some DIII summer thinking

Started by sigma one, July 05, 2018, 11:59:43 AM

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sigma one

Right on, cave2bens.  That's all 13.  This a a great tavern, tailgate, cook out exercise because of some obscure teams.   Best to everyone.


MUC57

#31
sigma one

Great exercise. You notice I didn't supply an answer, but I did know a few of them. Really fun stuff. Thanks for putting this on the board. 😀

And, slipped in a +k for ya!
I'm old! I get mixed up and I forget things! Go Everybody! 🏈 ☠

sigma one

#32
MUC57
     You asked about my coming to UMU.  I've been there twice for games.  The first time was in 2002 when Wabash and Mt. met in the quarterfinals, a 45-16 Mt. victory.   The second time was in 2011.  Erik Raeburn took the Little Giants to Alliance to go up against his "Uncle Larry," again in the quarterfinals.  Raeburn himself is a Mt. alumnus (as is his wife).  You may know that Kehres is literally his uncle.  In that one UMU prevailed again, 20-8.  Mt. lost a couple of quarterbacks and in the second half a guy named Kevin Burke, then a freshman, was on the field,  I think he went on to do big things!  Everyone from Wabash was impressed with the experience and with the quality of the Mt. teams.  Had a great time.
     So, if Wabash ever makes it again, I'll do my best to be there.

MUC57


sigma one

Would like to meet you. I'll be the old guy wearing purple. I'll even spring for a frozen margarita or ten at Don Pancho's. In the meantime, good luck to our teams ☠🏈🍺
I'm old! I get mixed up and I forget things! Go Everybody! 🏈 ☠

dlippiel

+k sigma one, this is some great stuff. dlip thanks you!

sigma one


sigma one

#36
Last summer, during early July I posted information that helped me make it through the long summer in advance of KICK OFF (thanks, Pat, et al).  This year I thought I would try something again, with a few twists.  To start, I recommend the book GOOD TO GO:  What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery, by Christine Aschwanden.  Christine is a science writer and herself a competitive athlete.  The book discusses recovery from competition and training and debunks many of the long-held ideas about what best aids recovery.  Among my favorite chapters is one on how cold baths and icing have become one of sport's popular recovery methods.  Following recent scientific studies, she disputes the virtue of RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) as treatment from soreness, strains, sprains, etc.  The agony of this treatment she says "feeds into the culture of sport that idolizes grit and assumes that pain equates to gain."  This is, science is proving, a myth.  Applying cold, sitting in a cold tub, actually slows down healing and recovery.  This is so because the rush of blood away from the extremities reduces blood flow into the area where a person most needs the blood to enhance healing, including the inflammatory response.  Icing can reduce pain, so if an athlete want this in the short term, OK; but know that the use of cold baths, compresses, etc., slows down the overall healing process.  How many times have we seen athletes after a workout or game wrapped in ice?  Science is now proving this is counterproductive.
     Another chapter on sports drinks is also revealing.  There is no verifiable scientific evidence that sport drinks do any more than water to help recovery.  Once more, drinking too much water during competition and training can adversely affect performance.  Science shows that all anyone has to do is drink to relief thirst.  Being dehydrated during competition may slightly enhance performance, but the old adage about watching urine to see if it is too yellow, and that yellow means dehydration, is also a myth.  She notes:  "very light or clear urine just means that you've drunk more water than your body needs, and that's not necessarily a good thing, especially right before an event."  So, drink to thirst--water--to satisfy what your body needs.
      Finally, she asserts that the "benefits of sleep can hardly be overstated.  It's hands down the most powerful recovery tool known to science"  "Skimping on sleep is like showing up at a game drunk," she says.  Nothing an athlete can do to aid recovery and enhance recovery is to get enough sleep--for most at least seven to nine hours a night.  (Think of this is relation to most college athletes.)
      There's plenty more about  supplements, proper eating, and other commonly used methods of recovery.  All of them that we have traditionally adhered to, she critiques and generally criticizes.   
      Worth the read, and particularly for athletes, coaches, trainers, and some sports physicians. 
   

sigma one

OK, some numbers for summer 2019.

