FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Brass Bell]

Being a Wheaton resident, my family has had the privilege of playing with, yet mostly against, the Ullrich boy's since my son was in 5th grade. Aside from being a tremendous football talent Zack throughout all his years has been nothing short of a class act.  Our prayers and faith in a speedy recovery are with Zack and his family.  Get Well soon Zack! 

Daneen, Ray and Timm Bellazzini

[ncc58]

I agree completely with usee's comments. I was curious to see if NCC would move up, but I'm not surprised to see Linfield pass them. Linfield has been a top DivIII team for several years and they beat a ranked team. It's a quality win. Next week, Linfield has a bye and NCC should have an easy time with Washington Univ. It will be interesting to see if they switch positions next week ...

New top 25 out:


North Central drops one spot to #14

Those 47 point victories against the crap IBC conference opponents aren't worth anything apparently!  Time to upgrade the schedule! 

1 team went behind you and two teams moved ahead. Springfield lost to an unranked team and dropped preciptiously from 9th. Linfield won vs a ranked opponent after losing to a d2 school last week and moved from 15 to 13. BW's defense continues to look impenetrable and moved from 14 to 13. NCC actually gained 10 pts in the polls but the voters felt more strongly about Linfield and BW. It has nothing to do with NCC dropping.

[redman04]

I agree completely with usee's comments. I was curious to see if NCC would move up, but I'm not surprised to see Linfield pass them. Linfield has been a top DivIII team for several years and they beat a ranked team. It's a quality win. Next week, Linfield has a bye and NCC should have an easy time with Washington Univ. It will be interesting to see if they switch positions next week ...

I doubt they would since Wash U is an unranked team.

[Comet 14]

79bluejay, I wa at the game Sat. and at B.U 2 weeks before and I am curious about peoples opinion on substituting. Sat although the offense rotated a lot of people in. Other than the defensive line the starting corners 2 of the three linsbackers and one safety played the entire game. Also against B.U. though everybody played eventually. The starting defense played the entire first 3 quarters in a game that was quite frankly over at half time. I agree with having starters come out the start of the 3rd quarter to get used to halftime, but beyond the first series of the 3rd quarter IMHO you are asking for injuries if you keep your starters on the field .

[FormerCard]

I wish a speedy recovery to Ullrich and that this doesnt hamper him longterm.. Most important thing is his health,  football comes second.   One thing is for sure....there isnt a shortage of Wheaton North QB's at Wheaton College.

[BigPoppa]

Just returned from the Carthage-Whittier game.  As has been reported on here, Carthage held on for a 35-28 win.  I'm trying to be very objective about this, but from the stands, it was not a very impressive win against a team that was not supposed to challenge Carthage.  Let me qualify my comments and add that a win is a win, and sometimes you take them however you can get them.

That being said, a few observations were Merchut has great size and had a terrific game, and the qb did a nice job getting him the ball.  Outside of that, didn't seem like a lot of positives to take away from this one.  Carthage's running game didn't seem to get much going all night.  A few nice runs here or there, but without looking at the stats, the running game didn't seem to stand out as an observer.  The Carthage d-line looks pretty smallish, not a lot of height.  Overall, not a good night for their defense as a whole.  That's not a team that should be scoring 28 points. 

Again, I know travel is a distraction, and you can't complain about a win.  Perhaps it would have been a different game in Kenosha.  But for one night anyways, not the best showing by the Redmen.

I was also in attendance to cheer on my Redmen. Whittier was better than I thought they would be. They used a wide open offense with a QB who was  very quick and bought a lot of time to find his receivers. Not a good showing by Carthage... Whittier was MUCH faster than the Redmen.

I think Carthage out-executed them, but Whittier's speed made up for a lot of other problems and kept the game closer than it should have been. Carthage corners struggled with slant routes all night long and their pass defense was exposed.  I guess a win is a win and the travel might have played a part, but Carthage was lucky to get out of Cali with a win.

[Carthage Fan]

Just returned from the Carthage-Whittier game.  As has been reported on here, Carthage held on for a 35-28 win.  I'm trying to be very objective about this, but from the stands, it was not a very impressive win against a team that was not supposed to challenge Carthage.  Let me qualify my comments and add that a win is a win, and sometimes you take them however you can get them.

That being said, a few observations were Merchut has great size and had a terrific game, and the qb did a nice job getting him the ball.  Outside of that, didn't seem like a lot of positives to take away from this one.  Carthage's running game didn't seem to get much going all night.  A few nice runs here or there, but without looking at the stats, the running game didn't seem to stand out as an observer.  The Carthage d-line looks pretty smallish, not a lot of height.  Overall, not a good night for their defense as a whole.  That's not a team that should be scoring 28 points. 

