FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RedmenFB44]

I can see how people on this board like to take the classy move and -k without explanation.  Yet promotion of drinking and drunkenness is applauded.  Step up to the plate and own up to it and argue your point.  I think your supposed to be college grads.

There are three possible explanations for the postings from Go Thunder.

1. All this strangeness began after he related a story of falling down the stairs and bruising his ribs. Maybe he's been taking rather strong painkillers.

2. He's trying to acccomplish something no one else has --- amass the highest amount of negative karma.

3. Aliens from another universe or conference have stolen his user id and password.

Made me laugh 

[TitanBacker]

Too many posts, i can't keep up.  I'm seriously considering dropping school or one of my two jobs to check this site more often.   

Congrats to all the All Conference players.  It's a great honor to be considered one of the league's best. 

A special shoutout goes to the IWU players for working hard to attain the honor.  Mike Stephens, I'd like to think I helped make you a better player by being on offense.  Same goes for you Mastro!!

I blocked for you Marcus, I hope you remember the overnight trip at Simpson.  Good times. 

Just kidding, you all worked hard for it and deserve your honors.  Best of luck to all CCIW seniors in the future!!


Go Wheaties and redbirds this weekend!!

[usee]

Did Fox not have a good year this season as compared to before?

I thought Fox played pretty well this year. He did miss one conference game, if that actually matters. I believe he was the team leading tackler and unquestionably the leader on the field for the Defense. Many teams do scheme away from him, but on many occasions in several games he came up with a big play. Certainly you can't argue with his ability to hit. He can really tatoo you! I'm surpsised he was not selected.

I am very surprised by this. the only explanation that makes sense is that coach rucks didn't nominate him for some reason. that would be very surprising as well.

[New Tradition]

Hey everyone!  How's it going?  I've read this board for several years now, for a long time as a player and also during the course of the last season (my first as a "spectator").   For the most part, you seem like a classy group of guys and I finally figured that I'd go ahead and put my 2 cents in.  I actually posted this on the North Region playoff board, but I don't think anyone really reads that one.  I would like to congratulate all of the players and coaches on a fantastic 2006 campaign, and another congrats to those who earned All-CCIW honors today.  Also, I have 3 thoughts on the upcoming NCC/CUW game:

1.  Many things have changed in the NCC camp since the first game of the season, not the least of which being defensive personnel and strategy verses teams with a potent ground attack.  This is evident by the outcome of the NCC/Augustana and the NCC/Millikin games.  Augustana and CUW have a similar, ball control style offense, but traditionally, Augustana does it a bit more justice, and does it against tougher opponents.  Similarly, Millikin had an excellent running back in Nate Wallick that the NCC defense held very much in check.  The Big Blue's all-time leading rusher gained only 50 yards on 12 carries against the stingy NCC rush defense.  Learning from the mistakes made against CUW, NCC D-Coordinator Bill Weinke was able to put together excellent strategies and implement enough discipline in his defensive line to stop the potent Augie and Millikin rush offenses and shut them down.  I think that a similar tactic will be used in the CUW game, and it will have the same, if not a better result against anyone who runs a similar style of offense (as no one can run it as well as Augie).  Make no mistake, I mean no disrespect to CUW.  In NCC's first game of the regular season, their offensive line was unreal.  I was incredibly impressed with their athleticism as a unit given their overall size.  They dominated the line of scrimmage for the entire game.  Personnel and strategy changes should take care of the problem in the upcoming contest, however.

2.  In the season opener for NCC, the NCC offense had one of their least productive games in the last several years.  This was not, however, the season opener for Concordia.  Oftentimes, players get "opening game jitters."  Some players may overcome these better than others, and sometimes they play less of a role in the outcome of the game if players on both teams have them.  It is a huge advantage, however, if one team already has a game under their belt, while another does not.  This happened to be the case on September 9, when the 2 teams had their first meeting.  To make matters worse, the University of Chicago declined to participate in the annual scrimmage that they usually have with NCC, so this was the first time that the Cardinals lined up against anyone not wearing a red and white uniform, whom they had been hitting for the past 3 or 4 weeks.  This was a gigantic advantage for Concordia.  With the first game obviously well behind both teams, this advantage for Concordia will have disappeared and both teams will be equal in this respect.  You will see a much more calm, cool, collected NCC offense that will not fail to put up any less than 35 points.

