Around the Mid-Atlantic board

[old ends]

As in the past the CC is going to come down to who stays healthy. The front runners will again be Dickinson and Muhlenberg. In the hunt will be Hopkins, F&M, and Gettysburg. McDaniel could surprise with some upset wins. It will be interesting to watch how the new coach works at Juniata.
Ursinus and Moravian could battle Juniata for the bottom this year.

[HSC85]

The game on Saturday between Gettysburg and Hampden Sydney has the potential of producing over 1000 yards of offense based on the performances during week one by both schools.  It could come down to who has the ball last.

[HSC85]

Ryan,

Great Around the Region article.  That piece provides great insight into how serious the head coaches and assistant coaches are at improving their respective programs.  It was also great to see some of the resources available to coaches in Division 3 that want to improve and learn. 

When can we expect your insight on a Mid-Atlanic top 5?

[Ryan Tipps]

Thanks, HSC85!

I debated about whether to do a regional Top 5 this year, and maybe this is the format to do it in in order to open up some discussion, if people want.

I have four Mid-Atlantic teams on my Top 25 ballot, in order: Wesley, Salisbury, Hampden-Sydney and Dickinson. H-SC's Week 1 win surely put the team on the map in my mind.

The fifth spot for this region is more up the air. I was pretty high on E&H going into the season despite what they have to replace on defense. I'd feel better about them if the win over Ferrum was little more convincing, though. And if the point of a ranking system is to place teams where they are now (as opposed to where they might end up at the end of the season), I don't think it's right to have CNU as one of the region's Top 5 teams. If Ogun comes back, then sure, the Captains will be in the mix -- but they're not there at this moment.

Of course, there's always Johns Hopkins, which lost on the road against a DelVal team that I think very highly of, and JHU made it a close, tough game well into the third quarter.

If I had to go with my gut, I'd probably say JHU despite the loss. Maybe I'll see what you all think. I've added a poll to this thread for folks to weigh in.

[muledaddy]

Ryan et al,

                  I liked Hopkins big time until I saw what Del Val did to them first hand.Unless  Delval's defense is singularly impressive, I anticipate that other teams may follow the map and crowd Kase between the tackles, pressure the qb, and cover tight on 5-15 yard passes. The only real problem defending  JH was
their backup tailback, who is fast, has a great feel for the hole, and can get the corner. I liked the Delval
game plan and their balance puts them ahead of Hopkins in the eyes of this D3 nut.Isgro, the Delval
qb deserves credit as an athletic talented field general. Nice coaching also.
As my name implies, any bias which I carry is in favor of the CC, so it had to be an obviously superior
performance which allowed the MAC team to capitalize on a turnover, immediately put 6 on the board,
manage the clock, never let up defensively, and movethe ball well,making it look almost effortless.So help me God.

[HSC85]

Ryan,

Three games this week may shed some light on the relative strength of the USA South and ODAC.  Salisbury is at CNU and after the game with NCW we may get some idea of the strength of the top two picks in USA South.  NCW at Emory and Henry will give us more insight into the theory of the HSC - NCW game being an aberation.  The Bridgewater - Ferrum game can shed some light on how strong Bridgewater is. 

[HSC85]

Ryan,

Great article in Around the Region on the Iraq veteran playing for Greensboro.  Stories like this really make me realize that football is just a game and the men and women fighting for our freedoms and way of life are the real heros.  Thank you for sharing the story with us.

[Ryan Tipps]

Ryan,

Great article in Around the Region on the Iraq veteran playing for Greensboro.  Stories like this really make me realize that football is just a game and the men and women fighting for our freedoms and way of life are the real heros.  Thank you for sharing the story with us.

Thank you, HSC85!

[CNU85]

Ryan,

I agree that CNU is not a top 5 region team. At least, not until they decide to play some football. What I saw in Dover was not football. It was an old fashioned beating behind the woodshed!

[HSC85]

Ryan,

As the non- conference portion comes to an end, do you care to give an assessment of the relative strength of the conferences in the Mid-Atlantic?  I think that the ODAC is down this year in relative strength to the USA South.  Ferrum beating Bridgewater and the way Emory and Henry has had to have two late game combacks to win over USA South teams has shown that the USA South is gaining on the ODAC.  The ODAC is also losing games among the lower end of the preseason rankings as well like Greensboro over W&L and Averett over Guilford.

