FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[joehakes]

Thunderdog,

Could you please list the heights of the kickers and the NCC coaching staff?  I just felt like your report was just touching the surface.

[Pat Coleman]

On a somewhat ugly, broken pass play, Callahan scrambles to the NCC sideline, forcing the NCC defender to come off coverage and up to make the tackle, Callahan flips it over the NCC defender's head to #18 Jr WR Xavier Allen for the win!  49-50

For what it's worth, I feel like this was the designed play. Callahan had run so well that NCC had to respect the run and it made the floater easy.

[thunderdog]

Thunderdog,

Could you please list the heights of the kickers and the NCC coaching staff?  I just felt like your report was just touching the surface.

My bad... #33 Dom Zavaglia is a 6'1" 235 lb Junior and transfer from Jacksonville State U.  He's built like a brick house and looks like he should be playing LB, not punting... but he's noticeably good and does wonders in the battle for field position

I'll try to be more thorough next time 

[New Tradition]

On a somewhat ugly, broken pass play, Callahan scrambles to the NCC sideline, forcing the NCC defender to come off coverage and up to make the tackle, Callahan flips it over the NCC defender's head to #18 Jr WR Xavier Allen for the win!  49-50

For what it's worth, I feel like this was the designed play. Callahan had run so well that NCC had to respect the run and it made the floater easy.

This was my thought as well.  In programs I've coached in, we've run very similar plays.  Make the DB make a choice to stay on his guy and let the qb run in, or come up to stop the run and dump it over his head to the receiver he just left open; no matter what he is wrong because you're playing monkey in the middle with him.

[kiko]

That looked designed to me as well.

And, FWIW, I don't feel like it took extra fortitude for Wesley to decide to go for two in that spot.  North Central hadn't really shown that they could stop the Wolverines all afternoon long -- if they had, and I'm the Wesley decision-maker, then I give this a second thought.  But based on what they'd seen throughout the game, this would not be a tough decision.

[Pat Coleman]

That looked designed to me as well.

And, FWIW, I don't feel like it took extra fortitude for Wesley to decide to go for two in that spot.  North Central hadn't really shown that they could stop the Wolverines all afternoon long -- if they had, and I'm the Wesley decision-maker, then I give this a second thought.  But based on what they'd seen throughout the game, this would not be a tough decision.

Plus, what time was their flight back?

[ExTartanPlayer]

And, FWIW, I don't feel like it took extra fortitude for Wesley to decide to go for two in that spot.  North Central hadn't really shown that they could stop the Wolverines all afternoon long -- if they had, and I'm the Wesley decision-maker, then I give this a second thought.  But based on what they'd seen throughout the game, this would not be a tough decision.

I agree that this is how going for 2 in situations like that should be perceived - not as a gutsy call but just as the right call.  Given that most D3 teams have some kicking-game issues - be it snapper, holder, or kicker - that are imperfect, the PAT is not as automatic (I'm curious: what's the D3 average on kicked PAT's?  I bet it's more like 90% as opposed to the NFL pre-rule-change average of 99%) and I think a 2 pointer is the right call in most late-tie-game situations.  The only thing worse than going for 2 and coming up short is kicking the PAT to tie it and missing.  Wesley's kicker isn't bad, but he's 16 for 18 on PATs this year.  Given the choice between a 90-ish percent chance at going to overtime and the coin-flip-or-better of going for 2, that is really a no-brainer decision.

However, because there is SO much dogma behind making the safe decision, for whatever reason we have to lionize coaches for making the "gutsy" call to go for 2.

Bill Barnwell and others have tried to start taking NFL coaches to task for making incomprehensibly-dumb-but-perceived-as-safe calls, like kicking a field goal down by three touchdowns with 12 minutes to play, but that attitude still has a long way to go before it's common knowledge.

[AndOne]

Thunderdog,

You must be a sports columnist. Your account of the NCC-Wesley game made me feel like I was back in the stadium on Sat. And, if I hadn't been at the game, there would be no need to watch a video replay. +K

[Teamski]

That looked designed to me as well.

And, FWIW, I don't feel like it took extra fortitude for Wesley to decide to go for two in that spot.  North Central hadn't really shown that they could stop the Wolverines all afternoon long -- if they had, and I'm the Wesley decision-maker, then I give this a second thought.  But based on what they'd seen throughout the game, this would not be a tough decision.

Definitely designed. I predicted to my wife before the play started that Callahan would roll out.  He already scored once with it and it gave him both run and pass options.  No doubt Coach Knapp and Callahan knew that him running the ball would draw in the secondary....and it did.