3.  Revenge.  When I was a player, this was always my personal motivation.  I hate losing and would certainly hate losing twice to the same opponent in a year. 

Look for NCC to win this one big!
GO CARDS!!
(and Wheaton for that matter...)

[Gregory Sager]

Different era, different circumstances.

This conference does not revolve around football, nor did it do so in the 1980s. It's just one sport among many that the CCIW was sponsoring at that time. What sense would it make to ask a school to leave the conference just because it was dominating one particular sport? It would've made more sense to ask North Central to leave than to ask Augustana to leave, because even as far back as the '80s North Central's dominance in cross-country was more thorough than was Augie's dominance in football. NCC has won every CCIW men's cross-country title since 1974, and Al Carius and his Cardinals harriers had already won six D3 cross-country national championships before Augie won its first in football in 1983.

I was wondering if someone was going to bring up North Central's dominance in cross country. NCC has been pretty dominant in Track as well.

True, but irrelevant. The issue at hand was which CCIW school was the most dominant in any one particular sport at the time that Augie was winning four straight D3 football titles (1983-86). North Central won the CCIW's track & field title in 1985 and 1986, but Augustana won it for all five seasons before that.

[Gregory Sager]

Congratulations to NPU senior Brandon Watts upon being named both a first-team All-CCIW wide receiver and a first-team All-CCIW return specialist. Watts had quite a season. His 1,456 all-purpose yards ranked first in the conference, and his 161.1 all-purpose yards per game ranked 10th in D3. He finished second in the CCIW and 22nd in D3 in receptions per game (6), second in the CCIW and 25th in D3 in receiving yards per game (78.8 ), and he led the CCIW in kick return average (23.5).

Congratulations as well to NPU junior DE Raymond Decatur upon being named an All-CCIW second-teamer. His six sacks were good for fourth place in the CCIW. It's comforting to have a player of his caliber returning next season, as the Vikings can obviously use all the help they can get in the trenches.

[Tailgater]

New Tradition:
Very good evaluation. I concur with each of your points. Welcome aboard! Looks like a lot of young blood joining in on the discussions. That's great!

[Redmen96]

keil59 and Son of Tailgator welcome to being a REDMEN Football Alum now prepare for the hard part, retirement from playing.  At the ripe old age of  22(?) you are done.  You will have to get a real job soon and just envy the ones that are still playing.  Like my friends and I did of you and your friends.  We are proud of what you guys have achieved.
Good job REDMEN, good job.

[New Tradition]

keil59 and Son of Tailgator welcome to being a REDMEN Football Alum now prepare for the hard part, retirement from playing.  At the ripe old age of  22(?) you are done.  You will have to get a real job soon and just envy the ones that are still playing.

I can second that.  Going from playing 10 seasons to simply watching this season was very difficult.

[CardinalAlum]

NT,

Welcome!  Great insight into the NCC/CUW game this weekend!

[Son of Tailgater]

 You will have to get a real job soon and just envy the ones that are still playing.  Like my friends and I did of you and your friends.  We are proud of what you guys have achieved.
Good job REDMEN, good job.

Redmen96,

Get a real job what is that?? Thank you for all of your support throughout the years, its been fun, I am sure I will be seeing you on the hill or in the Alum tent at some point next season. Redmen is right....The seniors have been telling Coach Rucks that we want the feather on our watches, we dont want to be the first class with the shield.

Congrats to all of those who made 1st and 2nd team All-CCIW. A special shout out to Rob Hoyland from IWU, well deserved CCIW honors.  Rob played right guard next to me my senior year in high school, great all around guy with a great attitude.

