FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Three Letters for Otterbein Officials:

S.R.O.

Standing Room Only!

[bambord]

NCAA DIVISION III CAREER RUSHING YARDS

                                         Carries         Yards

1. R.J. Bowers, Grove City (PA), 1997-2000 1,188........ 7,353   =   6.2 yards per carry

2. Justin Beaver, UW-Whitewater, 2004-2007 1,188........ 6,584   =   5.5 yards per carry

3. Nate Kmic, Mount Union, 2005-present..... 990........ 6,557   =   6.6 yards per carry

Odd that Bowers and Beaver have same number of carries.  Although yards per carry may be most telling, yards per game of these rushing machines may be interesting.  Bowers may have played less games than Nate or Beaver.

[bambord]

NCAA DIVISION III CAREER RUSHING YARDS

                                         Carries         Yards

1. R.J. Bowers, Grove City (PA), 1997-2000 1,188........ 7,353   =   6.2 yards per carry

2. Justin Beaver, UW-Whitewater, 2004-2007 1,188........ 6,584   =   5.5 yards per carry

3. Nate Kmic, Mount Union, 2005-present..... 990........ 6,557   =   6.6 yards per carry

Odd that Bowers and Beaver have same number of carries.  Although yards per carry may be most telling, yards per game of these rushing machines may be interesting.  Bowers may have played less games than Nate or Beaver.

Part of the answer: http://www2.gcc.edu/sports/football/rjrecords.htm

[Toph]

and on another note, according to OC's website, the schooling is only selling 3,000 tickets for the game. I'm not sure how that's going to work. Guess we'll find out saturday.

I sent an email to Otterbein's SID (who I remember being very helpful in my time at JCU).  I'm just curious to know how those of us who don't live in the Westerville area are supposed to get tickets to this game since there is such a limited number, and we can't call to reserve them at will call.

As much as I'd like to be able to drive 2 and half hours on a Thursday to buy them, I can't.  Now Mount fans (and those of us who just want to see a game between two unbeaten teams) have to drive down on Saturday and potentially not have tickets?  This is nuts.  I've never seen anything like it.

[HScoach]

NCAA DIVISION III CAREER RUSHING YARDS

                                         Carries         Yards

1. R.J. Bowers, Grove City (PA), 1997-2000 1,188........ 7,353   =   6.2 yards per carry

2. Justin Beaver, UW-Whitewater, 2004-2007 1,188........ 6,584   =   5.5 yards per carry

3. Nate Kmic, Mount Union, 2005-present..... 990........ 6,557   =   6.6 yards per carry

Odd that Bowers and Beaver have same number of carries.  Although yards per carry may be most telling, yards per game of these rushing machines may be interesting.  Bowers may have played less games than Nate or Beaver.

Bowers didn't have the benefit of playoff games like Beaver or Kmic, but he had the distinct advantage of having a coach that feed him the ball 30+ times a game, every game regardless of the score or situation.  Bowers also didn't play near the competition that Beaver saw in the WIAC.  Kmic played behind great O-lines in '06 and '07, but he doesn't see the ball against the weaker opponents so that more than trumps the argument that "anyone could run behind the Mount O-line". 

What has made me truly appreciate exactly how good Kmic is his production this season.  He's not running behind a great line like the previous 2 seasons but his yards per attempt are just sick.  In my not so humble opinion on line play, he's running behind a less than average O-line by Mount standards that would probably be considered only "pretty good" by normal D3 standards.  What makes the difference is his yards after contact. 

There are 2 plays that really stand out for me from last week's JCU game that are great examples of Kmic's ability.  The first is the swing pass where he was dead to rights in the backfield to a JCU defender (can't remember if it was a LB or DB), but he spun out of it and picked up 15+ yards on a play that he should have been stopped easily.  The second was his 2 yard TD run into the south endzone where as soon as he took the handoff, MLB Mike Nettling was in the backfield with a clean shot at Nate, but all Nettling got was barely an arm on Nate. 

I really, REALLY hope Mount makes a deep enough run into the playoffs that Nate gets enough carries to catch Bowers.  Writing his name at the top of the rushing record book would be a great way to cap off a stellar career.




As I follow this Mount season with few senior leaders but a wealth of young, hungry talent, I'm continually reminded why I love D3 football:  a bunch of true student-athletes that are putting everything on the line physically simply because they like playing football.   

And I can't think of better ambassadors for D3 football as a whole than Greg Micheli and Nate Kmic.  Two quiet small town kids that take school just as serious as they do football.

