FB: Southern Athletic Association

[awadelewis]

Week 4 recap:
Chicago put their stamp on the league with their 49-30 victory over Centre.   Big day for the Maroons RB Chandler Carroll with 311 yards on 30 carries with 3 TDs.    Next up for Chicago will be B-SC in Birmingham.

Right behind the Maroons in the table are the Berry Vikings who put together a solid drive at the start of the 3q followed immediately with a Kevin Grier's Pick-6 of  Cody Daniel's  pass to defeat Sewanee 14-3.   Watched this game in person and I think Berry will be dangerous when their offense catches up with the progress made by their defense.

In St. Louis, WashU put it to B-SC 41-13... good summary already posted on that game (kudos and karma to jaybird44).    Will be interesting to see what the WashU offense will do against the Berry defense as the Bears travel to NW Georgia to take on the Vikings at Valhalla.

Another big performance by a RB in the Hendrix-Millsaps game as Dayton Winn contributed 226 yards to a total of 328 yards rushing by the Hendrix offense.  Winn tied his own school record with 4 rushing TDs in the game on the way to a 45-34 win.

Coming up this week: Chicago at B-SC,   WashU at Berry, Hendix at Centre, and Sewanee travels to Memphis to take on "those people" at Rhodes...

[jknezek]

If anyone is going to the Chicago at B-SC game this weekend look for me to say hi. Old beige motor home hopefully on the road behind the end zone. Will have hot food and cold drinks and chairs to share right outside the coach and a prime spot for watching the game. Dress warm and stop bye to say hi.

[jaybird44]

WashU travels to Berry for a 6:00 ET kickoff Saturday.  Bears need a win to snap their 7-game road losing streak and to get the bitter taste out of their mouths on how last year's game at Berry ended.

It won't be easy...when I saw Berry in its first year, they had very good young athletes that just needed some seasoning.  It improved last season, and it appears the progression is continuing at a faster clip.  With a big crowd for Berry College Mountain Day, Valhalla Stadium will be a tough place again for Wash-U to play.

Bears offense is rolling, and their defense took a big step forward last week vs. BSC.  If they can repeat last week's performance and stay on the plus-side of the takeaway/turnover ratio, the Bears will have a great chance to gain a victory in Georgia.  A compelling game to watch...

[jknezek]

Was at the Chicago at BSC game played in a cold (for Oct. Alabama) drizzly rain. Chicago looked good. Controlled the game but struggled to put points on the board. QB is a stud, but it looked like his arm got dinged up in the second quarter and he went from throwing on a rope to throwing a few floaters.

Chicago is a strong team. 28-14 was pretty indicative of the game, but you really felt Chicago had it under control the whole time even if they couldn't pull away. They will be a tough out for anyone in the SAA.

[Ron Boerger]

Congrats to Chicago for earning their first-ever ranking in the D3football.com Top 25!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Congrats to Chicago for earning their first-ever ranking in the D3football.com Top 25!

I'll bet that the Big Ten incarnation of Chicago (including the first-ever Heisman winner) could have cracked the poll (if it or even D3 had existed back then! )

[Pat Coleman]

That's why I was very careful in all of our copy to say that it was their first D3football.com Top 25 ranking.

[jknezek]

Looks like Chicago's stay in the Top 25 will be short. Lost in OT at home to Berry.  Congrats to young bucks Berry on the big win over the historical program!

[awadelewis]

I would have never predicted back in August that Hendrix would be traveling to Berry in mid-October to play for the lead in the conference...

[Ralph Turner]

I would have never predicted back in August that Hendrix would be traveling to Berry in mid-October to play for the lead in the conference...

Sign of the end-times.   

[jaybird44]

Wash-U rebounded from a tough loss at Berry to defeat Rhodes 37-7 at Francis Field in St. Louis.  Certainly didn't expect that margin of victory, given Rhodes' SAA-leading 12.75 ppg allowed to its opponents.  But, there were several unforeseen occurrances in that game last night.

Wash-U's defense played its best game of the season, especially against the run, which has been a problem over the past 1.5 seasons.  The Bears locked down Rhodes to 8 yards rushing on 24 carries, and 181 yards total offense.  Compare the 8 rushing yards allowed to the past 3 meetings vs. Rhodes, in which the Lynx were well over 200 yards rushing in each of those games.

A week after Wash-U committed 5 turnovers at Berry, it received 6 turnovers from Rhodes last night (4 picks, 2 fumble recoveries).  QB Blake Box did not play, and reserve Austin Henyon had a rough night (6-of-17, 61 yds).  His replacement was 10-17 for 112 yards but threw 3 INTs. 

Wash-U's rushing offense got a boost from freshman RB Jamar McDonald--87 yards on 13 carries and a 27-yard TD run.  Had another TD run erased because of a penalty.  McDonald is going to be a very good feature back in the very near future.  He helped the Bears tally 165 yards and a 4-yard average per carry.

And, Wash-U could've tied a Division III record with 8 field goal attempts, if the snap on the 8th one wasn't mishandled and fumbled away.  Alex Hallwachs was 3 for 7 in field goal attempts (missed 2, had 2 blocked).  A better night from him could've resulted in breaking the D3 record of 6 FGs in a game.  In his defense, one of the blocks was from 52 yards out, and he missed a 47-yarder.

What didn't change was J.J. Tomlin's impressive accumulation of passing yardage.  Had 337 yards last night and 3 TDs, to boost his season totals to 1,647 yards, 13 TDs, and 8 INTs.  Moved into 6th place all-time in career passing yardage with 3,551.  Could get to the #2 spot by the end of the season, and have a good chance next season to eclipse Thor Larsen (1994-97).

The Bears won their 7th straight home game...now let's see if they can snap their 8-game road losing streak at Sewanee this Saturday.

[awadelewis]

The Bears won their 7th straight home game...now let's see if they can snap their 8-game road losing streak at Sewanee this Saturday.

I was surprised to see that we've not played y'all since 1977.  I had it in my head that we did an home-and-home with WashU in early 1990s.    Supposed to be good football weather in Sewanee this weekend...

[BerryViking92]

Huge game in Rome, Georgia tomorrow between Berry and Hendrix.  Oddly, that have yet to face a common team.  Both teams in their third year of football.  Hendrix won in year one, a fairly close game in Arkansas.  Berry won relatively easily last year at home, at a time when Hendrix was struck with numerous injuries.  No reason not to expect a very close game between the (as of today) top 2 teams in the conference.  Berry defense has been outstanding of late, and will need to continue that trend.

[jknezek]

I find this game one of the more interesting in the region. Both teams have looked good on one side of the ball, but both also have puzzling losses before that side of the ball got rolling. Berry got racked by Maryville. Gave up 465 yards and had 3 turnovers. M'Ville, at the time, looked really good, but their last two games have been very "meh" while Berry has been on an absolute tear defensively.

Hendrix, on the other hand, gave up 55 points to Austin while handing over 5 turnovers! That's just hideous. Austin put up over 600 yards of offense. Since then, Hendrix has given up yards and points, but put up even more.

So this game is strength on strength. Hendrix's high powered offense versus Berry's stout defense. Berry's weak offense versus Hendrix's porous defense.

Just a fascinating match up.

[Scots13]

Berry is playing the way I expected them to play this year. I was shocked when they got blasted by Maryville to open the season. I thought MC would win, but not as easily.