FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Imagine saying the spreads looked a bit large. Couldn't be me.

The motto of CCIW football should be, "Always take the over."

[GusD]

Another all-blowout day in the CCIW:

North Central 63, Carthage 0
North Park 44, Millikin 0
Wash U 35, Carroll 7
Wheaton 42, Augustana 3
Illinois Wesleyan 55, Elmhurst 7

Carthage has played very tough competition but they haven't scored a point yet. IWU must really be looking forward to next Saturday.
Speaking of IWU, Elmhurst has been stinky for some time, but just how good are the Titans? Was week 1 or week 2 more representative of their makeup?
The same might be asked about NPU. Millikin might not win a game but the NPU shutout is still impressive, at least on paper. What is the ceiling for the Vikings this season as far as where they'll finish in the conference standings?

[CarollFan]

Another all-blowout day in the CCIW:

North Central 63, Carthage 0
North Park 44, Millikin 0
Wash U 35, Carroll 7
Wheaton 42, Augustana 3
Illinois Wesleyan 55, Elmhurst 7

Carthage has played very tough competition but they haven't scored a point yet. IWU must really be looking forward to next Saturday.
Speaking of IWU, Elmhurst has been stinky for some time, but just how good are the Titans? Was week 1 or week 2 more representative of their makeup?
The same might be asked about NPU. Millikin might not win a game but the NPU shutout is still impressive, at least on paper. What is the ceiling for the Vikings this season as far as where they'll finish in the conference standings?

IWU appears better than last year.
I think the Viking fans were hoping for 6-4. Matt Eck statistically is the #1 QB in the CCIW right now.

I think you got to be careful jumping to some conclusions based on schedule. Someone has Millikin, Elmhurst, Carthage go 3-0 look great. Another team has NCC, Wheaton, WashU go 0-3 that don't look great. The key to me is how these middle tier teams do against each other. Even though there is a lot of blowouts, there are going to be some close games on the schedule.

[Gregory Sager]

I think the Viking fans were hoping for 6-4. Matt Eck statistically is the #1 QB in the CCIW right now.

Vikings fans have been hoping for 6-4 since Nixon was in the White House. For NPU fans, breaking The Streak has always seemed like the impossible dream. Once every other decade or so the Vikings come close but don't quite get there. But the key is that this year's Vikings brought back most of the key personnel from the 5-5 team that came close last year.

A 6-4 season that would finally drive a stake through the heart of The Streak is actually doable. But it's going to be very difficult. First step is that you can't take Elmhurst or Carthage for granted; you have to study film and practice for them just as hard as the Vikings did for Millikin this past week. (The preparation for the Big Blue by the Vikings really stood out yesterday, too, especially in how well they were prepared to face different kinds of QBs in MU head coach Carlton Hall's shuffle-the-deck-and-deal approach to his signal-callers.) Second step is that you have to repeat last year's win over Illinois Wesleyan, which won't be easy; NPU has never beaten the Titans two years in a row, and if the IWU team that handed Elmhurst a 55-7 trip behind the woodshed yesterday shows up on the North Side on October 26 rather than the IWU team that lost 49-14 to Central two weeks ago, the Vikings will be in for the fight of their lives. Lastly, it'll mean winning an upset over either Augie or Carroll -- and in either case it'll be a legitimate upset, regardless of how good NPU looked yesterday and how bad the Doggies and the Pios looked.

Again, it's doable this season, but it'll be very, very difficult to climb that 6-4 summit.

[NCC2010]

Observations from NCC 2nd game of season against Carthage...

Nick Fehrle was moved from starting LG to starting center.  Jerred Durian who had been the starting center, started the game at LG.  However, he was removed at halftime and replaced at LG by Alex Knaperek. I thought it was maybe injury related, but Durian ended the game with the 2nd team offense. My guess is they are moving Knaperek to the starting line in an effort to improve the O-Line performance.  I had assume he would be a starter before the season. 

Sean Allen and Charles Coleman both sat out with injuries on offense. Will definitely need these 2 back soon to help rotate in with Sacco.

Trey Madsen continues to work in as the WR4 and sees a lot of short area targets when he is in.  Rummel, Paradee and Skokna are the top 3 and all look pretty fast and were open multiple times behind the defense.  Lehnen missed probably 3 TDs by inches on long throws.

