FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

allsky7, after your comment, I looked at the records.

I think the performances of Maryville, NCWC and CNU seem stronger than E&H and BC, so far.

The Centennial looks very weak this year.

However, we can follow this one.  8)

[moshergc9]

Its been a busy week but I just had a minute to check this thing out.

Impressed that Methodist put up 47.

SU also looks like they are improving.

Greensboro, Qb getting some experience.   I coached in the east coast of nc and know the talent level is pretty high compared to the rest of the country.  Its a tough game to gauge how Greensboro played without seeing it.  My guess is that UNC pemprooke would be a .500 team in the USAC.

CNU,  Its tough to travel but it is good experience if u make it to the playoffs. 

Ferrum,  Way to early to tell onthem boys, but the option is run by the qb.

Mville, didnt know the comp

Averett, Mount will do it to you.

NC Wes,  Im glad they are starting slow...but, the tougher teams u play early the better u play late.


Roll Pride

[allsky7]

allsky7, after your comment, I looked at the records.

I think the performances of Maryville, NCWC and CNU seem stronger than E&H and BC, so far.

The Centennial looks very weak this year.

However, we can follow this one.  8)

     True...the Centennial may well be weak. As I stated in my post about the H-S/ Gettysburg game, I thought it was the best all around Tiger game in several years. BUT....we don't really know how good GC is. (or Hopkins or  other CC teams)
     My feeling is CNU is a good football team despite the spanking they took Saturday. If any team in the USA South or ODAC makes noise in the post season, it will likely be them. No dis intended to NCWC or other USA South teams but I am not sold yet. I will be happy to come back and face the music if things change in coming weeks. I'm sure there will be a few folks that will remind me also.  I am tickled to death Maryville is 2 and 0. (first time 2 and 0 since 1985 when allsky7 was a Fighting Scot  Unfortunately, after losing our star RB, we finished 3-7  )  A great win on the road at Centre Saturday but they were very fortunate with 6 TO's. A W is a W but I was a little discouraged after reading the write up. They will need a much better effort next Saturday against Huntington.
     Anyway, without getting long winded and breaking down all my thoughts, my post was a little science and a lot gut. I'm sure yours was more scientific than mine. Guess half the fun is the speculation and then watching it unfold. I am a graduate and fan of both conferences so it should be fun 8)

[TXMike]

Staying there Fri and going to game on Sat.

You should try the seafood. I bet Riverwalk has good stuff.

I'm from Texas, what the heck do I know about seafood??  BBQ or steak for me.  (And Mexican  but I am not even going to do that over there)   

[PrideSportBBallGuy]

CNU falls to #20 from #12.  That shows a lot of respect still exists for the Captains.

CNU is still the favorite to win the USASouth in my mind.  It might be a little more wide open than what many of us orginally believed.

I think what CNU has done in the past has alot to do with thier ranking right now.

Like beating Rowan in Week 1? Absolutely.

I thought in my mind the jump was too high after week 1 win.  They like Springfield have a "surface" in which they play better, and that is Pomoco. When CNU plays at home, they almost can't be beaten. Has CNU ever lost a conference game at home yet?

There I said it, CNU was overratted in the last poll. Near the 20-25 range is probably where they belong and those rankings are more within the realm of reality.  I didn't really think the game was going to be close, not because I didn't think the CNU is good, but because they were not going to be in the safe confines of Pomoco. I am not trying to rip CNU, because I still think they are going to win the conference.  I just didn't think they were going to beat UMHB in TX.

[Pat Coleman]

Yes, no doubt exacerbated by the fact that so many ranked teams didn't play in Week 1.

However, to equate the "surface" at Pomoco to the home artificial turf of a team built to play on turf is overreaching. You could've learned more about Division III football if you'd picked up Kickoff.

[ProudFightingScot]

allsky7, after your comment, I looked at the records.

I think the performances of Maryville, NCWC and CNU seem stronger than E&H and BC, so far.

The Centennial looks very weak this year.

However, we can follow this one.  8)

     True...the Centennial may well be weak. As I stated in my post about the H-S/ Gettysburg game, I thought it was the best all around Tiger game in several years. BUT....we don't really know how good GC is. (or Hopkins or  other CC teams)
     My feeling is CNU is a good football team despite the spanking they took Saturday. If any team in the USA South or ODAC makes noise in the post season, it will likely be them. No dis intended to NCWC or other USA South teams but I am not sold yet. I will be happy to come back and face the music if things change in coming weeks. I'm sure there will be a few folks that will remind me also.  I am tickled to death Maryville is 2 and 0. (first time 2 and 0 since 1985 when allsky7 was a Fighting Scot  Unfortunately, after losing our star RB, we finished 3-7  )  A great win on the road at Centre Saturday but they were very fortunate with 6 TO's. A W is a W but I was a little discouraged after reading the write up. They will need a much better effort next Saturday against Huntington.
     Anyway, without getting long winded and breaking down all my thoughts, my post was a little science and a lot gut. I'm sure yours was more scientific than mine. Guess half the fun is the speculation and then watching it unfold. I am a graduate and fan of both conferences so it should be fun 8)

Just to add to what Allsky was saying about Maryville, it is also the frist time Maryville has beaten Centre in over 10 years.  They are just finding ways to win.

