FB: Northwest Conference

['Cats Fa Natic]

Linfield shakes off their early season stumble and gets on track and runs the table.
Whitworth continues to play well but just can't shake the bad karma of playing in Mac. It will be their only blemish.
Menlo surprises many and finishes third in their NWC debut season.
For UPS, Willamette and PLU, put the names in a sack, shake it up and see what falls out.
Lewis and Clark finishes last, but at least they finish the season.

I agree Linfield will shake off their early season woes but I don't know that we'll run the table. Talk of running the table is maybe a little premature when our O has only scored 13 points in two games.

SOU always plays us hard, the 'Rats will come for a fight, and even though Willamette, by all accounts, is in complete disarray at the moment, they always seem to find a way to make things tough. Last season's complete distruction of them being the exception rather than the rule.

I don't see Menlo going third. I think that'll belong to UPS. They're not the automatic win they used to be. They've done some great work up there, hats off to them.

I can't figure what's happened to PLU. Was it really only 7 years ago they took the championship? Somehow, it seems longer ago than that.

As for L&C, I agree they're the odds-on favorite to finish dead last in the NWC. But consider this worst-case scenario... If we were to drop games to Whitworth and to SOU, that would leave us with needing to win at L&C to continue the Streak. Think of that from their perspective--what a cap to their season that would be after all the butt-kickings we've given them. And wasn't it L&C back in 1996 that we barely escaped with a win against to preserve the streak?



Not saying it'll come down to that, but there's your nightmare moment to wake you up. Let's take care of business.

['Cats Fa Natic]

... This is something that will make a difference in the quality of players in the coming years.  It is making a difference already in schools like Pacific, Lewis & Clark and many others.  That is why it will be more difficult in the future, for the whole league (not just Linfield) to continue its mastery over teams such as Southern Oregon and WOU.  This down cycle has a reason, for some of these private colleges.  It is about the money.

I'd love to see the whole of D-III finally revolt against the NCAA and force them to allow scholarships for football. It's ridiculous they can't.

Did you happen to see that special on, I believe, FoxNews Sunday about the outrageous and ever-spiralling costs of college education? This one girl went to Scranton University, received no scholarships, and came out of school $170K in debt. Over the life of her loan, with the interest, she'll end up paying close to $350,000.

And that's not for a doctor or a lawyer. She's going to be a special ed teacher.

[Pat Coleman]

I'd love to see the whole of D-III finally revolt against the NCAA and force them to allow scholarships for football. It's ridiculous they can't.

Uhh, the whole of D-III isn't going to revolt against the basic tenet of Division III. If you want to offer scholarship money, there's a range of other affiliation options and levels for you to choose from.

[snider]

Pat,
Is there a breakdown somewhere concerning the number of private colleges and public colleges in DIII football (or DIII in general)?

Thank you. 

['Cats Fa Natic]

Uhh, the whole of D-III isn't going to revolt against the basic tenet of Division III. If you want to offer scholarship money, there's a range of other affiliation options and levels for you to choose from.

I know. I was being somewhat facetious with the whole "rebel" thing. 

Still, I think there ought to be a level playing field when it comes to athletic scholarships.

[snider]

I would think the trend I have mentioned,  has been the topic of many conversations.  I am surprised (maybe I missed it) that high student costs isn't recognized as a trend that will be difficult to overcome for most private colleges in DIII.  I can fully understand why an affluent family (in the West) would send their good football playing son to Linfield.  But, to send their good football playing son to all of the other private schools would take some second thoughts.  It is easy to understand why scheduling becomes a problem.

[Zmotion10 out on 2]

H 2-15 L25   Jordan Neal pass incomplete to Will Galusha (Bean, Andrew).

That was not an incomplete pass.  Not sure exactly what happened but Neal rolled out and as he got close to the sideline he threw the ball to Galusha who did in fact catch it.  The side judge (I assume) blew the wistle thinking Neal was out of bounce which he wasn't.  As Galusha started up field the wistle had blown.  Galusha had plenty of running room on that play.  That is why the Cowboys fans started booing the refs on that call.  I have no idea why the game report shows an incomplete pass? Review of game tape will show that Galusha caught the ball.

