FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Q, Thanks for ruining my morning with bad memories. While the list you have here is a string of talented and accomplished WR's, I think the accomplishment/talent gap between these receivers is awfully large. Bisaillion is in a class by himself. The next grou that sticks out to me is Emerson and Zac Williams. Those two were very, very good CCIW WR's. I would hesitate putting Alex Garvey and Tate Musselman with the group you list. They may well end up there, but they aren't there yet in my opinion.

I agree.  I should have clarified that I wasn't suggesting those guys are all in the same category, but rather just that IWU has had an impressive succession of good WRs in the Norm Eash era.  Eash has really done a great job recruiting the WR position.

[Titan Q]

If IWU's defense is anywhere close to good, I think the Titans will be very hard to beat.

The Titans need to get a few key injured defensive players back...

* Mike Heaton, Sr LB (ACL) - expected back at some point this season

* Ryan Penders, Sr LB (knee) - expected back soon

* Tyrell Bolden, Jr DB (not sure what the injury is) - expected back soon


If IWU can get healthy come CCIW time, I think the defense will be good.

[NCF]

If IWU's defense is anywhere close to good, I think the Titans will be very hard to beat.

The Titans need to get a few key injured defensive players back...

* Mike Heaton, Sr LB (ACL) - expected back at some point this season

* Ryan Penders, Sr LB (knee) - expected back soon

* Tyrell Bolden, Jr DB (not sure what the injury is) - expected back soon


If IWU can get healthy come CCIW time, I think the defense will be good.

Even though I have no horse in the race anymore, it may well be  worth a trip to B-N to see the Wheaton and NC games.

[Gregory Sager]

It was certainly a mixed bag for NPU yesterday. The bad news was that the Vikings gave up a horrific 662 yards of total offense to Hope. They also had a boatload of costly penalties, some of them purely mental errors. For instance, one was a too-many-men-on-the-field call prior to a Hope punt from its own end zone, giving the visitors a first down. Then there was a delay-of-game penalty called at the Hope 10 with 5.6 seconds left in the first half, when the ball was snapped before the referee had signaled clock restart -- a penalty that resulted in an automatic 10-second runoff and thus the end of the half without the Vikes getting any points out of it. It's hard enough to win when you give up 662 yards without making it even harder on yourself with avoidable penalties. And, as good as Hope is on offense -- and Hope is very good on offense -- the Vikes handed them gifts with blown coverages more than once, the most decisive example being on the 75-yard Hope TD pass that really turned the game around in the third quarter.

But there were lots of positives as well. Although they gave up a lot of yardage, the Vikings had four takeaways, three on defense and one on special teams. The offense racked up 471 total yards, making up in large part for the inability of the Vikings D to contain Hope. Although the Vikings did stall out deep in Hope territory more than once, it's a very dynamic offense that shows a lot of promise.

T.D. Conway is a player. In his first game as a collegian, he went 37-64 for 315 yards, two touchdowns, and no picks, plus he bulled into the end zone on a sneak from the one for a rushing TD as well. His 37 completions broke the school record of 33 set by John Love against North Central in 1990. He has a quick release, mostly made good decisions with the ball, and showed a lot of poise. It's about as auspicious a debut from a North Park QB as I can ever remember. He's going to be a lot of fun to watch over the next four years.

And he's got some exciting new weapons to work with. It took the better part of the game for T.D.'s older brother Dakota to catch a pass from his younger sibling, but Dakota ended up with four receptions for 70 yards while playing on a bad foot. Freshman Alan Geneva grabbed 10 catches for 79 yards and a touchdown, with a couple of the catches (including the TD catch) being impressive snares in which he had to lay out to haul in the ball. And freshman RB Marquis Magwood is sensational. He ran the ball 11 times for 97 yards (an 8.8 ypc average) and caught five passes for an additional 34 yards. His fellow freshman RB D.J. Jones also looked impressive. Right there is five new skill-player weapons, four frosh and a sophomore, that NPU didn't have a year ago. It's not a finished product as far as incoming personnel are concerned, vis-a-vis the recruiting efforts of Mike Conway and his staff, but it's certainly a pretty good start.

The one thing that I really worry about is that, because this team operates the exact opposite of last season's NPU offensive scheme, the NPU defense will lose the one really good advantage that it had. The triple option, being a run-every-down, ball-control offense, generally racked up healthy margins in terms of time of possession, keeping North Park's very thin defense relatively fresh. Because the spread offense that the Park has instituted this season is predicated upon so much passing, on the occasions when the Vikes can't sustain a drive the NPU defense is going to be back on the field very quickly without much time having run off of the clock. Hope had the ball for about ten more minutes than did NPU last night, in spite of the fact that Hope tended to gain all those yards in big chunks (NPU actually had more first downs than did Hope, 33-29). Even though Mike Conway used two full units on D, the Vikes still wore down in the second half and got run over by Hope running backs that they'd had no trouble containing earlier in the game. Mike Conway's going to have to play a lot of people on defense in order to keep his team fresh in the second half, given that they're probably going to be on the field a lot more than their opposing defensive counterparts, and I'm just not sure that he has the personnel to allow him to go that deep. Nevertheless, I applaud the switch in tactics. He's got the weapons for a pass-first offense -- even considering that Tyler Krebs, John Barnabee, Chris Broadway, Drew Walkington, etc., were originally option guys -- so it's the right decision to use them that way.

