FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mwunder]

Final from Naperville
NCC 70
Carthage 0

How long did NCC starters play in this game?

[Pat Coleman]

Joe Sacco didn't have a second-half carry and Luke Lehnen came out for the first drive of the third quarter.
https://www.d3football.com/seasons/2023/boxscores/20230916_rpvr.xml?view=plays

[cciwman]

One of many successes of NCC in the past decade has been the increased size of the roster and getting their second and third string players game experience.  If you look at the past four years, in blowouts the starters leave very early in the third and then the back-ups get reps.  When you play 13-15 games a year and all those practices they have developed an experienced and hungry depth year in and year out. 

This year's roster has 154 players.  Unreal.  While many will never play and the Admissions Office loves it, the ones who work their way to the field will continue to get plenty of PT as the season progresses.

[Gregory Sager]

Logan Hansen missed out on the utter lopsidedness of four of the five games played last week, but we'll give his algorithm another chance this week:

@ Wheaton 44, Augustana 26	(WC 86.5%, AC 13.5%)
@ Carroll 31, Illinois Wesleyan 26	(CU 63%, IWU 37%)
@ North Park 29, Millikin 18	(NPU 76%, MU 24%)
@ Washington (MO) 50, Carthage 18	(WU 98%, CC 2%)
North Central 59, @ Elmhurst 0	(NCC 100%, EC 0%)

Honestly, if I was a betting man, I'd take NCC, even with a 59-point line. And Wash U at a 32-point line looks like a good wager, too.

[79jaybird]

Saturday is Homecoming at Elmhurst and while I fully expect NC to dominate,  I am hoping Elmhurst will (still) come out of the gates inspired.   Still kind of surprised Elmhurst would schedule NC for HC knowing NC is coming off a Nat'l title and has been strong the last few years.  Sometimes depending on the timing, I realize it can't be bypassed, but if there was a opp..
I know for years Elmhurst tried to avoid Augie as a HC game.

[Gregory Sager]

Saturday is Homecoming at Elmhurst and while I fully expect NC to dominate,  I am hoping Elmhurst will (still) come out of the gates inspired.   Still kind of surprised Elmhurst would schedule NC for HC knowing NC is coming off a Nat'l title and has been strong the last few years.  Sometimes depending on the timing, I realize it can't be bypassed, but if there was a opp..
I know for years Elmhurst tried to avoid Augie as a HC game.

Yeah, that is seriously bizarre schedulemaking by the Elmhurst administration. Speaking as the unfortunate voice of experience, I can tell you categorically that North Park has typically tried to find the most potentially competitive home football game it had for next year and then scheduled Homecoming on that date. Hence, Honecoming really jumped around on the school's calendar every year, from mid-September all the way to late October. I remember a friend of mine saying to me at a Homecoming game once, as snowflakes were flying through the air and everybody in the stands had come equipped with a down jacket, "Last year at the Homecoming game I forgot to bring the SPF50 and walked out of here looking like a lobster."

[ncc_fan]

Elmhurst's September & October home games:
9/2 Adrian
9/23 North Central
10/7 Wheaton
10/21 Millikin

If late September to mid(ish)-October is the prime homecoming window, then 10/21 wouldn't have been a bad choice.  UIUC's homecoming game is on 10/21.

I vaguely recall a NCC @ Elmhurst game about 10-15 years ago when several Elmhurst recruits walked over to talk to NCC coaches after the game.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park's had Homecomings later than October 21. I can understand the skittishness on the part of the Elmhurst administration regarding such a late Homecoming date, but the average Chicagoland temperature on October 21 is about 52 degrees. If it was up to me, I'd go with the later date and take a chance on the Elmhurst alumni getting to see a possible Bluejays win rather than book Homecoming for this coming Saturday or for October 7, thus setting up the alums to be forced to witness a curb-stomping of their team at the hands of one of the two DuPage County behemoths.

[WUPHF]

This is hardly related, but Carroll College Women's Soccer had their Senior Day during the second game of the season.  It may be to accommodate the parents of the out of state or international students on the roster, but that is usually an event you want as late in the season as possible.

