FB: American Southwest Conference

Started by admin, August 16, 2005, 05:08:10 AM

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BlazeofGlory

Hearing some interesting things about Belhaven's opening for head coach.

The administration wants a winning football team. They lost the gamble on Mumme but learned a lot. Next year is year 4 of the NCAA transition, so it becomes an easier sell for recruits and the new stadium is beautiful. The problem in Mississippi is that it boasts the best junior college football in the country. (Netflix's Last Chance U is filmed at East Mississippi CC).

Now, Belhaven isn't competing for the Last Chance U type players, but the publicity and 5 of the last 6 national JUCO champions being from Mississippi have really hurt all of the small college programs. Those kids that would be good D3 players get it put in their head that they can go to the SEC after two years of JUCO, only to go and never see the playing field because the Mississippi JUCOs are full of 5-star talent that can't make the grades or get into trouble.

So the strategy has to change for it to work. I think there will be a bigger focus on getting kids in that fit into Belhaven a little better, and the new coaching staff will need to reflect that.

I won't share all of the stories that my son has told me, but they all come down to this: It seems that Mumme did not care about the job, the players, the culture, or anything that had to do with that program. It was very discouraging. There is a little excitement amongst some players hat the culture is going to change - but obviously there will be a lot of attrition when someone comes in and does a complete 180.


DFWCrufan

Blaze that is good to hear, would love to see Belhaven get a hold of some of the great talent from Mississippi, your right, there are lot of great players who shoot for JUCO and I would bet could find a better home at Belhaven, wish them good fortune.
9 Year Member of the CRU-Nation! UMHB National Champions 2016 and 2018

D O.C.

It would be nice to see Belhaven on the map.
CRU! Stop with the groveling over the team you've beat twice. They NEVER have to go through the toughest bracket like us.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MUC57


D O. C.

Mount goes thru the bracket given them by the NCAA. Over the years, Mount has played: UWW, UMHB, Wesley, Wittenberg, Wabash, St. John's, St. Thomas, North Central, UWO, Bethel, Wheaton and numerous others  - in the playoffs. These are teams that are always top rated. Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't sound all that easy.
Try as you may, you can't belittle 13 national championships.
Happy New Year and best to the 'Cats in 2018!
I'm old! I get mixed up and I forget things! Go Everybody! 🏈 ☠

D O.C.

One cannot belittle 13 National Championships.
D3football.com has a menu to find out how many of those wins were at the home field the NCAA dished out.
And Salem? that's just another home game I understand.

Happy New Year.

Ralph Turner

#19565
Quote from: MUC57 on December 29, 2017, 02:14:48 PM

D O. C.

Mount goes thru the bracket given them by the NCAA. Over the years, Mount has played: UWW, UMHB, Wesley, Wittenberg, Wabash, St. John's, St. Thomas, North Central, UWO, Bethel, Wheaton and numerous others  - in the playoffs. These are teams that are always top rated. Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't sound all that easy.
Try as you may, you can't belittle 13 national championships.
Happy New Year and best to the 'Cats in 2018!
I took your post as an opportunity to look at the "Run to Salem" for UMU and their opponents.

As a proxy for strength of opponent, I used D3football.com's Week #11 Top 25. For a bye or an unranked team, I gave a value of 26. So, the lower the total, the tougher the schedule. (The first Top 25 was in 2003.)

2003  UMU  Bye-26   UWL 7  Wheaton IL 5 Bridgewater 10  =  48
          SJU  Crown -26  SNC  26   Linfield 3 RPI 26   = 81

2005  UMU  MSJ 26  Augie 10 Capital 10 Rowan 11 = 63
         UWW Central 18  SJU 3 Linfield 1 Wesley 24  = 46

2006  UMU  Hope 26  Wheaton IL  18 Capital 4 SJF  16 =  64
          UWW  SNC 26 UWL 7  SJU 12 Wesley 3   = 48

2007   UMU  Ithaca 26  TCNJ 26  SJF 5 Bethel 9 = 66
          UWW  Capital 14  NCC 20 Wabash 12 UMHB 4  = 50

2008  UMU   RMC  26 Hobart 23 Cortland 16 Wheaton IL 25 = 90
         UWW SJU 24 Willamette 6 Wartburg 26 UMHB 5  =  61

2009  UMU W&J 20 Montclair St 24 Albright 26 Wesley 3  = 73
         UWW  Lakeland 26 IWU 14 Witt 12 Linfield  5 = 57

2010  UMU  St Lawrence 26  Del Valley 18 alfred 26 Bethel 14  = 84
         UWW Franklin 26 Trine 12 NCC 5 Wesley 3  = 44

