FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[rscl70]

Congratulations to the Wheaton team and fans for a great season and a great effort today.  And kudos to the Wheaton faithful who joined us in a standing O for Nate Kmic.

[Carthage Fan]

Wait, did I get the stats right.  Did Kmic run for 311 yds?  Ouch!    

[footballfan413]

Congrat to Wheaton on their terrific season.  Very special to be the North Region Champ!  Hold your heads up high! Your players and program are top drawer.  Good luck next season.  Thanks, Mugsy, for your help the last few weeks.

I am now leading the WIAC pick em's thanks to a Thunder win against Franklin and the Warhawks pulling off another trip to Salem but for the next week, I pick with my heart so who knows.  Gotta send out the right karma!    

Congrats again to a Thunderous Wheaton team on a great year.

[augiefan]

Congratulations to Wheaton on a great job of representing the CCIW in the post season. A really quality effort against Mt. Union, possibly the most dominant sports program in all of college sports year in year out for some time now. The Thunder did themselves proud.

[usee]

Great season by Wheaton and a fun run to watch for sure. It all ended at the Purple altar yesterday. We had no answer for Kmic and Micheli. very poised, confident players. Their offense was easily the best we have seen (and that is saying something having played NCC, franklin and some other top rated offenses). Wheaton held Kmic to less than 10 yds rushing in the 1st quarter and he finished with 310! He also didn't play the last drive of the game (5.30 min left or so). Their OLine was dominant. I thought the Thunder offense was very good, even without Rocky and the loss of Jesse Scott (1st team all conf/region OT). Norris overthrew 3 open receivers in the 1st quarter that would have been 1st downs and there were 3 WR drops in the 1st half that were huge (ellis dropping the td pass was the biggest). Wheaton could have gone into half in a 24-17 type game. The second half Mt Union started to blitz very aggressively and Wheaton handled it very well as Norris stayed very tough in the pocket even when taking shots. The story of the game, however was Micheli and Kmic who we simply had no answer for. Ittersagen missed a bunch of tackles and got beat on MUC's first TD by Cecil Shorts, but he had a nice KOR and caught the fake punt. It wasn't a great game but his presence on the KOR created some great field position.

I wish I could say he had a punt return but Mt didn't punt the whole game (0-2 on 4th downs). OVerall, 4 games of playoff experience for a team with a majority of its offense back is a good thing.

[Carthage Fan]

Congrats to Wheaton for a great season and making it to the semis. 

[shepherd]

Just a reminder, there will probably be some pregame highlights from the MUC – Wheaton game on ESPNs Stagg bowl coverage.  Most of which will be K-mick though. 

[thunderbox]

WHEATON PLAYED SO BAD THEY DON'T DESERVE TO BE ON ESPN. 

[usee]

WHEATON PLAYED SO BAD THEY DON'T DESERVE TO BE ON ESPN. 

and a big WELCOME TO THE BOARD to you as well!

[robertgoulet]

Congrats to Wheaton on their Final 4 appearance.

Can't wait til next season. Hopefully NCC can switch spots and have a chance to go up against MUC.

[rocketraider]

Congratulations to Wheaton for a great season and for playing an outstanding game on Saturday. First class group of men who never quit and ultimately that's what it's all about. I've seen many, many teams fold their tents when they get down to Mount but not the Thunder on Saturday. The Wheaton fans were great too. Late in the season not even the hardiest Wheaton fans could have guessed that they'd even get into the playoffs, let alone get to the semis'. Congratulations Coach Swider and the entire team. Well done. By the way I had a chance to meet coach Whitehead before the game. They say you only get one chance to make a first impression and what an impression he made on me. The young men touched by this guy are lucky. All I have to say now is Go Raiders!

[Mugsy]

WHEATON PLAYED SO BAD THEY DON'T DESERVE TO BE ON ESPN. 

Gee... how ungrateful can you get?  Your team (assumption based on your profile name, not on the tone of the message) just played 4 more games than anyone had anticipated, got further into the post season than in the history of the program, was one game away from playing for a National Championship and that is all you can say?

What is it with these newbie Wheaton posters who all they can do is complain and whine? 

Sure Wheaton made some mistakes that have already been discussed throughly.  But minus those mistakes, would Wheaton have won the game?  I doubt it.  In some respects, particularly offensively, Wheaton played MUC tougher than anyone this year.  Defensively... Wheaton had a tough time stopping MUC.  But is that because Wheaton played bad, or were they just outmatched?

Based on all 6 meetings Wheaton has had with MUC and what MUC has accomplished over the past 15 years, I think it is pretty clear that Wheaton is still outmatched.  Wheaton has crept closer, but still has some work to do.

I'd argue fervently that had Wheaton play bad as you claim, the score would have been more like 63-7 or 56-3.  I'm not sure what you were looking at... but Wheaton was beaten by a superior team with superior players, not because they played below what they are capable of.

Even if they did play poorly... is that the tone you want for your first ever post?  Screaming in all caps that Wheaton doesn't deserve something?

[Mugsy]

Congratulations to Wheaton for a great season and for playing an outstanding game on Saturday. First class group of men who never quit and ultimately that's what it's all about. I've seen many, many teams fold their tents when they get down to Mount but not the Thunder on Saturday. The Wheaton fans were great too. Late in the season not even the hardiest Wheaton fans could have guessed that they'd even get into the playoffs, let alone get to the semis'. Congratulations Coach Swider and the entire team. Well done. By the way I had a chance to meet coach Whitehead before the game. They say you only get one chance to make a first impression and what an impression he made on me. The young men touched by this guy are lucky. All I have to say now is Go Raiders!

Coach Whitehead is a wonderful coach, who demands a lot from his players and drives them hard.  As much as he demands, his players respect him a great deal and learn much from him and not just about football.  Wheaton is fortunate to have him back after a year away and the offensive line play this year is a clear indication of the impact he has on the program. 

[Toph]

Congrats to Wheaton on a terrific season.  Offensively they were very good, it's too bad it took them a little while to get going.  Defensively they ran into the same problem as everyone else...how to stop so many weapons.  They did a nice job bottling up Nate Kmic for a quarter, but then before we knew it he had 100 yards at the half.  Intersagen contained Shorts pretty well, but Micheli was able to stand back and let 'er rip like the Mount teams that I've seen torch JCU since the late 90s.  Offensively Wheaton had the firepower to hang around, but the defense just couldn't get off the field...and when they did they were giving up points or stopping MUC deep in enemy territory.

Excellent season, good game on Saturday.  I hope those of you who made the trip to Alliance enjoyed yourselves.

[usee]

For the Stagg Bowl this year I believe it will be a decent game but Mt Union should win fairly handily. Having seen UWW play the last few years and seeing this years version of MUC I think it will be a battle for a while but the Mt Union offense is simply too good. I think UWW will be better equipped than anyone to limit Kmic's running and the Mt Union OLine will have trouble doing what they have done all year. but I think MUC is too balanced an offense with their recievers and qb to keep them down.

On the other side I think Mt Unions defense will struggle with the physical nature of UWW's OLine. UWW likes to run first and pass second (about 65% run to 35% pass). I don't think UWW will have near the same success passing as Wheaton did last Saturday but should be better running the ball. I could see UWW getting close to their offensive averages and keeping the score down with a strong running attack.

In the end, Mt Union is too powerful on offense and just athletic and strong enough on defense.

I am calling a 31-21 MUC victory.