FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Schipper Strong]

Congratulations to Norrh Central on your win. I thought early on it might get ugly, but the Thunder never gave up and made a close game of it. Fun to watch. Hope the Wheaton player injured right away is okay. Prayers for him.

[thunderdog]

To those NCC fans that chose to relieve themselves in the Wheaton locker room, on the players personal items... stay classy!

[Ccrfer]

Tonight's effort from Wheaton = Pedestrian. Very disappointing. Expected much more.

[CardinalAlum]

To those NCC fans that chose to relieve themselves in the Wheaton locker room, on the players personal items... stay classy!

That's absolutely disgusting and I'm embarrassed as an NCC Alum. Hard fought game and both teams got after it on the field and to have something like that smear the entire evening is beyond disappointing. 

[matblake]

To those NCC fans that chose to relieve themselves in the Wheaton locker room, on the players personal items... stay classy!

That's absolutely disgusting and I'm embarrassed as an NCC Alum. Hard fought game and both teams got after it on the field and to have something like that smear the entire evening is beyond disappointing. 

That's gross.  It's just a football game.  I hope they were at least drunk.  Doing that in your right mind would doubly confirm what everyone is thinking about your decision making. 

[matblake]

Congrats to NCC.  Pretty good team you've got there .  I also enjoy your broadcasts.  The analysts are fair, with just the right amount of homerism without being blinded by allegiance.

Proud of the way Wheaton continued to play.  Looked like a different team in the second half.  Perhaps getting embarrassed in the first half got them on track. Unfortunately, NCC continued to just have answers, especially on the offensive side of the ball.  With some of the mental errors on Wheaton's side (especially on the quick kick) it's frustrating, but that felt like it was a coaching error by perhaps not taking that into account.  Add in the fact that the Cardinal offense was pretty much gliding through the Thunder defense like butter in the first half it would be understandable that the kid was only thinking of covering his man.  Still, a silly mistake.  I also think that the line up and check with the sideline scenarios that are popular in the college game make it difficult on both linemen and wideouts, they're in position for probably a good 10 seconds longer than when they break from the huddle and go.  I haven't checked stats or anything, but I feel like the number of false starts has increased, especially from the wideout position and that standing there for the extra few seconds can play into that.

Ok, here's the bottom line.  Wheaton is out of the playoffs.  For those who dare to dream, first, both Wheaton has to win out and NCC has to beat WashU, which is not a foregone conclusion. Then, you're hoping for undefeated conference champions across the country so there will be no teams that "steal" a Pool A spot and thusly put a deserving team for the playoffs into Pool C position.  Finally, you have to hope that the regional ranking committee is able to rank Wheaton high in the Region 5 rankings.  That's a lot of things to go right, and a small margin for error.  I'll be thrilled if it happens, but am not expecting it. 

[New Tradition]

I also enjoy your broadcasts.  The analysts are fair, with just the right amount of homerism without being blinded by allegiance.

Hey, thanks! Very nice of you to say. That's exactly the tone we're going for—with only home teams broadcasting, we know there will be members of other fan bases tuning in who deserve to celebrate when their kids do something great!

[Gregory Sager]

For those who dare to dream, first, both Wheaton has to win out

Winning out will not be as easy as it was last year for Wheaton. Wash U has a very legitimate chance to beat Wheaton in St. Louis on November 5.

[matblake]

I also enjoy your broadcasts.  The analysts are fair, with just the right amount of homerism without being blinded by allegiance.

Hey, thanks! Very nice of you to say. That's exactly the tone we're going for—with only home teams broadcasting, we know there will be members of other fan bases tuning in who deserve to celebrate when their kids do something great!

Absolutely!  But not all broadcasts go for the same strategy. Glad you guys do!

[matblake]

For those who dare to dream, first, both Wheaton has to win out

Winning out will not be as easy as it was last year for Wheaton. Wash U has a very legitimate chance to beat Wheaton in St. Louis on November 5.

Agreed.  They are balanced and have a lot of offensive weapons and Wheaton's defense is much more questionable this season.

[MRMIKESMITH]

To those NCC fans that chose to relieve themselves in the Wheaton locker room, on the players personal items... stay classy!

That's absolutely disgusting and I'm embarrassed as an NCC Alum. Hard fought game and both teams got after it on the field and to have something like that smear the entire evening is beyond disappointing. 

That's gross.  It's just a football game.  I hope they were at least drunk. Doing that in your right mind would doubly confirm what everyone is thinking about your decision making.