[79jaybird]

I can recall HC games  on the air vs. IWU (when the Titans were strong),  Wheaton, etc.   I understand often schedules don't allow for changes, but NC has been strong for how many years now      and they can't find a better opponent to have a large crowd?  HC is always the largest crowd of the year and typically a good # of recruits come to visit.   This will most likely be a lopsided rout so if you are a HC coach, anxious to land a recruit,   the recruit (then) sees the Red & White team and realizes they are a conference, local rival.. . IMO just isn't a good recipe for Elmhurst to thrive.

My favorite Elmhurst HC broadcasting on the air was the '01 game Elmhurst vs. IWU in what we dubbed on the air as the "monsoon game".  We had heavy rain for a day and a half.  you could step and sink down to your ankles back when EC has regular grass.   It it is the only game I ever saw that had 4 straight fumbles based on the weather.  The refs would put the ball down to start the play, and the ball would travel (i.e.  like a river current) side to side.        Elmhurst was contemplating getting field turf and after this game,  the decision was made.       

[lmitzel]

NCC's homecoming in 2016 was at the end of October. Only real reason I remember that was going to the homecoming dinner after the fact with my wife (who was pregnant with our first at the time) and the dinner was going on during Game 4 of the World Series. To me that seems on the later end, but not egregiously so.

This is hardly related, but Carroll College Women's Soccer had their Senior Day during the second game of the season.  It may be to accommodate the parents of the out of state or international students on the roster, but that is usually an event you want as late in the season as possible.

I've seen a handful of Senior Day headlines of late and it's had me scratching my head a little bit too. Maybe that accommodation thing is the reason, but I wouldn't know for sure.

[ncc_fan]

The other odd thing about Elmhurst's choice of this coming Saturday is that there's only one other athletic event - women's volleyball - scheduled at home on that day.  October 7th features four athletic contests on campus:  men's & women's soccer, football, and women's tennis.  Recent NCC homecomings always seem to offer multiple games/matches to attract alumni.

[WUPHF]

The other odd thing about Elmhurst's choice of this coming Saturday is that there's only one other athletic event - women's volleyball - scheduled at home on that day.  October 7th features four athletic contests on campus:  men's & women's soccer, football, and women's tennis.

Also odd that they chose to host the "Beck's Boys" Reunion during the Millikin game, but maybe that means more to Elmhurst fans?  Or maybe there was another reason for the decisions.  It could be something as simple as the President has an out of town meeting that weekend.

[WUPHF]

I've seen a handful of Senior Day headlines of late and it's had me scratching my head a little bit too. Maybe that accommodation thing is the reason, but I wouldn't know for sure.

Yeah, I mean, Senior Day is so often the culminating event / experience to recognize the end of a career so having it as close to the end of the season as possible makes the most sense.

[New Tradition]

I vaguely recall a NCC @ Elmhurst game about 10-15 years ago when several Elmhurst recruits walked over to talk to NCC coaches after the game.

My favorite Elmhurst HC broadcasting on the air was the '01 game Elmhurst vs. IWU in what we dubbed on the air as the "monsoon game".  We had heavy rain for a day and a half.  you could step and sink down to your ankles back when EC has regular grass.   It it is the only game I ever saw that had 4 straight fumbles based on the weather.  The refs would put the ball down to start the play, and the ball would travel (i.e.  like a river current) side to side.        Elmhurst was contemplating getting field turf and after this game,  the decision was made.       

Story related to both of these quotes--as I was being recruited by Elmhurst, as I mentioned, they really wined and dined at my high school.  I was invited to Elmhurst to watch them in the final game of the season in '01 vs. NCC.  It was a back and forth affair on a warm, sunny, gorgeous November day that NCC ended up on top of, but the thing I remember the most was the condition of the field.  I've never seen a field on any level in the condition that Langhorst was in that day--3 yards and a cloud of dust was an actuality that football game.  I have no idea how JB saw the numbers of the players in all that dust in order to have a successful broadcast.  There was grass on that field maaaaaybe on the numbers, but the sidelines and center of the field were bare dirt.  This must've been the aftermath of that IWU game that JB was talking about.  I also asked Coach Krohn where they practiced and he mentioned that it was mostly done on the game field, as well.  Partially because of this and partially because I didn't feel so wined and dined when I got to campus, at halftime, my dad and I walked over to the NCC bleachers and watched the rest of the game from there.  I had just had a nice experience watching a game at NCC vs. Augustana (which they kept close for a half) 2 weeks prior.  It was at that point that I eliminated Elmhurst from my potential college choices.