FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[NCF]

What a game!!!! Finally, I can wear my "I ain't fraid of no goat" T-shirt!!

[formerd3db]

Yes, congrats to all you Cubs fans here, Greg, Imetzel, augie77, NCF and others!  My wife is from Chicago also and has been a Cubs fan all her life.  She was elated as well-finally the long drought is over.  One has to kind of feel bad for whoever loses, Cleveland having had a long 60+ years without a pennant title, but I'm glad it was the Cubs since it had been much longer.  Anyway, what a great series.  Now, back to regular season college football and the upcoming DIII league titles and eventual playoffs!

[CardinalAlum]

Halftime from Kenosha:

NCC-28
CC-   7

Carthage scored first and the Cards have run off 28 straight.   I haven't seen a lot of the high pressure defense from Carthage as they seem to be rushing 4 much of the time and Rutter is picking it apart. 

[USee]

Millikin 14
Elmhurst 56

North Park 21
Carroll 28

Wheaton 37
Augie 14

those are the other finals

[CardinalAlum]

34-21 winner for NCC in Kenosha that clinched at least a share of the CCiW.   I'll go out on a limb and suggest that Josh Leonard, freshmen DE, will be the CCIW Defensive player of the week. 
9 tackles (8 solo, 1 assist). 6.5 tackles for a loss and 4 sacks.   Not a bad day.   
Broc Rutter, 16-28, 337 yds, 4 TD's and 1 INT. Offensive player of the year?

[thunderdog]

Broc Rutter, Offensive player of the year?

100% no-brainer, without a doubt

[thunderdog]

Am I reading the play-by-play correctly...Noah Spielman had not 1 but 2 passes thrown to him (catching 1)? Where did he line up? FB or TE? I'd like to see video of that.

Wheaton held Augie to -12 yards rushing...(tell that to some former 80's era Crusaders and see what they think...times certainly have changed). Wheaton defensive front continues to play at a remarkably high level.

[thunderdog]

And by the way, it's gotten painfully quiet around here

[izzy stradlin]

Am I reading the play-by-play correctly...Noah Spielman had not 1 but 2 passes thrown to him (catching 1)? Where did he line up? FB or TE? I'd like to see video of that.

Wheaton held Augie to -12 yards rushing...(tell that to some former 80's era Crusaders and see what they think...times certainly have changed). Wheaton defensive front continues to play at a remarkably high level.

Guessing those passes were to WR #5 Carson Lien not #5 Noah Spielman. 

[AndOne]

Wheaton held Augie to -12 yards rushing...(tell that to some former 80's era Crusaders and see what they think...times certainly have changed). Wheaton defensive front continues to play at a remarkably high level.

Or tell it to some former 80's era Vikings, and see what THEY think! 🤔 🏈

[CardinalAlum]

Wheaton held Augie to -12 yards rushing...(tell that to some former 80's era Crusaders and see what they think...times certainly have changed). Wheaton defensive front continues to play at a remarkably high level.

Or tell it to some former 80's era Vikings, and see what THEY think! 🤔 🏈

I really thought Augie would be better this year.  Definitely surprised at that. 

[USee]

Article from the Quad City Times on the game and the outlook for Augie going forward (Augie finished their season yesterday):

http://qctimes.com/sports/college/augustana/augie-concludes---season-with-heads-held-high/article_b3d59416-84d9-53e4-9357-0d985ab0e333.html

[Augie6]

Article from the Quad City Times on the game and the outlook for Augie going forward (Augie finished their season yesterday):

http://qctimes.com/sports/college/augustana/augie-concludes---season-with-heads-held-high/article_b3d59416-84d9-53e4-9357-0d985ab0e333.html

Well, it's interesting commentary and I suppose it's what any coach would say that's trying to rebuild a program.  I also thought Augie would be much better this season, and they clearly weren't.  One of the problems that I see, at least on the offensive side of the ball, is the lack of athleticism needed to scare an opponents Defensive Coordinator.  They had that last year with Sam Frasco, and he accounted for 75% of Augie's offense. That being said, it seemed like a fair amount of his rushing yardage came as a result of using his athleticism to scramble and not necessarily on designed QB runs.  Take that away, and their offensive scheme would have been much less successful.  My concern this year was who would step up and provide offense with Frasco having graduated.  The answer was, no one did.  Hard to win many ball games when you only rush for 68 yards per game (2.1 yards per attempt) and only complete passes at a 54% rate.  As I said after the NPU game, it's hard to be optimistic about the program going forward, based on the regression that I saw this season.  I'm sure Coach Bell and his staff have a plan, but I just don't see it right now.  It seems like Augie is a very looooooong way from competing in the CCIW and that Augie fans are going to have to be very patient.  I hope I am wrong and that Augie is able to turn the ship around and start winning again.  I will happily admit to being wrong if that happens. As we Cubs fans learned this season, good things come to those who wait!!! 

[lmitzel]

34-21 winner for NCC in Kenosha that clinched at least a share of the CCiW.   I'll go out on a limb and suggest that Josh Leonard, freshmen DE, will be the CCIW Defensive player of the week. 
9 tackles (8 solo, 1 assist). 6.5 tackles for a loss and 4 sacks.   Not a bad day.   
Broc Rutter, 16-28, 337 yds, 4 TD's and 1 INT. Offensive player of the year?

And the nice thing here too is that NCC has locked up the Pool A bid. After a two year absence it's good to see them back.

[USee]

As for CCIW awards I would think Broc Rutter (OPOY) and Jeff Thorne (COY) are a lock. The only question would be for DPOY and the race appears tight.

Currently Wheaton and NCC are the #1 and #2 defenses so the best player on those teams would be the candidates. Both of these defense are accumulating sacks at an incredible pace and are currently ranked #1 and #2 in the country in sacks with 42 and 39 respectively. North Central added 11 sacks yesterday vs Carthage and Wheaton had 6 in Rock Island.  7 of the top 8 sack leaders in the conference are on these two teams with more than 5 each. Chase Greenlee leads the Thunder with 11 sacks and Billy Douds leads the Cardinals with 10.5 (both of these are top 10 in the country). These two guys are probably the leaders for DPOY honors but it really depends on who each coach nominates. North Central has had a lot of guys with some great years on defense. Tom Sora and Pat Cravens are candidates. For Wheaton Caleb Ashby and Noah Spielman have been dominant as well. I would guess it comes down to Greenlee and Douds and the last week may be the difference.