FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[NCF]

Confident that last week's problems won't affect us this time, I'm happy to declare that NPU football will be on the air tomorrow! Just click here for all the action as the Vikings travel to Elmhurst to take on the Bluejays tomorrow at 1 pm. I'll be bringing you the play-by-play, while former Vikings coach Rob Dubicz will be doing the commentary.

saw this post after  today's game was played and the broadcast was concluded.  so my question for mr. sager is this:  was there enough time between plays for you to be able to wax eloquent with play-by-play and all your observations?  if you are as verbose on the air as you are on the d3.com boards, i'm afraid that you won't be able to call the game...   ;-)

Always nice to see you living up to your name, 'rouser. Unfortunately, your reading-comprehension skills appeared to be a little off when you posted this, since I clearly stated that I do PBP and someone else does commentary.  And, since I don't do commentary and I have a partner who does, there is no room for logorrhea in my approach to football broadcasting. My partner, the very voluble and well-informed Rob Dubicz (a former football coach with a very long pedigree in the game), is there to do all of the talking in between plays. My job is simple: I'm there to tersely and quickly describe the play as it unfolds; set up the down and distance during the cadence; give the score and game clock at every opportunity; and read some ad copy (when Rob D. lets me get a word in) that will make our listeners say, "Gee, you know, I really could use a gyros plate from Charcoal Delights right about now."

North Park vs Elmhurst

After watching the first 2.5 quarters of the game it was pretty evident that North Park (although a nice non-conference story) are not yet ready to compete in the CCIW and I would be shocked if they won a game in conference.

This is a fair reading to take from what from a North Park standpoint was a complete debacle on Saturday. I would point out, though, that it does not match the outcome of the previous Saturday, in which NPU defeated a Wash U team that could compete in the CCIW (albeit as no better than middle of the pack). What you saw on Saturday was a classic "snowball effect" game in which things initially broke one way, the team that was doing well poured it on, and the team that was victimized early went into complete collapse. These things happen sometimes, especially when a relatively young team is on the bad end of it.

I'm not making excuses. I was highly impressed by Elmhurst, which definitely has both the athletes and the offensive scheme to make a lot of noise in the CCIW this season. And to be brutally honest, the jury is still out even for the most diehard NPU supporters as to whether or not the Vikings have what it takes to get over the hump and win that all-important streakbreaker this year. But I'm not 100% convinced that the Vikings are as bad as they looked on Saturday. The problem is, NPU sustained some injuries on the defensive side of the ball on Saturday that will make things tougher for the Park to compete with Illinois Wesleyan this coming Saturday at Hedstrand Field. In other words, the game of attrition -- which has never swung in North Park's favor before -- will probably be working against NPU this weekend as well.

I hate writing too many derogatory comments towards 18-22 year olds so I will try to be constructive here. The QB for North Park albeit a great runner when he may have a lane to run through is not yet developed in the passing game and continually threw an ugly ball into the wind when called upon.

Tyler Krebs, NPU's starting quarterback, played through a bruised throwing shoulder on Saturday. It definitely hampered his throwing; as anyone who had seen his (admittedly few) passes in NPU's first three games would attest, he actually has a pretty strong and accurate arm that belies his diminutive stature. The shoulder contusion is why he left the game in the second half in favor of Evan Rhoads; why make an injury worse when the game's already out of hand?

This could be an issue for north park as they play from behind and cannot stay with their wing running game.

NPU is not going to abandon the option, no matter what the score happens to be. End of story. In for a penny, in for a pound. That's the only way you can run the option, as any long-time Augie fan will attest.

As for my jays. A tipped pass early caused an INT on the first possession but after that it was pretty much just dominating NP on mostly ever snap. NP safeties looked to be playing cover 4 or a deep cover 2 scheme which left so much room between the safeties and the linebackers. The Jays o line was getting good leverage moving them off the ball and picking up linebackers so as soon as Williams broke through the line he was easily getting 6-8 yards a carry. When coming through untouched and williams was in the open field the safeties had no chance against Williams in the open field which lead to some 60 plus runs. How NP was playing with the secondary so deep there was really no reason to open up the passing game.

NPU did overplay the deep pass, as you said. Rob talked about it on Saturday during the broadcast. The big-play potential of Elmhurst's passing game (especially to Rodney Payton) was the one thing I think Scott Pethtel worried about over everything else, and he put his faith in his front seven to be able to stop a Scott Williams who really hadn't broken out thus far this season. Well, he's broken out now. His tremendous skill set had a lot to do with that, but I certainly agree with you that Elmhurst's blocking in front of him made it much, much easier for him to gash NPU for big gains.