-Ski

[New Tradition]

Some highlights from the Wesley game and post game interviews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rplMLmB-uFQ

[Augie6]

On a somewhat ugly, broken pass play, Callahan scrambles to the NCC sideline, forcing the NCC defender to come off coverage and up to make the tackle, Callahan flips it over the NCC defender's head to #18 Jr WR Xavier Allen for the win!  49-50

For what it's worth, I feel like this was the designed play. Callahan had run so well that NCC had to respect the run and it made the floater easy.

This was my thought as well.  In programs I've coached in, we've run very similar plays.  Make the DB make a choice to stay on his guy and let the qb run in, or come up to stop the run and dump it over his head to the receiver he just left open; no matter what he is wrong because you're playing monkey in the middle with him.

Agree with both of you.  Clearly a designed play and the DB was in a no win situation.  If he stayed on his man, Callahan would have had a easy time running it in.  Great play call and execution.

[DBQ1965]

That looked designed to me as well.

And, FWIW, I don't feel like it took extra fortitude for Wesley to decide to go for two in that spot.  North Central hadn't really shown that they could stop the Wolverines all afternoon long -- if they had, and I'm the Wesley decision-maker, then I give this a second thought.  But based on what they'd seen throughout the game, this would not be a tough decision.

Plus, what time was their flight back?

That's worth some + karma!

[formerd3db]

And, FWIW, I don't feel like it took extra fortitude for Wesley to decide to go for two in that spot.  North Central hadn't really shown that they could stop the Wolverines all afternoon long -- if they had, and I'm the Wesley decision-maker, then I give this a second thought.  But based on what they'd seen throughout the game, this would not be a tough decision.

I agree that this is how going for 2 in situations like that should be perceived - not as a gutsy call but just as the right call.  Given that most D3 teams have some kicking-game issues - be it snapper, holder, or kicker - that are imperfect, the PAT is not as automatic (I'm curious: what's the D3 average on kicked PAT's?  I bet it's more like 90% as opposed to the NFL pre-rule-change average of 99%) and I think a 2 pointer is the right call in most late-tie-game situations.  The only thing worse than going for 2 and coming up short is kicking the PAT to tie it and missing.  Wesley's kicker isn't bad, but he's 16 for 18 on PATs this year.  Given the choice between a 90-ish percent chance at going to overtime and the coin-flip-or-better of going for 2, that is really a no-brainer decision.

However, because there is SO much dogma behind making the safe decision, for whatever reason we have to lionize coaches for making the "gutsy" call to go for 2.

Bill Barnwell and others have tried to start taking NFL coaches to task for making incomprehensibly-dumb-but-perceived-as-safe calls, like kicking a field goal down by three touchdowns with 12 minutes to play, but that attitude still has a long way to go before it's common knowledge.

ExTartan:

Interesting question re: PAT %s.  I wonder if you and/or anyone knows what that % is for all the NCAA divisions?  I tend to think that it isn't much different at the DI level-while there are some great kickers in that division, there are obviously some such that it is not an automatic there either.  I'd be interested to know the stats if anyone has them and/or knows where to find them without too much trouble to do so.

[emma17]

On a somewhat ugly, broken pass play, Callahan scrambles to the NCC sideline, forcing the NCC defender to come off coverage and up to make the tackle, Callahan flips it over the NCC defender's head to #18 Jr WR Xavier Allen for the win!  49-50

For what it's worth, I feel like this was the designed play. Callahan had run so well that NCC had to respect the run and it made the floater easy.

This was my thought as well.  In programs I've coached in, we've run very similar plays.  Make the DB make a choice to stay on his guy and let the qb run in, or come up to stop the run and dump it over his head to the receiver he just left open; no matter what he is wrong because you're playing monkey in the middle with him.

Agree with both of you.  Clearly a designed play and the DB was in a no win situation.  If he stayed on his man, Callahan would have had a easy time running it in.  Great play call and execution.

Certainly a designed play that forced the DB into no win situation. I believe that happened because the OLB messed up. Buried himself into the O line than lost containment. It shouldn't have been so open.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central, while no Mt Union, has good players on offense. They made plays. Hard plays. I am much more worried about NCC as a CCIW rival than I was before Saturday. This same NCC program, while no Mt Union, scored 40 pts in  Alliance not too long ago. This was a semi final quality game in my humble opinion. It wouldn't surprise me to see these two meet again deep in the playoffs.

That's right, I said it. NCC will have to go 7-0 to get there but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

USee,

Am I reading the above correctly? 
Your Thundering Crusaders are ranked #7 in the country. The Green Team is #31 and gets both WC and NCC at home. And you're picking NCC to beat both your Orange team and the Green team and run the table? It's certainly not impossible and I'd definitely love it. I just hope nothing got into your Orange Kool-Aid. 

You can say many things about USee, but I would not call him a Kool-Aid drinker. I think that he approaches Wheaton with as objective an eye as any CCIW fan who posts on d3boards.com has for his particular school's teams.