I'm feeling even more optimistic about Wheaton's season after watching Mt Union v Grove City yesterday. Grove City is widely believed to be a top 15 team and handled Cortland quite easily in week 1 after losing yesterday to Mt Union 45-14. Wheaton was more competitive with Mt Union in just about every way. I feel much better about our talent on the OL and DL. Big challenge this week with Augie's transfer QB, who can spin it. Then we travel to Carroll before the Bell game in Naperville in a few weeks.

Quote from: D3fanboy on September 08, 2025, 09:31:13 AM

Quote from: USee on September 08, 2025, 08:58:42 AM

Quote from: D3fanboy on September 07, 2025, 01:24:22 PM

Quote from: ADL70 on September 07, 2025, 01:05:28 PMMore likely a 10-15 matchup with GCC smoking Cortland.

let's hope so.  A top 10 win on the road is not a very common thing even the world of Mount Union.  Grove City, despite their preseason ranking by the experts, was always going to be the better/tougher opponent for Mount in the first couple of weeks

This is not a thing. Both Wheaton and Grove City were ranked in the preseason Top 25. Seems like you will take any shred of data and use it to turn the screws of your bias. I don't remember seeing your preseason rankings. SMH

I was just saying that Grove City (on the road) was likely a tougher game, the 30 point delta in the 3rd quarter seems to be in agreement. I don't feel that there is any need for another meaningless preseason ranking to be made on the internet.  But IMO, Grove City is a better football team than Wheaton.  Sorry if that offended you, but I think that you'll be alright

This didn't age well. 

Quote from: Cardinal773 on September 10, 2025, 02:24:52 PM

Quote from: USee on September 09, 2025, 11:32:25 AMHansenRatings has projections for this week:
95% for NCC win

Look, no one wants the Cardinals to win more than me.  But this seems excessive.  There are so many new faces and it's their first game of the season.  UWO has already been tested by linfield (maybe not LINFIELD Linfield, just linfield Linfield).  A win would be great, but as sacrilegious as it may sound, a tight game or even a hard-fought loss might do them some good.  Everyone needs to learn a little more about themselves.

This is a computer algorithm, not a subjective statement. I believe Hansen himself would point out the pre-season rankings/predictions aren't as robust as the mid season ones. Although he did predict the Wheaton/Mt Union score as 30-35 (29-37 actual).

After watching the Mt/Wheaton Replay more carefully, I am more optimistic about the Thunder this season. They were not overmatched up front on either side and did some very good things. We held the Mt Union rushing attack to 4 yds per carry and averaged 6 yds per carry on our limited number of called runs. The sacks we gave up were mostly busted protections (vs getting manhandled) and our DLine sacked Maloney 4x (2 were called runs as the tackles happened just over the LOS). Wheaton has a couple inexperienced corners that had trouble handling the Raiders speed, which along with Maloney's excellent performance, was the main difference in the game.

As far as the 4th quarter, Mt Union never subbed out their first team defense and Wheaton put up 22 4th quarter pts. 2 other drives in the first half stalled in the red zone on downs. Wheaton's offense mostly stopped themselves Saturday. We got a couple stops in the 3rd quarter against the starting UMU offense, which was encouraging. Mt Union did sub their QB and RB/WR's at the start of the 4th quarter (though the entire starting  OL played the whole game) and Wheaton was able to get a couple stops, enabling the come back.

I think the Thunder are definitely a top 20 team and maybe closer to top 10 than I previously thought. Augie and their new QB will be a test in Rock Island as the Thunder secondary is the primary concern right now.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on September 10, 2025, 11:31:03 AMThe highlight reels that Mount Union has put out over the past several years have only included Mount Union highlights, so we should be glad that this has Wheaton's scores.

hmmmm. Pat, you probably didn't watch the reel, which is understandable. I don't think he was referring to the choice of content. Whoever put this together might have done so late at night after returning from the pub. Punts, kickoff returns, partial plays, and an abrupt and random ending. Very strange at best.

HansenRatings has projections for this week:

NCC 41
UWO 14
95% for NCC win

I don't think the term "over rated" is exclusive to the polls Pat. I would offer "over hyped" as an alternative adjective. Though that's mostly emanating from a very passionate and loyal fan base.

