Keith McMillan's 2005 year in review continues:

MISCELLANEOUS MEMORABLES
71. Most painful playoff score comparison: Anything that runs through Wesley is guaranteed to be painful. Wesley blew out two teams (Ferrum 59-14 and Bridgewater 46-7) and then got blown out by UW-Whitewater 58-6. The most painful is Whitewater to Wesley (52 points) to Bridgewater (39) to Thiel (17) to Johns Hopkins (25). But tack on Mount Union’s seven-point win against UW-Whitewater and run that list through to Ferrum … a conference rival of Averett … Mount Union’s opening opponent next season. You do the math. Good thing margins of victory don’t translate that way.

72. Best postseason conference showing: “The Ohio Athletic Conference was the only conference to advance two teams to the regional finals,” reminds fan Mike Bradshaw of Canton, Ohio. “They also eliminated champions of the NCAC, CCIW, HCAC, NJAC and WIAC. Not bad for five weeks’ work.”

73. Worst postseason conference showing: “The MWC watched its undefeated champion get annihilated 62-3, which is painful,” says Mann. “But the CCIW is a more interesting pick. Depth is one thing, but if you’re going to be one of the top conferences in the country, you have to get more than a win against the IBFC in the playoffs. North Central was respectable against Capital but still one of just two teams to lose at home in the first round. And the conference champ lost by a much larger margin than anyone other than Mt. St. Joseph.”
> Also suggested: Empire 8, by Mike Mangone

74. Most top-heavy conference: Perhaps it depends on how we define this. I call a conference top-heavy when there are a few teams at the top, a few at the bottom, and virtually none in the middle. But Gordon Mann took it to mean a conference with a dominant team on top and not much else. In the SCIAC, “Occidental beat runner-up Cal Lutheran by 32,” Mann said. Only two of the CCIW‘s eight teams, on the other hand, had losing records. In the NESCAC, there was a clear top five and bottom five. The ACFC had three teams 4-1 in conference play and three more 1-4.

But the ODAC takes the top-heavy trophy. Aside from crowning the same champion for the fifth year in a row, the conference also showed a remarkable division. Bridgewater, Hampden-Sydney and Washington & Lee each won seven games or more, while Catholic, Randolph-Macon and Emory & Henry combined to win just six. In the conference standings, the Eagles, Tigers, Generals and Quakers (of Guilford) each won four conference games or more, while the other three won just one each.

75. Most even conference: One could argue for CCIW here in place of the WIAC‘s traditional “best top-to-bottom award.” But when your last place team is just two games out of second place, you get the prize. The Centennial Conference was full of surprises this season, not the least of which was Ursinus upsetting Johns Hopkins late in season. In Week 1, McDaniel beat Bridgewater before falling apart. Five teams finished in a five-way tie last season, and after Week 9 of this year, five teams had exactly two conference victories. Such balance didn’t lend itself to an overwhelmingly successful year for however. Only the Blue Jays had a winning record, and only Franklin and Marshall joined them with a winning record in conference games. Centennial teams were just 12-18 in non-conference play, with McDaniel and Johns Hopkins the only teams to win more out of conference games than they lost.

76. Best independent: “Huntingdon was about 15 minutes of football away from an undefeated regular season,” says Mann. “South region top-seed Trinity (Texas) needed a fourth-quarter rally at home to beat the Hawks. Maryville upset Huntingdon on a late touchdown in the season finale, but a 7-2 showing in the program’s third year is nothing to sniff at.”

77. Notable streaks extended: While Trinity (Conn.) stands well out in front of the crowd in the consecutive wins department, Linfield still holds the streak that takes the cake. Their winning season was the 50th in a row for the ’Cats from McMinnville, Ore. No team in the 136-year history of college football has done that.

78. Notable streaks snapped: Mount Union’s 110-game regular-season win streak and 98-game OAC streak were each snapped in an Oct. 22 loss to Ohio Northern

IN RETROSPECT
Remember the best preseason predictions
One of D3football.com’s great advances in 2005 was our Kickoff edition, in which we previewed each of the 231 teams and 26 conferences. In some places, we were spot-on. Others, not so much.

