Not happy with the way things went last year? No problem.

Nobody wants to be left in the hands of the selection committee, especially not this year, where it's apparent from the regional rankings that winning percentage alone is more important than playing a strong schedule. Just take control of your own destiny.

Illinois Wesleyan did just that, with a win against North Central this past weekend, and Clyde Hughes wrote about it in Around the Midwest.

In the MIAC, St. Thomas no longer controls its own destiny, but one thing the Tommies do appear to control is the return game. That's because of Fritz Waldvogel, who accomplished the rare feat of returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown for a second consecutive week. Adam Johnson tells his story in Around the West.

When the season started, Christopher Newport was coming off a playoff season, had big hopes, and had Tunde Ogun in the backfield.

Only problem, Ogun "tweaked" something in his knee in the season opener against Wesley. And it looked like an ACL tear, another in a long line of injuries that detailed his D-I career. Ryan Tipps has more in this week's Around the Mid-Atlantic.

Sometimes a prolonged stint as a backup can be the best way to learn. And Kurt Rocco couldn't have spent much more time as a backup -- three years and three Stagg Bowl runs for Mount Union. After a slow start, he's finally coming into his own for the Purple Raiders, and Matt Florjancic tells the story in this week's Around the Great Lakes.

Around the South tackles the turnaround at McMurry, while Around the East looks at Susquehanna and its Liberty League chances. And the second-longest winning streak in Division III went by the boards this past weekend, as Middlebury ended the 15-game run by Trinity (Conn.). Tom Haley tells all in Around the Northeast.

That and more in this week's Around the Region columns.

Each week during the regular season we look at some of the key statistical performances from the weekend in Division III football, highlighting one per region.

In the past six weeks, Shenandoah has lost games by 3,3,3,3,6 and now two points. The Hornets won their opener, 21-3 against Catholic, and haven't won since. Two of the losses were in overtime. In another game, Ferrum scored the final 10 points to win 19-13. Maryville beat Shenandoah 22-19 on a touhdown and two-point conversion with 17 seconds left. This week, Shenandoah actually scored last, with a touchdown with 18 seconds left. The Hornets, however, had missed an extra point in the second quarter and needed to go for two. The conversion failed.

Further deconstructing the Maine Maritime rushing performance, the Mariners ran for their 730 yards without truly dominating the time of possession. Maine Maritime held the ball for just 31:10 of the game.

The Mariners had only three possessions of longer than four minutes, and none longer than 4:14. Apparently gaining 11.6 yards per carry doesn't exactly run the clock.

The University of Chicago managed the most yards of total offense that Case Western Reserve had allowed all season, 413, but it wasn't enough. After Chicago hit a 25-yard field goal to tie the game at 24-24 with 13:00 left in the game, Case scored the last 14 points for the win despite Dan Whalen throwing just one pass. It was Greg Meyer who carried the Spartans down the stretch, running for 110 yards on 10 carries.

Linebacker Cory Olson scored Hamline's first touchdown of the game in the 34-17 win over Carleton after he snagged an interception in the first quarter and returned it 39 yards for the score. He also had three pass breakups in the game and forced a fumble that the Pipers recovered. He added seven tackles, three solo.

It's too far along in the season to ignore what some teams have accomplished any longer. We've written about Lebanon Valley already, but there are others on the list.

Such as Springfield, which still has playoff hopes even if it doesn't control its own Empire 8 destiny, having lost to Alfred. But

Also, suddenly, it seems Washington and Jefferson has lost more PAC championships than it's won over the past five years. What happened? That's one of many topics Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman take on in this week's Around the Nation podcast.

In addition, get their take on the first regional rankings and a look at how they might change. Find out how a backup quarterback prepares and gets prepared for being thrust into the lineup, and how it makes a difference for everyone else on the offense. Plus, a look back at Dome Day and Maine Maritime's record rushing performance.

That and more ... frankly, a lot more, in the Around the Nation podcast.

Go to the podcast page and click the play button to listen. You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Scroll down for more Saturday coverage. Plus check out our weekend photo galleries:

• Baldwin-Wallace at No. 19 Ohio Northern
• Lebanon Valley at Widener
• RPI at Union
• Lewis and Clark at Menlo
• Concordia-Moorhead or St. Olaf

Last year, Thomas More rocked the PAC with a 35-29 win against Washington and Jefferson, stealing the automatic bid out from under the Presidents' nose.

This year, they did it again, holding No. 11 W&J under 30 yards of total offense in the second half and picking off three Presidents passes to win on the road, 14-7. Thomas More, ranked No. 20, became the first Division III team to clinch an automatic bid to the 2009 playoffs. Weekend scores, including game stories.