On defense, Cortez Jones was dressed but did not play a snap. I saw a photo of him on social media on crutches before the Aurora game, so i assume they had him play against Aurora and then held him out of this game as a precaution. Still no Jahron Williams either who must be dealing with an injury. 

Last week i was excited to say we finally have a punter, and this week we promptly had our first punt blocked.  Was one of those weird punt formations with a man in motion at the snap and they left the Carthage defender completely untouched.  they used a traditional punt formation the rest of the game and had no issues.

Looking forward to the home opener against WashU this week.

[robertgoulet]

Based on the weekend results and what we have seen out of NCC to start the season I think it's going to be as wide open of a national title race as we have had in some time (as far as "clear favorites" go).

[Gregory Sager]

Two NPU players were selected as CCIW players of the week: Grad student LB Jaydin Miller and grad student K/P Carson Blatchford were named for defense and special teams, respectively.

https://cciw.org/news/2024/9/23/cciw-football-student-athletes-of-the-week-sept-23.aspx

It's not very often that you see NPU take two of the three POW awards.

It's nice from a broadcaster's point of view, too, in that Miller was one of the three Vikings (along with WR Jereme Ombogo and QB Matt Eck) that Sam Corbett and I interviewed in the press box on Saturday's postgame show.

[Cardinal773]

CCIW Players of the Week Against (CCIWPOTWA):

Team   Total. Off.  Def.  S.T.
AC       0     0     0     0
CC       0     0     0     0
CU       0     0     0     0
EU       1     1     0     0
IWU      0     0     0     0
MU       2     0     1     1
NCC      0     0     0     0
NPU      0     0     0     0
WashU    0     0     0     0
WC       0     0     0     0

[Gregory Sager]

CCIW Players of the Week Against (CCIWPOTWA):

Team   Total. Off.  Def.  S.T.
AC       0     0     0     0
CC       0     0     0     0
CU       0     0     0     0
EU       1     1     0     0
IWU      0     0     0     0
MU       2     0     1     1
NCC      0     0     0     0
NPU      0     0     0     0
WashU    0     0     0     0
WC       0     0     0     0

I like this! This is an intriguing new field of CCIW statistics.

[Cardinal773]

As for the D3POWA, Millikin's on that list curtesy of North Park's LB. (Congrats by the way!)  And Carthage via the NC O-line... Let me just say that it's about time those hacks at D3football gave North Central some recognition!  Am I right?!*  Not sure if anyone made the list on week one.  I've got a load of things to do before my first class.

*I know sarcasm and polite joking doesn't come through very well on the Internet so I'm just going to say this as plainly as possible.  I'm kidding.  Love the recognition NC gets from the good people  at D3football.com.  I especially like their recognition of O-line play.  I could go back to the archive and see how many times that unit has been recognized and I'm willing to guess that it's been so honored more than most programs.  So, yeah.  Thanks for noticing!

[Pat Coleman]

In fact, this selection is the 10th for North Central, surpassing the nine that various Hardin-Simmons offensive lines have received over the years. That puts them first.

https://d3football.com/awards/tow/all-time

[CarollFan]

As for the D3POWA, Millikin's on that list curtesy of North Park's LB. (Congrats by the way!)  And Carthage via the NC O-line... Let me just say that it's about time those hacks at D3football gave North Central some recognition!  Am I right?!*  Not sure if anyone made the list on week one.  I've got a load of things to do before my first class.

*I know sarcasm and polite joking doesn't come through very well on the Internet so I'm just going to say this as plainly as possible.  I'm kidding.  Love the recognition NC gets from the good people  at D3football.com.  I especially like their recognition of O-line play.  I could go back to the archive and see how many times that unit has been recognized and I'm willing to guess that it's been so honored more than most programs.  So, yeah.  Thanks for noticing!

https://x.com/Pritzkersgunt/status/1838183989539950705?t=SNCcnyU-Mwnt_ahcic_x4Q&s=19

[washdupcard]

Whoops looks like CarollFan beat me too it.

Speaking of the NCC O-line...this clip basically says it all.

https://x.com/Pritzkersgunt/status/1838183989539950705

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats to NPU linebacker Jaydin Miller upon making the D3football.com Team of the Week for the third time in the past two seasons:

https://www.d3football.com/awards/tow/2024/week3

[markerickson]

With Carroll's QB and top WR gone this year, NP defeating Carroll for a Homecoming victory will probably not be an upset.