FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

Not bad, OAC.  Etta surprises with a win against Kenyon.  ONU racks up nearly 500 yds of offense beating a solid WashU squad.  Berg, Mount and JCU predictably win easily.  Wilm lost, but their new QB put up some fairly impressive stats running and throwing.  Ott did pretty much what I thought they would at SJF.  Only Musky fell on their face losing 33-0 to Waynesburg.

[Spurrier]

where all my polar bears now...31 to 24 over Washington u

[PurpleSuit]

Tough start to the year with a couple of potential all-americans out for the season in Myers at JC and the UWW OL, if the rumors are true about Myers. I have heard he hit his hand on a helmet in practice and left with a cast, fwiw.

What is the rumor on the UWW OL? Have not heard or seen anything. Anyone?

Skibba out for the year with a knee, I believe he's not even on the roster

[reality check]

All of your Polar Bears are right here.  And with the exception of an appearance here and there over the last few years, there's not much in the way or representation on the boards other than myself.  I'm not even on here as much as I used to be.  I guess I've grown bored with Saintsfan's lame attempts at humor and hscoach picking fights.    

Very happy with ONU's start at Washington.  Angle put up solid numbers.  Magazine was a workhorse and they might just have a playmaker or two at the skill positions which has often been an issue.  Big second quarter after going down 17-0 to start.  That may be the biggest thing to come from this; the fact that they bounced back on the road from a big hole.  31 unanswered points once they took a breath and found their composure.

[Dr. Acula]

23-34, 411 yards, 3 TD.  Decent start for Burke.

Namdar and Scott both had nice debuts. 3 catches for 95 yards including the 75 yard TD for Taurice.  182 yards and a score on 9 grabs for Roman. 

[PurpleSuit]

Namdar and Scott looked like the playmakers that Mount missed last year.  The four WR set is going to be hard to defend all year.  Mount didn't show much with TE.  I'm not sure Clark even played.  Josh Scott was also missing on defense. 

Two young players that stood out to me were Kennedy the punt returner and Furda on the DL.  Kennedy was really smooth and Furda was tremendously athletic and disruptive at the DE position.

It was a pretty good opener against an over matched opponent.  Bethany has a lot to work on if they want to take the next step as a program, not only on the field.  The power outage is one thing, but Mount's locker room was a hill beside the fieldhouse.  The Bison were definitely trying to cash in on having Raider Nation in town. The parking/tailgating cost left a bad taste.  I can't imagine the typical gameday at BU has as many money making opportunities as when Mount comes to town.  Oh well, on to the Muskies

[MasterJedi]

Tough start to the year with a couple of potential all-americans out for the season in Myers at JC and the UWW OL, if the rumors are true about Myers. I have heard he hit his hand on a helmet in practice and left with a cast, fwiw.

What is the rumor on the UWW OL? Have not heard or seen anything. Anyone?

Sr guard Lucas Skiba is out for the season, didn't play last night.

[Dr. Acula]

Namdar and Scott looked like the playmakers that Mount missed last year.  The four WR set is going to be hard to defend all year.  Mount didn't show much with TE.  I'm not sure Clark even played.  Josh Scott was also missing on defense. 

Two young players that stood out to me were Kennedy the punt returner and Furda on the DL.  Kennedy was really smooth and Furda was tremendously athletic and disruptive at the DE position.

That's cool to hear that about Furda.  He moved from WR, but he's good sized at 6'2" 225.  You'd have to imagine he's athletic if he played WR, but you just never know if a kid is going to figure it out when they switch sides of the ball.  Sounds like he's a quick study.

Kennedy returned well all day. Friss also had a long punt return so they did a great job on punt returns overall.

[Desertraider]

Tough start to the year with a couple of potential all-americans out for the season in Myers at JC and the UWW OL, if the rumors are true about Myers. I have heard he hit his hand on a helmet in practice and left with a cast, fwiw.

