FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

I've done a little research on Midland U.  It is an NAIA school that doles out a huge sum of athletic scholarships.  They have a student population of 1,200 yet claimed 506 athletic slots were occupied by men.  Oddly, they had 94 men on their baseball team last year.  Their football roster had 148 males.  Midland doled out $6,000,000 in athletic scholarships to male athletes last year.  Football expenses were $2.2 million.  Wow.

Among others, this was one of the primary reasons for Nebraska Wesleyan's move away from the NAIA to full time NCAA D3 status.
They got tired of trying to compete in a conference where they were the only school not giving athletic scholarships. Their institutional philosophy always coincided more with that of the NCAA on this issue.

Midland athletics allots 20 scholarships to the football Warriors. I'm not sure how head coach Jeff Jamrog has elected to distribute them (if, indeed, he was a part of that decision process at all; this is his first year at Midland). Perhaps there are twenty Warriors who are on full rides, although, given what I know about how most NAIA schools operate, it's more likely that the scholies are divvied up and spread among a larger group of players.

Regardless, NPU faces a bunch of guys today who are paid to play. Fine with me. Bring 'em on.

[Titan Q]

From Lincoln...

Illinois Wesleyan 17
Nebraska Wesleyan 13

* Jack Donegan: 19-28 passing, 218 yards, 2 TD passes
* Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore: 25 carries, 120 yards


The Titans trailed 13-3 at halftime, really struggling to move the football in the 1st.  But all Titans in the 2nd half - 14-0.  In the 3rd quarter IWU out-gained NWU 130 to 5 to really turn the game around.  In the 2nd half as a whole, the Titans had 239 yards to Nebraska Wesleyan's 46.

QB Jack Donegan made a bunch of big plays in the 2nd half - connected on some passes in big moments and even did some good things with his feet.

The Titans did a great job closing this game out - got the ball after a punt with about 5:00 left and behind Shoemaker-Gilmore on the ground and a few Donegan passes ran the clock out.

IWU's defense looked strong from start to finish in this game. Really nice to have DE Kyle Venhuizen back - he is a real difference maker.

It will be interesting to see if the Titans can compete with #9 NCC next weekend in Bloomington.

[thunderdog]

Big win for Carthage at Bethel today. #19, Jamel Davis, Frosh RB, 6'2", 225... to steal Coach Bullis's line once again... Holy Buckets!

Bethel misses PAT after tying game 34-34 with 20 seconds left in game, then loses in OT.

Wheaton @ Carthage next week going to be a battle!

[thunderdog]

Still haven't seen the CBS special, but I've heard it's just awesome, can't wait to see it

[Gregory Sager]

Big win for Carthage at Bethel today. #19, Jamel Davis, Frosh RB, 6'2", 225... to steal Coach Bullis's line once again... Holy Buckets!

Bethel misses PAT after tying game 34-34 with 20 seconds left in game, then loses in OT.

What you didn't mention was that Carthage was losing, 28-26, until Davis ran it in from ten yards out with 1:38 left in regulation, prior to the touchdown by Bethel with :28 remaining. Davis had three rushing touchdowns and was one of two Red Men RBs to rush for over 100 yards.

[Gregory Sager]

Midland 42
North Park 24

T.D. Conway: 21-39, 232 yds, 1 TD, 1 int
Enrique Menendez: 18 carries, 90 yds, 1 TD
Kvonte Spearman: 11 carries, 66 yds
Kadarius Daniels: 8 catches, 90 yds, 1 TD

As I said on the broadcast, this was a Charles Dickens football game -- a tale of two halves, in which the first half was the best of times and the second half was the worst of times.