[79jaybird]

I started "work" the day after I graduated back in 2002 and what a shock!  At 3:30 that day, my body and mind was telling me to start strapping the pads on and get ready to practice, when in reality I was still sitting in an office training seminar.  Yes, I think we all miss the good ol' days of college and athletics.
Early forecast for Saturday in Milwaukee is cool (40's) and cloudy, but dry so if this forecast holds then weather should not be a factor.
If I was a voter, I would have voted Brandon Fox at least a 2nd team All Conference.  He is a very talented Linebacker. 
If I know Coach Rucks, he would have nominated Brandon.  He has so much faith and love for his players... I am sure that it wasn't Coach Rucks as to why Fox was left off.
The only explanation I can think of is that there are many linebackers in the CCIW and only so many AC spots.

Go Thunder-- Well, I don't know what else there is to say.  He has ruffled the feathers of everybody on this board (at least once) and some of his posts are indeed from another planet.  I don't see his corollation between College Graduate(s) and + or - Karma.  That is borderline questioning people's integrity which irks me.  At Elmhurst we have what is known as the Blue and White Wall in the Coach's house.  Those with a GPA of 3.5 or higher get their picture on the wall with description (Major, GPA, etc.) and 17 Bluejays were on the wall this year.  The point being GoThunder,  many fb players at each school are very intelligent, studious gents.

[matblake]

Congrats to the all conference selections.  Just looking at the CCIW website and saw back in 2003 that there were 2 coaches of the year.  Kind of surprised me that there wasn't 2 or 3 coaches of the year this year.  Checked in the football guide and couldn't find any specific prohibition to this practice, outside of this generic language:

D. Coach of the Year: Football coaches will select a "Bob Reade Football Coach of the Year" at their regular fall meeting. (Quote is on page 5)
http://www.cciw.org/pdf/sports_guides/FootballSportsGuide.doc

[usee]

Interesting tidbit.  Wheaton has won or shared 4 of the last 5 CCIW Titles and 5 of the last 7.  Can you smell a mini-Dynasty under HC Swider  brewing?

Until Wheaton proves they can at least hang with Mount for the entire game (not just a quarter or a half) I think mini-dynasty might be the correct term.  

There haven't been any teams that can claim dynasty if that's the bar.

That has to be the bar.  Mt. Union is the current dynasty, just as Augie was the previous dynasty and Wittenberg before them.  Plenty of other programs have great history (St. Johns, University of Chicago, etc.) but until the Purple Raiders can get knocked off regularly (ie not losing in the Stagg or National Semifinals once only every 3 or 4 years) they have to be "The Dynasty"

well now you are changing the topic. It was argued that wheaton did NOT have a dynasty if they can't play with Mount. Now you are saying MUC is the only dynasty? I am not saying winning a national title shouldn't be the goal, it definately is and muc is the standard. I just don't get what you are arguing for or against.

[usee]

Congrats to the all conference selections.  Just looking at the CCIW website and saw back in 2003 that there were 2 coaches of the year.  Kind of surprised me that there wasn't 2 or 3 coaches of the year this year.  Checked in the football guide and couldn't find any specific prohibition to this practice, outside of this generic language:

D. Coach of the Year: Football coaches will select a "Bob Reade Football Coach of the Year" at their regular fall meeting. (Quote is on page 5)
http://www.cciw.org/pdf/sports_guides/FootballSportsGuide.doc

why not 8 coaches of the year. they all try hard. lets honor everybody......this kind of dilutes it. I also don't agree with having 12 or 15 first team selections for 11 spots. its too many and makes it insignificant. 

I think you only see a CO-COY or DPOY or OPOY when the voting is tied among the coaches. If there is a clear winner of majority votes you won't see a CO-anything. this simply means the coaches all thought swider was the best choice this time around. both may have been deserving but the coaches voted for 1.