FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[crufootball]

What a tragedy, my prayers and thoughts go out to his family and his AC family

[HSU Football Commit]

Its a tragedy that cannot be put into words and being a player in D3 at HSU I truly know that this is a terrible loss. If AC is like any other college team this is a huge loss for the AC players, family and the whole campus. My thoughts prayers and condolences go to his family... I speak for all college athletes that this is a huge loss... My thoughts and prayers are with them all

[LA Major]

What a very sad loss.
I made 2 trips to Sherman and enjoyed the game experiences. Ironically the Roos played with such heart and never quit. We see these players play with such pure intention in DIII---just for the love of the game that each one of these guys are heros to me.
My thoughts and prayers are with his family, teammates, coaches and the Austin community.
Zach will never be forgotten.   

[D3_DPUFan]

Spring football workouts are around the corner. Question...does your team benefit from Spring workouts and if so, why?

[Ron Boerger]

From the SCAC website:

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Billy Blaustein, founder of the Cover One International initiative that provides ongoing community-service assistance in Honduras, has been named a recipient of a $7,500 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. 

Blaustein, a starting flanker for Colorado College last season, is one of only 15 football players nationwide to receive the prestigious scholarship this year. He is scheduled to graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in international political economy.

"I'm really excited about it," Blaustein said. "I'm planning to work for a couple of years, but then go to grad school to study advanced economics. I'd like to do something with economic development in developing countries."

The one-time, non-renewable grants are awarded annually to students who excel academically and athletically, and who are in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition. Only 29 apiece for men and women are available for each sports season (fall, winter and spring).

"We are thrilled that Billy has earned this prestigious scholarship," said Ken Ralph, director of athletics at CC. "It's wonderful that Billy's dedication to his academic pursuits and his commitment to the community at large has been rewarded."

To qualify for the scholarship, a student-athlete must have an overall grade-point average of 3.20 (on a 4.00 scale) and been a member of a varsity team. The student-athlete also must intend to continue academic work beyond the baccalaureate degree as a full-time or part-time graduate student.

Candidates are nominated by the school's faculty athletics representative, screened by regional selection committees, and the recipients are selected by the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Committee.

"I'm really thankful for all the support I've received from Coach Bodor, Ken Ralph and Greg Capell, everyone in the athletics department and everyone in the academic departments," Blaustein said. "It's been phenomenal."

[D3_DPUFan]

Just noticed DePauw has redesigned its athletics website...here's a link to the football site...I think it looks great (although not sure why they mixed in the old pictures with the ugly black helmets?!?!?)...

http://depauw.edu/ath/football/

[DPU3619]

I liked the black helmets.  I thought the black pants with black helmets was a very classic look.  Really liked the all black look when those were worn at home.  Kind felt there was some level of intimidation when you show up and your opponent is in black from head to toe.  Honestly, how many times in all those football movies are the good guys dressed in all black?

I do like the current gold helmets and pants with the black jerseys, but I don't much care for them with the road whites.

I imagine those two particular photos containing the old helmets were picked for the following reasons:

1) the first shot is a REALLY cool crowd shot from Monon in 2006 (would be a black tiger paw with a gold outline if it were 2004.)  I thumbed through the Monon shots from the '08 game and didn't find anything near that cool.  It's a nice touch with the Wabash campus in the background.

2) The final shot has Anderson players in it, which is who DPU plays in the opener.  DPU wouldn't have sent a photographer to the road game last year, so the last time the team was photographed playing them was in the black helmets in 2006.

[D3_DPUFan]

I liked the black helmets.  I thought the black pants with black helmets was a very classic look.  Really liked the all black look when those were worn at home.  Kind felt there was some level of intimidation when you show up and your opponent is in black from head to toe.  Honestly, how many times in all those football movies are the good guys dressed in all black?

I do like the current gold helmets and pants with the black jerseys, but I don't much care for them with the road whites.

I imagine those two particular photos containing the old helmets were picked for the following reasons:

1) the first shot is a REALLY cool crowd shot from Monon in 2006 (would be a black tiger paw with a gold outline if it were 2004.)  I thumbed through the Monon shots from the '08 game and didn't find anything near that cool.  It's a nice touch with the Wabash campus in the background.

2) The final shot has Anderson players in it, which is who DPU plays in the opener.  DPU wouldn't have sent a photographer to the road game last year, so the last time the team was photographed playing them was in the black helmets in 2006.

Ugh...not in agreement on this one, Wes. Reminds me of the stupid move Purdue made in the late '80s (Fast Freddy Akers) to go away from the traditional gold helmets to black...ugly...Jim Coletto didn't win many games, but he did return the Boilers to gold helmets! And the only time I can ever recall an all black uniform providing a level of intimidation is when the players inside the uniforms were intimidatring:)

Football is about tradition...DePauw is gold and black and a gold helmet is one of the sharpest helmets in the game, IMHO. Kudos to Coach Walker for returning to the traditional look.

