Week 1 Power Rankings

Greenville QB Brendan Chambers-Photo courtesy of Avery Marie Photography

First week is in the books. As teams prepare for the first week of conference play, let’s take a gander at how the UMAC performed in their non-conference match ups. In some ways the UMAC really impressed me, but the UMAC still found a way to prove that it’s one of the worst conferences in D3 football. Before I get too carried away let’s get going with these rankings.

    1.      Greenville started guns a'blazin and pulled off what I would consider to be an upset and the best win for the UMAC in a non-conference game since Northwestern beat Malone in the Victory Bowl in 2008. This offense might be more explosive than last year: 624 yards of offense. Oh and by the way, they weren’t playing Maranatha (insert Martin Luther joke here). Brendan Chambers is a stud. Not only did he have run for 155 yards and three TD’s on only 13 carries; he threw for 178 yards and 2 TD’s as well showing improvement as a passer. Manny Gamble was a great RB and will be missed, but it looks like Jacob Stull and Shawn McKnight can handle the load. Sure the defense gave up 41 points and over 450 yards, but the Panthers typically are not a defensive powerhouse and start slowly on that side of the ball. This team looks exactly like our preseason pick #1 team should look like. Congratulations Panthers on a solid non-conference win.

     2.      St. Scholastica was not going to win this football game, but I kind of hoped for a better showing. In all reality, they played a much better football team and Whitworth dominated them in the line of scrimmage. QB Tyler Harper had a rough day throwing 3 interceptions and was replaced towards the end of the game by QB Ian Papenheim who was 4-7 for 53 yards and a TD against Whitworth’s second and third teamers. Will this result in a QB controversy? Probably not, but it’s something worth watching. Another little note is that contrary to previous rumors, RB Jake Jensen played in last Saturday’s game. The Saints welcome Iowa Wesleyan to the UMAC in a much anticipated game this week.

    3.      Northwestern played against a St. Olaf team that is not as talented as years past, but let’s give credit where credit is due. The Eagles were only down three with less than 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter against what will probably be an average to below average MIAC team this year. That is a major accomplishment especially considering QB Jake Fletcher started his first game ever and performed well throwing for 213 yards and 2 TD’s and only 1 int. His performance is even more impressive because his offensive line struggled throughout the entire day. The defense played well, although the secondary got picked on a little bit. Overall, I don’t think you could ask for much more from this team. This will be a huge confidence builder going into UMAC play.

    4.      Iowa Wesleyan. We still don’t really know too much about the Tigers except that they couldn’t stop the run against Simpson and WR Ridge Hobbs is a baller. Other than that, I don’t think the game against Simpson gives any indication about how the Tigers will fare in the UMAC. The Tigers face a tough first test in a road trip to St. Scholastica which should help us gauge how the Tigers fit into the UMAC puzzle.

    5.      Eureka.  Before you get excited and start talking about us retracting our 2-7 prediction, let’s get a couple things cleared up. First, our 2-7 prediction is for the 9 UMAC games only. Therefore, Eureka has not gotten 50% of our final predicted record, and our 2-7 prediction still stands. Didn’t anyone notice that you play ten games and we are just predicting the UMAC portion of the schedule? Second, yes you won the Abraham Lincoln bowl…against a pretty miserable Knox football team. Congratulations for taking care of business unlike the teams below, but before you get out the UMAC Central blog bashers let’s see how you do in a trip to St. Paul to face a formidable Eagles football team before we start talking about being halfway to getting your predicted record. Ok, now to the ranking. I actually don’t think Eureka is or will be the fifth best team in the UMAC, but I am frankly embarrassed by some of the teams below Eureka. So, enjoy fifth place but don’t get too comfortable.

    6.      Crown actually played pretty well against a decent Macalester team. It appears they have both home and away jerseys this year and the new stadium fits the school perfectly. On the football side of things, QB Wes Safford played one of his better games throwing for 253 yards and 2 TD's, but the offense could not run the football. The game was much closer than the score appears as Crown was only down by three with 13 minutes left in the game. Even though they didn’t win, there might be some good things coming from Crown this year.

    7.      Westminster. We’re creeping closer to our walk of shame, but it’s not all bad for the Blue Jays. First of all, nobody really knows what to think of Hendrix. For all we know, they could end up being a respectable team this year. Also, apparently the Westminster coaches heard our plea for a running game and ran the ball very effectively for over 200 yards. QB Plassmeyer only threw 27 times (gasp) and was fairly efficient. That being said, it was the first game for Hendrix since 1960, and the Blue Jay defense certainly did not play well, allowing over 500 yards of offense. Westminster welcomes Crown for their first UMAC matchup of 2013.

    8.      MacMurray officially begins our walk of shame, but is ranked in eighth because we expected MacMurray to get pounded by a much better football team. In fact, in light of other events in the UMAC, MacMurray could be applauded for scheduling a difficult opponent. I certainly won’t be clapping, but hey it could be the silver lining in what otherwise was a miserable day for MacMurray.

    9.      Minnesota-Morris should be embarrassed. Seriously? 272 yards rushing allowed? This is supposed to be an experienced defense, but it looked awful against a pretty horrendous Hamline football team. I guess experience doesn’t matter when the players are not very talented. In other news, although QB Caleb McClaren played extremely well throwing for 5 TD'

s, Morris still managed go with a 2 QB system and throw another QB in a very tight game. Normally, I would assume it was because of an injury, but with the Cougars you never know.

    

    244.  Martin Luther. Where to start? First of all, congratulations on being ranked the worst football team in America. As well as some of the other teams represented the UMAC this week, the Knights completely erased every inch of progress. The defense is as bad or worse (I’m going with worse) than the offense last year, but hey Luke Rothe had like a zillion yards…and they still lost… to Maranatha.