NP did score on a reverse which had to be about a quarter of their total yards for the entire game.

Sam Cochiaro's TD run didn't constitute a quarter of the yards NPU gained, but it was over a fifth of them. A big part of the problem for the Vikings was the fact that those two catastrophic fumbles in the second quarter both blunted promising NPU drives, which leads to the next point: Those two long fumble returns of 58 and 55 yards for TDs was what broke NPU's back. Being down 21-0 is a bad situation, but the Vikings still could've settled down and made a game of it -- especially since the option was starting to soften up the Elmhurst defense. But on two consecutive possessions a Vikings runner had the ball stripped on the Elmhurst side of the field, the ball bounced upward on the trampoline-like surface of Langhorst's new Field Turf straight into the arms of an oncoming tackler who was already in full stride, and it was off to the races. There was a fluky element to that, especially since it happened twice -- although the 'jays get credit for creating their own luck by using the sound defensive practice of holding up a stopped runner with multiple tacklers long enough to have someone rip the ball out of his hands.

After that the Vikings were finito for the day; all you had to do was look at them on the sidelines to see that.

Saturday will be an interesting test to see if they've internalized that loss, or if they've shrugged it off as just a bad but forgettable day of football.

Yet another dissertation from Dr. Sager

[matblake]

read some ad copy (when Rob D. lets me get a word in) that will make our listeners say, "Gee, you know, I really could use a gyros plate from Charcoal Delights right about now."

Like anyone needs ad copy to be susceptible to the draw of Charcoal Delights.     That restaurant makes the jaunt to NP from Wheaton with 6 people in a Ford Festiva in questionable repair worth it.

[NCF]

read some ad copy (when Rob D. lets me get a word in) that will make our listeners say, "Gee, you know, I really could use a gyros plate from Charcoal Delights right about now."

Like anyone needs ad copy to be susceptible to the draw of Charcoal Delights.     That restaurant makes the jaunt to NP from Wheaton with 6 people in a Ford Festiva in questionable repair worth it.

A Ford Festiva??   

[matblake]

read some ad copy (when Rob D. lets me get a word in) that will make our listeners say, "Gee, you know, I really could use a gyros plate from Charcoal Delights right about now."

Like anyone needs ad copy to be susceptible to the draw of Charcoal Delights.     That restaurant makes the jaunt to NP from Wheaton with 6 people in a Ford Festiva in questionable repair worth it.

A Ford Festiva??   

It was in 1994 I believe.  The guy who owned the car called it "Sardine Can."  Here's a Wikipedia Article.

[NCF]

read some ad copy (when Rob D. lets me get a word in) that will make our listeners say, "Gee, you know, I really could use a gyros plate from Charcoal Delights right about now."

Like anyone needs ad copy to be susceptible to the draw of Charcoal Delights.     That restaurant makes the jaunt to NP from Wheaton with 6 people in a Ford Festiva in questionable repair worth it.

A Ford Festiva??   

It was in 1994 I believe.  The guy who owned the car called it "Sardine Can."  Here's a Wikipedia Article.

Looks like a death trap on wheels

[Gregory Sager]

read some ad copy (when Rob D. lets me get a word in) that will make our listeners say, "Gee, you know, I really could use a gyros plate from Charcoal Delights right about now."

Like anyone needs ad copy to be susceptible to the draw of Charcoal Delights.     That restaurant makes the jaunt to NP from Wheaton with 6 people in a Ford Festiva in questionable repair worth it.

Charcoal Delights (aka "the Pit") is clearly the unofficial eatery of choice for all visiting CCIW teams making the trip to NPU, and all in-the-know visiting fans as well. (If you show up in the crackerbox or at Holmgren Athletic Complex with a bagful of McDonald's, you're just another tourist who clearly doesn't know this league.) It's funny, because if a softball team or a volleyball team or a basketball team makes a visit to NPU you can always tell which schools visit on a regular basis and which ones don't. CCIW teams and NAthC teams always go to Charcoal Delights for their postgame meals. Teams from the WIAC, MWC, MIAA, IIAC, etc., always go to the default option across the street, McDonald's.

[AndOne]

I think this is the year Augie's longstanding streak of consecutive 500 or better seasons comes to a close. Quite a remarkable and difficutl feat to accomplish.

