FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mugsy]

I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question, but what happened to Peltz?  I haven't had a chance to check this thread as much as usual lately.

Good game today though.  Both defenses looked good.  I liked both teams' RB too.  Impressive players.  I almost had a heart attack when it looked like Wheaton was gonna get a fumble return TD after they drove Warden backwards for 15 yds!  But I didn't hear a whistle so no wonder Swider was fired up.

Peltz was injured early in the season, week 3 I believe.  He then missed a couple games and came back for a couple quarters before he re-injured himself.  Hopefully he'll be back soon, but Bowers (other than 1 pass) played extremely well today.

[New Tradition]

Didn't mean to exclude #23 Sola Olateju... He was a standout today, and prob should have been given the rock even more than he did

This kid impressed me the most today. What speed! Hats off to the Thunder. They earned it today.

[USee]

Wheaton' Sola Olateju won the battle today and was a huge part of winning the war vs North Central.  His 20 carries for 135 yds was a big reason for the Thunder win today.  And hats off to the Wheaton Defensive front as they held a team that was averaging over 200 yds a game rushing to just 70 yds net while keeping them to just 9 pts (their previous low output was 28).  Austin Bruenig came in averaging over 7 yds a carry and had 18 carries averaging just 2.2 yds.   The Wheaton front really dominated on both sides today. 

The 4 Wheaton linebackers of Mikey Swider, Adam Dandsill, Caleb Ashby, and Logan McCrae are as good a group of LBs as I can remember seeing in D3.  Tremendous speed and tackling, these guys just control the game in so many ways.

[izzy stradlin]

Wheaton' Sola Olateju won the battle today and was a huge part of winning the war vs North Central.  His 20 carries for 135 yds was a big reason for the Thunder win today.  And hats off to the Wheaton Defensive front as they held a team that was averaging over 200 yds a game rushing to just 70 yds net while keeping them to just 9 pts (their previous low output was 28).  Austin Bruenig came in averaging over 7 yds a carry and had 18 carries averaging just 2.2 yds.   The Wheaton front really dominated on both sides today. 

The 4 Wheaton linebackers of Mikey Swider, Adam Dandsill, Caleb Ashby, and Logan McCrae are as good a group of LBs as I can remember seeing in D3.  Tremendous speed and tackling, these guys just control the game in so many ways.

The Wheaton D and O-Line/Olateju were both huge.  I kind of agree with thunderdog in that if I'm an opponent, I would gameplan away from expecting to get anything on the ground against Wheaton.

Also, I think Logan McCrae is inserting himself into the DPOY race.  He is leading the conference in sacks but more than just his raw numbers, there have been multiple key holding calls he has forced along with hurries, etc.   I think today he had 2 sacks and 2 more holds.  He is just really hard to account for off of the edge. 

[Titan Q]

Kudos to Elmhurst on the quality of their sports webcasts - very professional production.  And great job by Luke Tanaka on the call of the IWU/EC game yesterday.

[USee]

North Central can still factor into the playoff discussion if they somehow beat IWU in Bloomington this weekend and IWU manages to beat Wheaton (and they all win out otherwise). That would create our favorite 3 way tie and bring back the notorious point differential tie-breaker (if you are scoring at home Wheaton is +8 and NCC is -8 so far).

I think IWU is a 5-7 pt favorite this weekend.

[iwu70]

Yes, I would think IWU a 1 TD favorite at home this weekend vs. NCC.  Should be a good one.  Titans gotta keep it rolling.  IWU is proving to play good enough D, and having very good balance between the running game and the passing attack.  AC14 was amazing, at key points, and Warner through some beautiful balls. 

IWU-WC match up will be a good one.  From all that has been said, I guess many here would have WC a 2 TD favorite over IWU, even at Tucci?

IWU70

[USee]

Right now I would make Wheaton a slight favorite (5pts) over IWU but we will know more after this Saturday. Wheaton plays Elmhurst and with NCC visiting Bloomington, we will have 2 more common opponents to inform us.

[izzy stradlin]

I'd say that's a fair line for Wheaton-IWU.   

On the other hand, IWU has not matched up against NCC well at all in the last 10+ years.  IWU has only 1 win and that was the game where Fanthorpe went down and NCC's frosh QB with no experience (Spencer Stanek) was forced to play most of the game in Bloomington.  Most of the games have been by 3+ touchdowns.   I'm taking NCC this week.