79. Beaver’s breakout: From Tom Pattison, who wrote the WIAC preview in D3football.com’s Kickoff:

”Look for a breakout from: UW-Whitewater running back Justin Beaver. The sophomore missed much of the 2005 season with a hamstring injury. Beaver will benefit from the Warhawks’ veteran offensive line and run-friendly offense to gain 1,000-plus yards.”

80. Don’t diss Mount: Twenty-four of our 25 top 25 voters ranked Linfield No. 1, since they were returning star quarterback Brett Elliott after a national championship. One voter, a coach from a playoff-contending South Region team, had the foresight to rank the eventual champions, Mount Union, first.

81. Preseason six-packs: In the Kickoff, I listed six playoff teams that would disappoint and six non-playoff teams that would emerge in 2005. Only one of the six disappointments, Delaware Valley, made it back to the playoffs. St. John Fisher (8-3), Carthage (7-3), Wooster (6-4), Willamette (5-4) and Muhlenberg (3-7) each took at least a small step in the wrong direction. Two of the six teams I picked to emerge, Wesley and Thiel, combined for 23 wins. The rest of the group, Hampden-Sydney (8-2), Whitworth (5-3). Albright (5-5) and Texas Lutheran (5-5) missed the playoffs.

82. WIAC-knowledge: Few even in Wisconsin expected UW-Whitewater’s Stagg Bowl run, and certainly none of the eight staffers that took a crack at 16 predictions in the preseason had the Warhawks even winning the West. But when asked who will win the WIAC, two of them — myself and Pat Cummings — did pick Whitewater. And for the record, the Warhawks were ranked (21st) in our initial top 25 and surged to No. 2, where they finished, by Week 8.

83. Shenan-DOH! Asked which would have the worst falloff record-wise, only Tom Wilson picked a 2004 playoff team that finished without a winning record in 2005. Shenandoah, a 21-17 loser to Delaware Valley in the 2004 first round, went 1-9, beating Randolph-Macon (2-8) 20-10 on Sept. 17.

Remember the bad preseason predictions: Pat Coleman: “Anything that involved Emory & Henry or Franklin & Marshall,” says Pat Coleman. Oh, that’s only the beginning.

84. Diplomatic ignominy: Perhaps our most dubious prediction was slotting Franklin & Marshall for a 10-0 season. That didn’t even last a week, as the Diplomats were beaten 34-21 by Bethany, which lost its other nine games, and trounced 34-0 by Hobart the following week. Their 5-5 finish, not including an ECAC bowl loss, is even more baffling when Pat Cummings reminded us that the Diplomats returned 17 starters, including an all-conference quarterback.

85. Wacky Wasps: Kickoff 2005 marked Emory & Henry down for 7-3. We asked our eight staffers to predict the number of victories former Mount Union defensive coordinator Don Montgomery would lead the Wasps to. We all said between 5-7. If not for a three-point win in Washington, D.C., against Catholic, the ODAC’s team of the ‘90s would have gone winless in 2005.

86. Ringing Liberty’s bell: Pat Coleman and I didn’t give much love to the Liberty League in the preseason, ranking Union 77th, Hobart 79th and RPI 88th. By years end, our poll had the Dutchmen 14th, the Statesmen 22nd and RPI also receiving votes, or the equivalent of 29th. The league’s two playoff teams took Rowan and Delaware Valley, the best teams in the East, to the wire.

87. Almost passable: Touchdown Illustrated, a game-program insert infamous for picking Hampden-Sydney No. 1 overall last season, came back with a decent top 10 this preseason: Linfield, Mount Union, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Rowan, Christopher Newport, Washington and Jefferson, St. John’s, Delaware Valley, Ohio Northern and UW-La Crosse. Not bad. Wait, Christopher Newport at No. 5? Um, the Captains finished 6-4. We’d hate on this pick a little harder, but we ranked them 16th.

They also did Gagliardi predictions (Brett Elliott, Chris Edwards, Mark Robinson), an Elliott feature and caught up with former Plymouth State running back and Heisman voting darling Joe Dudek, so we do tip our hat to TI this year.

