FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ron Boerger]

Congrats to this week's SCAC Players of the Week:

BURT PEREIRA OF MILLSAPS COLLEGE, a 6-0, 160-pound senior receiver from Bush, La., has been named the SCAC Football Offensive Players-of-the-Week for games played Saturday, September 27.

Pereira hauled in a career-high 10 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns in the Majors' 49-2 win at conference foe Rhodes.

His 138 receiving yards are a single-game high for a Millsaps receiver this season.

Pereira's touchdowns spanned five and seven yards and were the fifth and sixth touchdowns of his career.

- * - * - * -

ZACK SLOAN OF CENTRE COLLEGE, a 5-11, 196-pound junior corner back from Lebanon, Ind., has been selected the SCAC Football Defensive Player-of-the-Week for games played Saturday, September 27.

Sloan notched five tackles, intercepted two passes, broke up one pass, and recovered a fumble in Centre's 22-17 win at Austin College.

His first interception ended Austin's second drive of the game at Centre's 2-yard line and his second interception came at the end of the game to foil Austin's comeback attempt.

- * - * - * -

CALEB URBAN OF TRINITY UNIVERSITY, a 6-1, 200-pound junior wide receiver/kick returner from Victoria Texas., has been selected the SCAC Football Special Teams Player-of-the-Week for games played Saturday, September 27.

Urban returned the second half kick 100 yards for a touchdown to spark Trinity to a 35-10 win over SCAC foe Colorado College. His kickoff extended the Tigers lead to 21-3 and helped deflate any Colorado College comeback attempt.

Urban is the first Trinity player to return a kickoff for a touchdown since his older brother – Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Jerheme Urban – returned a kickoff for a score against St. John's in the 2002 NCAA Division III Playoffs.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph, I for one WAS there!  As I WAS at the Ice Bowl in GB in 1967.  And I WAS at Milw Cty Stadium the last time my Brewers were in the World Series! 

I just googled "Miracle" "Mississippi" and got 6,270,000 citations.  (That is close to the number of times that the Trinity loyalists voted on the ESPYS).

I know! And you have had a large part in making it possible for the "tens of thousands" that weren't there to recall that game as vividly as if we were there.

Shucks!  Some of us even voted early and voted often for the ESPYS!      

[Tex]

I voted a few times for the pontiac play of the year thing last year.  Free money is good. 

[frank_ezelle]

Congratulations to Burt Pereira on the POTW honor and to the Millsaps team for making the biggest leap this year week in the top-25, going from 19th to 13th (http://www.d3football.com/top25/2008/week-4).  

Since my D3 football knowledge is limited to watching Millsaps and the teams they play, I have no idea if that #13 ranking is close to reality.  Obviously the voters see something a little extra besides just this week's win for them to push Millsaps so high, so fast.  If I had to guess the reason for the big jump, I would guess at these three things:

--People are noticing that Millsaps has a defense to go along with their offense.  Sometimes the big number up front makes causes people to miss the low number in the back of the score:  42-6 vs MS College, 34-14 vs Belhaven, 42-7 vs Austin, and 49-2 vs Rhodes.

--While Millsaps had a big win this week, maybe the big jump was due more to the close game between MS College and Hardin-Simmons.  While comparing scores against like opponents is a very inexact science, Millsaps did beat MS College 42-6 when they had Adam Shaffer and Hardin-Simmons only won 35-27 in a Shaffer-less game.  Also, Desmond Mays had 30 rushes for 189 yards last week and only 34 yards on 13 carries against Millsaps.  

--And maybe one other factor is that Millsaps has really been a dominant team for the last 21 games.  Millsaps is just a decision and a miracle away from being a team with a 21-game regular season winning streak.  In the 19 wins during that stretch, only the 2006 Rhodes game was less than a 2-touchdown win.  (Yes, they did lose the NCAA game in 2006, but that was a Millsaps team with no depth and virtually no healthy running backs at the end of the year.    I think they were running on fumes by the time they got to Carnegie Mellon.)

Does all of this add up to a team being the 13th best team in the nation?  I don't know and I'd just as soon have Trinity at 13 and Millsaps at 19--more motivation for us and less for Trinity, but that game is still a month away from now.  I expect a tough game this weekend against DePauw and that might shed a lot more light on just where the Millsaps offense and defense are at the moment.

[Ron Boerger]

I guess you'll like the latest AFCA poll, Frank.  Trinity moved up to 13th, Millsaps to 14th.   The two teams are separated by 8 points among the 40 voters; last week, it was 14 points. 

Other South Region teams:

3.  UMHB
9.  W&J
11.  Hardin-Simmons
18.  Wesley
21.  Del Valley
23.  Salisbury

RV:  Hampden-Sydney, WashU, CNU, DePauw, Louisiana College

[frank_ezelle]

Actually, I do like this poll even better since it has two SCAC teams in the top 15 and another team receiving votes.  The SCAC championship will be decided on the field between DePauw, Millsaps, and Trinity (plus any other team that gets in the act as a spoiler), so polls don't matter at all in determining who is best in the conference. 

I do think polls serve to show the respect a conference has around the nation and it's good to see 3 SCAC getting some notice.  I'd really like to see 2 SCAC teams get into the playoffs this year and I think that will happen.

[exmajor]

Frank,

Pat and Keith had some good commentary on this week's podcast regarding some of the items you discussed in your post.  Keith did mention that this team was a one point loss and miracle away from a 10-0 season.  A lot of their discussions was where do you rank a team like this.  I too was surprised at the 6 point jump, but am glad to see it for the school and the SCAC!  I would not mind seeing Trinity in this spot on the poll either, but before the Majors focus on that showdown in November that could decide the conference for the third year in a row, I am much more concerned about Depauw this week and Centre in KY next week.  These will not be easy games for the Majors and could make the November game a mute point!

