FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Thunderdome21]

T-dome 21:

Thank you very much for sharing with us. Congratulations to Jalen for a fine season and career. He will have some great lifetime memories to not only enjoy, but that will also obviously help him in the future as he now goes on to the Next Great Adventure of his life. IMO, his story is what college football is really all about, especially DIII as we all know. Among many colleges/universities, Notre Dame has its Rudy story, Univ. of Michigan has its Don Warner story, and now Wheaton has its Jalen story. But more importantly, I believe his story will be an inspirational one to other Wheaton players who follow in future years. Congratulations to you also for being the supportive and loving parent that you have been. I wish you, Jalen and all your family a blessed and enjoyable Thanksgiving Day this week.

Thanks for the kind remarks from you and everyone else.  Wheaton has created a culture where there isn't much attrition, which results in stories like Jalen's. Back in 2018, Wheaton senior RB Jacob Cretin had a monster year leading the team in yards rushing, including rushing for 144 yds, a TD, and a team win against North Central. Like Jalen, Jacob was named 2nd team all-conference CCIW. What's even more fascinating is that Jacob was so far down the depth chart his FR, SO, and JR years that he could only get playing time as a JV player and didn't even get varsity time until his SR year where he became the main RB. I'm sure that Jacob's story was inspirational to Jalen.

[Next Man Up]

Congratulations to Wheaton QB Will Bowers, and North Central RB Ethan Greenfield. They are among the 15 players from all of D3 named as semifinalists for the Jostens Gagliardi trophy which is presented each year to the most outstanding player in NCAA Division 3.
Finalists will be revealed Dec 7th on a D3Football live show.

There are 40 members on the national selection committee. Fan ballotting, available on D3Football.com, accounts for the 41st ballot. You can vote once per device through noon CT on Dec. 3.

[matblake]

Happy Thanksgiving gang! Thankful for the support I've felt since the loss of my wife. Rivalries and sports are fun, but love being part of the d3 community!

[matblake]

Good luck to North Central this weekend. I was a bit surprised how easily CMU took care of DePauw, but the second weekend is a familiar spot for you guys so you how it goes. I think it's the toughest week as the schedule is different with there being no classes and such, it's harder to keep the rhythm going. I'm predicting 38-14 Cards. Glad this matchup is happening. Felt terrible for CMU last year having to cancel.

[USee]

NCC with their hands full with CMU at the half, leading 14-7. Greenfield with 22 yds on 11 carries. Lehnen has 53 yds rushing. NCC Defense held CMU to just 92 yds in the first half.

[robertgoulet]

NCC finally wore down the CM D and opened it up in the 4th. CM has a really really good defense. Anchor in the middle ate up multiple blockers and kept the linebackers clean. Good tackling from the 2nd and 3rd levels. The seemed to tire in the 4th and NCC gashed them multiple times.

[Next Man Up]

NCC with their hands full with CMU at the half, leading 14-7. Greenfield with 22 yds on 11 carries. Lehnen has 53 yds rushing. NCC Defense held CMU to just 92 yds in the first half.

NCC finally wore down the CM D and opened it up in the 4th. CM has a really really good defense. Anchor in the middle ate up multiple blockers and kept the linebackers clean. Good tackling from the 2nd and 3rd levels. The seemed to tire in the 4th and NCC gashed them multiple times.

As robertgoulet indicated above, "wore down" is indeed what the Cardinals finally did to C- M.
Greenfield had 113 of his 135 yards in the second half, and Lehnen had 74 of his 127.

[USee]

NCC with their hands full with CMU at the half, leading 14-7. Greenfield with 22 yds on 11 carries. Lehnen has 53 yds rushing. NCC Defense held CMU to just 92 yds in the first half.

NCC finally wore down the CM D and opened it up in the 4th. CM has a really really good defense. Anchor in the middle ate up multiple blockers and kept the linebackers clean. Good tackling from the 2nd and 3rd levels. The seemed to tire in the 4th and NCC gashed them multiple times.

As robertgoulet indicated above, "wore down" is indeed what the Cardinals finally did to C- M.
Greenfield had 113 of his 135 yards in the second half, and Lehnen had 74 of his 127.

It only gets harder from here. Lehnen's inability to drop back and throw in long yardage situations is a handicap if anyone can exploit it. He is really good in play action and on the move, but put NCC in 2nd/3rd and long and it's more challenging.

[robertgoulet]

NCC with their hands full with CMU at the half, leading 14-7. Greenfield with 22 yds on 11 carries. Lehnen has 53 yds rushing. NCC Defense held CMU to just 92 yds in the first half.

NCC finally wore down the CM D and opened it up in the 4th. CM has a really really good defense. Anchor in the middle ate up multiple blockers and kept the linebackers clean. Good tackling from the 2nd and 3rd levels. The seemed to tire in the 4th and NCC gashed them multiple times.

As robertgoulet indicated above, "wore down" is indeed what the Cardinals finally did to C- M.
Greenfield had 113 of his 135 yards in the second half, and Lehnen had 74 of his 127.