88. Off Wisconsin: Followers of Don Hansen’s National Weekly Football Gazette and others must have been really surprised when UW-Whitewater crushed St. Norbert 45-7 at St. Norbert in the season’s opener. Lindy’s ranked St. Norbert No. 10 in the preseason, Street & Smith’s ranked the Green Knights No. 16 and Don Hansen ranked them 15th. None of them ranked UW-Whitewater in the Top 25.

Only readers of the D3football.com Top 25 poll, with UW-Whitewater 21st and St. Norbert not in the Top 25, were warned of what was coming. That and the USA Today Sports Weekly preseason Top 25, with Whitewater at No. 19. (Disclaimer: Pat Coleman and I compiled that poll ourselves since we work on the publication.)

89. Remember that even the year-in-review made predictions we can revisit: Last Jan. 27, we posted Around the Nation’s look at the 2004 season. In it, we highlighted a few Division III players who were fringe candidates to catch on in the NFL, but none lasted. We also picked Texas Lutheran as the next big thing, although an e-mail shortly afterward pointed out that Ohio Northern would have been a more fitting choice. Given how 2005 turned out, that e-mailer was right.

90. Remember the season’s turning point: Mount Union’s loss to Ohio Northern sent the Purple Raiders back to the drawing board. Their aura of invincibility gone, Larry Kehres and a young coaching staff made up of several former Mont Union players gathered the resolve to bring home perhaps their most satisfying championship yet.

91. Worst moments: Two moments of tragedy came to mind, first when Minnesota-Morris junior basketball player Rick Rose died in a celebration that involved tearing down the goalposts following the football team’s Oct. 22 win against Crown. It was the last game on Morris’ field before they move to a new stadium in the fall. Then, barely a week later, Ohio Northern assistant coach Ron Bendekovic died suddenly at age 34. He had also been an assistant at Baldwin-Wallace and Marietta and was a four-year letterwinner at Allegheny.

Suggested by: Wabash fan Lee McLaughlin

92. Remember that sometimes, just getting through the season is winning: “Coach Dean Paul of Ohio Northern deserves battle pay for this season,” says Mann. “Between trying to keep his team focused amid rumors of NCAA sanctions and helping them grieve through a death, he still led them to a win over Mount Union and a solid 8-2 record.” Added ONU graduate Paul Schreel, “Whether it was the loss of Jason Trusnik in Week 3 to a broken foot for the remainder of the season, the NCAA sanctions and complicated appeal process, or the unfortunate and unexpected death of two-time OAC assistant coach of the year Ron Bendekovic, the Polar Bears went through a roller coaster of emotion this year. Still, they matched an 8-2 mark that they set the year before as they continue to rebuild the program and they managed to beat a pretty decent team from Alliance, Ohio, that no one in the conference had managed to beat since Oct. 15, 1994.”

93. Remember that playing a full season is never guaranteed: Lewis and Clark cancelled its season except for four non-conference games and was done by Oct. 8. It left Willamette and Linfield with just eight regular-season games. The coach and athletic director resigned, but the school appears willing to help the program succeed,

94. Remember the good days: It was a good but long day Oct. 8 for Northwestern (Minn.), a first-year provisional Division III member that essentially took a split-squad approach in beating Trinity Bible in the afternoon and Macalester at night. (The second game’s starters played only a couple of series in the first game.)


95. Remember the tailgates: No way we could do justice to naming the best crowd, best fan, best tailgate without planning it and taking notes during the season. So consider yourself warned for next year. Spoil the D3football.com staff (essentially unpaid) in ‘06 and there could be some postseason recognition in it for you! In the meantime, here’s our favorite fan from 2005:

Pat Cummings recognized Llamaguy from the ODAC boards for being a superb fan and representation of the Division III spirit. A Bridgewater rooter, Llamaguy took “Stone Station” on the road, offering barbeque and the like to fans from both Mount Union and UW-Whitewater at the Stagg Bowl. Cummings said he “refused money when Mount/UWW fans tried to give it to him ... it was truly a welcoming moment.”

