FB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[LadyTiger]

<"I still cant figure out how CMS beat CLU......I guess that is why they play the games on Saturday!">

I have also heard, from a very reliable source, that a fairly large number of Cal Lu starters where benched for at least the first half of the first quarter. Rumor has it that there were some mid-week social decisions that are not acceptable of players trying to win a conference championship. I think everyone around the league (excluding CMS of course) was sad to hear of the first loss. If Cal Lu had managed to go undefeated in league, besides the loss to Oxy, there was an outside, underdog, cross your fingers, shot that they might get a playoff bid.

There has also been talk that the Cal Lu coaches yelled and screamed at the players during half-time of the Oxy game. Pointing out mistakes (which as far as I could tell where few and far between) and dragging the guys down.

Seems to me that coaching decisions may have cost Cal Lu a conference championship. Now, I love my Tigers and I love the fact that they came back and won that game, but they also made a lot of mistakes. In the end, I think that coaching really was the deciding factor. Widolf's half time speech was obviously very inspiring.......I just wonder what the feeling was coming out of the other locker room.....

And Oxy fans, no worries.....the boys are practicing as hard as ever. They are actually still in full pads at least twice a week. They are extremely focused on maintaining the possibility of a home playoff game.

-LT

[OXY Oswald]

LT -

It's not all half-time speechs and hollering at half time.  Some adjustments were made on both sides of the ball to help the Tigers take advantage of what they saw and had trouble stopping in the first half.  There were also obvious mental mistakes by the Tigers and breakdowns on defense.  Cal Lu is the type of team where that kind of crap doesn't fly. 

A great comeback aside, it seems like they really dodged a bullet.  Good to hear their focused and ready to close out the season strong and roll into the playoffs.

[DawgFan1]

Browneagle and OxyBob, I know you aren't enemies of Redlands. I should have said competitors. All in good fun guys. We need some down time before the heavy duty words start flying on Friday regarding "who will do what to whom" Saturday afternoon.

[LadyTiger]

Oswald-

I've been in enough locker rooms at halftime to understand that there is a lot of strategizing and tweaking done in that short period of time. But I also know that it can get very frustrating to play for a coach who can never seems to give praise where praise is due.

All I'm saying is that if the Cal Lu guys were criticized at halftime rather than encouraged to keep up the good work, they may have been frustrated even before the first Oxy march down the field.

I have been on both sides of big comebacks and coaching plays a huge factor in the mental ability to mount or quell a comeback.

-LT

[DawgFan1]

"Enemies of Redlands" . . . .     
??

What in the world would make you think that some of us are enemies of UOR? Didn't you ever read that i was a big fan of Saras....
Don't get to sensitive man, I really do hope that UOR pulls out some more wins, but at times, the return to confusion sometimes turns out to hurt the team.

Browneagle64: I thought Andy Colins was your guy, like all the Oxy fans. Why would you be a fan of Saras since he is the opposing QB?

[dawg gone it]

Is Bob .......an Oxy tiger.....anything like Tony the Tiger?

[D O.C.]

I would be hard pressed to guess why a coach would drag his team down when they were up on a highly nationally ranked team by 17 points.

It IS a fact that the California Lutheran coach was very hoarse and felt a need to yell to be heard.

It IS also a fact if one is going to break stories on a board like this they had best be tied down for the ensuing storm. $.02

[Browneagle64]

Dawgfan-----

The only reason why i said i was a fan of saras was because he did a good job last year when he came to the rock. However, because of the confusion that's going on with the Offense, his potential was not truely unlocked. Same goes with the other UOR kids. In addition, off the field i don't hate anyone. Only on the field

Btw---I know i should wait for the b-ball season, but with the home stretch with football in full swing, its just awesome to see that the Oxy b-ball team is pre- ranked as Number #20. Hey tooth or bob, when was the last time Oxy had both programs ranked in the the top 25 at the same time btw?

[DawgFan1]

Dawgfan-----

In addition, off the field i don't hate anyone. Only on the field

I agree that off the field we are all good guys. On the field is another story. Just like driving in Southern California. The nicest person gets into their car and "instant a-hole".

[EastCoastStag]

It's getting rather anoying and somewhat pathetic to hear the whole "I can't believe that CLU lost to CMS." To say the starters were missing in the first quarter and that was the reason---- EXCUSE. Get over it OXY fans, CLU fans. That is a terrible excuse. Because when the starters came back in, they still mananged to not win and not move the ball very effectively in the 2nd half. Regardless of their playing time they did not execute. Find a better excuse or realize that on that day there was a better team. As for our loss at Redlands, I said we were missing the starting QB. However, I listed a whole other laundry list of reasons we did not win. Stop making excuses for a team that failed to do their job.
Obviously they have a problem with execution. IF they were indeed a top team, they could have held off OXY. Stop looking at their losses and start looking more at the details that went into the loss. As much as I wanted to see a 2nd bid, CLU will be better served seeing why they lost instead of using excuses. Next year they will still be at the top. And that's one hell of a win for OXY, a tuneup for playoffs.

