FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[USee]

JR Bishops first three years at the helm saw their offense rise to #1 in the country with JR's son, Keith Bishop, rewriting NCAA record books at the time with their "Air Bishop Express" offense. In 1985 Keith Bishop averaged 50 pass attempts a game. Defensively Wheaton was last in the conference those years and the losses to Augie were lopsided as a result. Mike Swider arrived for the 1985 season as Wheaton's defensive coordinator and Wheaton immediately went from last to 2nd in the conference (Augie had the top defense in the conference and the country during their 4 peat run). After scoring 37, 47, and 45 against Wheaton in JR's first 3 seasons, when Swider's defense took over they lost in 1985 14-26 in a game that was tight until the 4th quarter and then in 1986 Augie's 4 years streak should have ended in Rock Island as the Vikings escaped with an 18-17 victory, kicking a FG with 6 seconds left to win. Augie ran the ball 49 times that day and completed zero passes (the officials allowed 1 completed pass that bounced into a WR's hands on 4th and 7 with under 2 minutes to go that would have ended the game-not that I'm still bitter). Augie went on to win their 4th national championship that year, beating everyone in the playoffs by an average of 31-7.

[Gregory Sager]

Per Twitter, another former Millikin coach, Rob Nichols, has moved over to North Park. He's the new NPU defensive backs coach, the same title he held not only at MU but at Carroll prior to that. He also did a stint as the wide receivers coach of the Big Blue.

[kiko]

Your grandparents used to read these things called "newspapers"...

First two images are the Rock Island Argus.  Third one is the Moline Dispatch.  It doesn't look from the box like they kept time of possession.  The Dispatch had basically the same box score so I'm not posting it.

[kiko]

[kiko]

Moline Dispatch:

[Gregory Sager]

OK, kiko, you got me. I didn't do a comprehensive search to ferret out a box score via online newspaper archives for a game from four decades ago between two football programs for whom I don't give a tinker's damn. Slap the cuffs on me, officer, I'm guilty! Guilty, I tells ya!

I could plead the case that such searches typically dead-end at archive-service paywalls, or that newspapers from that era almost never ran the sort of comprehensive box scores that included TOP, especially for D3 football games (even in papers such as the Moline Dispatch that regularly covered a local D3 football team), or that it's not fair that there should be any expectation of comprehensiveness when I went out of my way enough already just by checking the Augie and Wheaton websites about that game and reporting back on it ... but "It was Augustana versus Wheaton, so I just don't care" has the dual virtues of being succinct and true, so I'm going with that.

[kiko]

OK, kiko, you got me. I didn't do a comprehensive search to ferret out a box score via online newspaper archives for a game from four decades ago between two football programs for whom I don't give a tinker's damn. Slap the cuffs on me, officer, I'm guilty! Guilty, I tells ya!

I could plead the case that such searches typically dead-end at archive-service paywalls, or that newspapers from that era almost never ran the sort of comprehensive box scores that included TOP, especially for D3 football games (even in papers such as the Moline Dispatch that regularly covered a local D3 football team), or that it's not fair that there should be any expectation of comprehensiveness when I went out of my way enough already just by checking the Augie and Wheaton websites about that game and reporting back on it ... but "It was Augustana versus Wheaton, so I just don't care" has the dual virtues of being succinct and true, so I'm going with that.

So I'm not sure what you read in the tone of my note there, but what I was aiming to convey is that, if you want to see deets from a game played back in the days of yore, it's probably buried somewhere in media from that era.  It was honestly faster for me to locate them in a newspaper database than poking around the schools' websites.

And it won't surprise you that I don't care about this game, either.  Though it was amusing to read the reporter's framing that Augie's defense really only gets an opportunity to intercept passes in actual games and not in practices.

[Next Man Up]

The talents of North Central first team All-Conference sophomore QB Luke Lehnen are not confined to the gridiron.

Lehnen has just been named to the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings NCAA Division III Gold Glove Team for the recently completed baseball season. Winners are selected by ABCA coaches committees at each NCAA division level. He was one of just three D3 outfielders selected.