[Ryan Tipps]

**long post alert** 

There has been an apparant decline this year in the toughness of the ODAC top to bottom. Few teams can lose players like Ricca, Vogelbach, Sitterson, Thornton or Simpson and still expect to remain as they were the previous year. Division III is especially difficult because without scholarships, coaches can have a hard time recruiting to fill the exact holes they have. Instead, at this level, coaches sometimes have to adapt their game plans to the players they have rather than work the players around a system that’s already in place.

I can’t say for certain if that’s a factor here, but something like that can take time in some cases. I do suspect that the ODAC teams we see at the end of the year will be vastly improved from those that played in Week 1.

The ODAC, with only three of its seven teams with winning records, isn’t the only Mid-Atlantic conference that’s struggling this year. The nine-team Centennial has just four teams that are above .500 -- and only one that’s undefeated. Likewise, the USA South has just one team, Greensboro, that has a winning record.

In the ACFC, the non-Wesley teams are a combined 2-7, while the Wolverines are carrying the banner undefeated.

Overall, the Mid-Atlantic (especially the Centennial) is taking a hit from the MAC, which is returning to glory it had a couple years back. Teams such as Wilkes, Delaware Valley and King’s have notched good wins over Mid-Atlantic teams in games that our teams might have won last year.

Between the ODAC and the USAC, I’m not confident to say that USAC has gotten that much better. Instead, I think the USAC has held steady and the ODAC has dropped a bit. There’s still a fair amount of trading wins and losses between the two conferences. USA South teams such as Greensboro, Shenandoah and Averett all have marks in the W and L columns against Old Dominion opponents.

Since it was an ODAC person who asked this question initially, I will say that my expectations for the ODAC in the preseason aren’t too far off from reality. I thought that Bridgewater would be 3-0 and that E&H and H-SC would be 1-loss teams (against NCWC). That’s pretty close to how they actually are. I also figured CUA and GC would be either winless or maybe having notched a lone victory in the first three weeks. There aren’t too many surprises on this front.

For better or for worse, teams that have surprised me so far include N.C. Wesleyan, Salisbury, Greensboro and Gettysburg.

[HSC85]

Thanks for your thoughts.  I was just looking at the ODAC vs USA South games and in the past two years the ODAC was winning most of those games.  Now there seems to be more toss up games.  There was an awful lot of talent that did not return to the ODAC this season.  I am just glad that Cory Sedlar returned at HSC or the Tigers would be making some of the same adjustments that you talked about. 

Is your surprise with NCW the inconsistency or that they have not beaten an ODAC team?

[Ryan Tipps]

Thanks for your thoughts.  I was just looking at the ODAC vs USA South games and in the past two years the ODAC was winning most of those games.  Now there seems to be more toss up games.  There was an awful lot of talent that did not return to the ODAC this season.  I am just glad that Cory Sedlar returned at HSC or the Tigers would be making some of the same adjustments that you talked about. 

Is your surprise with NCW the inconsistency or that they have not beaten an ODAC team?

Last year, the ODAC went 8-5 against the USA South. This year, it's a 7-6 split again in favor of the ODAC. Not a whole lot of change when you look at the bare numbers. I think the difference is that a team that is logging wins (E&H) and those that are logging losses (CUA, GC) aren't the teams we're used to being in those positions. It's been the other way around before.

My surprise with N.C. Wesleyan isn't specifically that they haven't beaten an ODAC team, but I guess that is the conclusion that must be drawn. It's more simply that NCWC has been able to reload well over the recent years, and I'm surprised that the team has had so many ups and downs in their play this year -- ultimately contributing to two losses. Before the season started, I expected that they would beat the teams they lost to and lose to the team they beat

[Allen C]

Ryan
That is a great feature article on the FC/BC game...yes I am a little prejudiced, but its really great to see the black and gold highlighted.
Wish I could have been there. I am going to try to go to the NCW game, and still planning on going to the CNU game.

Again, great article.

[Ryan Tipps]

Ryan
That is a great feature article on the FC/BC game...yes I am a little prejudiced, but its really great to see the black and gold highlighted.
Wish I could have been there. I am going to try to go to the NCW game, and still planning on going to the CNU game.

Again, great article.

Thanks, Allen! I'll look for you at the CNU game, which I'm hoping to go to.

One offbeat thing that impressed me that I didn't mention in the article: Cool new uni's for Ferrum! Much better than their old duds