Hope is very solid, particularly on offense. In his postgame interview with us, Mike Conway said that Hope returned all eleven starters on offense. If that's true, it would explain a lot. It was striking how the Hollanders managed to run their offense like a well-oiled machine, considering that it was the first game of the season. And they have two premier players in QB Mike Atwell and RB Shawn Jackson, both of whom would excel in any league in D3, plus several very good receivers. Losing to a talented team like that that has a lot more experience than the Vikes is not all that shameful.

This team's going to have plenty of growing pains, and, as I've been stressing in this room for the past few months, expectations for the Park should be very modest this season. But there's some gifted young players that the program can build upon, and the returnees certainly don't look as though they're going to just lay down and die, either. They're hungry, too, and I think that they want to play a role in a turnaround, even if the results aren't there on the scoreboard while they're still in uniform.

[USee]

Greg,

Don't leave us hanging with the kicker update!!!???

[Gregory Sager]

Not a single mention here by anybody of yesterday's shocking upset of Millikin by Greenville at Lindsay Field in Decatur. The Big Blue lost a shootout, 48-41, a game in which they gave up 34 unanswered points and at one time trailed by three touchdowns.  The Panthers rolled up 624 yards of offense against Millikin, 446 of it on the ground.

What gives? MU beat Greenville last season by a score of 50-17, and by 51-13 two seasons ago. I don't know how far back the streak goes, but the Panthers had lost at least the last seven times they faced CCIW squads, mostlly by blowout scores.

I thought that if any game had "sure thing" written on it yesterday, it was Greenville @ Millikin.

[USee]

5 freshman on defense will do that to you.

[NCF]

Not a single mention here by anybody of yesterday's shocking upset of Millikin by Greenville at Lindsay Field in Decatur. The Big Blue lost a shootout, 48-41, a game in which they gave up 34 unanswered points and at one time trailed by three touchdowns.  The Panthers rolled up 624 yards of offense against Millikin, 446 of it on the ground.

What gives? MU beat Greenville last season by a score of 50-17, and by 51-13 two seasons ago. I don't know how far back the streak goes, but the Panthers had lost at least the last seven times they faced CCIW squads, mostlly by blowout scores.

I thought that if any game had "sure thing" written on it yesterday, it was Greenville @ Millikin.

Millikin is a bottom half CCIW team at best, so not so surprising. Hopefully they'll become more competaive as those young guys develop over the next two seasons.

[iwu70]

Similar process going on in MU basketball.  I think MU is going to be a lot better in roundball this year and may surprise some people.

IWU vs. WC and NCC should be some really great games this year in football.  Hope all teams can avoid the injury bug.

IWU70

[d3fan1515]

USee,

I posted this same comment in the NACC forum, not sure how much you go into that specific forum, but I also wanted to leave this message for you in the CCIW forum as well, good luck this year to the Thunder, they look great on Saturday as usual!

Thank you for the kind words about BU, I was pretty impressed with them on Saturday night, I definitely was not expecting them to play so well against a great team like Wheaton... Especially, after losing a number of our best players from last years team due to graduation.  It is unfortunate that a number of BU starters were not playing in the opening game, most notably, Monaco & Altieri...  Monaco is more of our big play threat this season and Altieri is the starting Middle linebacker, it would have been interesting to see them both in their on Saturday, maybe it enables BU to get another scoring chance or eliminates one of Wheaton's chances... 

Anyways, after seeing the game the other night it makes me feel much more optimistic about this season!  Good luck to Wheaton the rest of the way and congrats on the W on Saturday.

[oldnuthin]

5 freshman on defense will do that to you.

At times it was 7 freshman on the D. A few of seniors were out due to injury or other matters. The entire back of the defense were playing their first game essentially. 3 freshman and 1 sophomore.  Also one linebacker was playing his first game. The 2 starting tackles were freshmen, with a freshman rotating in at end. Jake Hazelton and Jacob Alvis did not play. Hazelton, a three year starter and will be back next week, I believe. Alvis hopes to be back by the beginning of CCIW play. their leadership and experience was sorely missed. I saw one player on D play end, tackle and a little linebacker. Needless to say, the pass d we had last year, which was quite good, is not there this year, yet. The Ends seemed to play the qb well on the pitch for the most part, coverage of the pitchman was suspect to say the least.