In spite of Midland placekick-holder Tristin Kamaka's 14-yard untouched romp into the end zone on a fake field goal in which he alertly spotted that NPU had lined up incorrectly, and an interception that was really a steal -- Warriors CB Jon Ridout ripped the ball out of NPU WR Hunter Hinkel's hands and returned it 41 yards to the NPU 9, leading to a Midland TD three plays later -- North Park thoroughly outplayed Midland in the first half and went into intermission with a 17-14 lead. The passing game was clicking, the Vikings running backs were gashing the Warriors D for good yardage, and the defense was stout.

Unfortunately, football games are sixty minutes long rather than thirty, and in the second set of thirty minutes the Warriors remembered that they're the team with the football scholarships. They put on a clinic of big-play football, scoring 28 unanswered points to salt the game away. The Park didn't help its cause by making some big mistakes -- a fumble at the NPU 33 led to one Midland touchdown, and a busted punt in which the ball was snapped into one of the deep blockers (something I've never seen happen before, and something that should never happen, no matter whose fault it was), also at the NPU 33, led to another Midland touchdown. But the second half was mostly about Midland using some serious top-end speed to outrace the Vikings.

Midland head coach Jeff Jamrog and several members of his staff are veterans of the University of Nebraska's football staff, and they've opted to follow the Cornhuskers model of roster construction: import your speed merchants from California and build your lines and linebackers with meat-and-potatoes Nebraska kids. Running back Deon Ransom is a gold-plated stud, one of the best backs I've seen all decade, and is every bit as good as the NAIA statistical rankings indicate that he is. And the Warriors have four burners in the passing game in Kamaka, Exavier Edwards, Javonte Williams, and Hayden Dunn. It's not as though the Vikings have slow defenders, but they looked like they were running in place next to those Midland skill players in the second half. Midland is certainly getting its money's worth out of those scholie boys. That 3-0 record and 39 ppg average of theirs is no mirage; as Mike Conway said in the post-game interview, the Warriors are comparable to a top-echelon CCIW team.

The final numbers actually didn't look bad for North Park. The Vikings had more total yards than the Warriors (453-449), more first downs (26-21), fewer penalties, and longer time of possession. The efficiency of the running game, as sparked by Enrique Menendez and Kvonte Spearman, behind NPU's very young O-line was extremely encouraging. T.D. Conway was solid, although he was once again the victim of too many drops (plus a ball ripped out of the hands of one of his receivers that was unfairly judged an interception). And for big stretches of the game the defense stood up well (Chaun Maiava -- 11 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and two sacks -- was a beast). But a few too many mistakes, coupled with a foe that just had too much for NPU to handle at the skill positions, made those nice final statistics a bit deceptive as far as North Park was concerned.

North Park got run off of its home field today, but I think that the Vikings will be better for it in the end. This was as good a prep for conference play as the UWO game was last season.

[Gregory Sager]

Today's scoreboard (home team in bold):

Central 45, Augustana 17
Carthage 40, Bethel 34 (OT)
Olivet 27, Elmhurst 13
Illinois Wesleyan 17, Nebraska Wesleyan 13
Rose-Hulman 26, Millikin 14
North Central 38, Webber International 21
Midland 42, North Park 24
Wheaton 60, Kalamazoo 6

Carroll was idle.

[markerickson]

Elmhurst?  Ouch.  It hurt when Olivet beat NPU too.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Elmhurst?  Ouch.  It hurt when Olivet beat NPU too.

Olivet was 9-1 last year and won the MIAA, though they did graduate a ton of talent and got whupped last week by St. John Fisher, 52-10.  I had Olivet winning in the pickems.

The three games I have trouble evaluating are IWU 17, Neb Wes 13 (though IWU was again without Jack Warner, and did shut out NWU in the second half), and the NCC and NPU games - I know NOTHING about the quality of their opponents.

[Titan Q]

Midland is certainly getting its money's worth out of those scholie boys. That 3-0 record and 39 ppg average of theirs is no mirage; as Mike Conway said in the post-game interview, the Warriors are comparable to a top-echelon CCIW team.

Does Midland have new impact players from last season, Greg?

