FB: Southern Athletic Association

Started by Ron Boerger, October 25, 2011, 02:57:49 PM

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Ron Boerger

Quote from: Cowboy2 on November 23, 2022, 10:37:21 AM
I wonder how many people will attend being that it's the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Historically speaking (given that it's been over a decade since TU hosted a second-round game) crowds are quite a bit lighter with most of the students and a good number of the usual crowd away for the holiday.  I imagine UMHB will bring a sizeable group as always.

D3Navy

Tomorrow will be a terrific day of football in San Antonio!  It's great to have playoffs at home and doubly great given it is UMHB.  This is what the TU players have been working for all season.

UMHB will be a handful given their experienced, national champion offensive line.  Trinity will make it tough on them to move the ball, but they'll get the ball to the end zone.  It won't be what UMHB is used to, however, and I don't expect a blowout.

TU's offense needs to show some creativity.  They have a great O line as well, but unlike big play offenses of Trinity past, they deliberately churn out yards and eat time.  A few more surprises are needed at this point.

Special teams have played an outsized role for TU this year.  From blocked kicks to punt return TDs, they've delivered victories.  I expect that to again be the case tomorrow.

TU is banged up pretty good at this point.  I lost count of officials' time outs last week.  Most of the men affected were linemen.  It's been an injury-plagued season from the start, yet the depth of the team has been impressive.  Fingers-crossed for a healthy team and clean play tomorrow.

It'll be a tight game.  I predict turnovers and special teams will determine the outcome.  TU 21, UMHB 17.

Ron Boerger

Game preview from the SA Express-News (not paywalled).

6 of the 7 D3Football.com prognosticators picked UMHB; they are the defending national champions and worthy of that respect.  It's an uphill battle tomorrow to be sure, but games are played for a reason and as both the UW teams saw last week, the favorite doesn't *always* win. 

tigerguy

Glad the San Antonio weather held on as projected. Should be clear skies and high 50s by gametime. However, like last year's first round matchup between UMHB/Trinity, it should be a very windy day. Hoping Trinity gets some of its injured players back today.

I'll echo the other comments that it's truly a shame this game is having to be played on Thanksgiving weekend, not only because this shouldn't be a 2nd round matchup, but because the game experience will be so much less than what we've seen this season. I'm still expecting a decent crowd, but I would guess that in any other week, this game would probably have the most fans at EM Stevens Stadium in a long time. This season certainly had some huge games at home (especially Wheaton and HSU), and Trinity had a home playoff game against McMurry in 2011. But, it's my opinion that this is probably the biggest and most-anticipated home game for Trinity since the 2008 late-season game between undefeated Trinity and undefeated Millsaps. I think both teams were ranked Top 10 at the time or something close to that, and it was their first game since Trinity lateraled their way to a conference championship. Hopefully the result doesn't turn out the same, as Juan Joseph ran all over us and Millsaps got a resounding victory. Hoping for a great game.

Cowboy2


You're right on the money with that outlook. TU does seem to be pretty banged up, but hopefully they're rested...most teams at this point of the season have paid the injury tax. UMHBs 2 deep, that Riley reported on in their pregame notes, show that the CRU should be at full strength.

Anyways, Trinity has been battle tested all season, but so has UMHB in their games with better competition. Each team pushed themselves OCC scheduling to prepare themselves for this postseason of play. I thought the CRU were taking the UWW game but unfortunately slipped up on a tough road game. HSU was going toe to toe and with them, and looked to have had their number, until the Cowboys panicked with the worst of worst - unforeseen turn of events I've watched in a long time. HPU took them the end of the game for a last play FG loss. *Key point is all three of those were on the road! (2-1)

Trinity won a close OT game vs a really good Wheaton team, in a top ten match up, right out of the gates. I thought they gave one away to a real solid BSC team and later pulled it off! They allowed a feisty Berry team to hang around but easily controlled each phase of that game. The HSU game showed how deep they were, even out a lot of starters. *Key point is all four of those were at home! (4-0)

Scores against common opponents show this TU team to be deserving of their poll ranking in  tier to UMHB this season. Both teams are top notch and will be prepared. Only game that kind of makes one scratch their head is the Huntingdon score last week. Huntingdon seemed to have been behind the moment UMHB took the field.

