FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[abnrgr]

"Never take counsel of your fears"....Patton told Lucien Truscott.........but I already picked CG-Q but they do not have the history but I am not changing...I am doing it for the $. HASA has almost 700K in Vegas going for CG-Q +2

[wesleydad]

making the trip to odac country, heading to bridgewater for their homecoming game against guilford.  always excited to see my friends at stone station and good football.  i will be interested to see how guilford is this year as it seems they are playing well so far.  bridgewater has struggled lately so i think this will be a good game.  if you are making the game i will be easy to find, i will be at the stone station tailgate with a wesley jersey on.  hope to meet some of you there.

[hasanova]

Final from Bridgewater:  GC 21, BC 14

Guess who's 3-0 in the ODAC and, equally surprising, guess who's 0-3?  With all the underclassmen on Guilford's roster, I'm willing to bet the Quakers aren't anyone's Homecoming opponent the next couple of years.

Nice job Quakers!

[Pat Coleman]

With all the underclassmen on Guilford's roster, I'm willing to bet the Quakers aren't anyone's Homecoming opponent the next couple of years.

http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/2013/09/25/scheduling-homecoming-its-not-done-that-way-anymore/

[hasanova]

"Never take counsel of your fears"....Patton told Lucien Truscott.........but I already picked CG-Q but they do not have the history but I am not changing...I am doing it for the $. HASA has almost 700K in Vegas going for CG-Q +2

Glad the Quakes won, abnrgr ... but really wish that $700k part was true also!  lol

[hasanova]

With all the underclassmen on Guilford's roster, I'm willing to bet the Quakers aren't anyone's Homecoming opponent the next couple of years.

http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/2013/09/25/scheduling-homecoming-its-not-done-that-way-anymore/

Thanks, Pat ... I missed that article in September and, as always, I learn something when you post!

[jknezek]

Fear th Quakes right now. They are coming on strong and just as important they are winning on the road. W&L gave RMC all they could handle but just didn't get it done. Turnovers and penalties are the mark of a mediocre season

[regaleagle]

BC is what the record states, average. As good as they looked early they now look that lethargic offensively. 50% in today's passing game doesn't get it done and low % on 3rd down conversion is death. Defense needs some help from the O if they are going to win again. They have more talent than is being shown. Time to evaluate for next year and get em ready.

[wesleydad]

made my annual trek to Bridgewater to see my Stone Station friends and got to see a good game.  Guilford is a nice team.  The QB makes plays that need to be made.  They do not do anything special on O and the D is ok.  There were plenty of opportunities for pass completion that the Bridgewater QB missed on.  They have a chance to win against Hampden and Macon if they keep playing within themselves.

As far as Bridgewater goes.  They have an excellent running back, #22, who ran for close to 100 yds in the first half and then only touched the ball 4 or 5 times in the second half.  Avg close to 5 yds per touch.  Turnovers hurt and a missed field goal didnt help either.  I would have to question the coaching decisions not to keep running the ball since it worked most of the first half.  In the end they are a 500 team.  Good enough to beat other avg teams, but not going to beat the top of the league.

[algernon]

BC is what the record states, average. As good as they looked early they now look that lethargic offensively. 50% in today's passing game doesn't get it done and low % on 3rd down conversion is death. Defense needs some help from the O if they are going to win again. They have more talent than is being shown. Time to evaluate for next year and get em ready.

I think it's fair to note that Bridgewater may have looked good in the early season only because they were playing 3 nonconference opponents (St. Vincent, Greensboro, and Ferrum) whose current combined record is 3-15.  Nonconference schedules don't get much weaker than Bridgewater's was.  If the Eagles had had the non-conference schedule that Washington and Lee had (Franklin and Marshall, Centre, and Sewanee), they'd probably be 1-5 or 0-6 now.  The Eagles are clearly a BELOW average DIII team this year.

Having said that, and as a person who has lots and lots of connections to Bridgewater alumni and staff, I am wanting to know if anyone understands what has happened to the Eagles?  At this point, they haven't won a conference title in 8 years.  For the last 7 years, their ODAC conference record has been 3-3 to 4-2 every year, and it appears very possible that they could lose 2 or 3 of their next 3 games and finish 2013 with an ODAC record between 2-5 and 0-7. 

I am wondering how to explain the trend here, because it is not a typical pattern for a team that has played in a national championship game, as the Eagles did in 2001, to remain great for 4 more years, then drop to average for 7 seasons, before continuing the fall to a season like this one, when the Eagles could end up last in the ODAC.  Is the recruiting different?  Has the institution changed?  Any ideas?  What do you think it will take to reverse the trend?

[jknezek]

Having said that, and as a person who has lots and lots of connections to Bridgewater alumni and staff, I am wanting to know if anyone understands what has happened to the Eagles?  At this point, they haven't won a conference title in 8 years.  For the last 7 years, their ODAC conference record has been 3-3 to 4-2 every year, and it appears very possible that they could lose 2 or 3 of their next 3 games and finish 2013 with an ODAC record between 2-5 and 0-7. 

I am wondering how to explain the trend here, because it is not a typical pattern for a team that has played in a national championship game, as the Eagles did in 2001, to remain great for 4 more years, then drop to average for 7 seasons, before continuing the fall to a season like this one, when the Eagles could end up last in the ODAC.  Is the recruiting different?  Has the institution changed?  Any ideas?  What do you think it will take to reverse the trend?

