One down, one to go
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With one Pool A bid locked up and another in the balance, the head men here at D3football.com unveiled their first playoff predictions on Tuesday night. Since I’m not an expert (on anything), I waited to finish this column until after the projections were revealed so that I could see their predictions.
Boy do I hope they come true.
No. 3 seed UMHB (Pool A), No. 2 seed Trinity (Pool A) and No. 4 seed Hardin-Simmons (Pool C) are all in the Wesley Bracket. Should Millsaps win on Saturday, they would likely assume the No. 8 spot. In my opinion, only one SCAC team is getting a bid, even if Millsaps wins. I think that Trinity’s loss to Texas Lutheran kills their chances.
Knowing the NCAA’s feelings on travel, we could see Hardin-Simmons at Trinity and Christopher Newport traveling to Belton for a rematch with the Crusaders. I’m sure I’m not the only person eager to see that.
The Hardin-Simmons/Trinity game would be a real treat for Division III fans because both teams have such a history of success and two of the best coaches in the history of the division. The two teams met in the regional finals of the 1999 and 2000 playoffs with the Tigers winning 40-33 in 1999 and Hardin-Simmons repaying the favor 33-30 in the 2000 final.
I’ve only been doing this a couple of months but I agree with the predictions. I think Trinity will beat Millsaps (sorry Major fans) and claim the Pool A bid. Of course, the NCAA is fully capable of flying way off script and giving us different matchups. I hope they listen to Pat and the boys here because this is the way to go.
The week that was, the week that will be
Both UMHB and Millsaps have to be thankful for late-game heroics after last Saturday. Actually in Millsaps case, it was a lack of heroics that helped them.
The Crusaders found themselves down 28-27 after ETBU’s T. J. Davis returned a punt 46 yards for a touchdown but responded with a nine-play, 54-yard drive that was capped by a Jarvis Thrasher 5-yard touchdown run. The score gave the Crusaders a 33-28 lead that turned into another win only after Calvin Fleming picked off Phil Van Cleave’s desperation pass in the closing seconds.
UMHB’s Chris Owens returned a ETBU punt to the Tigers 13-yard line with 4:15 to go but it was brought back to the Crusaders 46 thanks to a holding call. From there the Crusaders made their march toward the end zone and their fourth conference title in five years.
I certainly didn’t wish to have a tight game, but it happened,” UMHB coach Pete Fredenburg told the Temple Daily Telegram. “And consequently, it might have made our football team so much better. The offense had to go do it, and they hadn’t done that all year. I’m telling you, that was an incredible drive.”
Millsaps was up 14-6 on Rhodes with time running out when Rhodes third-string quarterback Justin Sealand connected on a 40-yard pass to Jeff Freyder to get down to the Majors 3-yard line. Rhodes head coach Joe White thought Freyder got out of bounds but the officials ruled otherwise and time expired on the Lynx upset hopes.
Millsaps actually scored twice in a 60-second span early in the fourth quarter to take the lead. Quarterback Juan Joseph (25-for-49 for 214 yards) hit Chris Jackson with a 4-yard strike with 10:37 to go and moments later, Ronnie Wheat picked off a Sealand pass and took it to the house.
Millsaps coach Mike Dubose shouldered the blame for the loss when talking to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
“When you can’t establish the run, it makes it harder to throw. (Millsaps rushed for 42 yards.) I didn’t have them ready to play. We were very fortunate to win. At the end we lost our poise,” he said.
An e-mail I received from a Millsaps player confirmed a certain lack of focus for the game.
“It was a really well played game by Rhodes and our focus was not there at all (offensively). They came up with a great game plan and took advantage of our mistakes. We had three turnovers inside their 35-yard line and two were in the red zone. It was really a thrilling win, but very frustrating for us offensively.”
The road blocks are out of the way for Millsaps and now they get to host Trinity in a game that doubles as homecoming for the Majors and will likely be a packed house. In my opinion it will be up to the Black Flag defense to shut down Juan Joseph. Millsaps defense is much improved and the Trinity offense doesn’t score points in bunches. Joseph can get hot and if he does, Millsaps could win.
Millsaps is also playing on a lot of momentum and will be charged up emotionally. I think that that only takes you so far. And it certainly doesn’t trump experience and success, which Trinity has lots of. I think Millsaps has a chance at an upset but you can’t pick against a team that has been winning conference titles since Bill Clinton was in his first term.
It’s totally out of character but I’m going to make a prediction. I think Trinity wins 22-17 and hosts Hardin-Simmons next weekend. Millsaps uses the offseason to get even better and comes out firing in 2007.