I hope Augie is not too quick to cut Cushman's head off.  You have to give the guy (any HC) a couple of seasons to get a least one cycle of recruits through the system.  I fear Augie's "Must win at all costs" view of footbal and life might not be too generous with Cushman.

Not sure what you mean about Augie's "must win at all costs" comment, as that is certainly not the way it's ever been approached at Augie.  As for them getting rid of Cushman, I seriously doubt that will happen.  From all that I have heard, the current administration at Augie has demonstrated little to no committment to maintaining a strong football (and overall athletic) program. As was commented at the time of Cushman's hiring (by myself and other alumni), his being given the job just one day after Coach Barnes resigned seemed like a quick fix by an administration who really didn't care about the success of the program.  How true that is turning out to be.  Hard to believe they are 0-4 and are probably looking at a season of 1-9 or 2-8 (maybe 3 wins,in a best case scenario).   

Augie6---(AND OTHER AUGIE POSTERS)

I have a question for you which I hope you will not take as criticism of your opinion as I appreciate your interesting thoughts on the subject.

The question is---Do you believe other Augie supporters/posters also believe the current administration is not committed to a strong overall athletic program, or is this a personal opinion that you have not heard any other Augie fans also voice?

The reason I ask is that despite being fairly familiar with the conference, especially on the basketball side of things, I have not heard this. I readily admit that this is probably largely due to the fact I don't reside in the Rock Island area and thus don't have the access to Augie related info. With as strong as the Augie basketball program is (just ranked #3 preseason) it would seem to an outsider like myself that there likely is some fairly strong administrative support to at least part of the athletic program. This is, in part, evidenced by the fact that I rarely see a high school basketball game where a member of the Augie basketball staff is not there. The athletic dollars are obviously being spent somewhere.
Anyway, I would just appreciate any additional insight regarding the Administration's support of Augie athletics, you or any other Augie posters might be able to provide. Thanks. 

[AndOne]

read some ad copy (when Rob D. lets me get a word in) that will make our listeners say, "Gee, you know, I really could use a gyros plate from Charcoal Delights right about now."

Like anyone needs ad copy to be susceptible to the draw of Charcoal Delights.     That restaurant makes the jaunt to NP from Wheaton with 6 people in a Ford Festiva in questionable repair worth it.

Charcoal Delights (aka "the Pit") is clearly the unofficial eatery of choice for all visiting CCIW teams making the trip to NPU, and all in-the-know visiting fans as well. (If you show up in the crackerbox or at Holmgren Athletic Complex with a bagful of McDonald's, you're just another tourist who clearly doesn't know this league.) It's funny, because if a softball team or a volleyball team or a basketball team makes a visit to NPU you can always tell which schools visit on a regular basis and which ones don't. CCIW teams and NAthC teams always go to Charcoal Delights for their postgame meals. Teams from the WIAC, MWC, MIAA, IIAC, etc., always go to the default option across the street, McDonald's.

Greg--

Having met you at the "Pit" a few of times for pre or post game delights myself, I can attest to this fact.
We CCIW fans not only appreciate the intricacies of various athletic contests, but the best in gastronomical delights as well.

[Gregory Sager]

I think this is the year Augie's longstanding streak of consecutive 500 or better seasons comes to a close. Quite a remarkable and difficutl feat to accomplish.

I hope Augie is not too quick to cut Cushman's head off.  You have to give the guy (any HC) a couple of seasons to get a least one cycle of recruits through the system.  I fear Augie's "Must win at all costs" view of footbal and life might not be too generous with Cushman.

Not sure what you mean about Augie's "must win at all costs" comment, as that is certainly not the way it's ever been approached at Augie.  As for them getting rid of Cushman, I seriously doubt that will happen.  From all that I have heard, the current administration at Augie has demonstrated little to no committment to maintaining a strong football (and overall athletic) program. As was commented at the time of Cushman's hiring (by myself and other alumni), his being given the job just one day after Coach Barnes resigned seemed like a quick fix by an administration who really didn't care about the success of the program.  How true that is turning out to be.  Hard to believe they are 0-4 and are probably looking at a season of 1-9 or 2-8 (maybe 3 wins,in a best case scenario).   

Augie6---(AND OTHER AUGIE POSTERS)

I have a question for you which I hope you will not take as criticism of your opinion as I appreciate your interesting thoughts on the subject.

The question is---Do you believe other Augie supporters/posters also believe the current administration is not committed to a strong overall athletic program, or is this a personal opinion that you have not heard any other Augie fans also voice?

