FB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[labart96]

Anyone else notice that CLU has cracked the Top 25 this week?

[Kingsmen4]

I did ;-)... I think everyone realizes that it diesnt matter. Without a win this week it will be short lived and tough to get back. Focus is on winning week 1 right now!

-go lu

[labart96]

I did ;-)... I think everyone realizes that it diesnt matter. Without a win this week it will be short lived and tough to get back. Focus is on winning week 1 right now!

-go lu

Agree.  I hope to catch the second half given my daughter's first soccer game of the year is at 12:45 in Calabasas.

[Sabretooth Tiger]

Nihon- where are you sir? I haven't heard any reasons for the Menlo loss?

I'll try and go a bit more in depth than my man ST:

First and foremost was special teams.  Coach Widolff prides himself on consistently having the best all-around special teams units in the SCIAC year-in and year-out.  It's a shame he won't be around to shape them up for a while.  I counted a blocked punt, shanked punt, botched fg snap, and sub-par kickoff coverage.  In addition, kickoff duties usually go to Josh Mun, but he hurt his leg a bit after the first kickoff, so Connor Smith had to replace him, resulting in shorter kickoffs, as Connor is more of a fg guy.  Once the frosh punter settled down he had a couple of good ones.

Next, Offense.  A few big plays, but no rhythm.  The timing looked way off with the receivers.  (Edit:  This will happen when you lose your top 6-7 WRs from last year).  As a result the little 5,7,10 yd short passes that the spread offense thrives off of were falling incomplete.  The run game actually looked decent with "Nasty" back and the O-line more experienced.  With the short passing game there to provide more continuity, I expect the offense to make leaps and bounds in coming games.

Defense.  For the most part, they were victims of bad field position and no rest.  Not terrible considering the pick six and last minute essentially meaningless TD running up the score.  Once Jim Hildensperger left early with an injury, the big Menlo O-line started gashing Oxy for 5-7yd runs up the middle with their RB who was crazy fast.  Usually Jim and Alex (Werth) both command double teams which obviously frees up the rest of the defense.  With Jim back and the (much) smaller SCIAC O-lines, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that doesn't happen again.  Saw some encouraging plays from the defensive backfield.

I thought Mun handled the FG we got early in the game, then the bad snap, then came out . . . am I off on this?

[Nihon Tiger]

I think he told me he hurt it on the first kickoff, then tried a couple more but was struggling b/c of the injury.  Smith replaced him for the last 2 according to the box score, and Mun continued to kick field goals.  Point being after the 1st kickoff they were all shorter than normal.

[CalCat]

I did ;-)... I think everyone realizes that it diesnt matter. Without a win this week it will be short lived and tough to get back. Focus is on winning week 1 right now!

-go lu

Agree.  I hope to catch the second half given my daughter's first soccer game of the year is at 12:45 in Calabasas.

TGP you might want to check the D3 Scoreboard before you head for Mt. Clef cuz it might be over by half

[OxyBob]

Nihon- where are you sir? I haven't heard any reasons for the Menlo loss?

I'll go out on a limb and answer for Nihon . . . because Menlo scored more points.    

We could go to Rick Neuheisel aka Captain Obvious for the analysis. Neuheisel offered this brilliant nugget of coaching wisdom after UCLA's loss to Kansas State:

"Had we played better, we win."

OxyBob

[Gray Fox]

We could go to Rick Neuheisel aka Captain Obvious for the analysis. Neuheisel offered this brilliant nugget of coaching wisdom after UCLA's loss to Kansas State:

"Had we played better, we win."

OxyBob

That is why he is a DI coach.

[Sabretooth Tiger]

I don't know, I think my nuanced view that ties in points scored with quality of play brings a hint of spice to the conversation.

[Kingsmen4]

Broadcast info for Saturday's Linfield/CLU Game:

http://www.callutheran.edu/tv/

[Sabretooth Tiger]

I think he told me he hurt it on the first kickoff, then tried a couple more but was struggling b/c of the injury.  Smith replaced him for the last 2 according to the box score, and Mun continued to kick field goals.  Point being after the 1st kickoff they were all shorter than normal.

He definitely got replaced on the later kickoffs, but for a moment I thought I'd totally imagined his FG performance.  Glad to know that I'm not completely hallucinating.

[Kingsmen4]

Prediction:

CLU - 27
Linfield - 24

In case you don't prefer e-mail, snail mail, or face to face communication, then "phone it in" 

-GO LU

[wildcat11]

Prediction:

CLU - 27
Linfield - 24

Thanks Nostradamus. 

[bluenote]

I think Cal Luth will be a lot like Occidental or Redlands a year or 3 ago....very tough, especially on their home field.

[stoonk]

I think Cal Luth will be a lot like Occidental or Redlands a year or 3 ago....very tough, especially on their home field.

Stoonk here:----Hey Bluenote-----will you be at CLU/LINFIELD GAME? Let me know so not to waste time looking for you !