FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Desertraider]

Tommies and Johnnies playing a good one. Johnnies just scored on a long TD pass to make it 20-17 Tommies. Plating in from of 35,600!
[/quote
I saw a photo posted on Twitter that showed the Target Field scoreboard with attendance listed at 37,355   Impressive size crowd for D III game.

That is impressive! There's a lot of MAC schools who would love to have attendance like that. Way to go Johnnie and Tommie Fans. #makingD3proud

Heck with the MAC...announcers said the Chargers/Dolphins drew less than that in LA.

[Sir Battlescars]

How bout the Heidelberg Student Princes! They've knocked off the defending MIAC champs, a good D3 team in Ohio Northern, and the defending OAC champs. Not a bad start to the season.

I watched The Berg / JCU game today and Heidelberg looked solid with big plays on both sides of the ball. Heidelberg's D looks much better this year... not that they were bad last year, but the improved secondary is the big difference. And their Offensive playbook seems to have expanded a bit this year too. It would be great to see them continue to play like this all year. 

[Craft_Beermeister]

Tommies and Johnnies playing a good one. Johnnies just scored on a long TD pass to make it 20-17 Tommies. Plating in from of 35,600!
[/quote


I saw a photo posted on Twitter that showed the Target Field scoreboard with attendance listed at 37,355   Impressive size crowd for D III game.

That is impressive! There's a lot of MAC schools who would love to have attendance like that. Way to go Johnnie and Tommie Fans. #makingD3proud

The previous DIII atendency record was set last year on 10/8/16 when 17,535 attended UW-Oshkosh at UW-Whitewater.  Today's record came within a couple hundred of increasing the old record by 20,000.  Very impressive in deed.

[OC_SID]

How bout the Heidelberg Student Princes! They've knocked off the defending MIAC champs, a good D3 team in Ohio Northern, and the defending OAC champs. Not a bad start to the season.

I watched The Berg / JCU game today and Heidelberg looked solid with big plays on both sides of the ball. Heidelberg's D looks much better this year... not that they were bad last year, but the improved secondary is the big difference. And their Offensive playbook seems to have expanded a bit this year too. It would be great to see them continue to play like this all year.

A little correction ... Olivet is in the MIAA ... The MIAC is another conference!

[wesleydad]

Congrats to Wilmington on the win in OT.  I know these are not the top of D3 but the game was fun to watch.

[BergAlum]

Hurray to Heidelberg finally ending the four year losing streak against JCU! 

Wow, this is the first season Wilmington has had two wins since 2008.

[SaintsFAN]

Congrats to Wilmington on the win in OT.  I know these are not the top of D3 but the game was fun to watch.

Congrats to Coach Moore and his kids.  What a great start!

[bluestreak66]

I have to say, heidelberg looked like a top 10 team yesterday. They were way more dominant against JCU than oshkosh was. What I'm hoping is that berg runs the table, and jcu can beat mount, so maybe we can position ourselves for a pool c with an 8-2 record, and 2nd place in the conference. I do feel like barring some unforseen hiccup, berg will find a way to get in the playoffs

[Dr. Acula]

The thing that really stood out to me watching the JCU/Berg game yesterday was the body language.  Berg was up for that game big time and it showed.  They were playing with some swagger.  JCU just seemed flat to me.  And honestly they looked that way against BW too.  I'm curious if the JCU posters agree? 

Regardless, great win for Berg.  3-0 and those are no cupcake wins.  They have some dudes on offense.  I really like that Vocke kid.  Versatile.  He's playing RB, he's splitting out in the slot playing WR.  Their skill guys are problematic.

[Dr. Acula]

Thoughts on Mount:

I give BW credit for trying to spice up their play calling, but yet again they just do not have the guys to hurt you offensively.  They caught JCU napping a couple times for big plays, but didn't have any luck doing that yesterday and their offense put up no points and really didn't threaten to score (185 total yds).  Credit the Mount D for getting pressure and taking away big plays.  Honestly, BW's most successful offense was Mount getting pressure from the edge and the QB running up the middle for his life.

Fulford was surgical (10-12, 188 yds, 3 TD).  I don't recall the second incompletion, but the first was a ball in the end zone to Ruth that he had and the DB made a nice play to get his hand in and break up.  I'm a little surprised we haven't seen the TE used much the last couple of weeks, but it's tough to take catches away from those 3 WRs.  All 3 of those guys are big play threats.  That TD catch Hill made was just silly...stopping and just out jumping the DB and ripping the ball away. 

