FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[NCF]

Good observation.
That would be like people typing Yipsi.

Costly fumbles!? Tell me about it. Playoff OT at St. Thomas 2010 fumble lost inside the 10 to end the season.

Are any of you posters coming West? 72 today and you can see Catalina Island and the San Gabriel Mountains  (9,000 feet) just by turning your head.

Yes, we should be in LA by 9 on Friday morning. Any suggestions on what to do until Saturday morning?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Good observation.
That would be like people typing Yipsi.

Costly fumbles!? Tell me about it. Playoff OT at St. Thomas 2010 fumble lost inside the 10 to end the season.

Are any of you posters coming West? 72 today and you can see Catalina Island and the San Gabriel Mountains  (9,000 feet) just by turning your head.

Which has happened more times than people typing 'Pethel'!

[Gregory Sager]

Good observation.
That would be like people typing Yipsi.

Costly fumbles!? Tell me about it. Playoff OT at St. Thomas 2010 fumble lost inside the 10 to end the season.

Are any of you posters coming West? 72 today and you can see Catalina Island and the San Gabriel Mountains  (9,000 feet) just by turning your head.

Which has happened more times than people typing 'Pethel'!

I can understand the latter mistake, since "Pethel" looks a lot like "Bethel". But it's not as though there's a D3 school out there called "Nipsi", or "Pipsi", or "Poughkipsi".

[Mr. Ypsi]

Good observation.
That would be like people typing Yipsi.

Costly fumbles!? Tell me about it. Playoff OT at St. Thomas 2010 fumble lost inside the 10 to end the season.

Are any of you posters coming West? 72 today and you can see Catalina Island and the San Gabriel Mountains  (9,000 feet) just by turning your head.

Which has happened more times than people typing 'Pethel'!

I can understand the latter mistake, since "Pethel" looks a lot like "Bethel". But it's not as though there's a D3 school out there called "Nipsi", or "Pipsi", or "Poughkipsi".

My guess is that people are not used to seeing a Y in the first position as a vowel.  (I get constant cases of telephone callers guessing the city is pronounced Yipsilanti.  Even some locals do it! )  For the curious who didn't already know, the city is named for Greek war of independence (against the Ottoman empire) hero Demetrius Ypsilanti, who had no known ties whatsoever to the city, but was an absolute 'rock star' in many parts of American society in the early 1800s.

[formerd3db]

Sager, thanks for your inside knowledge, opinions and all the update inside info (as much as there is so far).  But, come on guys, give us a break.  No one is deliberately disrespecting Pethtel by incorrectly spelling his last name; if you think otherwise, that is simply not the case and absurd.  Chuck, you know me better than that.  Furthermore, if everyone here were berated for every mistyping and incorrect spelling here on the boards, it would be ad nauseum and never ending.  I've always had trouble spelling his name for a long time even though he's from the same league and era as me in the MIAA. But to say it is done in disrespect is absurd.  Heck people mis- spell my last name (and first name too) all the time and that is really hard to do.  My apologies if I offended anyone by the incorrect spelling, but it was not intentional or to imply any disrespet. I think the same of him as you do.  Relax people.   

[bluejay4ever]

Sorry if I missed it in the longer posts but what specifically makes North Park a place where someone cannot be successful? I am not trying to poke or make fun, just asking seriously.

From the outside I see a school that has above average facilities and is in Chicago. That is something that not many schools can actually say (although many suburban schools claim Chicago as their home).

I wonder if given the budget and right coach if they took a more national recruiting objective and sold those very points that they could have more success. I see NP as a much nicer alternative to a BU, albeit not a CCIW school but still has fair success.

I think they really need a "name" coach that will help raise the level of interest locally as well. Maybe draw from a top notch respected high school program. It did wonders for NC.

[cludad]

newcard, head to the coast starting around venice and work your way up through malibu on pch(pacific coast hwy)im going to assume you are staying around thousand oaks.Or you could head inland to old town pasadena.This area has a ton of shops and eats.The Reagan library in thousand oaks is also really cool,it has air force one on display(it takes most of the day to see it all)

[NCF]

newcard, head to the coast starting around venice and work your way up through malibu on pch(pacific coast hwy)im going to assume you are staying around thousand oaks.Or you could head inland to old town pasadena.This area has a ton of shops and eats.The Reagan library in thousand oaks is also really cool,it has air force one on display(it takes most of the day to see it all)

we are staying in l.a. as our flight out on sunday is at 6:25 am.