[PrideSportBBallGuy]

"surface" was used as a metaphor to say they play well at home, as does springfield when they play at home, which happens to be turf for Springfield. They play well at home is my point.  Considering not many ranked teams played in Week 1, there was no need for CNU to jump so much. Yeah they deserved a little bit of respect, but not that much considering they played at Pomoco.  Pat even you stated that playing surface affects how a team plays, CNU's surface is nothing special but the field/stadium has made teams slower/not as affective.  Just ask UMHB last year.  A CNU fan said UMHB was a fast team.  The speed was lost last year at UMHB.  Then again maybe losing so much on offense for CNU had something to do with it. That led some reservations in my part of why CNU was ranked preseason. I don't need to buy the Kickoff to know something about d3football (although I did plan on it, but decided to use that money towards my Olive Garden meal) Its only the second week, but what I have said so far has come true. So I will make more statements

Wesley will lose within the next 3 weeks. They travel to Widener this week, I believe it will be this week.  I'd say within the next three weeks Wesley will lose.

CNU will probably blow away Salisbury this weekend. I guarantee a win by at least 10 more points.

E&H game will be a good game this weekend, but I think NCWC will not pull out a win. If they do it will be late in the game.

I have mentioned other things in prior posts about teams from the USASouth, just read them to see my thoughts.

[hasanova]

Pat, once again, Abraham Maslow's landmark 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, has demonstated the accuracy of the Heirarchy of Needs.  Sadly, you now know d3football.com's Kickoff is not in the base physiological tier with food at Olive Garden.    If Kickoff was more "affective", perhaps we'd all rather have draws, sacks and passes instead of breadsticks, soup and salad!  Ciao!

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

the su defense must be pretty legit...

Hmm, that's a tough call.  Credit the Hornets for giving the Eagles another tough game, but Bridgewater still had 400 yards of offense, averaged 5.6 yards per carry, and our QB was 15-of-19 passing (no INTs).

The reason the score was 20-6 were the three fumbles inside the 25-yard line by the Eagles.  So I suppose it could have been a 37-6 or even 41-6 game had we not fumbled.

But all three fumbles were created by the SU defenders stripping at the ball.  They were made when the BC players were making a move in the open field.  So all credit goes to the SU defenders for creating the fumbles.

[Pat Coleman]

I'm also impressed by the reiterative analysis that Wesley will lose in the next three weeks. We've been saying that since day one, noting their first five games were the equivalent of running the gantlet for a new quarterback starter.

[PrideSportBBallGuy]

I'm also impressed by the reiterative analysis that Wesley will lose in the next three weeks. We've been saying that since day one, noting their first five games were the equivalent of running the gantlet for a new quarterback starter.

I didn't even need to buy a Kickoff, to draw that conclusion of Wesley.  If this QB is going to be going through the gantlet this season and knowing there is a new QB at Wesley, why are they ranked so high in the polls, when a loss is inevitable by the statement you just made about Wesley.  Thier loss will surely knock them down in the polls, therefore Wesley based on the current polls is overratted.

So where do I believe they should be?, around 15th in the poll. They are still the team to beat in thier conference until someone knocks them off, as is CNU.  Wesley should be ranked, where really, not 6th.

I think the poll for d3 is ok, and there will always be debates about any poll.  I for one never thought Michigan should have been ranked #5, they had a very young defense. That is a differnt story for a different board.  I trust the d-1 polls just as much as i trust the QOWI.

[CNU85]

Pat, once again, Abraham Maslow's landmark 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, has demonstated the accuracy of the Heirarchy of Needs.  Sadly, you now know d3football.com's Kickoff is not in the base physiological tier with food at Olive Garden.    If Kickoff was more "affective", perhaps we'd all rather have draws, sacks and passes instead of breadsticks, soup and salad!  Ciao!

Dang.....I didn't get all that. I always thought that was a children's story about someone's dog! Or was that his buddy Pavlov? 

[Uncle Jessie]

Saturday night I almost got that miracle I was hoping for. I wrote on here a few days ago that I hoped the Hornets would keep things close and perhaps a miracle would happen. Well no miracle but it was a very entertaining game. I was very impressed with how well SU played against a more powerful team. Barnes all of a sudden became pass happy in the 3rd quarter and as I wrote in the ODAC side a funny thing happened. The defending team was not able to jam the line and SU moved the ball down field. I hope he learned from this and we see more of him mixing things up in the future. SU is not going to win the conference this year as we all know but after looking at the team for two weeks I really think they could go 5-5. The defense is looking great. I'm very please with how they are looking so far in this young season. #41's son of BC sat next to me at the game. A great guy and I wish his son the best for the season.

The Winchester Star had a article on Saturdays game. "The current Shenandoah University football team probably doesn't remind anyone of the Hornets' teams that earned back-to-back co-conference championships in 2003 and 2004.That was a good thing Saturday night, because those teams never played Bridgewater College this tough." By Robert Niedzwiecki
The Winchester Star
http://www.winchesterstar.com/article_details.php?ArticleID=967

Also game pictures can be found on this web site. I emailed them this morning and they wrote back saying the pictures should be up some time this afternoon. http://www.whitepostsports.com/

I know things wont be any easier this week but I'm hoping the Hornets can make the home coming fans happy this weekend. GO HORNETS!!

[hasanova]

Pat, once again, Abraham Maslow's landmark 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, has demonstated the accuracy of the Heirarchy of Needs.  Sadly, you now know d3football.com's Kickoff is not in the base physiological tier with food at Olive Garden.    If Kickoff was more "affective", perhaps we'd all rather have draws, sacks and passes instead of breadsticks, soup and salad!  Ciao!

Dang.....I didn't get all that. I always thought that was a children's story about someone's dog! Or was that his buddy Pavlov? 

Hey, CNU85.  Pavlov and Maslow .... one caused dogs to salivate and one self-actualized at the top of a dogmatic pyramid.   Sounds as though both should have rested their dogs, eaten some hot dogs and watched eleven Bulldogs, Greyhounds or Terriers play with a pigskin!