[CRZK]

Ok, the regional rankings are out and I am confused.  Maybe Pat can help with this.

It seems that when playoff time comes around everyone starts talking about QOWI and the Holy Grail.  Fair enough.  Who does the regional rankings?  Are they tied to QOWI?  Obviously not.  Latest QOWI has Oxy as the 4th highest in the West with a 10.714.  They are followed close behind by Warburg and Bethel with 10.625 and 10.5.

Whitworth is way down at at 9.429.  In fact Linfield is higher at 10.2.

Look at the regional ratings.  Oxy is 6th behind Whitworth and UW.  Bethel and Wartburg are at the bottom.  Linfield is behind Whitworth.  Doesn't make any sense to me.  In fact if I were a Bethel and Wartburg fan I would tend to believe they are being screwed over.

I know there are several key games coming up.  Especially Whitworth vs Linfield so let's throw their rankings out of the mix for right now.  That still doesn't explain the rest of the ratings.  For example if we went by QOWI the west looks like

UW-Whitewater
Central
St. John's
Occidental
Wartburg
Bethel
Linfield
UW-Platteville
UW-La Crosse
Whitworth.

[CRZK]

To expand on the rankings question.

Central beat Wartburg in a close 1 ot game.  Bethel had a loss in league play to a team that played the Johnnies tough.  They also have a key match up Nov 11 vs the Johnnies.  Of course mentioned Whitworth and Linfield coming up as well.

With that said my take on the west would be

UW-Whitewater
Central
St. John's
Wartburg
Occidental
Linfield/Whitworth? (toss up, but lean to Linfield)
Bethel
Whitworth/Linfield?
UW-Platteville
UW-La Crosse

[scandihoovian]

It's getting rather anoying and somewhat pathetic to hear the whole "I can't believe that CLU lost to CMS." To say the starters were missing in the first quarter and that was the reason---- EXCUSE. Get over it OXY fans, CLU fans. That is a terrible excuse. Because when the starters came back in, they still mananged to not win and not move the ball very effectively in the 2nd half. Regardless of their playing time they did not execute. Find a better excuse or realize that on that day there was a better team. As for our loss at Redlands, I said we were missing the starting QB. However, I listed a whole other laundry list of reasons we did not win. Stop making excuses for a team that failed to do their job.
Obviously they have a problem with execution. IF they were indeed a top team, they could have held off OXY. Stop looking at their losses and start looking more at the details that went into the loss. As much as I wanted to see a 2nd bid, CLU will be better served seeing why they lost instead of using excuses. Next year they will still be at the top. And that's one hell of a win for OXY, a tuneup for playoffs.

ECS-

I don't think there's been a CLU fan on here making excuses for anything, and it's poor form for you to infer otherwise.  There have been some Oxy supporters trying to figure out why the Kingsmen lost to Claremont and then came very close to beating their Tigers, they're the folks speculating about benched players and so forth.

[SmittyBoy]

Oswald-

I've been in enough locker rooms at halftime to understand that there is a lot of strategizing and tweaking done in that short period of time. But I also know that it can get very frustrating to play for a coach who can never seems to give praise where praise is due.

All I'm saying is that if the Cal Lu guys were criticized at halftime rather than encouraged to keep up the good work, they may have been frustrated even before the first Oxy march down the field.

I have been on both sides of big comebacks and coaching plays a huge factor in the mental ability to mount or quell a comeback.

-LT

I would agree getting criticized at half when ur doing good may frustrate u...but against a team like Oxy you cant just assume the game is won...You cant just go in to the locker room and act like everything is fine and dandy..there is a hungry embarrassed Oxy team with alot of pride who do not want to give up the crown...by giving out too much praise way to early would allow a team to get complacent..

[downtown48]

According to the NCAA Championshp handbook, I think these are the people that compile the West Region rankings.  I would imagine each individual fights pretty hard for their conference or school in some cases, but with the rest of them there to call bullsh*t they look to do a pretty good job.  As soon as Linfield takes care of Whitworth this weekend they'll have them almost right on! 


West Evaluation Region
Al Dorenkamp, Central College (Iowa), cochair
Mike Maynard, University of Redlands, cochair
Steve Johnson, Bethel College
Eric Raeburn, Coe College
Scott Squires, California Lutheran University
Larry Terry, University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse
John Tully, Whitworth College
Greg Wallace, Grinnell College