[Titan Q]

I'd say that's a fair line for Wheaton-IWU.   

On the other hand, IWU has not matched up against NCC well at all in the last 10+ years.  IWU has only 1 win and that was the game where Fanthorpe went down and NCC's frosh QB with no experience (Spencer Stanek) was forced to play most of the game in Bloomington.  Most of the games have been by 3+ touchdowns.   I'm taking NCC this week.

I don't see how past results matter for the game in Bloomington Saturday.

And if they did, wouldn't that make IWU the favorite over Wheaton in Bloomington in 2 weeks?

[Mr. Ypsi]

New poll is out.  Wheaton holds steady at 8.  IWU rises to 15, NCC falls to 19.  (Since #8 is supposed to beat #16, as NCC was last week, I suspect the fall may be even more from UWP getting clobbered as from losing to Wheaton.)

[USee]

I don't know about the past but I can assure you IWU matches up plenty well with NCC for this week. Hunniford was injured Saturday and I don't know his status but if he can't play, the Cards are a run heavy team facing a defense not dissimilar to Wheaton's. If I am an NCC fan I am hoping Hunniford can play because Warden is not a great throwing QB.

I am most interested in IWU's offense against NCC. They did a good job against Elmhurst this past Saturday, whose defense ranked ahead of NCC's in many categories.

As for IWU being favored against Wheaton next week, I am not sure how that happens logically (by any objective observer, which none of us are) but it could end up as a pick em depending on this week's results.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I don't know about the past but I can assure you IWU matches up plenty well with NCC for this week. Hunniford was injured Saturday and I don't know his status but if he can't play, the Cards are a run heavy team facing a defense not dissimilar to Wheaton's. If I am an NCC fan I am hoping Hunniford can play because Warden is not a great throwing QB.

I am most interested in IWU's offense against NCC. They did a good job against Elmhurst this past Saturday, whose defense ranked ahead of NCC's in many categories.

As for IWU being favored against Wheaton next week, I am not sure how that happens logically (by any objective observer, which none of us are) but it could end up as a pick em depending on this week's results.

Yeah, unless IWU absolutely crushes the Cards this Saturday (which I do NOT anticipate), I would put Wheaton as a fairly significant favorite the next week.  (Just to keep my 'Green card', I'll probably choose IWU in the Pickems anyway, but my head says the Thunder.)

[izzy stradlin]

I'd say that's a fair line for Wheaton-IWU.   

On the other hand, IWU has not matched up against NCC well at all in the last 10+ years.  IWU has only 1 win and that was the game where Fanthorpe went down and NCC's frosh QB with no experience (Spencer Stanek) was forced to play most of the game in Bloomington.  Most of the games have been by 3+ touchdowns.   I'm taking NCC this week.

I don't see how past results matter for the game in Bloomington Saturday.

And if they did, wouldn't that make IWU the favorite over Wheaton in Bloomington in 2 weeks?

Huh???   All results are past results.  That's all we have to go on when we discuss things.

You're just picking and choosing samples but you can't say that the past few years tell us nothing about the future.  They tell things about Mount Union.  It's how vegas correctly predicted USC to beat a top 5 Utah team yesterday.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I'd say that's a fair line for Wheaton-IWU.   

On the other hand, IWU has not matched up against NCC well at all in the last 10+ years.  IWU has only 1 win and that was the game where Fanthorpe went down and NCC's frosh QB with no experience (Spencer Stanek) was forced to play most of the game in Bloomington.  Most of the games have been by 3+ touchdowns.   I'm taking NCC this week.

I don't see how past results matter for the game in Bloomington Saturday.

And if they did, wouldn't that make IWU the favorite over Wheaton in Bloomington in 2 weeks?

Huh???   All results are past results.  That's all we have to go on when we discuss things.

I assume you realize Q was referring to past years' results, and were just making a joke.

But I disagree with him somewhat, anyway.  Players change quite a bit from year to year, but (generally) coaches, game schemes, trainers, training facilities, institutional support, etc., change much more slowly.  Unlike some (many? most?) who adamantly insist that ONLY this year's results are relevant, I believe that previous years' results ARE relevant.  They should not overwhelm what THIS group of players have done, but they do have some relevance.