96. Among the moments we’d just as soon forget: Eagles fans (probably the NFL kind, too) were also involved in one of the less-hospitable moments D3football.com witnessed this season. Wesley fans welcomed Bridgewater to Delaware with a beat-down on the field, and then some postgame scuffling in the street outside the stadium. Well, Division III isn’t always fairy-tale perfect, now is it?

97. Remember the thankless jobs: From the players who hardly know how much you do for them to the sports information directors, broadcasters and officials who make small-college football big time, here’s your thanks. It may be a conversation-ender when you say you “worked the BC game” over the weekend, and you have to tell the person you meant Bowdoin … or Beloit … or Blackburn. But none of the players are in it for the recognition either. It would be disingenuous to assume most of us would turn down a free education or more money or an opportunity where thousands cheer your every move. But as we discovered the world of Division III football, we found a purity in the game and joy in the experience. And whether you’re playing for a school that drove down the football field before there were cars to drive, or a pioneer at a school that recently added the sport, remember you owe a debt of gratitude for simply being able to play.

It’s owed to those who make the schedules in a lonely office, those paint the yard lines by themselves on a weekday morning, those who wash the team’s laundry well into the night. There are those who spend night compiling statistics, those who make split-second calls without the benefit of instant replay, and those who drive their own cars a few hundred miles so a few hundred listeners, if that, can feel the energy of a game-winning drive when a field is nowhere in sight. If you can’t thank those who gift you the gift of college football face to face, at least make them proud when they aren’t there to watch.

Five off-the-beaten path things D3 staffers will remember about this season:
98. Talking shop: Sitting in the hospitality room the night before the Stagg Bowl watching a silent tape of UW-Whitewater at Linfield, and talking football with coaches (and committee members) from Capital, Cortland State and elsewhere. With the I-AA championship on the TV, that my friends, is small-school football junkieism at its finest.

99. A moment of reflection: Mann: (Long after the Stagg Bowl, and even the postgame news conference had ended), Larry Kehres walked into the empty stadium in Salem and paused at midfield for a few moments. We don’t know what was going through his head, but it was a poetic end to another remarkable performance for the Purple powerhouse leader.

100. Gas prices: Pat Cummings’ moment of the playoffs: “I made the 410-mile drive from Alliance to my home in Philadelphia on one tank of gas in my Pontiac Grand Prix.” From Pat Coleman: “I remember wondering if I was crazy for driving to see two games on Labor Day weekend, with the rest of the east coast traveling, with gas prices heading through the roof because of Hurricane Katrina. I pondered staying at home and hoarding my $2.64-a-gallon tank of gas but in the end, getting a look at Noah Fehrenbach and Mark Robinson of St. John Fisher was worth it. … I paid $3.11 a gallon in New Jersey to get through the rest of the trip.”

101. Ambitious student newspapers: As the (about to sound self-important alert) leading source of information on Division III football, D3football.com gets contacted from time to time from various media members. This year alone, I was quoted in Men’s Health, on several radio halftime shows and had the opportunity to write about Division III rivalries for Sports Weekly’s college rivalries special edition. But really refreshing was the efforts from the kids on campus. While college journalism is often more effort than precision, the calls we got from Elmhurst, Ithaca and elsewhere reminded us that somebody, somewhere was doing the same thing that we did as students. These are the future journalists of America, and we try to help in that whenever possible.

102. Airport inconsistency: The humor was not lost on me as I sat at my gate an hour before my flight departed on the morning of the Monon Bell game. A week prior, at about the same time of day, it took me 45 minutes to check in and get through security at Washington’s Dulles Airport. That may sound short, but I missed my flight. On Monon Bell day, I barely stood in the security line long enough to overhear the person in front of me talk about flying to see the Union-RPI game.

103. Division III omnipresence: It’s not terribly stunning to see a DelVal windbreaker or Kean sweatshirt at a Philadelphia Eagles game, as I did this year. But seeing a Bowdoin window sticker there? What about a Cortland State license plate frame on my commute to work in Northern Virginia? Not only did I hear about the Union-RPI trip on my way to Wabash-DePauw, but the person who rented me a car at Enterprise that day played for Hanover in 2004. Division III alumni are everywhere!

