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| (Photo from CSSsaints.com) |
1. Greenville- I was not overly impressed with the Panthers performance this weekend over Westminster. They seem to have been on cruise control the past couple weeks playing against the lesser opponents - allowing Iowa Wesleyan to hang around into the third quarter and now only defeating Westminster by 21. It is common for teams to let off the gas against less threatening opponents, and I wonder if the coaching staff's primary goal was to keep Brendan Chambers healthy for this week's matchup with St. Scholastica. Whatever the case, Greenville better turn off the cruise control and put the pedal to the metal if they hope to win this week against a Saints team that has been plowing through opponents.
2. St. Scholastica- Unlike last season's team, these Saints are not relying on luck to win a conference championship as they blasted the Minnesota-Morris Cougars last week 55-7 behind RB Jake Jensen's 303 total offensive yards. They have been performing consistently throughout the season, not taking the easy games for granted and winning easily at Nothwestern and at Eureka. Their defense has been dominant, allowing a conference-low 15.4 points and 272.4 yards per game, 60 yards fewer than any other UMAC team. The front seven has been particularly good, tallying 36 sacks on the year, or 4 per game. This pressure, combined with their excellent defensive backs, has led to 14 interceptions and 9 forced fumbles on opposing QBs, 4 of which have been recovered by the Saints. While all of this is impressive, this week they face a Greenville offense that can be equally impressive and the Saints must be firing on all cylinders defensively if they hope to be playing another game after this week.
3. Eureka- After a tough loss to St. Scholastica two weeks ago, Eureka waited until the fourth quarter to pull out a 13 point win over Iowa Wesleyan. Despite losing the chance to compete for the UMAC championship, this Red Devils team should keep its heads high, turning last year's 4-6 team into at least a 7-2 team so far, likely an 8-2 team after their upcoming matchup with Crown. This year's squad will have finished with the best record since their 9-1 finish in 1995, which featured current head coach, Kurt Barth, as the team's star wide receiver. The group of fifteen seniors has led the team well and can hopefully end their careers on a high note with a win this week against Crown.
4. Northwestern- It seems the Eagles have extended their principle of finishing each game poorly to the season with an underwhelming 26-13 win over MacMurray last weekend. The Eagles led by just 7 with under seven minutes to go in the game before scoring the final touchdown of the game. The #1 ranked defense against the run even gave up 199 rushing yards, their second highest allowed this season, to the 7th ranked rushing offense in the UMAC. A win is a win however as the Eagles move to 5-4 on the year. For a team that is so young they have done fairly well, but they clearly did not play to their potential all season. They will be looking to add to to their win total this week as they host Iowa Wesleyan as they finish off the year.
5. Crown- The talented young Crown team came storming out (see what I did there) against the Martin Luther Knights, racking up 22 points in the first quarter and then 13 in the second. That 35 point first half total is tied with Greenville for the second highest first-half point total this season behind Martin Luther's 38 in their week 5 shootout. Since switching to a run-heavy offense (58.5 carries per game), the Storm have averaged 346.75 yards on the ground, mostly by their three freshman running backs behind an offensive line that starts three freshmen and an offense that is led by a freshman quarterback and... well you get the picture, this is a very young offense that has been shredding opponents the last four weeks (granted the opponents were the four worst rushing defenses in the UMAC). I know if I were a coach in the UMAC, I would be sweating a little bit right now imagining what this Storm team could look like over the next three years if they hold onto all of these freshmen.
6. Minnesota-Morris- With the way the Cougars played this week, they should have just turned their helmets and pads in last week and called it a season. 198 yards of offense, 5 turnovers, and their only score came off of a fumble recovery. They barely even had more tackles (64) than St. Scholastica had points (55). They didn't even follow my advice to make Brendan Foss look good, although he did have 44% of their yards with 87 yards on 6 receptions. Its hard to keep them ranked above the rest of the bottom 5, but they have lost their games by fewer points than any of the other teams. Where last season they seem to have gotten the good break in close games, this season it has been the opposite, losing two games by 3 points each, one game by 7, and one by 5. They could easily be 6-2 but they took the short end of the stick those four games. But it isn't usually by chance that a team gets the loss in so many close games. It usually shows a lack of mental focus to start and end games strong and that may have been enough to make those one possession games swing in their opponents favor.
7. Martin Luther- The trend continues as Martin Luther loses to another top 5 team by a large margin. Not counting the Northwestern game, the Knights have lost to the top 5 teams by 50, 36, 34, and 34 points. So far they have beat all of the bottom 5 teams they have played, with their final matchup coming against Westminster this week. Rothe and Friends have put up some astonishingly-high numbers some weeks while tanking it in others. Consistency and depth is something this team lacks, and it shows in their performance. But again, this all comes down to being a smaller school that does not attract many next-level athletes to play football.
8. Iowa Wesleyan- The first year in Division III has not gone so hot for this team in terms of wins and losses. But in terms of improvement, this team has been probably second to Crown in their improvement throughout the year. A very young team, especially on defense, the Tigers have showed some signs of promise in a few games - forcing a good Crown team into overtime, hanging with Greenville and Eureka for most of three quarters, and holding Eureka to a 13 point margin of victory. If I were Northwestern this week, I would not write this team off too early or they could be in for a surprise.
9. Westminster- This is the Westminster we all know from last season. 258 yards passing and 39 yards rushing in this week's loss to Greenville. If only they could have had this passing attack when Ronnie Seals Jr was healthy, they could have been respectable on offense and maybe pulled out a few more victories. The defense has forced a conference-high 17 interceptions but at the same time, they up the second most passing yards per game at 246.7. This team has been playing uninspired football all season and their record reflects that. It may be time to make some changes in the Westminster organization, whether its a change of philosophy, shaking up the roster, or finding a way to motivate this team.
10. MacMurray- The Highlanders were actually in their game against Northwestern leading a drive to almost tie the game until turning the ball over on downs with 11:27 left in the contest. For a team that's 0-9, they don't always play like it, but I think at this point they just don't have the resources or depth to make an impact in the UMAC. With an enrollment of 472, they are the smallest school in Division III (maybe even in all of college football) so it's no surprise that it is difficult for them to field a full competitive football team.
It will be a fun to see what happens with the Greenville/Scholastica match up. The game will come down to who proves out to be the best player (at least on offense) in the UMAC, Chambers or Jensen (with Sinnen from UNW third). Both of these players are key to their team and the one who is stopped means troubles for the team.
ReplyDeleteSlightly curious as to how morris is ranked ahead of Martin Luther. Morris has lost more games and lost to Martin Luther. They lost by a greater margin to scholastica. Also am curious what you mean by next level guys in reference to Martin Luther. Besides Foss is there anyone else getting next level looks in this conference?
ReplyDeleteI have Morris ranked ahead of Martin Luther because I believe they are a better team overall and would win the majority of the games if the two teams played each other more than once. The game Morris lost to Martin Luther was at Martin Luther and they only won by 3 points. And since you bring up the St. Scholastica margin, I will bring up the Greenville margin, Martin Luther lost 56-6, Morris 56-27. I could go on with reasons, but I think it's too close to call it one way or the other.
DeleteI don't know what world you are from, but the "next level" up from Martin Luther or even UMAC football is not the NFL. The next level would be more like playing at St. Thomas or UW-Whitewater. But when I used the term, I was just meaning players who have better size or talent, such as those who play for Greenville, St. Scholastica, Eureka, and Northwestern. Martin Luther has a few of those athletes (Luke Rothe and Matt Olson to name a couple), but teams like Greenville and the others I mentioned have those players at nearly every position which is what sets them apart from the bottom half of the conference.