What is the rumor on the UWW OL? Have not heard or seen anything. Anyone?

Sr guard Lucas Skiba is out for the season, didn't play last night.

Don't get me wrong - I do wish him the best - but I don't think he was really missed. Unless of course with him in the lineup they would have hit triple digits. 73 points leads me to believe the UWW offense is still more than ok.

On the Mount front: I watched the game until WV went black. Mount looked rusty early - expected. They shook the rust quickly - expected. And they controlled thoughout - expected. However - Burke looked off. Hear me out before pointing to his stats. I saw several roll outs where the "old" Burke would have zig-zagged his way for 30+ but the "new"(?) Burke looked very hesitant (like he was unsure if he wanted to pass or run) and took a sack. I saw 2 of those in first half. That was not expected. Rusty - yes, but not "unsure". I also did not like that Bethany was able to get as much pressure as they did (4 sacks!). Namdar looked good for first game at WR, and Scott looked good as well. The depth at WR will be tough for most teams. A few side notes to the Bethany crew calling the game (whenever they get power and can read this): when the other team punts to you, and you start with 1st down - that is not "momentum". It is simply the start of a drive. I swear they said "The Bison will start and lets see if they can keep this momentum going"  with the score 21-0. Also - Mount going no huddle was not "too try and tire out the Bison D" so much as it was Mount running Mount's offense. They would have gone no huddle against St. Mary's School for The Blind - or Hiram even. Anyway - the Bethany announcers did a much better job than the WV Electric Company.

[amonachino]

Desert Raider, good comments.  what I saw in limited time and heard on the school's FM broadcast.  A runner made it to the 51 yd. line.  In the first qt. there were 6 mins. to half.  Roman Namdar is now called Namedar.   The off. line needs to improve a lot.  the running game was avg. at best.  the protection by the nature of 4 sacks says it all.  The def. line was a B- at best.  the linebackers missed a number of tackles that was disappointing.  This was not a very good team at all.  Which makes these all the more concerning.  All I see is if this team makes it to the Stagg can they beat the team up north.  That is what the improvement is all about.  Plus there are a couple of challengers in between.  The off. and def. line are the areas that have to have major upgrades.   

[section13raiderfan]

I had to work yesterday to make up for the holiday. My plan was to watch the video stream if I worked too late to drive to Bethany. Had a short day at work so I made the drive to WVA. Since the video feed failed due to power problems Im glad I drove in. At halftime I overheard an assistant Bethany coach ask a cop whats up with the power? Why wasnt it back on yet? The cop said there was a downed tree that fell over the power lines and caused the outage, and it wouldnt be a quick fix. I also heard someone ask if there was always a fee to park and the answer was no, just trying to make some $$. If they were going to make any real $$ this was their opportunity. OH MY!

[Dr. Acula]

On the Mount front: I watched the game until WV went black. Mount looked rusty early - expected. They shook the rust quickly - expected. And they controlled thoughout - expected. However - Burke looked off. Hear me out before pointing to his stats. I saw several roll outs where the "old" Burke would have zig-zagged his way for 30+ but the "new"(?) Burke looked very hesitant (like he was unsure if he wanted to pass or run) and took a sack. I saw 2 of those in first half. That was not expected. Rusty - yes, but not "unsure". I also did not like that Bethany was able to get as much pressure as they did (4 sacks!). Namdar looked good for first game at WR, and Scott looked good as well. The depth at WR will be tough for most teams.

I recall those plays you're talking about.  It was like Burke was tight roping along the LOS and couldn't decide if he should turn up field, throw it away, try to throw it to someone, etc.  Then when he decided to run he got hit almost immediately.  My take was just that Burke was making a conscious effort to throw the ball instead of run. 