[NCF]

There is a party being planned in downtown Naperville(final destination not determined as of yet) for all who want to watch the game and have some fun. We are heading out on Friday, hoping to see a great play-off game.

Any information on this get together will be appreciated!  I am trying to find flights out to the game but if that doesn't work out, I'd love to watch with other Cardinal Fans!
Thank you
[/quote] The party is at Bar Louie. Contact mary reynolds in the alumni office if you want to  attend.

[cludad]

If your staying around the airport head to the costal areas, venice is always full of strange l.a. types.Hollywood and sunset strip are always great tourist areas ,If you like museums the Getty is close by,while i have'nt been there my son went a couple of years ago for a  class and thought it to be really enjoyable.You could take in rodeo dr for some over priced shopping and old town pasadena is still a possibilty

[CardinalAlum]

I don't know how to "Reply" to a specific post so I will try to answer this way.  To those that have questions about NCC's ability to stop the pass.  In both their losses to "passing teams" NCC turned over the ball at least 5 or 6 times in each of those games.  I believe two turnovers in the UW LaCross Game were returned for touchdowns and they lost 21-17.  In the Wheaton Game they gave up fumbles in the red zone (1 on the two yard line) One returned for a touchdown and lost 35-21. 
NCC has the defense and offense to play with anybody.  They need to take care of the football and the rest will come!
If thye don't, it will be a long flight home!
Good luck to all participants in this years playoffs. Hope everyone comes out healthy.
Go Cardinals!

No doubt turnovers impacted the game.  You mention the NCC turnovers (one in the redzone, one returned 72 yards), but you failed to mention the 2 turnovers that Wheaton had in the redzone as well.  By your logic that means Wheaton should have had more than the 35 points they had. 

NCC had all kinds of problems with Wheaton's passing attack.  Jordan Roberts was 32 of 46 for 380 yards and 2 TD's.  Hiben had 12 catches for 127 yards.  Cook had 11 catches for 181 yards.  If you want to shrug off the loss to turnovers, you are a bit delusional.  NCC's inability to stop the Wheaton passing attack played a huge role in the loss, not to mention Wheaton's stuffing the NCC ground attack (25 carries for only 108 yards, 4.3 yards per carry).

I agree with Mugsy (barf) on this....the turnovers didn't cost NCC the game. Wheaton worked us all 4 quarters. We couldn't stop the pass and couldn't run the ball. If you want to play the "if we didn't turn it over" game, Wheaton could say the same (as Mugsy pointed out).

Now, Mugsy please say something I disagree with so I feel better about myself.

"Mugsy barf - it's not just for breakfast anymore^TM."

Mugsy barf......those two words flow so well together........

Go ahead Mugsy....here comes the "I'll barf in the Bell....." blah blah blah.....

[Gregory Sager]

Sorry if I missed it in the longer posts but what specifically makes North Park a place where someone cannot be successful? I am not trying to poke or make fun, just asking seriously.

I went into it in great detail a month ago. Click on this link.

From the outside I see a school that has above average facilities and is in Chicago.

They're not "above average facilities" by CCIW standards, although NPU has closed the gap somewhat by constructing a first-class weight room and an indoor practice facility in Helwig Rec Center within the past decade. As for being in Chicago, that's the biggest hurdle NPU faces in terms of building a football program.

That is something that not many schools can actually say (although many suburban schools claim Chicago as their home).

Correct. But suburban schools sell themselves on their proximity to Chicago, not on being in the city itself. Being a 30-minute Metra ride from the Loop is all well and good in admissions brochures ... but the unspoken part of that is that you can avoid the city altogether if you'd really rather spend all your time on our nice, leafy suburban campus where nobody ever gets mugged or raped or killed, and problems like poverty, racism, unemployment, high dropout rates, pollution, etc., can be out of sight, out of mind.

I'm not bagging on suburbia, mind you. But it's all about perception. As I outlined in great detail in the post linked above, location is everything when you're trying to recruit suburban high-school football players.

I wonder if given the budget and right coach if they took a more national recruiting objective and sold those very points that they could have more success.

