FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[bluestreak66]

Some messy weather, some messy spreads, but most everyone got half of the available points in Round One of the OAC Playoff Pick-em.  gobash83 was just a little better than the rest, missing the Wesley-Framingham game (by 0.5 points) and the STL-MUC game (as did most).  joelmama was a single point back.

Round Two spreads come out Monday night.  Each game will be worth two points.

Mr. Mom;
I'm not doing so with these pick-ems! Can I be spotted a couple points in round two? I feel like it's a only fair after John Carroll spotted Mount Union a few touchdowns twice last year!

[bluenote]

How are all the MUC Fans doing this year? Hope all is well.... Hope we can meet in the Stagg!             

[Toph]

^ with 12 sacks?  Um, no.   Obviously SLU should have held MORE.

Always good for a few one liners.  This is perfect.

Go Bears, go Raiders, go OAC.

[Desertraider]

Nice piece on Cecil after the Texans win.

http://espn.go.com/blog/afcsouth/post/_/id/63440/texans-get-tricky-as-offense-rolls-over-jets

[Desertraider]

What the heck.......some more Cecil:

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Cecil-Shorts-III-has-breakout-game-vs-Jets/ea52626e-aa5f-476f-b835-e583425c4f42

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Mount Union Sweeps OAC Defensive MVP Awards:

2015 OAC All Conference

[Desertraider]

From the Yahoo front page:

http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2015/11/22/mount-union-romps-behind-12-sacks-in-playoff-victory.html

[Desertraider]

Kocheff a Gagliardi Finalist.

http://athletics.mountunion.edu/sports/fball/2015-16/releases/20151123f4acvm

[Pat Coleman]

Kocheff a Gagliardi Finalist.

http://athletics.mountunion.edu/sports/fball/2015-16/releases/20151123f4acvm

Semifinalist. Fan voting here: http://www.d3football.com/notables/2015/11/gagliardi-semifinalists-announced

[raiderpa]

Mount game will be video fed this week,

[Dr. Acula]

Mount Union Sweeps OAC Defensive MVP Awards:

2015 OAC All Conference

Interesting.  Taurice Scott is 1st team QB, but then Moeglin is listed separately from Scott and the RB's as the 1st team "Offensive Back".  Given how much he ran the ball I guess that's a fair label!

Congrats to Dean Paul, Mike Schmitz, Justin Magazine and Devon Price for their special awards.  Quite a haul for ONU.  Well deserved.

[Desertraider]

Mount Union Sweeps OAC Defensive MVP Awards:

2015 OAC All Conference

Interesting.  Taurice Scott is 1st team QB, but then Moeglin is listed separately from Scott and the RB's as the 1st team "Offensive Back".  Given how much he ran the ball I guess that's a fair label!

Congrats to Dean Paul, Mike Schmitz, Justin Magazine and Devon Price for their special awards.  Quite a haul for ONU.  Well deserved.

Congrats to all. However, I didn't really like Magazine over Nehmeth for the Packard Award. I know 'you Mount people think Mount should get all the special awards' and I can assure you in this case you are right  . But here is my reasoning:
Against the top 4 OAC teams for each (Mount, BW, JCU and Berg for ONU - BW, JCU, Berg and ONU for Mount) Magazine had a total of 95 carries for 445 yards (4.66 yds/carry) and 6TDs. Nehmeth had 69 carries for 545 yards (7.89 yds/carry) and 6TDs. For the season Magazine has 261 carries (112 more than Nehmeth) for 1474 yds (5.6 avg) and 24 TDs while Nehmeth has 149 carries for 1120 yds (7.5 avg) and 20TDs. Magazine may have more production BUT with 112 more carries! Don't get me wrong Magazine is a great back, even if he did only have 30 yards on 15 carries against Mount  , but Nehmeth should have been the Packard Award winner.

[ExTartanPlayer]

Mount Union Sweeps OAC Defensive MVP Awards:

2015 OAC All Conference

Interesting.  Taurice Scott is 1st team QB, but then Moeglin is listed separately from Scott and the RB's as the 1st team "Offensive Back".  Given how much he ran the ball I guess that's a fair label!

Congrats to Dean Paul, Mike Schmitz, Justin Magazine and Devon Price for their special awards.  Quite a haul for ONU.  Well deserved.