[JK]

Kmic needs to average, what, about 130 ypg over the last 6 games (provided MUC makes it to the NC game again), to catch Bowers?

That's doable, especially with the level of competiton improving and, presumably him playing more time and getting more carries.

[cufan]

Who would of thought that all the talk this week would be about MU vs. OTTER instead of Cap vs. ONU.

I think MU has been there and done that many time before and will handle Otterbein easily.  Before Otterbein can settle their nerves it could be 28-0 quickly.  I am not sure if Otterbein's QB faced MU last year but it seems like no matter how good the QB is they have little to no success the first time they play Mount.

It appears Caps new QB has settled in and will be the difference Sat.  It would be amazing to finish 7-3 this year considering all the injuries

[Knightstalker]

NCAA DIVISION III CAREER RUSHING YARDS

                                         Carries         Yards

1. R.J. Bowers, Grove City (PA), 1997-2000 1,188........ 7,353   =   6.2 yards per carry

2. Justin Beaver, UW-Whitewater, 2004-2007 1,188........ 6,584   =   5.5 yards per carry

3. Nate Kmic, Mount Union, 2005-present..... 990........ 6,557   =   6.6 yards per carry

Odd that Bowers and Beaver have same number of carries.  Although yards per carry may be most telling, yards per game of these rushing machines may be interesting.  Bowers may have played less games than Nate or Beaver.

Who is next after these three?

[reality check]

Kmic needs to average, what, about 130 ypg over the last 6 games (provided MUC makes it to the NC game again), to catch Bowers?

That's doable, especially with the level of competiton improving and, presumably him playing more time and getting more carries.

Kmic has averaged 182.3 YPG in his playoff career.  Interesting though, Kmic's workload/numbers have gone down since his ridiculous freshman playoff campaign. 

2005: 38 carries per game for 205 YPG
2006: 28 carries per game for 198 YPG
2007: 22 carries per game for 142 YPG

Of Kmic's 6557 career yards, 2736 have come in 15 playoff games.  In other words, 41.7% of his career yards have come in the playoffs. 

2736 yards in 15 playoff games versus 3821 yards in 35 regular season games. 

Sick (hscoach), ridiculous (RC).

[tv112]

I believe last years QB for OTT was Steltzer ( basically a pocket passer). Rafferty gives this club a new demension with option capabilities, scrambles well and is very effecient passing. There are several changes from last years squad on both sides of the ball, except for the O-Line that returns 4 of 5. Should be exciting. Can't wait until Saturday. "Go OTT"

[reality check]

tv112

Last year, Rafferty got more snaps than Stelzer (injuries I believe).  Stelzer started the season but Rafferty got a majority of the snaps, especially the second half of the year.  If you have more specific questions about the QB situation last year, you could always ask OldOtter.  I think he knows a thing or two about that situation.

Rafferty didn't just burst onto the scene this season.  He had 400 yards rushing and almost 1400 yards passing while playing in all 10 games in 2007.  And Rafferty saw significant minutes in the loss to MUC last year.  He was in on the first offensive series in fact. 

[tv112]

Just going off of last years reported starters in the game notes on OTTS web site.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

From RICs Site, stats for the 2007 MTU vs. OTT Game:

Passing         Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long Sack
--------------------------------------------
Paul Stelzer      19-9-0    110  2   28    1
Jack Rafferty     10-3-1     42  0   23    2
Totals...           29-12-1   152  2   28    3

[SaintsFAN]

Kmic needs to average, what, about 130 ypg over the last 6 games (provided MUC makes it to the NC game again), to catch Bowers?

That's doable, especially with the level of competiton improving and, presumably him playing more time and getting more carries.

Kmic has averaged 182.3 YPG in his playoff career.  Interesting though, Kmic's workload/numbers have gone down since his ridiculous freshman playoff campaign. 

2005: 38 carries per game for 205 YPG
2006: 28 carries per game for 198 YPG
2007: 22 carries per game for 142 YPG

Of Kmic's 6557 career yards, 2736 have come in 15 playoff games.  In other words, 41.7% of his career yards have come in the playoffs. 

2736 yards in 15 playoff games versus 3821 yards in 35 regular season games. 

Sick (hscoach), ridiculous (RC).

he's the truth (SaintsFAN) 

[raiderpa]

Otterbein does have room for some portable bleachers in the endzones....don't know if they are organized enough to get it done or not.
I wonder how many seats will be available at the beginning of the second half?