The reason I ask is that despite being fairly familiar with the conference, especially on the basketball side of things, I have not heard this. I readily admit that this is probably largely due to the fact I don't reside in the Rock Island area and thus don't have the access to Augie related info. With as strong as the Augie basketball program is (just ranked #3 preseason) it would seem to an outsider like myself that there likely is some fairly strong administrative support to at least part of the athletic program. This is, in part, evidenced by the fact that I rarely see a high school basketball game where a member of the Augie basketball staff is not there. The athletic dollars are obviously being spent somewhere.
Anyway, I would just appreciate any additional insight regarding the Administration's support of Augie athletics, you or any other Augie posters might be able to provide. Thanks.

The most senior Augie poster on d3boards.com, augiefan, has made the same statement as Augie6 about the current Augustana administration's lack of support for the school's athletics. He's primarily a basketball poster, and Augie6 is a football poster, so I don't think they're an echo chamber. I'm agnostic on the issue of the current state of Augustana athletics, vis-a-vis institutional support, but I just thought that I'd throw that out there.

There's no question that Augustana is not as across-the-board strong in the CCIW as it used to be. If the CCIW had all-sports trophies, Augustana would've won it every year for decade after decade. Augie regularly outpaced everyone else in the league in terms of overall performance. That is no longer the case, and, in fact, some of Augie's programs are slipping noticeably (football being one of them) while others that have been down for awhile now show no signs of recovery anytime soon (e.g., women's basketball).

As far as Augustana men's basketball is concerned, it's not as though a college or university administration -- no matter how disinclined to support athletics a president may be -- is ever going to tell a coach to stop doing his or her job. Grey Giovanine does his job very well. He and his staff have constructed an Augustana men's basketball program that currently sets the standard in the CCIW in terms of success, and he's going to keep on doing that until someone higher up the food chain at Augie (athletic director, vice-president, or president) gets in his way and actively hampers what he's doing. Just because this particular Augie administration is not supportive of Augie athletics in general -- if indeed that is the case; as I said, I have no opinion on the subject, since there's been no hard evidence presented one way or the other -- does not mean that they're actually trying to prevent a successful coach from continuing to do his job to the best of his ability.

In other words, there's a pretty wide spectrum of behavior between passive non-support and active disruption.

[Veinteuno]

As someone who played there in the very recent past and also coached there for one year; I feel like I can offer some insight.  The administration has definitely been lacking in its support of athletics and the football program.  Money has been extremely hard to come by, and the administration at the top is not fully committed to putting a winning program out there.  The football field needs various upgrades, but there has been little done.  Additionally, Augie has a hard time competing with the financial packages that other similiar colleges offer.  Time after time Augie isn't even close financially to similar institutions, and although money is not THE deciding factor it has quite the influence with many kids/ their parents and the decisions they make.  As for the facilities, let's be honest, Augie is near the bottom in terms of its football stadium in the CCIW.  Although once again facilities are not THE deciding factor, all this stuff adds up.  Additionally, as many have said the rise of other programs has made it tougher on Augie as it has on all the schools in the CCIW.  I would say do not fault Cushman for the start they have had to this year, he needs a bigger body of work before anyone can judge him.  Maybe it is the players, maybe there's other various factors this year.  All I can say, is that Cushman is a great football mind, and a workaholic.  I believe he will right the ship, but time will tell.  I know some might respond that just because the players like him does not make him a great coach blah blah blah, but I full heartily, as unbiased of an opinion as I can offer,  believe Augie will contend again in the near future.  Lastly, the administration has shown a bit of a turnaround in its' support of Athletics ever since Zapolski took over as AD.  He got the new Lacrosse/ soccer field done and word is that the football field/stadium is next.  It is not as cloudy at Augie as it may seem to many from the outside.  There is hope over at Augie, and let's not forget, 6 games remain on the CCIW slate.  Anything can happen.

[mr_b]

...Teams from the WIAC, MWC, MIAA, IIAC, etc., always go to the default option across the street, McDonald's.

AKA "the Uninformed."

[79jaybird]

veinteuno- Your post reflects what has been the case for many years in the CCIW- the "haves" vs.  the "have nots" arms race.  Look at basketball, for years the Shirk Center was a cadillac and everybody else had the common sedan.  The gap between the haves/have nots is not as large nowadays,  which is why there is increased parity amongst the schools.
IMO- it starts with the administration committing to putting time, money, efforts, etc. into athletics.  Not just to have a team, to say we have (x) sport.  This is why Elmhurst has been so poor for many years in many sports.  Then you have to get involved, mindful coaches (i.e. a Reade, Swider, Thorne, even stormin' Norman as much as we all critique him,  has been a solid HC) that can skillfully recruit key guys,  and then ultimately the players executing on the field.  It's all one big system of interrelated parts.  Cosmetics can always be added later but it starts with the school's committment.