Again, I know travel is a distraction, and you can't complain about a win.  Perhaps it would have been a different game in Kenosha.  But for one night anyways, not the best showing by the Redmen.

Great atmosphere at Whittier, congrats to the Carthage alumni association for throwing a great tailgate and a good attendance by the Carthage parents, alumni and fans.  There was a lot of RED in the stands.

The Poets, yes that's right the Poets, have some weapons and did a good job of getting them the ball.  I would say this was definitely not the team we faced last year.  

As far as the running game goes, I think you do need to look at the stats.  Carthage only had 4 offensive plays (1 rush 3 pass) in the 1st quarter as the Poets time of possession was 13:18 aided by some questionable defensive holding calls against the Red Men.  Even after all that, we were only down 7-0.  Then our offense scored on their next 3 possessions in the 2nd quarter with only 5 rushes.

Andy Bures (Tim Urban per the announcer) ran for 63 yards on 10 carries (6.3 yd per carry ave) in the 2nd half so that seems like a pretty good running game to me.  Seems like the OLine was getting it done. 

[79jaybird]

My best to Zach and hope to see him back to full strength shortly.  I know how it feels to lose a teammate on the field.

Comet14- I agree that leaving your starters in the game after the game is clearly over (lopsided) is asking for trouble, however I think the starters played much longer than you mention mostly because Elmhurst was coming off a bye week and I think the coaching staff just wanted to reestablish the consistency and momentum heading into the grueling stretch. 
I know Tom Journell believes in getting EVERYBODY involved and loves to get as many people PT as possible.

[Titan Q]

A friend of mine here in Bloomington has a brother who starts for Wheaton...he has been keeping me up to speed on Zach Ullrich.  Sounds like things took a turn for the positive this morning?  I hope that word is true.

Thoughts from Titan Nation go out to Zach for a speedy recovery!

[matblake]

My best to Zach and hope to see him back to full strength shortly.  I know how it feels to lose a teammate on the field.

Comet14- I agree that leaving your starters in the game after the game is clearly over (lopsided) is asking for trouble, however I think the starters played much longer than you mention mostly because Elmhurst was coming off a bye week and I think the coaching staff just wanted to reestablish the consistency and momentum heading into the grueling stretch. 
I know Tom Journell believes in getting EVERYBODY involved and loves to get as many people PT as possible.

Getting through halftime is also an important experience.  You can tighten up physically and/or let yourself down mentally because the break in the game.  During the CCIW season it will be important for the Jays to always be focused.  Perhaps Coach Journell wanted to see where his starters were with regards to coming back after halftime. 

[usee]

79bluejay, I wa at the game Sat. and at B.U 2 weeks before and I am curious about peoples opinion on substituting. Sat although the offense rotated a lot of people in. Other than the defensive line the starting corners 2 of the three linsbackers and one safety played the entire game. Also against B.U. though everybody played eventually. The starting defense played the entire first 3 quarters in a game that was quite frankly over at half time. I agree with having starters come out the start of the 3rd quarter to get used to halftime, but beyond the first series of the 3rd quarter IMHO you are asking for injuries if you keep your starters on the field .

This situation may be a little different since Cardinal Nation has put in a very new defensive scheme. I would guess the coaches wanted to play the guys more to give them experience in the new system.

[matblake]

79bluejay, I wa at the game Sat. and at B.U 2 weeks before and I am curious about peoples opinion on substituting. Sat although the offense rotated a lot of people in. Other than the defensive line the starting corners 2 of the three linsbackers and one safety played the entire game. Also against B.U. though everybody played eventually. The starting defense played the entire first 3 quarters in a game that was quite frankly over at half time. I agree with having starters come out the start of the 3rd quarter to get used to halftime, but beyond the first series of the 3rd quarter IMHO you are asking for injuries if you keep your starters on the field .

This situation may be a little different since Cardinal Nation has put in a very new defensive scheme. I would guess the coaches wanted to play the guys more to give them experience in the new system.

Usee, Isn't the original post talking about Elmhurst?   

[Comet 14]

matblake, I agree that getting through halftime is important. Thats why I put that in my original post. I just think that as much as injuries are talked about on this board as a coach I think I would be very careful how much of the 3rd and 4th quarters I played my key players ( starters and rotation players) in games that are well in hand.

[Comet 14]

Yes and no matblake. My reference was to elmhurst but I did ask for peoples opinin on the subject

[matblake]

Yes and no matblake. My reference was to elmhurst but I did ask for peoples opinin on the subject

Gotcha, will just stand here and be embarrased about not reading carefully enough.