Wonderful thought, but you obviously haven't checked the NPU roster. Scott Pethtel has taken a more outward view towards recruiting. Given the disadvantages NPU faces in terms of recruiting suburban Chicagoland kids, he's: a) worked hard at recruiting Michiana kids, since that's his home turf; b) tried recruiting downstate, where the city of Chicago might potentially be a recruiting plus rather than a recruiting minus; and c) adopted the flexbone option offense, which gave him a shot at attracting specific offensive players that are either being underrecruited or overlooked altogether by other schools.

Budget? Let's be realistic. NPU is, as I said, a tuition-driven school with the second-smallest endowment in the league. The budget is very limited in every sport, not just football. And it takes big bucks (cough Wheaton cough) to be able to recruit via plane rather than car.

I agree that Chicago can be a great selling point for the right types of kids. Look at how the NPU soccer team has made it work; head coach John Born has a fantastically successful pipeline operating in the Scandinavian countries, where students are attracted to NPU precisely because it's in -- not near, in -- Chicago. But as far as the common pool from which every CCIW school except for Wheaton draws its football players -- the Chicago suburbs -- the urban location of NPU is a distinct disadvantage.

I see NP as a much nicer alternative to a BU, albeit not a CCIW school but still has fair success.

And where the heck does that leave NPU? Benedictine is a school in an inferior league. In fact, Benedictine's football program lags so far behind CCIW programs that NPU is the only CCIW school that'll still play the Eagles. Saying that NPU is a "much nicer alternative to a BU" is tantamount to saying that NPU should do very well at recruiting NAthCon-quality players ... which it's already doing.

(I'd actually argue that Benedictine's facilities are nicer than NPU's. In fact, Benedictine's facilities are as nice as anybody's, including the other seven CCIW schools. It's their league that holds the Bennies down, not their facilities.)

I think they really need a "name" coach that will help raise the level of interest locally as well. Maybe draw from a top notch respected high school program. It did wonders for NC.

No "name" coach is going to take the NPU job. It's career suicide. The demographics of the sport and the roster requirements that are adversely impacted by those demographics are more than enough to dampen the enthusiasm of any successful local high school coach who looks carefully at the job.

NPU hasn't won a conference game since Bill Clinton was in the White House. NPU hasn't had a winning season since Lyndon Johnson was in the White House. Do you really think that a potential job applicant who has made a name for himself locally and who thus has outstanding career options is going to take a stab at pushing the boulder up the hill at NPU?

[CardinalAlum]

Yes, Scott Pethtel was let go on Monday. As newparker said, the football team was told about this yesterday at their end-of-year meeting.

I had no inside information that this was going to take place, but I nevertheless had a sense that this was going to happen.

I just saw that the Head Football Coach position is available on the North Park jobs page.  Anyone have any insight in to that?  Maybe I missed something long ago, I do spend much more time on the soccer and basketball boards, so my apologies if this was already discussed.

I really hope that is a mistake.  The strides that NP has made are not huge but they are progress over where they have been.  I fear another coaching change will take that program back down to rock bottom.

"Back down to rock bottom"? Where is NPU now? The Vikings were outscored 236-54 in CCIW play this year. (For those of you who prefer averaged numbers, that means that NPU lost its seven CCIW games by an average score of 34-9.) Last season the Vikes narrowly lost to Carthage and Augie by a field goal apiece, and were competitive against Millikin until almost the end of the game. This season, however, NPU lost each CCIW game by three touchdowns or more. And this was the most experienced team that NPU has fielded in a generation, with 20 seniors and 22 juniors on the squad.

If North Park football isn't at rock bottom, I'm genuinely curious as to what constitutes "rock bottom" in your book, CardinalAlum. I'm not being snarky, either. I really do want to know.

Oh, how about Ron Ellett?

[Gregory Sager]

Incidentally, I would love to be proven wrong about all of this stuff. I would love it. I would absolutely dance a jig while telling the world that I blew it big-time when I stated that it just isn't possible for NPU to make it work in the CCIW on the football field. You'd never see anybody so happy to have made so big a miscalculation.

Alas, it isn't going to happen.

[Mugsy]

Now, Mugsy please say something I disagree with so I feel better about myself.

Ummm... I'm sure there are so many directions I could take this.

But I'll take the easy route.  The Bell looks better in the Wheaton offices.