Central, Monmouth and Mount St. Joseph each clinched automatic bids as well on Saturday. Central shut out Buena Vista 17-0 to clinch the Iowa Conference automatic qualifier, Monmouth pulled away from Illinois College 44-17 to clinch the MWC and Mount St. Joseph had little trouble with Manchester to wrap up the HCAC 31-7.

No. 13 Mississippi College fell to Howard Payne 38-24 as Adam Shaffer threw five interceptions as part of seven Choctaw turnovers. No. 7 Otterbein is unbeaten no longer, struggling at Marietta without quarterback Austin Schlosser and losing 25-22 a week before its big showdown with No. 1 Mount Union. Kraig Ladd was just 23-for-48 passing but it went along with three touchdowns, including a 10-yarder to Mike Sloboda in overtime to lead Illinois Wesleyan to a 28-22 upset of No. 9 North Central. The win throws the CCIW into a three-way tie for first as Wheaton (Ill.) had little trouble with Elmhurst. No. 2 UW-Whitewater had no problem this time around with UW-Stevens Point, beating the Pointers 41-12 to avenge the only loss the Warhawks have had in the past five years of WIAC play.

Nick Bourassi set the tone with an 80-yard touchdown run on Maine Maritime's first play from scrimmage and the Mariners ran out to a Division III record for rushing yards in a 76-49 win at Coast Guard. They rolled up 730 yards on 63 carries to obliterate the mark of 670 set by Olivet in 2004, led by Bourassi's 217 yards on just nine carries. Coast Guard's Jon Resch came off the bench to answer with 469 yards passing and six TDs.

Cal Lutheran pulled away from No. 21 Occidental in a 24-14 win, taking the driver's seat in the SCIAC. The Kingsmen have yet to play Redlands. No. 23 Delaware Valley was missing quarterback Mike Isgro but rolled up 513 yards of offense behind back up Mark Hatty in a 47-21 win at King's. Hatty threw for 267 yards and three touchdowns in his first start. No. 24 Alfred did the same, rolling past Rochester without starting quarterback Tommy Secky. Middlebury defeated Trinity (Conn.) 34-21 to end the Bantams' winning streak. Union beat RPI 20-15 to get back the Dutchman Shoes for the first time since 2005. Kean edged Rowan 23-20 in double overtime to hand the Profs their second loss of the season. Albright remained unbeaten with a 49-28 victory against FDU-Florham, setting up the showdown with Delaware Valley next week. More on the scoreboard.

Dickinson, Johns Hopkins and Franklin and Marshall each won to remain in the first-place tie in the Centennial, while Moravian beat Ursinus to knock the Bears out of the group. St. Norbert closed out Minahan Stadium in style, ending a 71-year run with a 44-0 pasting of Beloit. Concordia (Ill.) scored in the first overtime and went for two, converting to defeat Concordia (Wis.) 22-21 to move into a tie for first in the NATHC.

The top Pool C candidates won out on Saturday, as No. 15 St. Thomas rolled over Augsburg 42-3, Coe handled Loras 38-13, DePauw defeated Birmingham-Southern 35-21 and Mary Hardin-Baylor crushed East Texas Baptist 52-10. The Tommies got an opening kickoff return for a touchdown from Fritz Waldvogel for the second consecutive week in the win. Wesley, Case Western Reserve and Huntingdon, the three top Pool B playoff candidates, each won.

Plus, five tight games were played on Friday at the UMAC's Dome Day: the highest-scoring game of the season, the lowest-scoring game and three more games decided by a total of eight points.

MacMurray and Crown led off the Upper Midwest conference's annual Dome Day with a track meet on Friday morning in Minneapolis as MacMurray won 68-62 in overtime in the Metrodome.

The game came just short of tying the Division III record for most points in regulation, which was 138, set when Brockport State beat Hartwick 70-68 last November in an ECAC bowl game, then a couple of scores short of the 72-70 Hartwick-Utica quadruple-overtime game from 2007.

The teams punted just three times, none in the second half as the teams combined to score 35 apiece in the fourth quarter and finished the game with a combined 1,110 yards of total offense.



"Once we got to overtime," MacMurray coach Jake Box said, "I said, 'hey, let's be aggressive.' We played man coverage, brought a lot more people, rushed them more. Maybe we should have done that earlier ... they've scored 62, there's no point in sitting back. Let's get after it." Listen to the full postgame interview on the Daily Dose.

Crown threw three incomplete passes sandwiched around a 3-yard run after Garrett Starkey had opened the extra session with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Whitaker. This week's schedule and Friday's scores, including live video and audio.

The Division III high for the season was followed by the Division III low, as Minnesota-Morris got a 37-yard field goal from Matt Privratask with 3:55 left and made it stand up to beat Macalester 3-0. A Macalester 36-yard field goal attempt went wide left as time expired. Two more one-point games followed and the final game went to Greenville, 26-20 over Northwestern (Minn.), making the final margin of victory 17 points for five games combined.

