Week 5 Power Rankings

(Photo credit to PaustJohn photography)

A wild week 5 in the UMAC saw lots of scoring and very little defense. Between the five games, there were 373 points (119 in the MLC/IWU matchup) and 4,185 yards of offense - that's almost 2 1/2 miles. Greenville and St. Scholastica still remain undefeated in UMAC play while Crown and MacMurray still have yet to find a win. We are now halfway through the season, but the last half is the best half as the fight to take home the conference championship takes form.

1. Greenville - To our anonymous commenter who wants us to “write a blog on the facts of who is the best in the conference.” I assume you are a St. Scholastica “homer” wanting your team to move up in rankings, if not, I'm not sure what your purpose is as no other team is undefeated in the UMAC. But let’s look at some of these facts. Greenville and St. Scholastica have had only one game against the same opponent – Crown – and neither the Panthers nor the Saints were particularly dominant in that game. But since we are looking at facts, we should look at some facts from those two games. Greenville led in their game by 7 at the 4:20 mark of the fourth quarter until Crown returned the ensuing kickoff to nearly tie it up except for the missed extra point. The Saints were ahead by 3 in their game until 4:40 left in the game when they scored the final points to go up by 10 against the Storm. Greenville’s offense “struggled” to 477 yards of offense and 21 points, while St. Scholastica gained 425 yards and scored 24 points. Based on that game, neither team is really much better off. The teams the Panthers have defeated are a combined 7-13, while the Saints’ opponents are 3-17. I could continue on about these facts that you call for, but I don’t think it would solve anything. I will admit I may have overestimated Greenville’s ability to score this week.
With all this, I’m not saying Greenville is unbeatable, but they have yet to lose this season and will likely remain number one until they do. If you remember last year, St. Scholastica remained at the top of our rankings until they actually lost, and I believe it is only fair, we give the same treatment to Greenville. We will be able to have more of an idea where each team stands over the next couple weeks. You want to talk about how Greenville doesn’t deserve to be ranked first, please tell me why anyone else deserves it more.

2. St. Scholastica - Another week, another easy win over an easy opponent. The Saints defeated MacMurray 42-6 while running for 383 yards and holding the Highlanders to 210 total yards. Neither team completed more than 6 passes, but that is likely due to the 20 mph sustained winds. If you are wondering why the Saints are not ranked first, please read Greenville’s ranking. The Saints are great on defense and good on offense but they remain largely untested as their opponents are, as mentioned above, a combined 3-17. The Saints first test is this week as they head down to Saint Paul to face the Northwestern Eagles.

3. Eureka - A great win by the Red Devils this week over Westminster to solidify their third place ranking. This team has been very surprising this year following the loss of last year’s starting quarterback. I am even impressed enough by their performance so far this season that I am ready to discontinue the nickname of the Fighting Durleys, effective immediately. With what I believe is the second toughest schedule thus far behind Crown, Eureka has defeated Northwestern, Westminster, and Minnesota-Morris and fell just short at home versus Greenville. The Red Devils face the bottom four teams in the UMAC over the remainder of the schedule with a game versus St. Scholastica in the middle of those five games. After we predicted a 2-7 finish for Eureka, I now predict they could very well be in the hunt for a conference championship if the cards fall in their favor.

4. Northwestern - I checked the score towards the end of the third quarter and saw it was 44-24, so I figured it was all wrapped up and wrote that off as an easy win for the Eagles. I should’ve known better given their history this season with the 4th quarter. I checked back with a few minutes left, and lo and behold it is now 44-38 with Morris threatening to score again... Luckily for them they ended up holding on to the win with a last minute touchdown pass to WR Joe Sutton. But seriously, what is the issue here? I understand hockey is popular in Minnesota, but you need to understand not every sport has three periods. I hate to have to pull out the dictionary here, but even the word “quarter” itself is defined as “one of four equal parts of something”. This would be a much better team if they played a complete, four-quarter game. Nevertheless, they move up to fourth in the rankings for now.

5. Westminster - The Blue Jays finally got a decent passing game this week versus Eureka as Plassmeyer passed for over 250 yards for the first time this season. Statistically, the game was very even, as both teams accumulated just above 430 yards of offense, but Westminster's two turnovers and a long scoring play given up by their defense were the main difference. These mistakes have been one of the main things holding Westminster back this season. Both of the Blue Jays wins have come against teams who are winless through five weeks. Playing host to Morris this weekend will be a good litmus test of where the Blue Jays truly should rank.

6. Minnesota-Morris - Caleb McLaren has been having a great season so far passing for close to 300 yards a game. Then this week, their backup QB Donnie Mavencamp starts (not sure where McLaren was) and threw for a school-record 404 yards and 3 TDs and 0 INTs. Unfortunately, this success at the quarterback position has not led to wins for the Cougars as they are 1-4 on the year. Maybe the Cougars should return to the 2-QB system...

7. Crown - Their first missed extra point of the year costs them a chance at their biggest upset in years as they fall to Greenville by one point. This team has hung in with the top two teams, St. Scholastica and Greenville, at home, but yet they’ve struggled when away at Northwestern and Westminster. For only gaining 209 yards of total offense, they sure put up a fight against a team who had over 475 yards against them. For now, Crown remains winless, but after having the toughest UMAC schedule so far, I believe they still have a lot of fight left in them and should pull in a few victories before the season is over.

8. Martin Luther – Wow. Luke Rothe had the game of a lifetime, accounting for 7 touchdowns and 440 yards of offense for the Knights in their 68-51 victory. The offense as a whole played very well, punting only twice with no interceptions or lost fumbles (they did turn it over twice on downs). Granted this high scoring affair was against an Iowa Wesleyan team that is young and not the greatest defensively. I only wonder where this was the last two weeks where Martin Luther lost with 8 and 6 points. Against the top half of this conference, Martin Luther’s offense so far has played underwhelmingly. But against the bottom half, they are going on offensive rampages, averaging 525 yards and 54 points per game. Unfortunately, their defense has appeared to be on a bye week every game except against Northwestern.

9. Iowa Wesleyan – After the last two weeks, we now know that Iowa Wesleyan can play offense, but where is there defense? 540 yards and 45 points per game allowed is not going to help a team win games. This week they allowed 615 yards and 68 points to Martin Luther. Those are video game numbers right there. The Tigers need to do whatever it takes to improve this defense over the rest of the season.

10. MacMurray - I realize we may have been a little harsh on MacMurray as a program and we would like to turn over a new stone and try and look at the positives for the program. Since Patrick Hall has starter playing at RB the last three weeks, he has averaged over 115 yards per game, which is good enough for third in the conference. The Highlanders could begin to build an offense around him and hopefully open up the passing game a little bit to get their offense going.