ASC top individual performers
Louisiana College’s Ben McLaughlin threw three touchdown passes -- two of more than 45 yards -- and helped the Wildcats snap a three-game losing streak with a 35-28 win over Sul Ross State in Alpine. Wildcats linebacker Jonathan Zeno had 13 tackles, nine solo, in the win.
In that same game, the Lobos T.J. Barber beat a nagging turf toe injury and rolled to 131 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Barber’s 131 yards accounted for most of the Lobos offense -- they gained only 185 yards in the game.
UMHB’s Josh Welch tied a school-record with three touchdown passes and ran for 71 yards in their come-from-behind win over East Texas Baptist. Tigers punt returner T. J. Davis was named ASC Special Teams Player of the Week after returning a punt 46 yards for a touchdown. The punt return touchdown was the first in the history of ETBU football and makes him the only player in the conference to return a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown this season.
Hardin-Simmons had a pair of the usual stars step up in its 35-7 win over Texas Lutheran. Quarterback Jordan Neal was 22-for-32 for 294 yards and four touchdowns and defensive end Reggie Robinson had six tackles, three tackles for a loss and 2.5 sacks. Robinson was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Week.
Howard Payne wide receiver Chris Jackson had seven catches for 124 yards and a pair of scores in their 30-15 win over Mississippi College. Jackson was the Special Teams Player of the Week last week and his squad has a chance to upset Mary Hardin-Baylor for the second year in a row this weekend in Belton.
SCAC top individual performers
DePauw’s Dustin Hertel made another case for the SCAC Defensive Player of the Year award with a 16-tackle game against Austin College. Hertel had 4.5 tackles for a loss and four sacks. If he keeps this up the Houston Texans are going to draft him No. 1 overall next year. I’m kidding … kind of.
Millsaps linebacker Ronnie Wheat had five tackles, two pass breakups and two interceptions. The last pick was returned 19 yards for a touchdown and helped propel Wheat onto the D3football.com Team of the Week.
Another guy who had a big week was Centre’s Matt Johnson, who had seven tackles, forced a fumble, broke up a pass and returned an interception for a touchdown -- the first of his career. His teammate Adam Clark, who has rebounded nicely from early season injuries, had three catches and a touchdown from his receiver spot in the win.
Trinity’s Patrick Hayes had ten tackles for the third game in a row and helped Trinity to a 21-7 win over Sewanee. He also had a pair of breakups and two quarterback hurries for a defense that still hasn’t allowed more than twenty points this season.
On a side note, there is a fantastic article Jerry Briggs in the San Antonio Express News this week about Patrick Hayes and teammate Philip Kownslar. Check it out www.mysanantonio.com then click the Sports link and then the Local Colleges link.
Hawking Huntingdon
I’ve gotten two angry e-mails this season for not devoting enough space to the Huntingdon Hawks and both e-mails were fairly on target. The Hawks put together a tough schedule (three Top 25 opponents plus a white-hot Millsaps team) and I haven’t paid their players enough attention.
Zach Golson has no doubt been their star this year and the finale was no different. He was 21-for-22 for 330 yards and four touchdowns. He was 9-for-9 for 145 yards in the second half. His final season numbers look like this: 205 completions, 2,715 yards, 17 touchdowns and an efficiency rating of 144.6. Remember he’s just a junior.
With their 42-17 win over Southwestern Assemblies of God last Saturday, the Hawks wrapped their season and sent out 23 seniors with nearly a .500 record (17-18) for their career.
Let’s compare the Hawks to UMHB and East Texas Baptist, some other South region teams who started football in the last 10 years.
UMHB played their inaugural season in 1998 and after four years of football the Crusaders had a record of 25-15 (.630 winning percentage). In their fifth year they advanced to the NCAA playoffs. East Texas Baptist started (actually re-started after a 50-year hiatus) their program in 2000 and went 22-20 (.520). They also went to the playoffs in their fourth season, advancing to the second round.
So Huntingdon is 17-18, which is a .490 winning percentage. That’s more than respectable, especially they don’t get to have the conference patsies that most teams have. One of the angry e-mails that I got said “if Huntingdon played the schedule Millsaps played they most likely would be 8-1. Let’s just face the facts, the SCAC is the weakest conference ever assembled…”
I can’t say I agree with this particular person but I can’t wholly disagree either. If Huntingdon were in a conference they would likely have a better record and have a shot at a Pool A playoff bid each year. As it stands now they have to darn near go undefeated every year to get into the playoffs. A move to a conference would also help recruiting.
Not that the Hawks are short on talent. In addition to Golson, they have wide receivers Mark Colson (75 receptions, 1028 yards, nine TDs) and Jacob Godwin (54-857-3). The secondary has picked off 10 passes in 10 games.
