The Week that Was: Week 4

We are now one third of the way through the UMAC conference schedule. And as it stands, Greenville is still the frontrunner for the championship with their explosive offense. They are averaging nearly 18 points more per game than the second highest UMAC scorer and their offense is third in all of Division III in total first downs. But this is the UMAC and there is still a lot of football to be played so it’s still anyone’s game. Well….. almost anyone’s. This week, there were not a lot of surprises on the scoreboard, so let’s look at what else happened in the week that was.

History is Made

(Photo courtesy of IWCtigers.com)

This week we witnessed history as the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers won their first game as an NCAA program. We probably set our expectations a little high to start the season as we based it off of their years as a scholarship program. Their schedule started rough at Simpson College and then St. Scholastica so it’s now understandable that they struggled and didn’t live up to our expectations. But now after a few weeks we can be more realistic in our evaluation. The first few years will be tough having to find new recruits, but because of their long tradition as a football program (over 100 years), we expect the should recover from this transition and begin moving up in the UMAC ranks over the next few years.

UNI Watch

This week versus Crown, Northwestern unveiled new all-white uniforms that appear to be in celebration of their 40th year of football. I must admit, they look sharp and I would even venture to say they are the best uniforms in the UMAC. White jerseys on white pants has always been a good look, but then the Eagles took a page out of the Oregon Ducks book and threw some little wings on their shoulders. We hope to see more of this look in the future. Now if they could only do something about those helmets…

(Photo credit to Channing Smith)

Extra Pointers

So far this season, the UMAC has kicked 123 extra points. So far this season, the UMAC has made 97 extra points. Call me crazy, but a 78% accuracy when kicking a ball from 12 yards away as a collegiate football athlete is poor at best.So I think it’s about time we address this issue. Northwestern has missed 5, Morris has missed 4, and Martin Luther ‘s kicker must be so bad they decided to forego the whole process and instead go for two after every touchdown (which they have gone 6/16 on). Now I know not everyone has a player designated for just kicking, and player's have other responsibilities and may not be able to spend as much time practicing for extra points, but for goodness sake, how hard can it be? Now unless you are from Crown College, who is a perfect 8 for 8, or Greenville, who has only missed an acceptable 1 extra point of 27 kicked, we suggest you watch this video from Expert Village (sounds legitimate to us).

The first thing we noticed, is there may actually be a football field in worse condition than MacMurray’s Freesen Field. But after that at about the 42 second mark, he mentions that you need to “make sure that you get the ball through” the uprights. Write that down, memorize it, do whatever you need to do because that part is a small but very important part of the whole process. Now get to practicing those kicks and let’s improve this dilemma. You’re welcome.

Silly Social Media

We received a message this week from a player, and we are not sure what to make of it. Is it a mistake, does he just want our attention, or is it some sort of secret code? Whatever it was we are determined to figure it out and we have put our intern Ricky on the case to determine what it meant. Here is the message:

Our reply to you Mr. Stubbs… 2