Pretty much everyone on D3FB, outside of Frank, picked the CRU. A lot of posters calling for big blow out by UMHB on other media outlets. I'm not one to bet, but I would hate to have to pick between the two. I'm sure with the long holiday week, normal crowds won't be as large as they would have been if this was in the regular season....which stinks. However, I bet there are a lot more attendees than last Saturday for each team due to weather forecast looking to clear up.

If it becomes a shootout, well the CRU will have got into the situation that benefits them. If Trinity keeps the bend but not break approach, they'll settle into their type of ball with their all their wizardry of schemes.

Last year is last year. That was the only game UMHB didn't control all year. Even though they won they didn't get into their normal groove. Both teams even look different but majority of the players are in reality the same.This year the CRU seem to be on a mission for repeat. I see the CRU trying to take some shots early open things up and rattle the Tigers. I also think TU to be better prepared than a normal week with not having any distractions or class to allow that "next man up" to fill their assigned roll.

No one expected Trinity to be here, but Trinity! Seems to be a common theme of some of these teams remaining in the last 8 games. End of the day it's football and once the kickoff starts, all this will be out the window and anything can happen. The game will flow and take its own storyline. Whichever team makes the best adjustments after half will be in the driver seat. I think it will be a slow and methodical approach by each team to start off, measuring out the other sides strengths and weaknesses. A few big plays but for the most part a pretty tight game first half. Once each side has settled in...maybe some late game fireworks. I expect a good old fashion dogfight. Should be a fun one! 27-23 type game.

"SUDAAAAAA!!!!"

tigerguy

Bertness still out for Trinity, damnit. BJ Stewart not returning opening kick, damnit. Announcers say Stewart is suited up though.

Ralph Turner

The drone cam is a nice addition, but the producer is jumping around on the camera angles at very disorienting times.

He will go from press box wide angle, to press box zoom, to press box wide angle to 2nd press box, to 2 more camera angles. About the 5:44 point in the 1st quarter, I counted 6 camera angles in rapid fashion, making it hard to follow.

Ralph Turner

After the UMHB FG, UMHB's Avila kicks off into the end zone, into the wind.

tigerguy

I know they haven't done it all season, but I think Trinity might need to switch it up and go with 4 down lineman. It's pretty much impossible to get pressure against most playoff caliber teams sending only 3 against 5. King has had all day back there, and Trinity is getting killed on the pass so far.

As expected, offense has done nothing. Hoping they come out in the 3rd with similar aggressive play calling that we did in the third last week against HSU.

I am always dumbfounded by UMHB's size on both sides of the line, and this year is no different.

tigerguy

#2634
Man. Where did that 2nd half offense come from for Trinity? If they had a shred of that in the 1st half, this is a different game. Stoked that it turned out to be an epic game though. Really incredible how far Trinity has come back as a program, and showed they can play with any of the big boys in D3. What a season.

Ron Boerger

Quote from: tigerguy on November 26, 2022, 03:37:10 PM
Man. Where did that 2nd half offense come from for Trinity? If they had a shred of that in the 1st half, this is a different game. Stoked that it turned out to be an epic game though. Really incredible how far Trinity has come back as a program, and showed they can play with any of the big boys in D3. What a season.