     Over the past 5 years (2014-2018) 61 Division III teams have at least one season in which they won at least 9 games.  Of these teams, 25 won 9 or more once; another 15 won 9 or more twice.  That leaves 21 teams who did this 3X or more.  Here they are:

         3X:  Berry, Centre, Framingham St, Huntingdon, John Carroll, Muhlenberg, North Central, Wabash, Wartburg, Wheaton
       
         4X:  Hardin-Simmons, Linfield, UW Whitewater, Washington & Jefferson, Wesley, Wittenberg       

         5X:  Delaware Valley, Johns Hopkins, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Mt Union, St John's

There a many ways to measure success.  Wins is certainly one way.  In addition to those teams winning 9 or more games in a season 44 more teams won 8 games in a season from 2014-2018 at least once.  This is without a single season of 9 wins or more.  Only 3 of these teams won 8 games 3X:  Central, DePauw, and Amherst (Amherst while playing an 8-game season during some years).  Sixteen other teams won 8 games 2X.

In total, then, from '14 through '18 105 DIII teams won 8 games or more in a single season.  Using the top number of teams playing in a season during this time (250 teams), that's 42% of all DIII teams. 

sigma one

#38
From 2014-2018 9 teams have finished in the TOP 25 in the DIIIFB final national poll.  Nine teams have been there every year (5X).  Four teams have been there 4X. 
four teams, 3X.  Fourteen teams, 2X.  24 teams, 1X.  This totals 55  teams.
Twenty-two teams have finished in the Top 10:  Mt Union (5X), Mary Hardin-Baylor (5), UWWhitewater (4), Linfield (4), St John's (3), St Thomas (3), North Central (3), Wheaton (3), UW Oshkosh (3),
Johns Hopkins (2), John Carroll (2), Wesley (2), Bethel 1), Brockport (1), Delaware Valley (1), Frostburg St (1), Hardin-Simmons (1), Hobart (1), Muhlenberg (1), Wabash (1), Wartburg (1), Whitworth (1).

In this five-year stretch, 9 teams have finished in the TOP 4 in the final poll:  Mt Union (5X), Mary Hardin-Baylor (3), UW Whitewater (3), Linfield (2), St Thomas (2), UW Oshkosh (2), John Carroll (1), St John's (1), Wartburg (1).

Three teams have won the National Championship:  Mary Hardin-Baylor, Mt Union, UW Whitewater.


sigma one

#39
Getting away from numbers, some mid-summer thinking about football books, both fiction and non-fiction.  In no particular order these are among my favorites (feel free to contribute):

          North Dallas Forty, Pete Gent.  Pro-football from the pen of the former Dallas Cowboys tight end.  Made into a good film with Nick Nolte and Mac Davis
          Bleachers, John Grisham.  Former players return home for the funeral of their high school coach
          Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger.  An obvious choice; west Texas life and football
          Paper Lion, George Plimpton.  Journalist as a QB in Detroit Lions training camp
          Semi-Tough and Baja Oklahoma, Dan Jenkins.  Football laughter from the journalist who passed away earlier this year
          Instant Replay, Jerry Kramer with Dick Shaap.  Playing for Lombardi in the '60s
          End Zone, Dan Delillo.  From one of the best novelists of the past 50 years.
          The Sweet Season:  A Sportswriter Rediscovers Football, Family, and a Bit of Faith at Minnesota's St John's University, Austin Murphy.  The only good book I know of about DIII football--
                                        Murphy's look at how Gagliardi's teams functioned, with a lot about St John's
          The Birth of American Football:  From the First College Game in 1869 to the Last Super Bowl, Brian Kelly.  The title says it all.  Published in 2017.
          Best movie hardly anyone saw:  Everybody's All American, with Dennis Quaid, Jessica Lange, and John Goodman; from a novel by Frank DeFord, the recently deceased SI writer

          Three recent books about the history of the game:

          The Opening Kickoff, Dave Revsine.  Subtitle:  The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation
          The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968, George Howe Colt.  Story of the famous 29-29 Tie, with Brian Downing and Calvin Hill playing for Yale and Tommy Lee Jones playing guard for
                           Harvard.  Published just last year.
          The Real All Americans, Sally Jenkins.  Story of the Carlisle Indians by the daughter of Dan Jenkins, herself a terrific sportswriter

Oline89

I would also include "The Junction Boys" by Jim Dent.  The story of Bear Bryant's preseason camp at Texas A&M


Quote from: sigma one on July 19, 2019, 09:55:36 AM
Getting away from numbers, some mid-summer thinking about football books, both fiction and non-fiction.  In no particular order these are among my favorites (feel free to contribute):

          North Dallas Forty, Pete Gent.  Pro-football from the pen of the former Dallas Cowboys tight end.  Made into a good film with Nick Nolte and Mac Davis
          Bleachers, John Grisham.  Former players return home for the funeral of their high school coach
          Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger.  An obvious choice; west Texas life and football
          Paper Lion, George Plimpton.  Journalist as a QB in Detroit Lions training camp
          Semi-Tough and Baja Oklahoma, Dan Jenkins.  Football laughter from the journalist who passed away earlier this year
          Instant Replay, Jerry Kramer with Dick Shaap.  Playing for Lombardi in the '60s
          End Zone, Dan Delillo.  From one of the best novelists of the past 50 years.
          The Sweet Season:  A Sportswriter Rediscovers Football, Family, and a Bit of Faith at Minnesota's St John's University, Austin Murphy.  The only good book I know of about DIII football--
                                        Murphy's look at how Gagliardi's teams functioned, with a lot about St John's
          The Birth of American Football:  From the First College Game in 1869 to the Last Super Bowl, Brian Kelly.  The title says it all.  Published in 2017.
          Best movie hardly anyone saw:  Everybody's All American, with Dennis Quaid, Jessica Lange, and John Goodman; from a novel by Frank DeFord, the recently deceased SI writer

          Three recent books about the history of the game:

          The Opening Kickoff, Dave Revsine.  Subtitle:  The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation
          The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968, George Howe Colt.  Story of the famous 29-29 Tie, with Brian Downing and Calvin Hill playing for Yale and Tommy Lee Jones playing guard for
                           Harvard.  Published just last year.
          The Real All Americans, Sally Jenkins.  Story of the Carlisle Indians by the daughter of Dan Jenkins, herself a terrific sportswriter

Ralph Turner


Ralph Turner

Re: Friday Night Lights by Bissinger, I thought that the writer took a very cheap shot at people who let him get to know them and then he exposed some very ugly warts for fun and profit.

Because they were, for the most part, "white oil field trash", he could say and write things about them that he would not about other demographic sectors in the country.  I do not think that the people who permitted him to know them could recognize the guile involved of a big city east coast (Philadelphia) writer wanting to make it big with a "tell-all" book.

If there is one civilizing influence in that rugged part of the country, it is football. Odessa Permian went a long time before they had a single Pro Football player alum. In the 1960's and 1970's Permian won football games with undersized players who "out-executed" their more talented opponents. By the 1980's the success may have morphed into another phenomenon, and some of the core of the program may have lost some of its uniqueness. On the other hand, in Texas small town football and, for that matter the extracurricular offerings through the University Interscholastic League, from football to marching band to One Act Play, are the vehicles by which communities inculcate the most cherished values in Texas communities.

If you believe in Karma, perhaps H.G. Bissinger truly was only a one hit wonder.

https://www.npr.org/2015/08/03/428085798/reflecting-on-football-and-addiction-as-friday-night-lights-turns-25

The Mole

All great choices. Junction Boys was incredible. Bear would be locked up today. Jim Dent was the author. He also wrote THE UNDEFEATED about the Oklahoma Sooners winning streak in the 50s.

My personal favorite is "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29" by Kevin Rafferty. There is a book and accompanying DVD with interviews. Pretty cool stuff that goes into some of the political stuff going on with Viet Nam and some other back stories. Really well done.

Cannot wait for the season to begin!
TAKE THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

sigma one

#44
George Howe Colt does the same thing in great detail in The Game, the 29-29  "win" of 1968.