Petruccelli played very well in his first start (127 yds on 13 carries, 1 catch for 32).  I thought JEM ran hard too going over the century mark as well including running through a couple tackles on scores.  I wonder if at some point we see that shotgun 2 back set with both guys out there.  Choat also ran well in his action.  All around excellent game for the O line and backs.  I mean, they averaged 7.7 ypc so how can you really complain?

Big picture I think we have to start wondering about the state of JCU this year.  They struggled with BW and BW is pretty much what you expect...solid defensively and limited offensively.  JCU should have hung 40+ on them.  Combine that with Berg handling JCU yesterday and the trip to Tiffin in 2 weeks just got very interesting.  ONU is coming off a dominating win over Ott where Freed was on fire (28-33, 311, 4TD) so next week will be a good benchmark.

[Dr. Acula]

Congrats to Wilmington on the win in OT.  I know these are not the top of D3 but the game was fun to watch.

Congrats to Coach Moore and his kids.  What a great start!

Great start indeed.  They had 461 yards of offense and Creditt threw 5 TD passes!   

[Desertraider]

Congrats to Wilmington on the win in OT.  I know these are not the top of D3 but the game was fun to watch.

Congrats to Coach Moore and his kids.  What a great start!

Great start indeed.  They had 461 yards of offense and Creditt threw 5 TD passes!   

Well, ya gotta give him some creditt for that! 

ONU will be Mounts first challenge. I don't think ONU will hang around long - but they shouldn't. I want to see what happens if Mount doesn't score on the first 2 or 3 drives - how do they react. Or if ONU has success moving the ball, running clock, maybe score some pints early - how does the D react. So far I will say Berg seems like the big game in terms of OAC title and playoffs etc. jcu will be a big game (even if jcu was 0-9 going in) because of last year. Oct 7 looks to be an interesting and telling game in Tiffin.

[Raider 68]

After being at the Raider game, a few thoughts;

- Impressed with the poise QB Fulford is showing thus far this year.

- Great to see the running game coming on with two good RB backs to complement a good passing game at this point thus far.

- The strength of the team is the defense and it shows 10 points in 3 games! ( really only 3 pts against the defense)

- The Raiders will be tested some from ONU, but as mentioned before, how they handle coming on a non-scoring drive
   or two.

- The Heidelberg game will mean Mount going to play a team that will be sky high again as against JCU.

Based upon where they are compared to other Mount Teams, this year's team has the key ingredients to make a serious
title run. IMHO, I do not really see any major threats in the conference including Heidelberg. Some good hard fought games, yes. We'll see.

[mr_mom]

Well that was interesting ... The majority of players weren't able to get even half the available points in Week #4 of the 2017 OAC Pick-Em.  But a quintet of players excelled, earning 12 of the possible 15 points.  Congratulations to Raider 68, reality check, Kira & Jason's Dad, gobash83, and HSCTiger74 for sharing medalist honors.

Raider 68 and Kira & Jason's Dad continue to be 1-2 this week while the rest of us are starting to spread out a bit.

Week #5 spreads to come out Monday night.

[Desertraider]

And jcu falls out of the Top 25...not really a surprise since they are 1-2 and just got ground-up by the Berg. But given everything that came back from last year - wow. I guess the surprise is that they haven't even looked competitive, other than against BW - which isn't saying much.

I agree Mounts D is the strength thus far. It concerns me only because the D has seen some lack of discipline by a few. I love the way Charlie Dear plays because he seems on the egde of losing control flying all over the place. However, he has crossed over a few times (personal foul against BW). As strong as the D has been - I have noticed quite a few lapses. Geat pressure with 4 or 5, QB slips the pressure and persuit- WHAM welcome to 20 yards of green up the middle. ot saying they missed assignments - but because of the way Mount pressures and persues - they can't afford a missed tackle, especially in space. Saw a few of those against Etta and BW that resulted in good yardage. At the end of the day its BW and Etta - they really lack the weapons to make you pay for it. Berg appears different. Those mistakes could be costly.

The run game looked really good yesterday. Petrucelli (in need a nickname) ran tough between the tackles. JEM not so much early. However, after standning on the sidelines and watching Petrucelli (really need a nickname) it was almost as if he had a "lightbulb" moment ('this freshman is taking my spot')because when he came back in 3rd qtr, he ran different. He hit the hole and kept going instead of hitting the hole and bracing for contact. He was hitting tacklers and taking 2 or 3 or bouncing it. He has to keep that up.

In terms of where this compares with other Mount teams....well I don't see a ring - yet.