FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mugsy]

Wheaton had a different place kicker for the first 2 PAT's and field goal on Saturday.   Anyone know the story.
Also #1 TW did not hold for kicks in 2nd quarter nor did he play for rest of game after coming down hard on a reception.  Hope he's all set to go for Saturday as the Thunder will need all their weapons.

Just like the count seat the Brass bell belongs in Wheaton. 

According to the boxscore, Roche did all the kicking duties against Augie.

I don't know the status of Teddy Watkins and this early in the week I wouldn't say if I knew.  He did have 9 receptions for over 100 yards in the first 3 drives on Saturday.  Would have been a HUGE game had he played the entire way.

[Mugsy]

Coming into this game against the south DuPage CCIW team, I'm concerned about Wheaton's inability to mount a reasonable rushing attack to attempt to keep Southern DuPage's defense "honest".  The SoDup defense is really fast and tough against both the run and pass.

However it is somewhat explainable why Wheaton has struggled to run the ball consistently.  Of course coming into the season the Wheaton OL was the biggest question mark (Wheaton lost 3 starters due to graduation).  Things have only gotten tougher as their most experienced lineman has been hobbled by injury all season (Sean Ramsey).

Here is the current Wheaton offensive line:
LT   70 Nolan Randall (SO) 6'3" 250 lbs
LG   63 Bradley Hahn (SO) 6'2" 300 lbs
C    55 Spencer Clark (FR) 5'11" 260 lbs
RG   72 Charlie Bell (JR) 6'3" 283 lbs
RT   75 Jesse Peterson (JR) 6'5" 282 lbs

Very, very young AND the Wheaton postgame broadcast on Saturday mentioned that one of these guys has never played offensive line coming into the season and was recruited as a TE, another was a scout offensive lineman last year.

Add to this the continual injury bug to RB Peter Garrett and you've got a receipt for a challenging running game.

Now I will point out that this makeshift O-line has allowed 15 sacks in 281 pass attempts, which is really quite commendable.  To look on the positive side, this could turn out to be a strength for the next several years.

[cardinaldad]

A few remarks about last nights game against Elmhurst:

    At times, Elmhurst played very good, inspired football.
    At times Elmhurst didn't play very good football.
    NCC can't play the way we did last night against real good opponents.
    The offense appeared out of sync most of the night. Our QB had a terrible night throwing the ball. Passes were either sailing or three yards short of the intended receiver.
    There were times when the defense was getting gashed for pretty decent yardage. Yet, at times they played stellar football.
     With that said.................I've been watching Cardinal football for a long time. Isn't it GREAT to see that the program is at a point to where I can feel this way in a 51-10 victory? (as I shake my head............................).
     The Cards are pretty banged up. Let's get healthy, play well and keep the bell.

     Mugsy, thought you might want to know that your favorite TE was shaken up last night. Hopefully, he will be ok to play and help NCC retain the bell and frustrate the heck out of you!   

i'd agree with most of your thoughts. nc came out flat,but i thought that might happen in between the two big ones. elmhurst had nothing to lose. at 4-3 a team can play loose and inspired. i thought the special teams play was sub par on kick-off and punt. the offense needs a leader. the defense will always keep the team in the game-so even when the offense is a little sluggish i don't worry. keep the bell in naperville cards!!

Wow, it's a tough crowd.

Elmhurst is a good team, not a great team. They had a good game plan for shutting down the NCC offense. They played the option as well as any team I have seen, and they were determined not to let NCC run up the middle. That's going to happen and the offense is going to need yards somewhere else.

Kukuoc ended up with 141 yards and 1 TD. Tassio added two TDs. That's not too bad.

Dicken was 18-33 for 325 yards. He's improving each game, and was closer to the 60% completion rate that is the objective. Furco, by comparison, played well and was 20-40 for 237 yards. Nick Hicks had 7 receptions, his best output of the season.

Scottie Williams ended up with 80 yards (according to the NCC web site, 74 on the Elmhurst web site). Williams had 194 yards against Wheaton and 127 against IWU. The defense did a decent job keeping Williams in check.