Photos of the black helmets aside, I think they did a really nice job with the new site...I assume SID Bill Wagoner had something to do with it...one more example of why he is among the hardest working and very best at what he does, at any level, in the country!

[D3_DPUFan]

...perhaps it's a moot point. Just went to the DePauw football site and there are  new pictures...including a really cool shot of the Monon Bell, surrounded by players with gold helmets! Very nice...

[DPU3619]

Football is about tradition...DePauw is gold and black and a gold helmet is one of the sharpest helmets in the game, IMHO. Kudos to Coach Walker for returning to the traditional look.

The thing about that is DePauw hasn't necessarily been tradionally helmeted in gold.  There's black in their past, too.  I didn't like the 2006 helmets with the white paw on it, but the ones they wore from 2002-2005 with the black on black paw with the gold outline were my favorite.

Guess we'll agree to disagree.  I don't hate the gold helmets now, I just don't particularly like them with the white jerseys.

[D3_DPUFan]

I'm definitley a gold fan...but I agree with your take on the black helmets with the white paws...that's probably why I didn't like those so much...what do you think of the redesigned site, Wes?

[DPU3619]

I've liked the last two redesigns.  The gold the last time was good, and a big improvement over the previous look, which was a burgandy and white look that it shared with the rest of DPU's sites. 

Functionality really hasn't been the issue, because the basic structure has stayed the same throughout, and justifiably so, but I do think this all black look is much cleaner.  It looks nice.  I'd say it looks better than a lot of our conference's athletic sites.  Considerably more user friendly and a lot more professional looking than many others.  I do like Centre's and Colorado's, although they probably have D1 type talent working on their media stuff for their D1 sports.

[frank_ezelle]

From the SCAC website:

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Billy Blaustein, founder of the Cover One International initiative that provides ongoing community-service assistance in Honduras, has been named a recipient of a $7,500 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. 

Blaustein, a starting flanker for Colorado College last season, is one of only 15 football players nationwide to receive the prestigious scholarship this year. He is scheduled to graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in international political economy.

"I'm really excited about it," Blaustein said. "I'm planning to work for a couple of years, but then go to grad school to study advanced economics. I'd like to do something with economic development in developing countries."

The one-time, non-renewable grants are awarded annually to students who excel academically and athletically, and who are in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition. Only 29 apiece for men and women are available for each sports season (fall, winter and spring).

"We are thrilled that Billy has earned this prestigious scholarship," said Ken Ralph, director of athletics at CC. "It's wonderful that Billy's dedication to his academic pursuits and his commitment to the community at large has been rewarded."

To qualify for the scholarship, a student-athlete must have an overall grade-point average of 3.20 (on a 4.00 scale) and been a member of a varsity team. The student-athlete also must intend to continue academic work beyond the baccalaureate degree as a full-time or part-time graduate student.

Candidates are nominated by the school's faculty athletics representative, screened by regional selection committees, and the recipients are selected by the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Committee.

"I'm really thankful for all the support I've received from Coach Bodor, Ken Ralph and Greg Capell, everyone in the athletics department and everyone in the academic departments," Blaustein said. "It's been phenomenal."

Thanks Ron for that post.  It's a great story that unfortunately gets lost by coming in the offseason.  What a nice reflection on the type of student-athletes that participate in the SCAC, plus, the last line is a nice reflection on the type of coaches and administrators we have in the SCAC. 

On a totally different note, I saw something that struck me as odd on the Rhodes website:

Rhodes Website Poll Question:  Who is Rhodes biggest SCAC Rival:
A) Centre
B) Sewanee
C) Trinity
D) DePauw
E) Hendrix

No Millsaps on the list?  That once was a huge rivalry and I wonder if I'm dating myself by thinking that it still is a rivaly.  If Centre-Rhodes is a bigger rivalry than Millsaps-Rhodes then things have changed quite a bit.

[DPU3619]

Sewanee?  Orgill Cup?

[frank_ezelle]

There's a story on the Millsaps website about Receivers Coach David Johnson and Defensive Backs Coach Marcus Woodson leaving the Millsaps staff for new jobs at different schools.  Coach Johnson will be the Head Coach at St. Augustine High School in New Orleans and Coach Woodson will be the Defensive Backs Coach at Division I Charleston Southern University in Charleston, S.C.  The first game on their schedule in 2009 is against the Florida Gators.

It has been my impression that one of the appeals of coaching for Coach DuBose is the opportunity to mentor these assistant coaches and help them move up the coaching ladder.  While Coach Johnson and Coach Woodson will be greatly missed at Millsaps, I have a feeling that Coach DuBose is glad to see them move on to bigger and better things.  Here's the full story:

http://www.gomajors.com/news/2009/3/3/FB_0303091115.aspx