[AndOne]

Commitment and FINANCES/FUNDING
A school may be committed enough, but finances/funding also pays a major role.

Need a new football stadium or gymnasium?
Well, how is the endowment fund doing lately? How have your institutional investments turned out lately--making any money?
How many wealthy alums are around who can be persuaded to reach down into their deep pockets and withdraw a bundle of cash for your new athletic facility?
And, what is the President to do with the next bucket of cash the school accumulates when he needs to build both a new science hall and a new gym?
Academics or athletics? Therein rests a major portion of the answer as to whether or not a school will have a successful athletic program.

[Gregory Sager]

As someone who played there in the very recent past and also coached there for one year; I feel like I can offer some insight.  The administration has definitely been lacking in its support of athletics and the football program.  Money has been extremely hard to come by, and the administration at the top is not fully committed to putting a winning program out there.  The football field needs various upgrades, but there has been little done.  Additionally, Augie has a hard time competing with the financial packages that other similiar colleges offer.  Time after time Augie isn't even close financially to similar institutions, and although money is not THE deciding factor it has quite the influence with many kids/ their parents and the decisions they make.  As for the facilities, let's be honest, Augie is near the bottom in terms of its football stadium in the CCIW.  Although once again facilities are not THE deciding factor, all this stuff adds up.  Additionally, as many have said the rise of other programs has made it tougher on Augie as it has on all the schools in the CCIW.  I would say do not fault Cushman for the start they have had to this year, he needs a bigger body of work before anyone can judge him.  Maybe it is the players, maybe there's other various factors this year.  All I can say, is that Cushman is a great football mind, and a workaholic.  I believe he will right the ship, but time will tell.  I know some might respond that just because the players like him does not make him a great coach blah blah blah, but I full heartily, as unbiased of an opinion as I can offer,  believe Augie will contend again in the near future.  Lastly, the administration has shown a bit of a turnaround in its' support of Athletics ever since Zapolski took over as AD.  He got the new Lacrosse/ soccer field done and word is that the football field/stadium is next.  It is not as cloudy at Augie as it may seem to many from the outside.  There is hope over at Augie, and let's not forget, 6 games remain on the CCIW slate.  Anything can happen.

You're right to point out that a big part of the waxing and waning of the competitiveness of schools within the CCIW has a lot to do with facilities. For decades, the joke among North Park football coaches was that, if you got a prospect on campus, you did everything that you could to avoid the issue of the weight room during the campus tour. If he asked to see the weight room, you took the road map out of your back pocket and showed him the directions to Rock Island. Anybody who had ever seen NPU's old weight room underneath the gym, "the dungeon," would understand why it was such a turnoff to potential recruits. Now, of course, NPU has a weight room in Helwig Rec Center that's second to none among midwestern D3 schools, so the problem no longer applies.

(The other gag among old North Park football coaches was that, if you had a blue-chip prospect visiting on a campus tour and you knew that you'd lose him if you showed him the football field and the weight room, you took him to the dining hall for a meal as part of the tour. He'd be so dazzled by all of the pretty blonde Swedish-American girls that he'd completely forget the torn-up, muddy football field, the lousy weight room, and even the bad food, and would jump at the chance to play for the Vikings. Never worked, as far as I know, and I doubt that any of those old coaches actually tried that stunt -- but they sure got a lot of mileage out of that joke.)

Athletics is an arms race in the CCIW. Everybody's gotta keep building bigger and better facilities, with more and more frills, in order to stay ahead of the other seven schools. It explains in part why NPU has done so badly for so long in so many sports, and why Elmhurst has lagged behind, and why Millikin is currently struggling as well -- and it explains why Carthage and North Central have been able to catch up and go toe-to-toe in overall terms with the conference fat cats, Wheaton and Illinois Wesleyan. And it also explains why Carroll dropped out of the league in the early '90s; the Carroll administration simply gave up on trying to keep pace in the arms race.

[Gregory Sager]

How many wealthy alums are around who can be persuaded to reach down into their deep pockets and withdraw a bundle of cash for your new athletic facility?

And woe to you if your school mostly turns out teachers, preachers, and nurses -- like a certain institution on Chicago's North Side at the corner of Foster & Kedzie -- rather than a steady stream of captains of industry.