Check back later for more preview as we get ready for Saturday's Week 9 games.

Augustana offensive lineman Blaine Westemeyer and Hardin-Simmons wide receiver ZaVious Robbins were named finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame (NFF). As finalists, they will receive an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship and have a chance to win the HealthSouth endowed Campbell Trophy, previously known as the Draddy Trophy. They were selected from a pool of 154 semifinalists among all NCAA divisions and the NAIA.

Candidates are nominated by their schools, must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a grade point average of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship.

Blaine Westemeyer has started for three years on the Augustana offensive line and has helped the Vikings lead the CCIW in rushing for three years. Westemeyer has a 3.93 grade point average as a biochemistry major, was awarded the Augustana Summer Research Fellowship in 2008 and received a grant from the University of Utah earlier this year to perform cellular protein research. Westemeyer is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and an active participant in the Athletes-Giving-Back community outreach program. He also serves as a hospice volunteer.

ZaVious Robbins is Hardin-Simmons' all-time leader in kickoff return yards and was all-conference as a receiver and kick returner in the ASC. He has a 3.90 grade point average as a marketing major and was named the University's most outstanding marketing student. Robbins also volunteers for Meals on Wheels and the Keep Abilene Beautiful program.

Keith McMillan might get a few days off here and there, but Around the Nation never dies.

That's why Keith opened up his column this week to the readers.

As part of Around the Nation's season-long recognition of D3football.com's 10th anniversary, readers were invited to send their favorite Division III football memories of the past 10 years. And what we got was a great set of some of your great moments.

Whether it's the dad who got to enjoy four years of watching his son play, the surprise trip to a far-distant playoff game, a record performance or helping a team prepare to face a rival, great memories run the gamut, from the unheralded to the ones that were front-page news.

Read on for more in this week's Around the Nation.

The Green Bay Packers have promoted former Mississippi College wide receiver Jake Allen from the practice squad to their active roster. Allen will suit up for the Packers this weekend in their game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Allen, a 2007 D3football.com All-American, spent the season's first seven weeks on the Packers' practice squad after spending the entire 2008 season there. The 6-4 receiver will wear #13.

Allen enjoyed an All-American career with the Choctaws from 2005-07. In his final season, Allen set school records for receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.

While the eyes of most casual observers are focused on the eventual Albright-Delaware Valley in Week 10 as the be-all and end-all of the MAC race, there's a third team still in the hunt.

And it's part of the continuing turnaround for Lebanon Valley under coach Jim Monos, whose second stint in the top spot for the Dutchmen has spurred a revival of the program. How are the Dutchmen doing it? Adam Samrov tells the story in this week's Around the East.

A little to the west, if there's going to be a turnaround it hasn't exactly started yet. But for Juniata, it could well be underway this week, as Carmen Felus' crew got its first win of the season this week. Ryan Tipps finds out how Felus intends to rebuild the program in this week's Around the Mid-Atlantic.

Concordia (Wis.) is working to battle back from an 0-3 start and has a chance to capture its first Northern Athletics Conference title. Clyde Hughes has more in Around the Midwest. Curry's new quarterback is finding his groove in Around the Northeast. Plus, it was a squeaker Saturday in Around the West.

That and more in this week's Around the Region.

Each week during the regular season we look at some of the key statistical performances from the weekend in Division III football, highlighting one per region.

Occidental defensive end Alex Wertheimer harrassed the La Verne offense, as he tallied four sacks for a loss of 20 yards to go along with a pair of quarterback hurries and a pass broken up in a 14-13 win. Six of his seven tackles were for a loss and he pushed the Leopards back a total of 25 yards. La Verne finished the afternoon with 5 yards on 27 carries.

Bryson Tucker returned to running back for Mary Hardin-Baylor and ran for 218 yards and a pair of touchdowns, the fourth-best single-game total in school history. Tucker entered the week with no stats from scrimmage, rather, he had 28 tackles from his safety spot. Tucker was pressed into service as a running back in midseason in 2008 as well and finished with 672 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

Albright had seven sacks for minus-38 yards, 11 tackles for a loss for minus-46 yards, a forced fumble, one fumble recovery, four interceptions, blocked a punt, and broke up five pass attempts in a 31-17 win.

Manchester might be the only conference unbeaten given less of a chance of winning its conference than Otterbein is in the OAC. The Spartans beat Hanover 30-8 on Saturday, moving them to 4-3, 4-0 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. Manchester lost to Trine, Earlham and Kalamazoo to open the season in non-conference action and finishes the season with Mount St. Joseph and Franklin before traveling to Anderson. The four HCAC wins are Manchester's most in the past decade.