It only gets harder from here. Lehnen's inability to drop back and throw in long yardage situations is a handicap if anyone can exploit it. He is really good in play action and on the move, but put NCC in 2nd/3rd and long and it's more challenging.

Have to wonder if it's just the way the offense is run. Risk averse, no deep shots to Hardy. Just pound for 4 quarters and know eventually you'll come out on top. As close as this was NCC still won by 21.

[Stagg Again!!]

NCC with their hands full with CMU at the half, leading 14-7. Greenfield with 22 yds on 11 carries. Lehnen has 53 yds rushing. NCC Defense held CMU to just 92 yds in the first half.

NCC finally wore down the CM D and opened it up in the 4th. CM has a really really good defense. Anchor in the middle ate up multiple blockers and kept the linebackers clean. Good tackling from the 2nd and 3rd levels. The seemed to tire in the 4th and NCC gashed them multiple times.

As robertgoulet indicated above, "wore down" is indeed what the Cardinals finally did to C- M.
Greenfield had 113 of his 135 yards in the second half, and Lehnen had 74 of his 127.

It only gets harder from here. Lehnen's inability to drop back and throw in long yardage situations is a handicap if anyone can exploit it. He is really good in play action and on the move, but put NCC in 2nd/3rd and long and it's more challenging.

Have to wonder if it's just the way the offense is run. Risk averse, no deep shots to Hardy. Just pound for 4 quarters and know eventually you'll come out on top. As close as this was NCC still won by 21.

Agree 100% Robert... on the one hand, NCC barely called enough pass plays to keep Carnegie Mellon's LBs honest; on the other hand, did they need to?  I will be intrigued to see if the coaches open the playbook a bit more in the coming week.  Congratulations goes out to Carnegie Mellon on a great season and well-played contest.  The Tartan defense was special and the best we have seen this year.

[USee]

Yea, my experience is that coaches don't work that way. You don't wait to be good at something until you need it. NCC runs the ball because that's who they are, 70% run. They are gonna do that for 4 quarters. There are at least 2 teams left that MAY be able to challenge that philosophy, and at that point it will be too late to "roll out the passing game". They don't pass more because they aren't that good at it, in my opinion. I would be willing to bet LL completion % is close to 50% on straight drop backs and closer to 70-75% on RPO's and straight play action pass.

Lehnen is super effective in play action, but he is not very adept at reading defenses and locks in on receivers, at which point he isn't very accurate. Contrast that with Rutter, who was exceptional at reading defenses and that skill was regularly used even though they had Greenfield and were 60% run in those years.

[CardinalAlum]

Huge props to the CM players. They came out ready to play and were a very good defensive team! Maybe if the D Coordinator spent more time working with his D instead of trash talking Hardy the whole game, it may have been even better.  A bit classless and Hardy is not the guy he wanted to fire up!

[robertgoulet]

Yea, my experience is that coaches don't work that way. You don't wait to be good at something until you need it. NCC runs the ball because that's who they are, 70% run. They are gonna do that for 4 quarters. There are at least 2 teams left that MAY be able to challenge that philosophy, and at that point it will be too late to "roll out the passing game". They don't pass more because they aren't that good at it, in my opinion. I would be willing to bet LL completion % is close to 50% on straight drop backs and closer to 70-75% on RPO's and straight play action pass.

Lehnen is super effective in play action, but he is not very adept at reading defenses and locks in on receivers, at which point he isn't very accurate. Contrast that with Rutter, who was exceptional at reading defenses and that skill was regularly used even though they had Greenfield and were 60% run in those years.

I'm not asking for a more even split, I'm asking for a few % of that 30% to be deep shots to Hardy.

[USee]

Yea, my experience is that coaches don't work that way. You don't wait to be good at something until you need it. NCC runs the ball because that's who they are, 70% run. They are gonna do that for 4 quarters. There are at least 2 teams left that MAY be able to challenge that philosophy, and at that point it will be too late to "roll out the passing game". They don't pass more because they aren't that good at it, in my opinion. I would be willing to bet LL completion % is close to 50% on straight drop backs and closer to 70-75% on RPO's and straight play action pass.

Lehnen is super effective in play action, but he is not very adept at reading defenses and locks in on receivers, at which point he isn't very accurate. Contrast that with Rutter, who was exceptional at reading defenses and that skill was regularly used even though they had Greenfield and were 60% run in those years.

I'm not asking for a more even split, I'm asking for a few % of that 30% to be deep shots to Hardy.

Sorry, I was replying to the suggestion that part of the playbook wasn't in use, that's not the case at this point in the season. I agree with you, deep shots to Hardy are a big part of the plan. Problem is CMU was playing a safety over the top of Hardy most of the day from what I could see. Most teams who do that can't hold up against the run, but CMU had some studs that matched up pretty well much of the game. NCC's defense kept giving the ball back to the offense  and that led to the Tartan defense being on the field too long (NCC ran 60 plays to CMU's 48). The NCC defense is really good.

[SpartanHouse4]

Interesting news out of Kalamazoo. Western Michigan has parted ways with Tim Lester.

Will be interesting where Coach Thorne goes form here. Someone in Elmhurst better have at least made a phone call by now.