Their numbers don’t blow people away this season but you can’t talk about their schedule enough. In fact, I elaborate on it some more in later in this column talking about the polls. There are big things in store for the Hawks in the very near future.
Polling data
The national polls don’t look a whole lot different this week than last week other than Trinity moving up three spots in the AFCA poll. The Tigers are No. 14 in the AFCA rankings, up from No. 17 while they also moved up to No. 21 in the D3football.com rankings.
UMHB and Hardin-Simmons each stayed in the same spots in D3football poll (No. 6 and No. 7, respectively). The AFCA poll still has Hardin-Simmons (No. 11) ahead of UMHB (No. 12) but the Crusaders did manage to move up two spots. That was probably helped by No. 5 Cortland State losing to Rowan and by UW-La Crosse leapfrogging Hardin-Simmons from No. 12 to No. 10.
If I’m a Millsaps fan then I’m probably salivating each time the regional and national rankings come out. But the Majors are nowhere to be found right now and that’s fair. They have three losses. No matter how many wins in a row they have, you can’t change the 0-3 start and no team in the polls except Linfield has three losses. The difference is that Linfield has only two Division III losses. They fell to Division II Western Oregon 28-14 in the season opener.
Voting in a national poll can’t be easy. There are a lot of things to consider and objectivity probably takes a back seat. But can’t we all agree that UMHB should be ranked ahead of Hardin-Simmons since they beat them? This is not true in every case. If 0-10 Nowhere University upsets 10-0 Ohio State then, of course, Nowhere doesn’t assume the top spot. But this UMHB/Hardin-Simmons thing is a no-brainer to me.
If anyone ever asked me to vote in a legitimate Division III football poll I would have to turn the chance down simply because my knowledge of the product isn’t deep enough yet. I don’t understand how most polls are determined or how voters make their decisions. I couldn’t make an informed decision on things because I haven’t seen most of them play.
I say that just so people know that my regional rankings are based simply on record, head-to-head battles and some statistical analysis. There aren’t any secrets to it. I just vote how I feel. Also remember that the regional rankings aren’t official, or even all that serious. It’s just my opinion. So here’s the regional rankings or regional ranklings, if you will, because I’m sure someone is going to be irritated.
1. UMHB (7-2, 7-0 ASC)
2. Hardin-Simmons (7-1, 5-1 ASC)
3. Trinity (8-1, 5-0 SCAC)
4. Millsaps (6-3, 5-0 SCAC
5. Sul Ross State (5-3, 4-3 ASC)
6. DePauw (6-3, 3-3 ASC)
7. Huntingdon (6-4, Independent)
I just simply don’t have the guts to pick one of the three teams at No. 5. I know that there is some inconsistency in my logic because I have Huntingdon ranked below Millsaps but the Hawks beat the Majors 35-34. My answer is simple -- that was eight weeks ago and Millsaps hasn’t lost since. Sul Ross State has lost two in a row but is still in third place in the ASC. DePauw has struggled as of late but it is also in third place in the SCAC.
Huntingdon struggled through the middle part of their season but they won three of their first four to start the season and three of four to end the season. Its only losses are to Ithaca (No. 25, D3football.com poll), Wesley (No. 4), Trinity (No. 21), and 5-4 Thomas More. Again, they are also the last team to beat Millsaps (35-34 on Sept. 16). Plus I keep getting e-mails from people in Alabama that are made at me for not talking about them enough. That always helps your cause.
Rivalry renewed
This week is the 113th playing of the Monon Bell game between DePauw and Wabash.
The two teams first clashed on the gridiron in 1890 and have met every year since 1911. This year's contest marks the 75th since the Monon Bell was introduced in 1932 as the prize for the annual rivalry. In games played for the Bell, DePauw leads the rivalry 35-33-6.
Overall, Wabash leads the series 52-51-9. Of course, that means that DePauw is playing for a chance to even the all-time series. Never before has the phrase “all-time” meant more when you consider this rivalry started just after the beginning of time itself.
The game will be available on HDNet but to view the contest viewers must have an HDTV and high-definition tuner box. Viewers must also subscribe to the high-definition package offered by their cable or satellite provider.
Watch parties are scheduled in 53 cities around the nation from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Those interested can find out where to view the game at http://www.depauw.edu/alumni/monon/2006/Telecasts2006.asp.
In Belton we called the UMHB/HSU game a “rivalry” game but it doesn’t hold a candle to this one. I’ll be back next week to look at the Monon Bell game and also look back at all of my preseason predictions. Email me at chris.allman@d3football.com.