FB: Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Rose is all over Franklin 38-7 after the 3rd.
MSJ leads Hanover 23-6 with 10 minutes left.
If those two scores hold then MSJ @ Rose is an HCAC title game.

Anderson leads Defiance 28-7 and Bluffton ahead of Manchester 24-0 in the other two games

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Rose-Hulman is headed to the playoffs with a dominant 58-21 win over Mount St Joseph. The Engineers led 42-7 at halftime. Good luck next week and hopefully they won't be blown out like most years for the HCAC in the playoffs

Franklin regains the Victory Bell for the first time since 2017 with a 27-16 comeback win. Panthers led 10-0 at halftime before the Grizzlies turned on the offense.

Manchester wins the pitchers duel for the Bronze Ball over Anderson 3-0. Ravens won it in the spring for the first time since 2010 but the Spartans didn't let them hold it long. Manchester managed just 182 yards of offense in the win but kicked a 39 yard FG in the 4th quarter for the lone points.

The Hammer stays with Bluffton after a 30-12 win over Defiance. Yellowjackets had cut the lead to 10-6 before the Beavers scored a TD just before halftime. Bluffton pulled away in the 3rd.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Rose-Hulman avoids being sent as 1st round fodder for a top seed and will make the short trip to Greencastle to take on DePauw. Good luck Engineers.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Rose hung around and had a chance at the end but lose 26-21 to DePauw to finish the HCAC's season.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Still months before the season begins but we know a lot of the non-conference matchups. Week 3 is the MIAA-HCAC crossover, week 4 looks like the conference is off

Anderson: TBA (W1), vs DePauw (W2), vs Alma (W3),
Bluffton: @ Kenyon (W1), @ Albion (W2), vs Adrian (W3)
Defiance: @ Mount Union (W1), TBA (W2), vs Kalamazoo (W3),
Franklin: @ Olivet (W1), @ Aurora (W2), vs Trine (W3)
Hanover: vs Centre (W1), @ Adrian (W2), vs Olivet (W3)
Manchester: TBA (W1), @ Alma (W2), @ Greenville (W3)
Mount St Joseph: vs Baldwin Wallace (W1), @ Alfred (W2), vs Hope (W3)
Rose-Hulman: @ DePauw (W1), vs Trine (W2), vs Albion (W3)

The game that stands out (and not in a good way) is Defiance @ Mount Union... Will the Mount starters even finish the 1st quarter?
MIAA: 12, NCAC: 3, OAC: 2, E8: 1, NACC: 1, SAA: 1, UMAC: 1, TBA: 3

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

We still have the traditional matchup against Trine on Thursday to open the season... but this year it's Anderson and not Manchester. The Spartans instead will head to North Park for their opener.

That leaves the only unknown game as Defiance in week 2. Who will their 6th different coach in 8 seasons (2012-15 Sheehan, 16 Goff, 17 Mershman, 18-20 Matsakis, 21 Wilson) have to face coming off an expected drubbing by Mount Union?

MIAA: 13, NCAC: 3, OAC: 2, CCIW: 1, E8: 1, NACC: 1, SAA: 1, UMAC: 1, TBA: 1

[dc_has_been]

Defiance has added Alfred State as their TBA game also, Bill Nickell will take over for Wilson as head coach, and he has started to build his staff. 

[dc_has_been]

Preseason Poll released.

No surprise to see my mighty Jackets at the bottom of the list, but I will keep faith that they will make growth and improve on last season. 

https://heartlandconf.org/news/2022/8/16/rose-hulman-voted-to-lead-in-2022-hcac-football-preseason-poll.aspx

[Adam Sayer]

Been a long time. Hope everyone is well. Anyone know whether Rose returns a lot of their core players or are they using a bunch of newer players? I would have never thought 10+ years ago they would be as good of a program as they've become.

[GrizFan]

Rose graduated their QB, leading RB and leading WR.  They return their #2 and #3 receivers from last season.  Not sure about defense.

[HOPEful]

Trine is starting the season with bouts against Anderson, Rose, and Franklin. Rose is also hosting Albion in early September and Hope is going down to Cincy to play MSJ. Hanover has Adrian and Olivet on their schedule. Should be some great early games with the best of the MIAA pitted against the best of the HCAC. 

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

With Anderson already down 24-0 at halftime it's time for my annual reminder at how rubbish the conference is in non-conference.

Regular season non-conference record
2006: 13-11 (Franklin, Rose 3-0; Defiance, MSJ 2-1; Anderson, Bluffton, Manchester 1-2)
2007: 12-12 (MSJ, Rose 3-0; Franklin, Manchester 2-1; Anderson, Defiance 1-2)
2008: 10-14 (Franklin, Manchester, MSJ, Rose 2-1; Anderson, Bluffton 1-2) Franklin quarterfinals
2009: 7-17 (Franklin, MSJ, Rose 2-1; Defiance 1-2)
Earlham joins HCAC
2010: 6-12 (Bluffton, Franklin, Hanover, Manchester, MSJ, Rose 1-1)
2011: 3-15 (Franklin, Manchester, MSJ 1-1) Franklin 2nd round
2012: 2-16 (Bluffton, MSJ 1-1) Franklin 2nd round
2013: 1-17 (Earlham 1-1) Franklin 2nd round
2014: 4-14 (Rose 2-0; Manchester, MSJ 1-1)
2015: 4-14 (Rose 2-0; Bluffton, MSJ 1-1)
2016: 5-13 (Bluffton 2-0; Defiance, Franklin, Rose 1-1)
2017: 3-15 (Manchester, MSJ, Rose 1-1)
2018: 2-16 (Franklin, MSJ 1-1)
Earlham halts football program
2019: 6-12 (Anderson 2-0; MSJ 1-1; Hanover 2-1; Rose 1-2)
2020/21: 1-2 (Bluffton 1-0)
2021: 6-18 (Franklin 2-1; Bluffton, Hanover, MSJ, Rose 1-2)


Anderson: likely 0-3
Bluffton: close game week 1 at Kenyon, probably lose other two
Defiance: outside chance vs K'Zoo and at Alfred St
Franklin: underdog in all 3 but could pull one out somewhere
Hanover: at Adrian and vs Olivet are both close games
Manchester: at Greenville is probably their best (but not great) chance of a win
MSJ: at Alfred should be close, other two not so good
Rose: could go 3-0 or 0-3 all their matchups are close

I see up to 7 games being realistic win opportunities for the conference this year, could see a couple other upsets thrown in. Just need to improve on last year's 6-18 record.

[Adam Sayer]

MSJ was more lucky than good but a win is a win in the first game I've been to in a couple years. BW corner bobbled what should have been a sure fire INT on MSJ's final drive that landed in Beachem's hands for a huge gain to inside BW's 5yd line setting up the go ahead score. That's the first time MSJ has beaten a Jim Hilvert coached team since 2008 or 2009.

[GrizFan]

Franklin had the last place defense last season and this season's defense looked even worse today.  The GRIZ gave up a late TD to lose to Olivet 35-31.  Olivet had at least two other TDs called back due to penalties.  The bright spot was the FC offense which looked very promising.

[Crawford]

Franklin had the last place defense last season and this season's defense looked even worse today.  The GRIZ gave up a late TD to lose to Olivet 35-31.  Olivet had at least two other TDs called back due to penalties.  The bright spot was the FC offense which looked very promising.

Uggh, love a good defensive team.  Was hoping more Indiana teams would win this weekend.  Wabash gave up 48 but still managed to win !  Good D game from Depauw.