Drunk, either way that is unacceptable. No excuse for that behavior AT ALL.

[matblake]

To those NCC fans that chose to relieve themselves in the Wheaton locker room, on the players personal items... stay classy!

That's absolutely disgusting and I'm embarrassed as an NCC Alum. Hard fought game and both teams got after it on the field and to have something like that smear the entire evening is beyond disappointing. 

That's gross.  It's just a football game.  I hope they were at least drunk. Doing that in your right mind would doubly confirm what everyone is thinking about your decision making.

Drunk, either way that is unacceptable. No excuse for that behavior AT ALL.

Agreed.  I wasn't trying to let anyone off the hook with the drunk comment.  I'm assuming the actual transgression took place in a locker area where there would not be any type of footage. 

[Thunderdome21]

Congratulations to Norrh Central on your win. I thought early on it might get ugly, but the Thunder never gave up and made a close game of it. Fun to watch. Hope the Wheaton player injured right away is okay. Prayers for him.

The game for Wheaton was a tale of two halves, especially for the offense. It's really unfortunate with the head injury to Wheaton team captain Kyle Carter on the first play of the game.  Being knocked unconscious, waking up in a delirious state, and then being hauled off strapped in an ambulance stretcher weighed heavily on the offensive players. After halftime, they overcame this mental barrier and made it a competitive game. 

Credit goes to the D-line of North Central for limiting Giovanni Weeks.  While the speed/strength combo of their Defensive ends were a factor, the Defensive tackles made some great plays, including some ankle tackles that tripped up Weeks which could've been some big gains. Also really impressed with the defensive backs of North Central as great cover guys with speed and tackle well.  If there is a question mark with the North Central Defense when they go deep into the playoffs, it might be the lateral speed of the box linebackers in pass coverage. 

With Wheaton's defense, I realize they gave up some big-time yardage to Greenfield, but that didn't surprise me considering how good of a player he is. Greenfield does a great job bouncing it to the outside when there's no room to run in the box.  What also didn't help was when Wheaton lost its SAM linebacker, Virgil Canon to a hamstring injury in the first quarter.  They already lost their 1st string SAM linebacker in the game against Trinity, so relying on their 3rd string SAM along with doing more nickel packages throughout the game made it easier for Greenfield.  Wheaton doesn't have the depth in the front 7 that they had last year.  I wasn't expecting a dominant performance from their defense against NC this year because they are built differently. With their bend, but don't break defense, I expected them to give up between 28-35 pts, which happened.  Wheaton tackled much better than last week against Augustana, but had to go against one of the best O-lines in the country, who lived up to their billing. Saw some pancakes of Wheaton's linebackers. They also held a lot, which was evidenced by their 4 holding calls and the torn jerseys among several of Wheaton players. 

All in all, Wheaton dug themselves too big of a hold to overcome in the first half. By the way, Kyle Carter had a CAT scan and he will be fine. He came back to Wheaton's campus later that night to be with the players.   

[Gregory Sager]

To those NCC fans that chose to relieve themselves in the Wheaton locker room, on the players personal items... stay classy!

That's absolutely disgusting and I'm embarrassed as an NCC Alum. Hard fought game and both teams got after it on the field and to have something like that smear the entire evening is beyond disappointing. 

That's gross.  It's just a football game.  I hope they were at least drunk. Doing that in your right mind would doubly confirm what everyone is thinking about your decision making.

Drunk, either way that is unacceptable. No excuse for that behavior AT ALL.

Agreed.  I wasn't trying to let anyone off the hook with the drunk comment.  I'm assuming the actual transgression took place in a locker area where there would not be any type of footage. 

Regardless, I hope that the people who did that are caught and punished severely.

[lmitzel]

To those NCC fans that chose to relieve themselves in the Wheaton locker room, on the players personal items... stay classy!

That's absolutely disgusting and I'm embarrassed as an NCC Alum. Hard fought game and both teams got after it on the field and to have something like that smear the entire evening is beyond disappointing. 

That's gross.  It's just a football game.  I hope they were at least drunk. Doing that in your right mind would doubly confirm what everyone is thinking about your decision making.

Drunk, either way that is unacceptable. No excuse for that behavior AT ALL.

Agreed.  I wasn't trying to let anyone off the hook with the drunk comment.  I'm assuming the actual transgression took place in a locker area where there would not be any type of footage. 

Regardless, I hope that the people who did that are caught and punished severely.

Same. That spoils a lot of the good feelings from last night and makes me ashamed to be associated, even loosely, with people like that.