Congrats to all. However, I didn't really like Magazine over Nehmeth for the Packard Award. I know 'you Mount people think Mount should get all the special awards' and I can assure you in this case you are right  . But here is my reasoning:
Against the top 4 OAC teams for each (Mount, BW, JCU and Berg for ONU - BW, JCU, Berg and ONU for Mount) Magazine had a total of 95 carries for 445 yards (4.66 yds/carry) and 6TDs. Nehmeth had 69 carries for 545 yards (7.89 yds/carry) and 6TDs. For the season Magazine has 261 carries (112 more than Nehmeth) for 1474 yds (5.6 avg) and 24 TDs while Nehmeth has 149 carries for 1120 yds (7.5 avg) and 20TDs. Magazine may have more production BUT with 112 more carries! Don't get me wrong Magazine is a great back, even if he did only have 30 yards on 15 carries against Mount  , but Nehmeth should have been the Packard Award winner.

Just to play devil's advocate...

I understand what you're saying - that Nemeth has been more productive on a per-carry basis, that's undeniable - but it's likely that Nemeth has a lot more help than Magazine, right?  Put Magazine on MU's offense this year and his per-carry production would improve (with Scott at QB, Namdar killing people deep, and a better line); similarly, put Nemeth on ONU's team, send him at the Mount defense 15 times, and how much better would he have fared?  Without lots of film study, it's really hard to figure out which guy would be better if they were playing in the same exact conditions - and you're almost certainly right that some level of "We don't want to give Mount Union every single award" came into play with one of the positions where the players were close enough to make it a discussion.  But consideration of the respective offensive supporting casts (and the fact that Magazine had to play a game against the Mount defense, while Nemeth doesn't) is almost certainly a factor.  We've seen a handful of RB's from places like Wisconsin and Alabama tank in the NFL, while guys with lesser collegiate production have thrived; the best guy isn't always the one with the best numbers, when one has a lot more help than the other.

[HScoach]

Magazine means a lot more to ONU than Nemeth does to Mount.

[ExTartanPlayer]

Since there are no Albright fans on the boards, I will step in and play one for the week.  I grew up only a few minutes from Albright's campus, my mom has taught there as an adjunct in the past, and my dad (an unabashed lover of small-school football) has gone to a few Albright games this season and chatted with me afterwards.

Albright is...kind of a weird 10-1 team.  They don't have a bell-cow RB that's carried the load all season, although fireplug Chris Dawson (5'3" and 206 pounds, not a typo) has come on strong of late and is averaging 100 rushing yards in the last three weeks.  They're more of a passing team, led by a first-year starter at QB in Mike Knight.  His production has been solid but likely he is no better than the top QB's Mount has played against this season.  Albright does spread the ball around in the passing game, and has several fairly productive WR's.  Malik Gilmore is big (6'4") but the other three guys who will see the ball are shorter, more "slot receiver" types.  From everything I have read about the Mount defense this year, it's hard to envision the Albright offense being much of a problem - this unit is likely no better than Baldwin-Wallace or Ohio Northern.

Defensively, the overall numbers aren't bad - 4.4 yards per play is a pretty good number - but they have allowed points against good teams, not nearly the type of shutdown unit that Mount Union has.  Defensive end Jamal Hayden (#11) is the biggest standout up front, and LB Steve Barroso (#34) is a strong player, but Mount Union's offense will be a level faster than anyone they've seen this season.

As is often the case with Mount Union in the early rounds of the playoffs, one would have to work VERY hard to figure out a way in which this ends up being a tight game, the perfect storm of mistakes by Mount (which they don't usually make) and Albright coming up with a surprise wrinkle or two that throws them off and gets a score or two on the board before the Mount coaching staff figures it out.

Albright has had a great season but (IMO) took advantage of a MAC that was lacking a dominant team - in years past either Widener and/or Delaware Valley have been much stronger than they were this season.  Delaware Valley was young and inconsistent and would have won the league (they beat the other "best" teams, Albright and Stevenson) if they hadn't figured out how to lose a couple against the league's lesser lights.  I'm very happy for Albright that they've had a magic-carpet-ride of a season and made it this far, but there's just no way this game will be much of a contest.