Last year Midland was 1-10 (1-8 in the GPAC).  They lost to Nebraska Wesleyan (a non-scholarship school), 30-18. They lost to Morningside - an NAIA power that lost to D3 UW-Whitewater - by a score of 80-10.  They fell to Northwestern (IA) 55-6 - Northwestern was 6-4 and also fell to Nebraska Wesleyan.  They were picked 7th in the 9-team GPAC in the 2016 preseason poll.

I think it is fair to say that Midland was not comparable to a top CCIW team last year.  But they may have a completely re-loaded roster? 

I'm trying to get some context on North Park's result yesterday and how good Midland is.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm quite aware of what Midland did last season, Bob. After all, as a broadcaster I do pre-game research.

Most of the skill-position Warriors I cited were on last season's team. But, from what I was told and from what the Midland roster indicates, those particular skill-position players were juco imports from California who joined the team last year. It's fair to say that bringing in so many guys at once who are expected to be the players who carry and catch the ball can be a difficult thing, even if they all have prior experience playing junior college ball. Sometimes it takes a year for a group like that to gel. And sometimes it takes a new coach with a new system, which Midland has as well this year. I doubt that they each shaved three seconds off of their 40 times. Most likely, they're simply now put into a better position to succeed.

Most of the Midland defense and O-line are back as well (and the D has added three very solid players in Gage Hartline, Jordan Anderson, and Wyatt Tremayne, the latter of whom led the Warriors in tackles yesterday). The Warriors have clearly benefited from numbers and experience in those departments.

I know what I saw yesterday. It wasn't an illusion. Midland is a team that is loaded with very, very fast receivers and a running back who could be the long-lost Elmhurst Williams brother. Forget last season. Midland has scored 117 points in three games this season.

As for my top-echelon-of-the-CCIW comment yesterday, I can't compare Midland to the 2016 editions of Wheaton and North Central, because I only saw about four plays of the former's game against Benedictine last week and I have yet to see the latter at all. I can compare the Midland team I saw yesterday to the Wheaton and North Central teams I saw last season, and, while I would probably give the edge to the 2015 Wheaton and NCC teams against this year's Midland team, the Warriors would be very competitive against both of them -- much more competitive on any given Saturday than any of the other six CCIW teams were last season. Mike Conway said pretty much the same thing about Midland looking like a top CCIW team in the post-game interview, and he's not given to saying things that he doesn't believe.

As for Midland being picked seventh of nine in this year's GPAC preseason poll, this kind of thing cuts both ways. Yesterday you hyped up IWU's win over a Nebraska Wesleyan team that was picked to finish seventh of nine in this year's IIAC preseason poll.

[Titan Q]

As for Midland being picked seventh of nine in this year's GPAC preseason poll, this kind of thing cuts both ways. Yesterday you hyped up IWU's win over a Nebraska Wesleyan team that was picked to finish seventh of nine in this year's IIAC preseason poll.

I don't think I hyped up IWU's win over NWU at all, Greg.  I basically said:
  * IWU turned things around in the 2nd half.
  * IWU's QB made big plays in the 2nd half.
  * IWU did a nice job closing the game out in the final 5:00.
  * IWU's defense played well.

I made no mention of Nebraska Wesleyan being a good team, or the win being a "good win."  Because I have no idea if NWU is good or terrible.

I don't see any hype in there.

As to Midland, I wasn't trying to push your buttons - I was legitimately asking the question.  You made a pretty strong statement about their level of play, and after looking at Midland's 2015 results I just wanted a better idea of how they are different.  (I think it was a pretty fair question.)  Your explanation makes sense and it sounds like they are a different football team from last year.

[Pat Coleman]

I've done a little research on Midland U.  It is an NAIA school that doles out a huge sum of athletic scholarships.  They have a student population of 1,200 yet claimed 506 athletic slots were occupied by men.  Oddly, they had 94 men on their baseball team last year.  Their football roster had 148 males.  Midland doled out $6,000,000 in athletic scholarships to male athletes last year.  Football expenses were $2.2 million.  Wow.