[Ron Boerger]

Frank,

Pat and Keith had some good commentary on this week's podcast regarding some of the items you discussed in your post.  Keith did mention that this team was a one point loss and miracle away from a 10-0 season.  A lot of their discussions was where do you rank a team like this.  I too was surprised at the 6 point jump, but am glad to see it for the school and the SCAC!  I would not mind seeing Trinity in this spot on the poll either, but before the Majors focus on that showdown in November that could decide the conference for the third year in a row, I am much more concerned about Depauw this week and Centre in KY next week.  These will not be easy games for the Majors and could make the November game a mute point!

Even if Millsaps should slip against one team, the November game would still be in play as with a two-way tie the team that wins H2H gets the Pool A bid.  Millsaps is unlikely to have a problem with a Centre team that barely got by Austin and lost handily to DPU. 

I don't see Millsaps slipping, tho. 

[exmajor]

Frank,

Pat and Keith had some good commentary on this week's podcast regarding some of the items you discussed in your post.  Keith did mention that this team was a one point loss and miracle away from a 10-0 season.  A lot of their discussions was where do you rank a team like this.  I too was surprised at the 6 point jump, but am glad to see it for the school and the SCAC!  I would not mind seeing Trinity in this spot on the poll either, but before the Majors focus on that showdown in November that could decide the conference for the third year in a row, I am much more concerned about Depauw this week and Centre in KY next week.  These will not be easy games for the Majors and could make the November game a mute point!

Even if Millsaps should slip against one team, the November game would still be in play as with a two-way tie the team that wins H2H gets the Pool A bid.  Millsaps is unlikely to have a problem with a Centre team that barely got by Austin and lost handily to DPU. 

I don't see Millsaps slipping, tho. 

I agree Ron, Millsaps should not slip, but Depauw is the best team they have faced this year, unless Mississippi College was just way off.  I will feel a lot more comfortable with the ranking after a win against the Tigers from Depauw.  The Centre game in KY will be the first long road trip for the team and just screams classic "trap" game.  Just trying to avoud counting the chickens before they hatch.  It should be down to the game in November for the SCAC title again.

[Ralph Turner]

There is one other thing to keep in the back of your minds about the MissColl game.

Sometimes there are rivalry blowouts that occur when the momentum swings so quickly, and so strongly, that the other team cannot catch up.

I am not yet ready to call MissColl that good, but if they Choctaws end up 7-3 and Millsaps doesn't run the table, then I will re-evaluate the Backyard Brawl from that perspective.

[Tex]

Polls are great fun for fans and website publishers.  Gives the writers something to write about and message board junkies something about which to pontificate. 

I told my son the Trinity rank last week and his reply was "that's cool, I didn't know that."  Granted he's a freshman, but I'm guessing the players really don't give a rat's rear end. 




Thought for the day:  Thank God for mandatory knee braces for O-linemen! 

[Tex]

We had a fun JV game last night versus UHMB.  Good defensive struggle.  There must have been 100+ Cru that showed up in San Antonio.  Good crowd on both sides.  I enjoyed it.  HistoryMajor actually was broadcasting it on the net.  Thanks to him for that!  Final score 7-6 in favor of TU.   

[frank_ezelle]

There is one other thing to keep in the back of your minds about the MissColl game.

Sometimes there are rivalry blowouts that occur when the momentum swings so quickly, and so strongly, that the other team cannot catch up.

I am not yet ready to call MissColl that good, but if they Choctaws end up 7-3 and Millsaps doesn't run the table, then I will re-evaluate the Backyard Brawl from that perspective.

In defense of the Choctaws, let me point out that they haven't had the easiest of schedules.  The 3 losses have all been road games, not very significant vs. Millsaps, but a long road trip to Kentucky and Texas on the other two.  Millsaps is in the top 15 of the D3 polls.  The University of the Cumberlands is 17th in the NAIA poll, and Hardin-Simmons is 21st in the D3 polls. 

While the loss to the U of the Cumberlands looks decisive at 49-28, MC did outgain Cumberlands by a total of 330 yards to 233.  That wasn't enough to overcome 8 turnovers and 3 interceptions returned for TDs.  They also had their chances to tie Hardin-Simmons near the end, failing to score after driving to the HSU 1-yard line.

The bottom line is that MS College is 1-3 against a schedule that would leave a lot of pretty good teams sitting at 1-3.  I think they have shown that they are a pretty good team and I won't be surprised if they finished the year 6-4 (I think everyone would be stunned if they finished at 7-3 considering the trip to UMHB in a few weeks).

[Ralph Turner]

...
...  I think they have shown that they are a pretty good team and I won't be surprised if they finished the year 6-4 (I think everyone would be stunned if they finished at 7-3 considering the trip to UMHB in a few weeks).

6-2 in the ASC leaves them in 3rd place (if there are no ties).

[Major_Fan]

Millsaps' Denarold Anderson named to D3football.com TOTW (first time of career).
http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/football/100108story.shtml

Also, congrats to Caleb Urban (TU), Zack Sloan (Centre) and Alex Fitch (DePauw) who were also named.

On a side note, Joseph (27-of-42, 300 yds, school-record 6 TDs) snubbed again off list.  Just fighting for our QB here who has been phenominal for Millsaps in 25 games as a starter and has broken almost every single-game, season and career passing record.  You would think he'd hit the list at least once.

Should be a great game in Jackson on Saturday (Millsaps 4-0 vs DePauw 3-0).  We welcome everyone to watch the webcast!
http://www.atwsportscast.com/Colleges/Millsaps%20College.htm