Fiedorowicz has dazed on a helmet-to-helmet tackle. Both players had to be helped off the field. JT was yelling at the officials on several plays for Elmhurst defenders leading with their helmets.

Il Gator - I know what you mean about a tough crowd. Hence my comment about feeling this way after a 51-10 victory. I felt kind of funny after typing my thoughts......but there is an uneasy feeling about the wat we played. We can't start that way against the great teams. This isn't the first time we came out of the gates playing not very well. One game, we might get caught with out pants down if we continue these slow starts.

[cardinaldad]

Sorry I have been not posting as of late. Some busy weeks the past two. It has nothing to do with EC's decline over the past few weeks. As for teh NC vs EC game, I was not able to attend. Congrats on NC showing they are the class of the conference. From what I hear more of the same from EC. Good Team not yet ready to take another step. Players were in position to make plays but didnt do it. It takes some special kids to learn how to play at championship levels. Then once those kids can set the tone is can then as leaders it can show underclassmen how to be at that level consistantly. I still have all the faith in the world of the coaches at EC and I know the kind of time and effort they put into the program and hopefully the next step is coming soon.

Congrats again to all the Evil Empire, I mean North Central people and good luck the rest of the way.

bluejay4ever - I agree with you about the coaches at Elmhurst. I know a few of them and I believe they have the ability to take the Jays to the next level. I saw Thorne do it at NCC. NCC was 3-7 the season before JT arrived. Then they went 6-4, 7-3, 7-3, then 9-1 (9-2 including the playoffs). He got the veterans to buy in and the underclassmen had to meet those expectations. It can be done and it can be done in a hurry. However, what is this? Lester and Co's 4th year? When will it happen? Elmhurst has been on that bubble for a number of years now. We should start seeing some progress here. With that coaching staff, quite frankly, I'm surprised we haven't already seen more. In the early years of John Thorne at NCC, Elmhurst gave NCC a number of GREAT games that came down to who had the ball on the last possesion. Elmhurst has fallen off that level.

[cardinaldad]

Mugsy,

Hear this in your sleep this week........North Cenrtal College....North Central College.....North Central College........

[NCF]

Mugsy,

Hear this in your sleep this week........North Cenrtal College....North Central College.....North Central College........

His sleep or his nightmares?

[matblake]

Ah, I love DuPage Cross Country and Track School week.  I'm hoping that this game lives up to the hype.  Interestingly enough, not only is Pool A up for grabs (although the school with a former Wheaton Warrenville South coach has an advantage having beaten IWU) but a Pool C spot as well.  If Wheaton wins by 15 or more, the school with an ornithological mascot drops into the scary Pool C range with the Wheaton loss and the Redlands loss.  Wheaton is most certainly out of playoff contention with a loss IMO.  If Wheaton wins by less than 15, the Bendetti-Wehrli Stadium-ites have secured the Pool A bid.  All of this is assuming that both win the remaining game.

[Mugsy]

Mugsy,

Hear this in your sleep this week........North Cenrtal College....North Central College.....North Central College........

Odd... everytime I think about the name of Wheaton's opponent this week I get:
SoDup
School from Naperville
School that has held the bell 10 less times

[NCF]

Mugsy,

Hear this in your sleep this week........North Cenrtal College....North Central College.....North Central College........

Odd... everytime I think about the name of Wheaton's opponent this week I get:
SoDup
School from Naperville
School that has held the bell 10 less times

Just say the name -CARDINALS, CARDINALS, CARDINALS- it gets easier everytime you hear it. Hopefully, after Saturday, it will be the school that has held the bell 9 times less.

[ncc_fan]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm glad that the game against the team formerly known as the Crusaders comes near the end of the season.  I wish the CCIW would keep it there.

[matblake]

Coming into this game against the south DuPage CCIW team, I'm concerned about Wheaton's inability to mount a reasonable rushing attack to attempt to keep Southern DuPage's defense "honest".  The SoDup defense is really fast and tough against both the run and pass.

