FB: Northwest Conference

[coco]

I'm okay with that. We've been to the playoffs plenty of times and I just don't think this was our year, as much as I love the 'Cats. All teams need a building year once in a while, and this appears to have been ours. With 18 TOs in the 3 games prior to this one, we've got stuff to work on.
I don't like it any better than anyone else, but heck, we're gracious winners and losers, and we'll come back with more desire next year.

So I'll support Whiworth and hope they can go deep.

[cawcdad]

Hello all from Mac where the sun came out some today. I got to see a Cat game and they pitch a shutout. At least the Pios completed the season and here's hoping they can get some more bodies and start to return to competitive.

A huge thank you to Tuxguy for giving me a ride to the game and feeding me his world famous teriyaki sticks. Thanks to Mrs. Coco for the call with updates. Sorry MCat for causing you to miss some plays when I called for the score, but a thank you from me and the Cat fans around me appreciated it.

I got some good pics in the first half. Pio SID wouldn't let me on the field for the 2nd half. The link for the pics should be up by tomorrow evening.

[MonroviaCat]

No problem Cawcdad---you just caught me in the middle of several things so I apologize if I was quick to get off the phone!

[MonroviaCat]

Interesting stat:  The Cat vs. Pio game today had similar offensive totals as the Rat-Cat game: 

Cats outgained the Rats 329 to 85
Cats outgained the Pios 355-83

Now lets see what was the difference.......OH right..  Cats had 7 turnovers in the RAt game and only 1 in the Pio Game.  DOH!  Still, hard to believe the Rats only gained 2 more yards vs. the Cats than the Pios (and that with the aide of the 7 turnovers to boot).  Oh well.  Final score is all that matters

[ClassicCat]

First, hats off to the Cats for an exciting season.

Second, congrats to the Rats for putting away UPS so soundly. It took you a 100 years to go undefeated. Let's hope it doeesn't take you that long for another undefeated season.

As a thought, perhaps you will measure success this year not by what you have done, but by what you have overcome. Defeating Willamette (finally), going undefeated, beating Linfield for the first time in 30 years, at the Cadome nevertheless.

Your post season is full of challenges. The better prepared you are, the more luck you will have. Believe it or not you are going to need a bit a luck in traversing the West Regional. Good luck!

Pine Cone at 509 Rat, I expect you guys to carry the load for this board keeping us abreast of everything that's happening with the Bucs.

Oh yea, Speedy,

ACFKACOI is the alma mater of the late, great R.C. Owens. The College of Idaho from Caldwell; the Taters played good football, but they just couldn't win consistently.

[BVHawk]

coco - You're a class act.  Have no fear, I'm guessing the Cats will be back next year.

[BVHawk]

Also, good luck to Whitworth in the post season.

[pineconefan]

Wow, what a day in the Pine Bowl.  For those of us who go back a long way, it is almost hard to believe.  I remember the days when the paid football staff was a full time head coach and two halftime assistants.  As recently as the early 80s, the entire football budget (including salaries) was less than 100 grand.  11 losing seasons in 12 years.  Almost losing the program entirely.

Now this - 10-0.  Tully's done a remarkable job changing the culture of the program and deserves much of the credit.  Credit to guys like Tobeck, Westre, McCullough and Pomonte, many of whom have been on the staff more than ten years now. 

UPS came right at us today.  When they took a 21-14 lead, they had a real chance.  But the defense adjusted and the Loggers did not get much going after that.

Mike Allan deserves a lot of credit.  It would've been easy for him to get caught up in the Hula Hoopla, but he was clearly focused on what needed to get done today.  His first TD showed what makes him great.  At his size, he just outsprinted the UPS DBs.

Looking forward to having Oxy or anyone in the Pine Bowl next week.

Linfield fans, thanks for the kind words.  The Cats (and PLU before) certainly have set a high standard for post season play.

[speedybigboy]

Pineconefan,

Here's one Lute fan hoping you go all the way!  A third school from the NWC winning the championship would show the strength of the conference.  I hope the players are not satisfied with a conference championship and playoff berth.  The write up on the website seems that way.  Of course that's a writer and not the players and coaches. 