All agree.   Amazed at how they came back after giving up the two long second half TDs.  Wish we would have had a little more urgency on the last drive - understand not leaving UMHB much time had we scored but just a bit casual and it ended up costing. 

tigerguy

Quote from: Ron Boerger on November 26, 2022, 04:01:45 PM
Quote from: tigerguy on November 26, 2022, 03:37:10 PM
Man. Where did that 2nd half offense come from for Trinity? If they had a shred of that in the 1st half, this is a different game. Stoked that it turned out to be an epic game though. Really incredible how far Trinity has come back as a program, and showed they can play with any of the big boys in D3. What a season.

All agree.   Amazed at how they came back after giving up the two long second half TDs.  Wish we would have had a little more urgency on the last drive - understand not leaving UMHB much time had we scored but just a bit casual and it ended up costing.

Yep. And having to use one of the timeouts early in the 2H also was a killer. Horn lived up to his hype in the 2nd half, as he made some incredible throws. Barely over-threw Stewart on what would have easily been the game-tying touchdown, and I assume the wind caused that. UMHB should be throwing to Jordan's side every single play. Not sure how you defend 6'6 in D3, especially a 6'6 receiver who can block as well as he does, and with speed. That guy is an absolute machine on the outside.

D O.C.

QuoteThe drone cam is a nice addition, but the producer is jumping around on the camera angles at very disorienting times.

But that drone at halftime gave this tourist a great view of the campus and San Antonio.

D3Navy

Quote from: tigerguy on November 26, 2022, 04:19:54 PM
Quote from: Ron Boerger on November 26, 2022, 04:01:45 PM
Quote from: tigerguy on November 26, 2022, 03:37:10 PM
Man. Where did that 2nd half offense come from for Trinity? If they had a shred of that in the 1st half, this is a different game. Stoked that it turned out to be an epic game though. Really incredible how far Trinity has come back as a program, and showed they can play with any of the big boys in D3. What a season.

All agree.   Amazed at how they came back after giving up the two long second half TDs.  Wish we would have had a little more urgency on the last drive - understand not leaving UMHB much time had we scored but just a bit casual and it ended up costing.

Yep. And having to use one of the timeouts early in the 2H also was a killer. Horn lived up to his hype in the 2nd half, as he made some incredible throws. Barely over-threw Stewart on what would have easily been the game-tying touchdown, and I assume the wind caused that. UMHB should be throwing to Jordan's side every single play. Not sure how you defend 6'6 in D3, especially a 6'6 receiver who can block as well as he does, and with speed. That guy is an absolute machine on the outside.

Concur with all above.  I thought I heard before the game that at least two of the TU starting offensive linemen were freshmen.  That was symbolic of the broad contributions from the whole team.

A terrific season and I suspect many will look back at this game as the toughest game that future repeat national champion UMHB played this season.

Well done, Tigers!

Toby Taff

Quote from: tigerguy on November 26, 2022, 04:19:54 PM
Quote from: Ron Boerger on November 26, 2022, 04:01:45 PM
Quote from: tigerguy on November 26, 2022, 03:37:10 PM
Man. Where did that 2nd half offense come from for Trinity? If they had a shred of that in the 1st half, this is a different game. Stoked that it turned out to be an epic game though. Really incredible how far Trinity has come back as a program, and showed they can play with any of the big boys in D3. What a season.

All agree.   Amazed at how they came back after giving up the two long second half TDs.  Wish we would have had a little more urgency on the last drive - understand not leaving UMHB much time had we scored but just a bit casual and it ended up costing.

Yep. And having to use one of the timeouts early in the 2H also was a killer. Horn lived up to his hype in the 2nd half, as he made some incredible throws. Barely over-threw Stewart on what would have easily been the game-tying touchdown, and I assume the wind caused that. UMHB should be throwing to Jordan's side every single play. Not sure how you defend 6'6 in D3, especially a 6'6 receiver who can block as well as he does, and with speed. That guy is an absolute machine on the outside.
That Jordan TD was the fastest I've ever seen him run. Didn't realize he had that kind of speed.
My wife and I are Alumni of both UMHB and HSU.  You think you are confused, my kids don't know which Purple and Gold team to pull for.