104. So long
Unsung veteran: J. R. Bishop, an offensive coordinator and former head coach that put Wheaton football on the map, retired at the end of the season after decades of service.
Destined for the SEC: G.A. Mangus, who left Delaware Valley’s pastures greener before heading off to greener pastures himself.
Before our time: Sam Mills, the Montclair State player who had a long, notable career playing and coaching in the NFL, died in April 2005. Mills, a four-time All-American (1977-80) and a five-time Pro Bowler (1987-88, 1991-92, 1996), lost his fight with cancer.
Don’t let the door hit you: Then there was this: “I'd like to nominate Brett Elliott for the "Farewell" award from everyone else in D3 Football. — Signed, A Cobber Fan”

105. Best trend: Mount Union’s championship this season was still endearing because no longer are the Purple Raiders automatically penciled in for a trip to Salem. Mount Union has shown itself to be beatable, not just in Salem, but in Alliance. That’s led to an overall parity that’s kept the playoffs exciting, even if lopsided games are still more common than not. In Salem, the trend of close Stagg Bowls continued with Mount Union’s 7-point victory over Whitewater. With the exception of a 41-point blowout in 2002, the past six Stagg Bowls have been highly entertaining. Two have been decided by a field goal, two more by a touchdown and a fifth, St. John’s 24-6 win in 2003, wasn’t broken open until Mike Zauhar’s 100-yard interception return TD with nine minutes left.

Hmm, guess we have a few overtime categories, too.

1 OT. Best change from last year: It’s a little early to see the effects of allowing spring practice, or going to a 32-team playoff system for that matter. But at least we know that with 32 teams in the show, the arguments this year often hinged on how undeserving the last team to get in was, and not how deserving teams were left at home. If that’s any indication of the long-term effect of a 32-team playoff, then Division III football is better for it (especially considering it was a 16-team field as recently as 1998).

2 OT. Next year, this should be brought back: If our support for Salem, Va. — a city large enough to make the Stagg Bowl big-time and small enough to make it the big event in town — wasn’t strong enough already, a touch was added to the title game, that well, added to the title game. The instant replay added to the feel of the game, as did the video board trucked in for the game. The amount of volunteer work that goes into the Stagg Bowl is tremendous, and every year Salem ups the ante just a little bit. Aside from the video board, the stadium also received better wheelchair access seating, an elevator for those purposes and for the press box, and a new scoreboard. And yes, artificial turf is in the near future.

3 OT. Next year, this should be changed: Last, but not least, everyone. Division III football is running at nearly optimum level right now.

I suggest just one subtle tweak to the 32-team playoff system. To avoid a scenario like this season, where most of the best teams in the country were loaded into the West and North playoff brackets, why don’t we select the four No. 1 seeds first, as they do in the NCAA basketball tournament? That way, we can still create brackets low on travel, respecting the limitations of a Division III athletic budget, while creating the most balanced playoff system possible.

In other words, this season we may have had Linfield, UW-Whitewater, Wabash and Delaware Valley as top seeds, and then had to fill in below. We would have avoided a matchup of two of the best teams, Linfield and Whitewater, in the quarterfinals, and still had a fair opportunity for deserving teams to host and advance into later rounds.

This season the No. 1 seed in the South was questionable before it was beaten 35-6 in the opening round. In the new system, the four strongest teams would get top seeds and have brackets designed around them. Most teams would have remained in the same region they were in under the current system, and the eight-team brackets can be made in four-team pods that would not require travel until later rounds, if certain teams advance. By making the change, Division III would create the best playoff system in American sports. It would be competitively balanced, low on cost and regionally organized to keep team and fan travel as easy as possible.

Remember that you can discuss the year-in-review column on the Around the Nation thread of Post Patterns, on the D3sports.com message board. And we’ll have some discussion of it on the Daily Dose as well.

NOTE: Some e-mails and quotes were edited for clarity, grammar and length.