.6 (#47)
Time of Possession	31.1 Min (#79)	32.5 Min (#96)

I kept writing and deleting what I wanted to say to explain these numbers, but eventually decided to sit on the back porch and let the rest of you figure it out!

The numbers seem to favor Mount, but the passing defense is problematic for the Raiders.  Another classic in the works. 

Go Raiders! 22.12.13

Out of curiosity, in what way?

Mount scores 13.2 more points than UWW while only giving up 10.3 more points per game. That would lead me to believe points scored favors Mount Union by 2.9 points. How did you not see that? 

Usually I say throw the numbers out the window, but in this case, the numbers add to allure of what could be an epic match up!

Especially since Mount Union plays in a much stronger conference.

[wesleydad]

i think this comes down to can Mounts defense stop UWW offense.  I dont care about stats, wesley should not score 59 on anyone based on stats, but they did.  UWW o looks ordinary, but I liked what I saw of the receivers eventhough they did not light up UMHB.  this is a really interesting match-up.  Only going by what I saw, that is all there is to go by,  ut UWW defense looked really quick vs. UMHB who I know for a fact is really quick.  Mount had trouble with the Wesley quickness, i know they scored 62, but struggled running the ball for most of the game.  If UWW brings the same then they will struggle again.  In the end, Burke is the X-factor, he is really good, but I am not sure if it will be enough.  Looking for a good, close game.  I think UWW wins.