2011 UMU  Benedictine 26  Centre 25  Wabash 9 Wesley 7  = 67
        UWW  Albion  26 Franklin 17 Salisbury 10 Tommies 3 = 56

2012  UMU  CNU 26  JHU 19 Widener 9 UMHB 2  = 56
         Tommies  SNC 26 Elmhurst 17 Hobart 7 UWO 5 = 55

2013  UMU  W&J 26 Witt 12 Wesley 15 NCC 4 = 57
         UWW  SNC 26 Franklin 20 Linfield 2 UMHB 3  = 51

2014  UMU  Adrian 26 W&J 19 JCU 6 Wesley 4 = 55
         UWW  Macalester 26 Wabash 14 Wartburg 5 Linfield 10 = 55

2015  UMU  St Lawrence 26 Albright 20 Wesley 11 UWW 5 = 60
         Tommie La Verne 26 SJU 10 Wabash 7 Linfield 2  = 45

2017  UMU W&L 26 CWRU 16 Frostburg St 15 UWO 3 = 60
         UMHB Chapman 26 Linfield 8 Tommies 4 Brockport 10 = 48

Using this metric, UMU consistently has had the easier opponents on the way to the Stagg Bowl.


Toby Taff

#19566
Quote from: CowboyAlum261 on December 22, 2017, 08:23:43 PM
Quote from: Toby Taff on December 22, 2017, 08:35:39 AM
Quote from: umhb2001 on December 22, 2017, 07:38:05 AM
Quote from: Toby Taff on December 22, 2017, 03:48:52 AM
Quote from: D O.C. on December 22, 2017, 01:57:43 AM
I think I know the bee in HSUgrad's Stetson.
I've been to Abilene and seen the facilities.
there's a lot of stuff going on at HSU right now. lot of change school wide. could be a hive in his stetson not just one bee.

What's changing at HSU?
they've had administrative changes, including a new President. Programs cut due to budget concerns, faculty cuts by way of offering early retirement and not filling those positions. a lot of things.
As an HSU alum and current staff member, I'm not aware of any academic programs that have been cut. We've had some administrative changes sure but that's part of life in higher education, and there certainly weren't any salacious reasons for any of our recent administrative changes. I would also add that we are coming off our largest freshmen class since 2008, so we are trending upward.
As for facilities, while we definitely have some room for improvement, I wouldn't characterize any of our athletic facilities as bottom tier in the ASC. We might not play in McLane-world but it wasn't that long ago that even UMHB was playing in a high school stadium.
No sour grapes from me though I love what UMHB has done for our conference and the success of the CRU benefits all of us, particularly HSU. And at the end of the day, facilities don't win championships, players and coaches do. Anybody who uses our lack of facilities as an excuse for our inability to get out of the first round isn't watching the games.
Well, in 2016 they cut the Orchestra program and let go of 2 tenured professors. I know this because that was the the final blow to any chance of my girls going to HSU. I know that HSU had enrollment gains this year, but how many years of falling enrollment preceded it? Personally, i think Dr Bruntmeyer will be great for HSU. I wasn't real thrilled when Dr Hall came back, but Dr B brings a different focus because of his background. i don't think that's necessarily bad, but it is an adjustment for campus culture. After 12 years of living in Abilene and completing the course work for 2 Masters degrees at HSU, I have some incite and more than a few faculty friends that keep me up to date. HSUs facilities are fine. I like shelton. I'm ready for the addition to the Gym to get built so people can kick into the wall. I'm excited about the current building plan and exciited to see what comes in the future. Abilene and HSU were a huge part of my family's life. more than half of my married life was there. My kids went back for the weekend the first weekend of christmas break to hang with their friends because AbTx is their home,  so please don't take anything i say as disparaging of HSU. My point was simply there is a great deal of adjustment on going and it does impact the fans and alumni.
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.

wildcat11

Quote from: Ralph Turner on December 29, 2017, 08:25:23 PM
Using this metric, UMU consistently has had the easier opponents on the way to the Stagg Bowl.

Shocking!  ::)

edward de vere

#19568
Since somebody has to have the easiest run to the Stagg Bowl for the last 15 years, I invite Ralph Turner, DOC Trolliday and others to make two lists, with teams ranked one through five, regarding who should have had the easiest run to the Stagg Bowl in aggregate the last 15 years.

