FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[DPU3619]

Glad that's out of the way. 

MONON WEEK.

[frank_ezelle]

While I love the work done by the DePauw broadcast team, they have been saying all game that Trinity beating Centre will give DePauw the SCAC outright title.  Now they are talking about DePauw finally getting in the playoffs, a premature statement with a half to go at Trinity.

It's sort of amazing that they could be that unaware of the situation and the standings in the SCAC.

[DPU3619]

Coach Mohr is in the back of the playbook today.  Trinity drove down and tried a fake FG.  They had the guy open, but the holder couldn't get it to him.  Still 10-7 TU early 3rd.

Centre turns right around and fumbles it back to Trinity.  Davidson goes in from 1 yd out.  17-7 TU.

Centre drives it down inside the 10, but can't get in.  23 yd FG is good.  17-10 with 3:24 in the 3rd.

Trinity pins Centre at the 3, but then they just throw it 97 yards for a score.  17-17 12:17 left.

Chris Baer has happened.  64 yard TD run.  Up to 170 yards on 12 carries.  24-17. 11:17 left.

[Patriot_Pride]

Baer 64-yard run puts TU back up 24-17... he's now got 170 on the ground today. As much as I was looking for an Austin win today for us to get in, I'd rather TU beat Centre so that DePauw goes to the playoffs. They'll be a much better representative with their style of offense.

[DPU3619]

Centre turns it over on downs with 4:54 left.  Trinity driving.

[BashDad]

Things are looking good, Wes. Should be an exciting week.

[DPU3619]

Trinity kicked a field goal at the horn! 27-17 final!

PLAYOFFS!

[Ron Boerger]

Centre was in real trouble today after Pinque went out with a shoulder injury.  It really disrupted the Colonel offense which, with a couple of exceptions (e.g. 98 yd TD pass) could not get anything going consistently.  

Nice way for Chris Baer to end his home TU playing career.  The Trinity offense sputtered but thanks in large part to his hard running got enough points to overcome the three first-half fumbles.

Congratulations to DPU on their first SCAC playoff bid and good luck next week against Wabash!

And for any Centre parents who may have been at the game, my apologies for a few TU alums (primarily one) who did not represent the university well with abusive comments that do not belong at this level.  

[Tex]

TU launched a new website today. www.trinitytigers.com

congrats DeP on your playoff spot. Make us proud.

Today's game in SA...three fumbles lost in the first half. Should have been 31-0 at half. But shooting yourself in the foot never works well. Centre hung in there to their credit.

Starting center senior hooten was sitting out todaysgame for injury. Starting guard wassitting out for injury. Backup center goes down with an ankle the first or second drive. Hooten goes in and puts his pads on and plays final 3 quarters.

Baer had a monster day and broke off some tough long runs. I can't wait to post my photos.

TU defense has struggled from time to time obviously this year. Had a few breakdowns today but never gave up. Giving up a 97 yd pass in the 4th was a blemish on an otherwise pretty good day. TU bit on a play action pass and when the receiver caught the ball, he was 3-4 yards behind all the defenders and then turned on the jets.

Centre made this a much closer game than it should have been. Fun game to be at.  

[frank_ezelle]

While it wouldn't have been as satisfying as winning on the field, I still would have taken a playoff berth via an Austin win over DePauw this afternoon.  It was not to be.  With MS College and Huntingdon winning today, the odds are fairly good that Millsaps will end this season with 3 close road losses against NCAA Playoff teams.  One might say that the Huntingdon game wasn't close, but it was certainly going in favor of Millsaps until the Majors lost their 1st and 2nd string QBs in the third quarter.

I have to say that if Millsaps wasn't going to get the SCAC AQ, my second pick was DePauw.  Not that I have anything against the other teams, but it just seems like the DePauw players have been through a lot of coaching turmoil in recent years and this must be extremely gratifying for the seniors who have lived through all of that strife.

For the Millsaps seniors who have been with the program for the last 4 years, what an impressive stretch of 4 straight SCAC Championships and only 2 SCAC losses.  It wasn't very far away from 4 years of undefeated SCAC play.  This Saturday you seniors will take the field at Millsaps for the last time and there is still work to be done--I know you want to go out with a victory.

Congratulations to DePauw and good luck next week and in the Playoffs.  Represent the SCAC well.

[pbrooks3]

Trinity kicked a field goal at the horn! 27-17 final!

PLAYOFFS!

Congratulations to DePauw on the win and the automatic qualifier.

[D3_DPUFan]

Alex Koors became the school's single season receiving leader on that last drive.  He's at an even 1000 yards as I write this.  Broke John Stephens record of 991 in 2001.

Also yesterday, Bryan Mulligan became the school's all time receptions leader. Mr. Dependable has had quite a career.

[frank_ezelle]

Pbrooks3, this was certainly a year where Centre had a team capable of winning the SCAC and going to the NCAA Playoffs.  They were really undone by two bad breaks that made winning the SCAC title very difficult.

The first bad break was literal as Centre lost their quarterback early with a broken leg.  The second bad break was this being the year that Centre had to go on the road for all of the games with the main contenders.  Would Centre have won at Millsaps and Trinity with Tyler Osterman at QB?  Maybe.  Would Centre have won at home against Millsaps and/or Trinity either with or without Osterman?  Maybe.  

Naturally, the schedule is what it is and injuries are part of the game.  Next year I guess DePauw will have all the tough games on the road and Centre will have a very favorable home schedule so it all evens out over time.  We all know that an SCAC team has never gotten an at-large bid and the chances will get even slimmer when the SCAC has the teams playing one less game than the NCAA allows.  It's going to be a real challenge in the future to win the SCAC playoff berth.

[Patriot_Pride]

Was just looking over the SCAC stats and one thing really jumped out at me. Before you lash back DePauw fans, just look at the numbers.

Of Spud Dick's 2,100 passing yards, 1,900 are to three receivers and 1,550 (74 percent) are to Mulligan and Koors alone. It makes me wonder just how good Dick really is. Is it that Mulligan and Koors are just complete studs, and make Dick look like an All-American QB when he's really just average at best? I know every good quarterback has his favorite targets, but it makes me think that if either Koors or Mulligan went down...season over, playoff run over. Dick gets all sorts of credit on this board, and don't get me wrong he seems to be a decent QB, but the REAL guys that should be getting all the hype are Koors and Mulligan. Hands down I think Koors deserves SCAC Offensive Player of the Year honors with what he's done this year and every year at DePauw.

Either way I want DePauw to play well in the postseason and represent the SCAC well, but those numbers were interesting and NO other team in the SCAC is that lopsided to a pair of receivers. If you look up and down the teams, it is spread out between 5 or 6 receivers and much more balanced.

[DPU3619]

It's the nature of that offense, though.  Koors is a magical athlete who can make some ridiculous catches.  He probably makes Spud better to a degree, and maybe a large degree, but I think that whoever you plug into the X and the Z in that offense are going to have success.  Chris Gasbarra had 9 fewer receptions than Koors in 2007.  Dahlstrom has 9 fewer than Mulligan this year.

I don't think it's so much that Spud really blossomed because of Koors and Mulligan.  It's more that he did because Dustin Ward started calling the plays.  A lot of those throws are slants, curls, and digs.  There's a few deep balls, and both of them have made some catches that not a lot of people make, but if you watch that offense day in and day out, they're open a lot of the time.  Spud's accurate enough to find them even when they aren't.