Let's look at the game as a whole...how many times did he run it on a read option?  Any?  A couple?  It was a noticeable change from last year when Burke was pulling the ball and taking off regularly.  Honestly, it's a good change.  Why have Burke taking shots against Bethany?  This year is totally different than last year.  Mitchell and Nemeth can both make things happen and they knew that from day 1 this year.  They have more weapons at WR too.  They ran some 2 back sets with both backs out there together too.  To me it just seemed like they tweaked the play calling to feature more of Burke throwing than being a dual threat (hence the career high passing yards).

I'm sure when the big games roll around Burke will be displaying the full arsenal.  Guaranteed we're going to see him driving opposing fans mad with those classic 3rd and 7's when he scampers 9 yards, does the pop up slide and tosses the ball to the official.  But with the makeup of the offense this year they just don't need him to be a 1000 yard rusher again this year and, IMO, that's good news. 

[Raider 68]

On the Mount front: I watched the game until WV went black. Mount looked rusty early - expected. They shook the rust quickly - expected. And they controlled thoughout - expected. However - Burke looked off. Hear me out before pointing to his stats. I saw several roll outs where the "old" Burke would have zig-zagged his way for 30+ but the "new"(?) Burke looked very hesitant (like he was unsure if he wanted to pass or run) and took a sack. I saw 2 of those in first half. That was not expected. Rusty - yes, but not "unsure". I also did not like that Bethany was able to get as much pressure as they did (4 sacks!). Namdar looked good for first game at WR, and Scott looked good as well. The depth at WR will be tough for most teams.

I recall those plays you're talking about.  It was like Burke was tight roping along the LOS and couldn't decide if he should turn up field, throw it away, try to throw it to someone, etc.  Then when he decided to run he got hit almost immediately.  My take was just that Burke was making a conscious effort to throw the ball instead of run. 

Let's look at the game as a whole...how many times did he run it on a read option?  Any?  A couple?  It was a noticeable change from last year when Burke was pulling the ball and taking off regularly.  Honestly, it's a good change.  Why have Burke taking shots against Bethany?  This year is totally different than last year.  Mitchell and Nemeth can both make things happen and they knew that from day 1 this year.  They have more weapons at WR too.  They ran some 2 back sets with both backs out there together too.  To me it just seemed like they tweaked the play calling to feature more of Burke throwing than being a dual threat (hence the career high passing yards).

I'm sure when the big games roll around Burke will be displaying the full arsenal.  Guaranteed we're going to see him driving opposing fans mad with those classic 3rd and 7's when he scampers 9 yards, does the pop up slide and tosses the ball to the official.  But with the makeup of the offense this year they just don't need him to be a 1000 yard rusher again this year and, IMO, that's good news. 

Dr. Acula,

I agree. After listening to the game my take is much like yours.

1. Bethany was nowhere close to a season opener like Franklin.

2. This may be the one of the best WR's groups Mount has had in years.

3. I always liked the 2 back offense, like the days of Kmic, Moore, Pugh, hope the Raiders use it more.

4. Namdar is a great athlete and will make a difference wherever he plays. and will be a game breaker.

5. Tim Kennedy will provide the kick returner the Raiders have lacked since C. Denton.

6. Both the lines need and will improve, but the DL does show improvement over 2013. more aggressive.

7. Kevin Burke had a top notch first game, and I like the idea of him passing vs. his running. Against Muskingum we
    see a similar offense from the Raiders.
   

[Desertraider]

Out of curiosity: anyone think that VK would step and try a DII team in the area? I know LK didn't see the sense in it - but as we know VK is different. I was thinking of maybe Notre Dame College or someone like that. NDC's offensive coordinator is Bill Rychel (Mount) and they have Regis Scafe as the LB coach. So there is a connection.

[Pat Coleman]

Vince Kehres is young enough that if he had some success of his own at Mount Union it would be silly to assume he'd spend the rest of his career there. When higher levels came calling for LK, he was fairly close to retirement and might have decided it was too late to move. But VK interviewed for other head coaching jobs before landing his current one, so I think it's safe to think he might do so eventually someday.