Lehnen posted a .986 fielding percentage on the year for the Cardinals with 135 putouts, eight assists, two double plays, and just two errors in 145 total chances. He did not commit an error in the outfield all season. His two errors came when he moved to the shortstop position late in games. At the plate, Lennon hit .310 with 63 hits, 56 runs, 29 RBIs, and 21 walks.

Study and practice time prevent it, but in addition to his football and baseball talents, there is no doubt he could also preform at a high level on the basketball court after having been an All-State basketball player.

[The Third Division]

Hey pat,

D3football.com lists this years north central/Wheaton game taking place at 2:00pm when both schools websites say it's taking place at 6:00pm. I think you have an error on your website.

[Next Man Up]

North Central opens the season ranked #2 by D3Football.com
Wheaton is #8

https://northcentralcardinals.com/news/2022/7/26/football-cardinals-open-2022-ranked-second-by-d3football-com.aspx

https://d3football.com/top25/2022/preseason

[Pat Coleman]

Hey pat,

D3football.com lists this years north central/Wheaton game taking place at 2:00pm when both schools websites say it's taking place at 6:00pm. I think you have an error on your website.

Thanks. That's 1 p.m. CT, btw -- unfortunately, this is a thing that happens. When the game was announced in April, 1 p.m. was the time given. Unfortunately, sometimes those times change and it's not so easy for us to recheck the status of each of 1,200 Division III games.

[Next Man Up]

Hey pat,

D3football.com lists this years north central/Wheaton game taking place at 2:00pm when both schools websites say it's taking place at 6:00pm. I think you have an error on your website.

Thanks. That's 1 p.m. CT, btw -- unfortunately, this is a thing that happens. When the game was announced in April, 1 p.m. was the time given. Unfortunately, sometimes those times change and it's not so easy for us to recheck the status of each of 1,200 Division III games.

This is nothing new. Every year a fair number of schools originally schedule games for a certain time and then change the time at a later date. Pretty hard for Pat and the crew to keep up with on their own. In NCC's case I know its happened in previous years because I've reported the different time myself.

[USee]

North Central opens the season ranked #2 by D3Football.com
Wheaton is #8

https://northcentralcardinals.com/news/2022/7/26/football-cardinals-open-2022-ranked-second-by-d3football-com.aspx

https://d3football.com/top25/2022/preseason

I think NCC should be top 5 for sure. Wheaton is way too high at this point given what they lose vs what is coming back. I don't think the Thunder is Top 25 at this point, certainly not top10. They may get there depending on who is in the pipeline but they have a long way to go.

In the CCIW I think Wheaton will start the season closer to the 3rd/4th place teams than what should be the consensus #1 in NCC.

[CardinalAlum]

North Central opens the season ranked #2 by D3Football.com
Wheaton is #8

https://northcentralcardinals.com/news/2022/7/26/football-cardinals-open-2022-ranked-second-by-d3football-com.aspx

https://d3football.com/top25/2022/preseason

I think NCC should be top 5 for sure. Wheaton is way too high at this point given what they lose vs what is coming back. I don't think the Thunder is Top 25 at this point, certainly not top10. They may get there depending on who is in the pipeline but they have a long way to go.

In the CCIW I think Wheaton will start the season closer to the 3rd/4th place teams than what should be the consensus #1 in NCC.

Oh no, am I really going to have to defend Wheaton against you?  I still see Wheaton as a clear #2 this year until someone steps up and beats them. Weeks is fantastic and will have to take the load off of whoever lines up at QB. Of course, that means actually running the football!    Offensive Line will need to plug a couple of positions but I believe it is still more than anyone else in the conference has. I believe Augie thinks they will be considerably better and when doesn't Norm feel like he's in the running?  Wash U? They'll be in the top 4 somewhere. Millikin is always a mystery to me but they have some quality kids down there.   

[WUPHF]

Interestingly for Washington University, they will not play UChicago this year for the first time in forever, if my memory serves me.  The Bears have played Chicago more than any other school (save for Missouri S&T, Rhodes, Wabash and maybe a few others) and it is quite the rival.