Among others, this was one of the primary reasons for Nebraska Wesleyan's move away from the NAIA to full time NCAA D3 status.
They got tired of trying to compete in a conference where they were the only school not giving athletic scholarships. Their institutional philosophy always coincided more with that of the NCAA on this issue.

This is not a coincidence or really a philosophy -- it's a requirement. The dual NAIA-NCAA members (which there are no longer any of) always had to follow the more restrictive rule in any occasion where the two associations differed.

[Pat Coleman]

As for Midland being picked seventh of nine in this year's GPAC preseason poll, this kind of thing cuts both ways. Yesterday you hyped up IWU's win over a Nebraska Wesleyan team that was picked to finish seventh of nine in this year's IIAC preseason poll.

I don't think I hyped up IWU's win over NWU at all, Greg.  I basically said:
  * IWU turned things around in the 2nd half.
  * IWU's QB made big plays in the 2nd half.
  * IWU did a nice job closing the game out in the final 5:00.
  * IWU's defense played well.

I made no mention of Nebraska Wesleyan being a good team, or the win being a "good win."  Because I have no idea if NWU is good or terrible.

I don't see any hype in there.

As to Midland, I wasn't trying to push your buttons - I was legitimately asking the question.  You made a pretty strong statement about their level of play, and after looking at Midland's 2015 results I just wanted a better idea of how they are different.  (I think it was a pretty fair question.)  Your explanation makes sense and it sounds like they are a different football team from last year.

I might also point out that who the heck knows how good NWU will be this year -- none of the IIAC coaches who voted in that poll has ever played NWU, so I would say that prediction is worth even less than the usual coaches' preseason rehash-of-last-year's-finish/preseason-poll.

[Gregory Sager]

OK, Bob, that's fair. The main reason why your post raised my hackles is because I just don't think that, on general principle, a 1-10 record automatically means that there's a dearth of talent on the team, and that therefore a program can only improve by reshuffling the deck in terms of the roster. A 1-10 team can be talented if it's almost exclusively young and untested talent, or (as in the case of the Cali juco guys) newly-installed talent. Sometimes coaching (including a general offensive philosophy and specific schemes) plays a role in improving a latently talented but floundering team, too.

One of the CCIW's opponents yesterday provides a good case study in this sort of thing: Olivet College. I remember going to Cutler Athletic Complex in Michigan to call the NPU @ Olivet game in 2012, and I watched North Park win easily by a score of 46-21, a game that wasn't as close as the final score seemed to indicate. It was the only game won that season (Scott Pethtel's last) by a Vikings team that lost all seven of its CCIW games by three touchdowns or more, so you get an idea of just how awful the Comets were. In fact, it ended up being the third time in four years that the Comets went winless, as they won a grand total of two games over a five-year span that ended with that season.

But I remember looking at that Olivet roster, which consisted mostly of freshmen, at the end of the game and thinking to myself, "These guys could actually turn out to be good somewhere down the road if enough of them manage to stick it out through games like this." Sure enough, when I asked Scott Pethtel what he thought of Olivet, he said the exact same thing.

Somehow, Dan Pifer -- who was in his first year as Olivet's head coach during that 0-10 campaign in '12 -- managed to get a very large percentage of those freshmen to stick around, in spite of the disastrous first year they'd had. In 2013 the Comets went 6-4 (beating Mike Conway's first North Park team in the process, 14-10, in Chicago), in 2014 they went 6-4 again but improved by a game in MIAA play, and last season -- the senior year for those freshmen I saw get waxed by the Vikings back in '12 -- the Comets went 9-1 and were MIAA co-champions.

I think it's reasonable for a young team with raw talent and perhaps a coaching staff that isn't getting the job done to make a dramatic improvement the next season with the same personnel and a different coaching staff, without having to resort to a wholesale infusion of new skill-position players.