FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[reality check]

cufan

Given the choices, I would say WIL has a lot better chance of getting a TD than the Berg has to hold MUC to 43 points.  How sad both ways though. 

The Berg has given up 26 TD's through the air.  Mount has thrown 26 through the air. 

Heidelberg will also likely break 1000 yards in Kickoff returns Saturday.  They sit at 958 today.  The closest team to their total yardage is over 250 yards behind in total kickoff return yardage.

[Toph]

RC-
I can't help but feel a little bad for the 'Berg.  It may have something to do with the fact that a JCU guy is in charge, and from everything I've heard, he's a great guy and could be a fantastic coach.  Recruiting at a place that hasn't won a game in over two years can't be easy (understatement of the century, right?) or very fun.  Heidelberg did have a lot of young guys on the team this year, so maybe they can get this turned around ala Otterbein and Marietta, two programs clearly moving in the right direction.

cufan-
After seeing the Capital D I'm hesitant, but Wilma has a better shot, I'll take Mount putting up 40+ on the Student Princes.

[ace]

Saving Grace for Student Princes: Mount will want to pull starters early.
Let us not forget, stranger things have happened.

[rp]

The 'Berg has two major problems, one that I don't care to talk about because I don't want to bash specific names on this board, but let's just say there a people in certain spots that shouldn't be holding the position they are in.

However, one of the two reasons are the facilities.  Even though the College is located in Tiffin, they could still recruit good talent.  The school is relatively close to C-bus, Cleveland, and many small towns that bleed football.  With that said, there is nothing attractive about the school.  They play on a high school field that actually has the High School lettering on the field when they play.  They don't have any eye popping facilities. Zero!

That school can't compete with good talent when the student athlete leaves Heidelberg on a recruiting visit and then go to see JCU, BW, and especially when they see Northern's new field with their already great indoor facility, Capital's new facility or Otterbein's new facility.  They simply don't have the capability to match, on campus, what these recruits are looking at every where else.

I don't care what anybody says about Capital's program.  The one main reason they were able to turn it around was because of the 20 million dollar facility they built.  Jim Collins, I believe, is a great coach.  He is a great X's and O's guy.  And even though I'm sure he has matured as a coach since '99, there is no way he could have won there if they continued to get the players they had there from about '95 to '99.  They build a 20 Million dollar facility, and first team conference and all-american canidates are now common.
You do the math.

If parents are going to pay that kind of money to put their kids through school, and the kids want to play in a big time D. III conference, they are going to want to go to a college they can compete on the field, and a place that has good facilities.  They don't have either.

[jdean]

Toph:
My pick is your game. Those two schools seem to make life miserable for the other just like Ott did to Cap earlier this year. BW always plays Mount tough and they showed a good D this year also. Their offense seems to be centered around a running QB. If they can find a magic potion to help them score a little this Saturday you could be in for a game.

[JK]

RP,

Well put.  I came to Cap in 93. We had decent athletes then and were relatively competitive (5-5 my frosh year, plus we had three all-americans in Tom Trace, OL, Keith Boucher, DL, and Mike Smith, LB, and several all-OAC guys).  Even the next season, when we went 2-8 we were much more competitve than we were in 95 and 96, when that talent level you speak of dropped off.

The 1993 recruiting class at Cap (my class) was about 40 (team was around 85 or so total) when we started with actually a lot of talent.  Several guys started or got significant time as Frosh.  Many of those guys didn't even come back as Sophs.  By our senior year that group of 40 was down to 12 and the team was around 45-50.  The quality of the underclass guys was not good (my replacement at Center, great guy though he was, was about 4 inches shorter, 10 lbs lighter, not as strong, nor as fast as I was, and he was probably the second best OL they had that year), nor were there very many of them because they didn't want to stay around either.   

None of this is any offense to any of those guys, many are my friends.  Nor am I saying that I was the best O-lineman to ever play at Cap.  All I am saying is as a whole, you are correct... No one wanted to come to Cap because the facilities sucked, the team wasn't competitve, and there was some turmoil in the coaching ranks.  There was a "culture of losing," much the same case aas H-Berg today.

[JK]

Oh, also...some of us "old timers" actually remember the early to mid-90's when H-Berg was more than competitve, they were really good.  They were OAC runner up in 94 or 95 I believe.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

JK,

I graduated from MUC in 94, if you are an old timer, what does that make me?

[reality check]

Berg was 8-2 in 93 and 7-3 in 94.  Their best finish those years was third in the OAC in 93.

[ohiofootball]

b4uknewit- That is not obvious. That is sad to hear a Mount Fan give an excuse as to why Mount lost. 1 player does not make the entire team especially at Mount. Although thanks for the nomination.

hscoach- Do you think that the OAC is down this year or just more competitive?

Wherever you are Joe Zarlinga, God Bless you.

[JK]

Kirasdad-

An "old-er" timer?

RC,

2nd, 3rd, whatever  ... I was wrong, and I didn't check because it wasn't that important to my point, which was that the Berg was actually pretty good back in the day.

[rp]

The Berg had some very, very good players in '93 and '94.  If you ask anybody that played in the league back then, the should remember names like Adam Smith, Jim Newland, Todd Drake etc.

They were competitive in every game both of those years.  Last second loss against JCU when they had PJ as their QB in '94, and almost beat Mount, at Mount in '94.  The beat good Northern teams in both '93 and '94.

A major reason was the Head Coach.  Dick West, I think, was a damn good coach, and very good recruiter.  Plus, the only two teams with outstanding facilites back then were BW and JCU.  The problem was when the rest of the league started getting better facilities, the 'Berg stood pat, and did nothing to improve.  Furthermore, I know first hand, the reason the downfall began was because the Administration not backing many of the athletic programs, one of the reasons Dick West left to go to High School Coaching.  (Where, I might add, he has taken a program from the dumps, to winning the league championship last year in a very competitive High School Conference.)

I also know that the financial status of the College in general is in big trouble.  Apparently, from what I am told, one of the past presidents really put the College in a hole that they are still trying to get out of.

[4u]

rp,
I thought it was simply b/c Berg doesn't get the studs from Celina like it used to???
T2u

[e_lee]

Guys from Celina do too many curls.

[b4uknewit]

OHIOPBEAR-- My post (obviously) referred to prior posts in weeks past. Your statement on one player who did not play for MUC, did not make the difference in that game is very accurate in my opinion.  I would hope Mount's playoff hopes will never rely on one talent.  That said, I would be happy to see all our players healthy for the playoffs!