I'm concerned about many things for Wheaton.  The biggest one that I have seen is penalties of the personal foul nature.  I understand that sometimes personal fouls are unavoidable, but it just seems to always come at an important juncture of the game, either stalling out drives or keeping opponents drives alive. 

IMO opinion, Wheaton has to get the quick pass outside going.  The quick passes outside often can supplement a running game. 

[bluejay4ever]

Sorry I have been not posting as of late. Some busy weeks the past two. It has nothing to do with EC's decline over the past few weeks. As for teh NC vs EC game, I was not able to attend. Congrats on NC showing they are the class of the conference. From what I hear more of the same from EC. Good Team not yet ready to take another step. Players were in position to make plays but didnt do it. It takes some special kids to learn how to play at championship levels. Then once those kids can set the tone is can then as leaders it can show underclassmen how to be at that level consistantly. I still have all the faith in the world of the coaches at EC and I know the kind of time and effort they put into the program and hopefully the next step is coming soon.

Congrats again to all the Evil Empire, I mean North Central people and good luck the rest of the way.

bluejay4ever - I agree with you about the coaches at Elmhurst. I know a few of them and I believe they have the ability to take the Jays to the next level. I saw Thorne do it at NCC. NCC was 3-7 the season before JT arrived. Then they went 6-4, 7-3, 7-3, then 9-1 (9-2 including the playoffs). He got the veterans to buy in and the underclassmen had to meet those expectations. It can be done and it can be done in a hurry. However, what is this? Lester and Co's 4th year? When will it happen? Elmhurst has been on that bubble for a number of years now. We should start seeing some progress here. With that coaching staff, quite frankly, I'm surprised we haven't already seen more. In the early years of John Thorne at NCC, Elmhurst gave NCC a number of GREAT games that came down to who had the ball on the last possesion. Elmhurst has fallen off that level.

The first Year Coach Lester and his staff came in it was really late in the recruiting season. I would say next year his first real recruiting year will be seniors. Also some of the last promising classes should have a maturity about them with another off season to make a good impact on the field. The issue with this year was the youth of the defense and filling in some positions that were strengths last year. I look to next year with some real hope that it will be the year. Most of the starters will be coming back on both sides of the ball as opposed to this year where you had the whole offense and a lot of needs to step up on defense. I agree I drink the cool aid more then most but I will continue to do so.

[NCF]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm glad that the game against the team formerly known as the Crusaders comes near the end of the season.  I wish the CCIW would keep it there.

It is the perfect (with a Cardinal victory) ending to the regular season.  Without a Cardinal victory-

[ncc58]

Il Gator - I know what you mean about a tough crowd. Hence my comment about feeling this way after a 51-10 victory. I felt kind of funny after typing my thoughts......but there is an uneasy feeling about the wat we played. We can't start that way against the great teams. This isn't the first time we came out of the gates playing not very well. One game, we might get caught with out pants down if we continue these slow starts.

UWW has been tied or trailing in three of their conference games at halftime. What UWW and NCC are seeing is that teams are changing their defensive schemes to commit to stopping the running game. NCC has seen that especially with Augie and Elmhurst. A better takeaway in my view is that NCC made the offensive adjustments to find a way to score 5 TDs. Elmhurst did help a bit with a few bad decisions and turnovers.

If NCC came out flat and won by 41 points, that's a positive. In a lot of years, NCC came out flat and lost games that should have been easy wins. Don't expect complete dominance in every game, there is still tough competition every week in the CCIW.

I went back to 2003 and checked the stats. Dicken's completion rate is actually one percentage better than Kam Kniss in his freshman season. Kam was never asked to throw 33 passes in one game though. Albeit, the 2003 wasn't as good as this sason's team. Kam turned out to be a pretty decent QB. The expectations on Dicken by many fans is just too great.

[ncc58]

Coming into this game against the south DuPage CCIW team, I'm concerned about Wheaton's inability to mount a reasonable rushing attack to attempt to keep Southern DuPage's defense "honest".  The SoDup defense is really fast and tough against both the run and pass.

I was wondering how much Wheaton would even try to run the ball. If Wheaton falls behind, then it will become a passing fest and we'll see how Wheaton controls Hayes and Garza.