FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[bushman]

I listened to the Mt. broadcast  { Ric , et al}  and they seemed to believe that the fighting fish were greatly improved over last year   07   Mt. 62-0   Iam glad the OAC teams are better this year esp. Musk as they have a good football tradition.   The Otters had a good team last year and now they seem to be rolling with a well balanced attack.  ONU might be the best 0 and 3 in D3.  The  Princes just keep getting better as well.  A stronger OAC makes the Raiders a much better team as well. 

[section13raiderfan]

I believe that ONU "points" to the MUC game every season and when they do not prevail they suffer a let down the next week or two. Cant prove it, but that seems to be the case.

I was at the Muskie game also and i agree that the Muskies are a better team than they were. Especially in the first half. They actually were competing very hard. We wore them down defensively in the second half, but they were still better than they used to be.

The Berg is gona knock somebody off this year unexpecedly...I dont quite know who....but you watch. They are putting it together faster than I expected.

[cufan]

I am not sure if ONU is playing well or not but what a tough first three games.  Two top 20 teams and a hot Otter team.    Hopefully, they have great leadership and can bounce back.

Caught some of the Cap game, wow the offense is clicking on all cylinders.  The D has been bitten by the injury bug but other than a couple drives held Wilmington in check.

Do the Otters creep into the top 25?

[reality check]

I just read on ONUsports.com that OTT's win over ONU was the first in 18 years.  OUCH.

And speaking of OTT, I was listening to a radio interview on the sports station out here in PHX where for whatever reason they got Andy Katzenmoyer on the air.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Otterbein come up in the conversation.  It turns out Andy met and married a girl who played softball at OTT and now coaches softball at Westeville Central.  And it also turns out that Katzenmoyer is enrolled at OTT and working towards completing his degree.  Pretty cool plug and he had nothing but good stuff to say about "this small Division III school in Western Ohio" (his words not mine).  I also learned, despite his growing up in the C-bus area that he was all but signed, sealed and delivered to Penn State until a last minute visit by John Cooper that flipped his position entirely.  Neat stuff.

[HScoach]

Musky has definitely improved.  They're still bad, but not as bad as they've been. 

I was really hoping Heidelberg would pull out the win against JCU yesterday.  After playing Capital even for 3 quarters, I thought the Berg might be ready to take that next step.  They were close, but still no cigar.

Otterbein and Heidelberg being much improved should make for a very competitive OAC season.

[reality check]

I believe that ONU "points" to the MUC game every season and when they do not prevail they suffer a let down the next week or two. Cant prove it, but that seems to be the case.

I know you said this is just the feeling you have so I'd bet you don't know who they played the week after MUC in recent years.  Call it luck of the draw or karma or whatever, but ONU has been stuck playing MUC and CAP in successive weeks every year from 2004-2007.  It's hard to say anyone is "down" when they're playing those two in back to back weeks over four seasons.  I would say that the year that ONU BEAT MUC they suffered a let down but I don't think that's what you implied in your statement.  All in all, I think it might just be an impression that is not fully supported by fact unless you think losing to playoff-bound CAP teams by 2 and 3 points is a let-down game.

Here's the scary part for ONU: CAP has gone 5-1 against ONU since 2001 (the only win coming in 2004, a 38-35 win).  MUC also happens to be 5-1 over the last 6 meetings as well.  

[HScoach]

Spreads for week 5 have been posted.

[seventiesraider]

If you are "jones'ing" for OAC football later this week. STO is replaying the JCU-Heidelberg game sometime in the middle of the night Tuesday. Got my Tivo set. Now if I could just get the clock on my VCR to stop flashing

[runyr]

A moment of silence for former OAC footballer, Paul Newman, RIP.
I can't think of a cooler, more accomplished human being, even if he did get kicked off the Kenyon football team.

[raiderguy]

Hey Seventies!

A 357 magnum usually works.

[JK]

If you are "jones'ing" for OAC football later this week. STO is replaying the JCU-Heidelberg game sometime in the middle of the night Tuesday. Got my Tivo set. Now if I could just get the clock on my VCR to stop flashing

You still have a VCR?

Wow 

From VCR to TiVo...did you miss the DVD era? 

[Dr. Acula]

Sitting on a conference call listening to some guy blabber on so I headed over to oac.org to check out some stats.  A few things I found interesting...

BW is 2nd in total offense at 491 yds/game.  This is aided by Gardner leading the conference at 321 yds passing/game.  I was surprised on both counts because...well, because it's BW.

Otterbein's Colton Coy is not only 2nd in rushing yds/game at 107.3, but he's also averaging a robust 7.7 ypc.  Combine that with Rafferty's 170.2 pass effeciency (good for 2nd amongst starters) and it's easy to see why the Otters are scoring almost 6 TD's a game thus far.     

MUC is actually NOT last in penalty yds.  BW takes that prize at 83.7/game.

Micheli's 225.7 pass effeciency is PS3-esque.

Not to pile on ONU, but their offensive stats are not promising.  Last in passing offense, rushing offense, scoring offense.  But Bein's D looks pretty good so far so they've faced 3 tough tests.  Hopefully things are about to improve for the Bears.  And I think they will.  I saw Simmons play in HS and I really think he will be a very good QB.

The Otters are +10 in turnover margin so far.  Wow.   

I was surprised that Assman is only completing 57.7% of his passes.

[HScoach]

Otterbein is definitely the surprise of the young OAC season.  I'll be very interested in seeing whether they can keep it going.  I hope so. 

Not sure what to think of ONU.  I thought they'd be about 7-3 this season, but they'll be lucky to finish .500

Not surprised to see BW sitting at 2-1 as I figured Franklin would get them in week 1, but their offensive production has been very shocking.  Should make for a good test against Mount this weekend.

[purple]

 With the installation of the Tressleturf BWC  has surrendered a unique home field advantage, the cement field everyone hates to play on.  Future generations of OAC football players thank you.  Now I can say that when football was football we were allowed to crackback, spear, chop block, body block a linemans legs  and sometimes played on a field that was like a thin carpet over  cement ,except this carpet scratched and tore skin.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Don't forget the gritty sand that ended up in your mouth after every tackle!