  Nick Pippen, the sophomore QB, looked excellent on some series, and like a first game QB on too many others. I think he will be fine, once he gains some confidence, which can only come through playing. He lead a beautiful fourth quarter drive to tie the game with about a minute and a half left, but the extra point went wide, another freshman.

  There is definitely raw talent here, they just need to jell as a defense. I was surprised to see the top two tacklers for the game were both D linemen, which i think would be good against any  offense other then the triple option Greenville ran. Not trying to take anything away from the Panthers, they played very well, and a very well coached team.

[Gregory Sager]

Not a single mention here by anybody of yesterday's shocking upset of Millikin by Greenville at Lindsay Field in Decatur. The Big Blue lost a shootout, 48-41, a game in which they gave up 34 unanswered points and at one time trailed by three touchdowns.  The Panthers rolled up 624 yards of offense against Millikin, 446 of it on the ground.

What gives? MU beat Greenville last season by a score of 50-17, and by 51-13 two seasons ago. I don't know how far back the streak goes, but the Panthers had lost at least the last seven times they faced CCIW squads, mostlly by blowout scores.

I thought that if any game had "sure thing" written on it yesterday, it was Greenville @ Millikin.

Millikin is a bottom half CCIW team at best, so not so surprising. Hopefully they'll become more competaive as those young guys develop over the next two seasons.

No, it is surprising, NCF. Millikin's been a bottom-half CCIW team for the past eight years, so that's nothing new. But a Big Blue team that went 2-5 and finished sixth in the league whipped Greenville last season, 50-17, and a 2011 Big Blue team that likewise went 2-5 and finished sixth in CCIW play smashed the Panthers by a 51-13 score. And, as I said, Greenville has not been competitive with CCIW teams for a long, long time when the Panthers have faced them in non-conference play.

I understand that the Big Blue is very young on defense, as oldnuthin said. I figured as much once I saw the score on the CCIW website on Saturday afternoon. Add to that the difficulty of preparing for a triple option team, and one can see how MU was set up to have a tough time stopping the Panthers. Nevertheless, this is still a surprising upset, given the innate disparity between the level of players that Millikin recruits and the level of players that Greenville recruits, particularly since the Big Blue still had some very good players on offense who played on Saturday (some of them very well).

[AndOne]

North Central 2013 Football Season Preview

http://northcentralcardinals.com/news/2013/9/9/FB_0909132348.aspx

[AndOne]

It was in association with another sport, and several years ago, that a quite successful and renowned coach mentioned that one of the prime factors with regard to the expectation of being victorious in any given contest was the ability to "get off the bus with the best players."

While players talents and abilities are undoubtedly a large chunk of the final outcome of any game, spirituality, chemistry, and a bond of brotherhood can also often be decisive factors that spell the difference between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.   

North Central is a team that has a rather impressive record of sustained success over the recent past several years. In addition to the players physical talents, the linked article below may well help explain an important ingredient in the attainment of a 51-5  conference record over the last 8 years. It is an insightful look at what likely is a major factor in the Cardinals recent successes.

http://northcentralcardinals.com/news/2013/9/6/FB_0906134656.aspx

[NCF]

Not a single mention here by anybody of yesterday's shocking upset of Millikin by Greenville at Lindsay Field in Decatur. The Big Blue lost a shootout, 48-41, a game in which they gave up 34 unanswered points and at one time trailed by three touchdowns.  The Panthers rolled up 624 yards of offense against Millikin, 446 of it on the ground.

What gives? MU beat Greenville last season by a score of 50-17, and by 51-13 two seasons ago. I don't know how far back the streak goes, but the Panthers had lost at least the last seven times they faced CCIW squads, mostlly by blowout scores.

I thought that if any game had "sure thing" written on it yesterday, it was Greenville @ Millikin.

Millikin is a bottom half CCIW team at best, so not so surprising. Hopefully they'll become more competaive as those young guys develop over the next two seasons.

No, it is surprising, NCF. Millikin's been a bottom-half CCIW team for the past eight years, so that's nothing new. But a Big Blue team that went 2-5 and finished sixth in the league whipped Greenville last season, 50-17, and a 2011 Big Blue team that likewise went 2-5 and finished sixth in CCIW play smashed the Panthers by a 51-13 score. And, as I said, Greenville has not been competitive with CCIW teams for a long, long time when the Panthers have faced them in non-conference play.

I understand that the Big Blue is very young on defense, as oldnuthin said. I figured as much once I saw the score on the CCIW website on Saturday afternoon. Add to that the difficulty of preparing for a triple option team, and one can see how MU was set up to have a tough time stopping the Panthers. Nevertheless, this is still a surprising upset, given the innate disparity between the level of players that Millikin recruits and the level of players that Greenville recruits, particularly since the Big Blue still had some very good players on offense who played on Saturday (some of them very well).

The only thing about the bottom half of the CCIW that would surprise me is one of them beating a team in the top half this season. Now that would be something!:)