I didn't know that Kirk Westre was a member of your staff until your post.  We were both walkons at PLU in 1980.

Good luck next week vs OXY or whomever!

GO PIRATES

[speedybigboy]

Hey, I made second-stringer, now that's a position I'm comfortable with! 

Do I get to give Karma now?  How does that work?  I searched around the site and couldn't find the answer.  I feel like my name is EARL.

[coco]

Speedy,

I think you have to get up to 200 posts before you have karma abilities.

[Foss]

Maybe it's a good thing W&J won today, it saves 'Cat fans from what probably would have been false hope tomorrow (although it still might have been interesting to see for sure). Congrats to Coach Smith on a fine first season and I'm sure many more to come. It appears next year's 'Cat team will be strong.

Whitworth, nice win today against a team that was set on knocking you off. That's a good win to have going into the playoffs. Allan had an incredible day it sounds like. It reminds me of the UW-Stout coaches comments when he said there is not a team in DIII that won't have big time mismatch issues with him. Hopefully he, Clark, and that defense will carry you to a deep playoff run. A third team from the NWC making noise in the playoffs will only boost the rep of the conference. I'm wondering if the surprise upset Bethel had over St. Johns might even give you a second home game IF you get past Occidental. I guess we'll see tomorrow. Good luck 'Rats.........

[(509)Rat]

An exciting game today at the Pine Bowl.  UPS came out firing on all cylinders and the Pirate D came out flat.  The Pirate offense finally threw to Allan out of his three point stance at the tight end position and look what happened.  Heck, the Pirate offense finally started to throw to Allan period.  UPS was a better team than last year and that QB (freshman right?) is gonna be a force in that offense for years to come.  I'm glad UPS's program is on the upswing, it's good for the conference, but I do see a problem...I don't mean to bash UPS but this is something thats become more and more appearent to me the more I see UPS play...UPS will never win the NWC untill they run a more balanced offense.  If you were watching the game today, you knew that after UPS's first series after being down a couple of scores that there was no way they were going to be able to come back and win.  What is the coaches reasoning behind running a wing T type offense anyways?  Do any of the UPS posters know the logic behind this?  If you really want to run 80% of the time you could at least run a Rich Rodriguez like spread option attack, to keep defenses out of the box.  Enough of my ranting.  Congrats UPS on a good season.  Linfield will be back, its a given when you have 120+ guys in your program.  GO RATS, beat Oxy and nobody will have to listen to OxyBob and Tooth go on and on about Occidental.

P.S.-I hope you weren't involved Hatchetman, but several of the UPS fans were the rudest people I've ever heard at a football game.  They acted like a student section with obsenities flying left and right.  Luckily there weren't too many kids in that general area.

[Sabretooth Tiger]

GO RATS, beat Oxy and nobody will have to listen to OxyBob and Tooth go on and on about Occidental.

You mean sort of like the way that all of the 'Cat nation has gone quiet . . . NOT.

Dude, you're sadly mistaken if you think that in the unlikely event of a 'Rat victory over the Tigers that OB, I or any true Oxy fan will fade into the night . . .

What will happen is that we'll be come fans of the winner of the round 1 Oxy game, be it the Tigers, 'Rats or whomever, much like our Linfield friends are now 'Rat fans.  From there we'll support whoever reps the West as far as they'll go.  Once the playoff run is over, we'll migrate to the hoops board until next year when we'll be back in full force.

I'll stop going "on and on about Occidental" when I'm dead an buried, and not a day before.

Oh yea, one more thing . . . Oxy down 30-14 tonight and then comes back to win 34-30 . . . down 21-0 to Cal Lu and comes back to win 28-27.  It's called character.  Never count the Tigers out while there's time on the clock.

IO TRIUMPHE!

tooth

[speedybigboy]

Speedy,

I think you have to get up to 200 posts before you have karma abilities.

coco, thanks

I guess you'll have to put up with more of my inane comments then before I start handing out Karma.