Teams rise and fall all the time. It's part of the natural pattern. One good recruiting class can make a difference and you can use it to build a few more classes, but if you don't get that big time player, or a couple of them, it's real hard to stay at the top. My take on Bridgewater has always been the same. One of those classes, I think 2001, was ridiculous. The couple classes following were pretty darn good, but it wasn't sustainable. There is nothing about Bridgewater that is all that different from the schools around it. And Coach Clark, while very good, isn't Larry Kehres, no one is. So he came in and built a very good program from a bad one, had a few amazing classes, but then tailed off back toward the norm.

The better question isn't why Bridgewater has reverted to a historical norm, but how they had those amazing years. I point to a recruiting class, but maybe some else thinks it was an assistant coach, or just a fluke. Who knows? But the atypical years aren't the ones where Bridgewater is a middle of the pack ODAC team, it's the years when they weren't....

Just to give you an idea, here is Bridgewater's conference record since 1990:

90: 1:3
91: 1:3
92: 2:3
93: 1:4
94: 0:5
95: 0:5
96: 3:2
97: 1:5
98: 0:6
99: 3:3
00: 5:1
01: 6:0
02: 6:0
03: 6:0
04: 6:0
05: 6:0
06: 4:2
07: 3:3
08: 3:3
09: 4:2
10: 4:2
11: 3:3
12: 4:3

Basically they were a bad team. They brought in Coach Clark who made them a very, very good ODAC team, which wasn't sustainable and now they are a mediocre ODAC team. So Coach Clark has made a huge difference to the program, but the 6-0 years are the interesting outlier.

FYI -- if you go back any further, only twice in the 1980s did Bridgewater win at least 2 ODAC games, '80 and '82. The rest of the decade was one win or fewer...

[algernon]

Good post, jknezek.  I agree that teams at their zenith sometimes regress toward the mean. 

Out of curiosity, I looked at the history of the other 7 teams that made the Quarterfinals in 2001, the year that Bridgewater barely lost the national championship to Mount Union, and discovered that Bridgewater hasn't done as well since 2006 as most of the other teams:

Mount Union - Was often a losing team from the end of World War II until the early 80s.  Coach Kehres arrived in 1986 and the Purple Raiders haven't lost more than 1 game in a season for 18 years straight, with 11 DIII national championships.

Rowan - have won at least 2/3rds of their games in 9 of the 12 seasons since 2001.  However, they haven't made the Playoffs since 2006.

St. John's - have won at least 2/3rds of their games in 9 of the 12 seasons since 2001.  Made the playoffs almost every year through 2009, but not since then.  Currently ranked #25 in the country.

Wittenberg - have won at least 2/3rds of their games in 9 of the 12 seasons since 2001.  Made the playoffs in 3 of the last 4 years.  Currently ranked #18 in the country.

Widener - up and down, but have won at least 2/3rds of their games in 6 of the 12 seasons since 2001.  Made the playoffs 5 of 11 years, including the last two years. 

Ithaca - won 2/3rds of their games in the next 8 years, with 5 playoff appearances, but down a bit in 2010, 2011, and 2012.  Currently 5-1 and getting some Top 25 votes.

Pacific Lutheran - up and down, but have won at least 2/3rds of their games in 8 of the 12 seasons since 2001.  Haven't made the playoffs since 2001.

Bridgewater - have won at least 2/3rds of their games in 9 of the 12 seasons since 2001.  Made the playoffs 4 straight years after their 2001 national championship game appearance, but haven't been to the NCAAS since 2005.

[odacsuperfan]

RMC vs W&L game was just what I thought. Pound and ground. W&L made a little comeback but just don't have the team as years past. Both teams well coached. RMC never seemed to panic or play out of control. This week should give us insight into who's the best team in the ODAC. Congrats RMC for a big victory ! Guilford hosts  RMC this week and then HSC the following week. RMC has played the only good team this year. A loss to John Hopkins. HSC lost to CNU but CNU is average at best.  Bottom Line is NONE of the 3 undefeated ODAC teams have played a worthy opponent this year except RMC and RMC lost. A 3 Team Race. If Guilford beats RMC and HSC back to back they deserve to be Champs !! Who is everyone picking for ODAC Champion ? Quakers , Tigers, or Yellow Jackets !

[algernon]

CNU is average at best.  Bottom Line is NONE of the 3 undefeated ODAC teams have played a worthy opponent this year except RMC and RMC lost.

CNU is up and down, but not average.  The Captains not only defeated #32 HSC, a team that is now 5-1, but they also beat #30 Salisbury, a team that has recently beaten #19 St. John Fisher and lost early in the season by only 3 to #11 Wesley. 

[regaleagle]

BC did look good and after the way they handled Greensboro and then Guilford needed a last min miracle to beat them you could draw some conclusions. Guilford is playing better and BC is playing worse. There is a difference in the play of the first three games and the play of the last three. It is the ability to complete passes and especially on 3rd down.
I think this is a great coaching staff and have great faith in their abilities. That said, I think they need to evaluate based on ability and potential that can be coached up. "It's a bottom line business" "competition makes some people freeze and energizes others". I like those quotes and believe they're true. Time to find out.