Anyway it wasn't too bad on the calls.  I was glad to see no unsportsman like calls.

I haven't given my opinion of what I saw in the game yet so I guess I will do it now.

These teams looked very even.  They run the same type of offense which can score at any time from anywhere on the field.  The Cats did mix up the defense quite a bit more than the Cowboys with all types of fronts it seemed.  #91 was a killer by the way.  We had trouble running inside but we did get to the outside at times.  Really a tough defense to get things going against.  Great pressure on our QB as he was under the gun all night.  Our #1 Galusha is a major player and in this game the Cats shut him down.  Carillo picked it up and played a great game (#2) but this was a change from the first game.

In the second half  the Cowboys just took over.  (Not sure that we did anything different) The defense came through and the offense followed through also.  We got more pressure on the QB's in the sceond half.  The game was very evenly played except the 3rd quarter where the Cowboys made the difference.  The Cowboys did have some turnover problems and should have put the game away in the 4th.  Of course the Cats also had too many dropped balls.  Some of those would have been big gainers too.   Both defenses did well in the red zone.

On the stats, the Cowboys had a short field all night and the Cats had the long field.  The Cowboys should have taken further advantage of this but turnovers took care of that.  Our kicker did a great job as well as our punter.  Several punts inside the 20.  Because of the field position the Cats actually moved the ball further than the Cowboys and then would stall out.  The stats are there but it was the tough defenses inside that 20 that fustrated both offenses.

I think that both of these teams are very good.  I have a lot of respect for the Cats and they have a quality team.  I don't know why they chose to change QB's as the first one was doing fine.  He threw the ball well it was that the receivers kept dropping balls.  Although he may have had a drop also #2 (for your team) really looked good.  You could tell that he had speed and was a very good player.

It was a great game that I think lived up to the hype.  My fajitas were great -- in fact we cooked some more after the game! 

I hope that I will be able to make the trip up there next year.  Best of luck for the rest of the year.

Z~



 

[CamCat]

Did you happen to see that special on, I believe, FoxNews Sunday about the outrageous and ever-spiralling costs of college education? This one girl went to Scranton University, received no scholarships, and came out of school $170K in debt. Over the life of her loan, with the interest, she'll end up paying close to $350,000.

And that's not for a doctor or a lawyer. She's going to be a special ed teacher.

Wouldn't you think that somewhere along maybe she'd want to take a bonehead math course to figure out that going $350,000 in debt to become a special ed teacher Makes No Sense?

[Sabretooth Tiger]

... This is something that will make a difference in the quality of players in the coming years.  It is making a difference already in schools like Pacific, Lewis & Clark and many others.  That is why it will be more difficult in the future, for the whole league (not just Linfield) to continue its mastery over teams such as Southern Oregon and WOU.  This down cycle has a reason, for some of these private colleges.  It is about the money.

I'd love to see the whole of D-III finally revolt against the NCAA and force them to allow scholarships for football. It's ridiculous they can't.

Did you happen to see that special on, I believe, FoxNews Sunday about the outrageous and ever-spiralling costs of college education? This one girl went to Scranton University, received no scholarships, and came out of school $170K in debt. Over the life of her loan, with the interest, she'll end up paying close to $350,000.

And that's not for a doctor or a lawyer. She's going to be a special ed teacher.

DIII's do offer scholarships . . . based on need and merit . . .

revolt?  Give me a break, schools are DIII because they choose to be, any school that wants to pour that kind of money into athletics is free to move to DII, DI or NAIA for cyring out loud.

EDIT:  Sorry, didn't see your later post re being facetious . . . but dude, watching Fox for info?  Hmmmm.

['Cats Fa Natic]

Wouldn't you think that somewhere along maybe she'd want to take a bonehead math course to figure out that going $350,000 in debt to become a special ed teacher Makes No Sense?