LIST ONE:  Using the criteria the D3 committee uses, including geography, especially geography of the 500-mile nature.

LIST TWO:  Pure merit, by which I mean the quality of the team.

For instance, LIST ONE might say:  1) Mount Union  2)  Whitewater 3) UMHB  4) St. Thomas 5) Wesley

LIST TWO might say:  1)  Whitewater 2) Mount Union 3) St. Thomas 4)  UMHB 5) Linfield

* * *  Please note:  I just threw out these two lists off the top of my head.  I put about 30 seconds thought into them, just so there would be examples.  * * *

Here are my two questions:  Is there a sane person on Planet Earth who would put Mount Union on LIST ONE (using the committee criteria) lower than number one?  If so, how much lower and WHY?   Is there a sane person on Planet Earth who would Mount Union on LIST TWO ( the pure merit list) any lower than number two?  If so, how much lower and WHY?

Ralph Turner

edward de vere made the next post.

Quote from: edward de vere on December 30, 2017, 01:48:25 AM
Since somebody has to have the easiest run to the Stagg Bowl for the last 15 years, I invite Ralph Turner, DOC Trolliday and others to make two lists, with teams ranked one through five, regarding who should have had the easiest run to the Stagg Bowl in aggregate the last 15 years.

LIST ONE:  Using the criteria the D3 committee uses, including geography, especially geography of the 500-mile nature.

LIST TWO:  Pure merit, by which I mean the quality of the team.

For instance, LIST ONE might say:  1) Mount Union  2)  Whitewater 3) UMHB  4) St. Thomas 5) Wesley

LIST TWO might say:  1)  Whitewater 2) Mount Union 3) St. Thomas 4)  UMHB 5) Linfield

* * *  Please note:  I just threw out these two lists off the top of my head.  I put about 30 seconds thought into them, just so there would be examples.  * * *

Here are my two questions:  Is there a sane person on Planet Earth who would put Mount Union on LIST ONE (using the committee criteria) lower than number one?  If so, how much lower and WHY?   Is there a sane person on Planet Earth who would Mount Union on LIST TWO ( the pure merit list) any lower than number two?  If so, how much lower and WHY?

Ralph Turner

Thanks for the comment, edward.

What we are seeing in the 2 lists is a significant difference in the 2 roads to the Stagg.

The perfect 32- team bracket would be List #2. Let's imagine the perfectly seeded bracket (Made possible by Trillions of NCAA March Madness TV dollars). Let's assume the winners always moved forward.

North #1(UMU)  would play #32 national, then #16, then #8 then #4 = 60 points. Since I assigned only 26 points to non-rated teams, we have 26 + 16 + 8 + 4  = 54 points

Other bracket #1 (UMU's Stagg Challenger) would play #31, then #15, then #7 then #3 = 56 points.  Since I assigned only 26 points to non-rated teams, we have 26 + 15 + 7 + 3 = 51 points.

The 51-54 point range would be the average bracket.

Fewer than 51-54 points is a tougher post-season bracket. More than 51-54 points is an easier than average bracket.

List 1 is documented on this beautiful D3 football map that was created by the father of a D3 player about a decade ago.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/NCAA_Division_3_football_map.gif

(There needs to be some minor revisions,  but it serves the general purpose.)

Mount Union has the good fortune to be one of the closest teams to the East Region.

Meanwhile UWW, UST, Linfield, and UMHB are not uncommonly meeting in the early rounds, as noted above.

D O.C.

That map is such a useful tool for debate.
Ralph, remember the map about how far UMHB had traveled to get games? I have it somewhere.

Toby Taff

for giggles UMHB fans... Build your all time Cru football team by position If you could hand pick positions from 20 years of players who would you pick? explanations would be good too, because i'm curious. Would you sacrifice the better player at a position for offensive scheme? Would you go loaded for bear and put the best athletes on the field? It's a long off season... might be fun.
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.

umhb2001

I hope that our Offensive staff have been watching this semifinal game to get some ideas as to some play calls.
Watch out for the wreckingCRU defense!!

wildcat11

Active College Head Football Coaches with a WINNING percentage over .820 (10 year min):

1 Jeff Devanney .856 (Trinity (CT))
2 Urban Meyer . 850 (Ohio State)
3 Pete Fredenburg .843 (UMHB)
4 Joseph Smith .836 (Linfield)
5 Chris Peterson .822 (Washington)