Yeah, I know. Thank God, she's not heading to NASA. It was ridiculous but, then again, most kids don't think too much beyond next year. I don't recall anything about parental involvement in the newstory. Seems like there was a broken home of some sort there, so she didn't really have anyone to advise her.

I wonder, too, where the school was in all this? Seems like they were only too happen to take her money without any thought to how this would radically change her life. She's not blameless, but if someone had just taken ten minutes to show her that it would take her the better part of her life to pay it off at that salary, she probably would have handled it differently.

['Cats Fa Natic]

EDIT:  Sorry, didn't see your later post re being facetious . . . but dude, watching Fox for info?  Hmmmm.

My info comes from a variety of sources. But let's not go there. I sense a Kool Aide alert. 

[OregonCityCat99]

dude at the game-- we had the purple flag.

"fine tuning??" - 2 offensive TDs in 2 games only requires fine tuning??
We need more than that.  The defense is the only reason that game wasn't 38-6 and a complete embarrassment.

We'll be pretty good by the end of the year, but what will that matter if we're 6-3??

[fbgcat]

I know this has been hashed and re-hashed, but I wanted to give my impressions of the game Saturday.  I was at the game and it was my first "live" Wildcat game since '92.  Having been overseas and in Texas since I graduated has put me in a bit of a vacuum for Linfield athletics.  But it was great to see Linfield play another very good team.  There are many commonalities between the two schools.

I've been thinking about the game all weekend and there are two plays that, to me, determined a lot for the Cats.  
    1.  The interception in the endzone on the first possession of the game.  I believe it would have been a totally different game had the Wildcats had the lead (confidence, morale, momentum).
    2.  The screen pass by HSU to open the second half.  Should havebeen snuffed for a short gain but turned into a long score.  That robbed any momentum we had going into the second half.  You could just feel the air go out of the Cats.

I agree with all others that there were too many dropped passes.  Some of them would have kept drives alive.  The QB play was good, not excellent, like has been the routine for the past two years.  The tackling was not good.  Pursuit to the ball was good by the defense but poor tackling lead to many extra yards (see #2 above).  We just couldn't get anything going in the 3rd quarter.  

All in all, I think it was a good game for the Wilcats against a very good team.  Of course we'd all like to see it as a win instead but......  I think we have a team that hasn't found itself yet.  With new coaches and many new starters it's going to take some time for things to gel and everyone figure out what their role is.  I did see a couple of players trying to get teammates jacked up.  But I also saw a couple of players get distracted by fans.

I went down on the field after the game to listen to the coach talk to the team.  I just wanted to hear what he had to say and how he was saying it.  As I looked around at the team I could see a couple of players were totally pissed at the loss.  It made me think that as a Linfield Wildcat we have such high expectations that nothing short of winning is acceptable.  Winning has come easy for the Cats the past couple of seasons, everything seems to be easy when winning.  How will this new team/coaches handle the adveristy?

I'm glad I was able to take in the action.  I was stopped by numerous Cowboy fans and greeted politely.  A good program at HSU.  I hope we can show them the same hospitality when they travel to McMinnville next year (and the same result).  It was also good to meet many new Linfield alums.          

[cawcdad]

SOU always plays us hard, the 'Rats will come for a fight, and even though Willamette, by all accounts, is in complete disarray at the moment, they always seem to find a way to make things tough. Last season's complete distruction of them being the exception rather than the rule.

SOU hasn't scored an offencsive TD in 2 games and from what I've seen (against Menlo and heard of WOU) they won't get one this week. They only got past midfield twice against Menlo.

I don't see Menlo going third. I think that'll belong to UPS. They're not the automatic win they used to be. They've done some great work up there, hats off to them.

I think Menlo can beat UPS unless UPS gets a passing game. Menlo has stuffed the run in all three games they played. I've been to all three Menlo games. This Saturday against Willamette will tell some more.

[fbgcat]

Did anyone here go see WOU play against Kingsville.  I just read that there were 5 personal foul calls against the Wolves.  Old habits die hard, eh?