Having watched the Wheaton @UMU game 2x now I am really impressed with the new starters Mt Union has fielded. Particularly on the Offensive Line. New QB Mike Maloney rightfully gets all the headlines but their new Offensive linemen are really good. Well coached, physical, aggressive, great footwork. And all of the new starters, other than QB Maloney, are Seniors or Juniors. It really says a lot about the top programs, who mostly win with upper class players, when you plug new starters in and they have been in your program for 2-3 yrs already.

Thats what I expect from NCC on Saturday. They lose a heck of an OL contingent and while they return Durian (OC) and Knaperek (14 starts over 3 yrs), who they trot out on Saturday will be a storyline for me. I expect to see returning RB Sean Allen get a lot of the work and Ashiru at QB.

North Central's opener this week in Naperville vs UW Oshkosh got a little more intriguing with UWO's win on the road @Linfield Saturday. They pretty much dominated the Cats which was surprising. Linfield averaged 45 pts a game and 155 yds per game rushing last year while going 10-2. UWO held them to 14 pts and 22 yds rushing (25 att) for 0.9 yds per carry. It's particularly surprising because UWO had just 2 of their defensive front 7 returning.

I don't know if Linfield is down this year but UWO looked very impressive. I knew they have several playmakers on offense and a fairly new OL (134 yds rushing, 3.4 yd per carry).

Given NCC's calling card of being a physical running team with big play skill players I'll be interested to see how the Cardinals perform this weekend, especially with mostly new OL and a new QB.

I think NCC's defense will be just fine and I'll be surprised if UWO scores that much on the Cardinal's but if UWO's defense can show up like they did in McNinnville Saturday it could be quite a game. 

No offense taken, it is just your opinion. The one score final margin seems to differ with your 3rd quarter assessment. And if we are cherry picking points in time, it was 0-0 at the 13:20 mark of the 1st quarter. Just sayin.

Quote from: D3fanboy on September 07, 2025, 01:24:22 PM

Quote from: ADL70 on September 07, 2025, 01:05:28 PMMore likely a 10-15 matchup with GCC smoking Cortland.

let's hope so.  A top 10 win on the road is not a very common thing even the world of Mount Union.  Grove City, despite their preseason ranking by the experts, was always going to be the better/tougher opponent for Mount in the first couple of weeks

This is not a thing. Both Wheaton and Grove City were ranked in the preseason Top 25. Seems like you will take any shred of data and use it to turn the screws of your bias. I don't remember seeing your preseason rankings. SMH

Wheaton 29
Mt Union 37

Wheaton 383 total Yds
Forcucci 23-42 273 yds, 2 TD, 1 INT
Wheaton rushing: 22 carries 110 yds 2 TD
Kortenhoeven 11 rec 107 yds, 2 TD
Titherington 5 rec 73 yds
Juska 1 rec 18 yds (1 2pt conv), 3 rush 21 yds

Mt Union 462 total yds
Maloney 19-24 307 yds 5 TD
Mt Union Rush: 39 rush for 155 yds ( 4 ypc)
Cockrell (Elmhurst transfer) 3 rec 106 yds 2 TD
Turner 8 rec 89 yds 1 TD

Mt Union dominated the first 3 quarters and had a 37-7 lead. They put in their 2nd team offense at the end of Q3 and they stalled. Wheaton then went on a 22-0 run to make it 29-37 and Mt put their 1st team offense back in and they ran out the clock (though they fumbled on 3rd and 4 and luckily recovered for the first down).

Wheaton is not on Mt Union's level currently (and therefore North Central's). This game was not as close as the final score showed, but Wheaton is also better than they played for 3 Quarters, which is why they made it close after Mt got careless in Q4 (which nearly cost them).

My biggest beef is the lack of called runs for the Thunder. They averaged 7 yds a carry in the first quarter and after Mt Union scored to make it 20-7 at the end of the 1st Quarter, Wheaton's next called run was in the 3rd quarter when the game was 37-7. They then had 5 called runs in Q4 and averaged 6 yds a carry. Forcucci had 9 carries but 7 of them were pass plays that became scrambles/sacks. So they finished with 13 called runs (6 yds per carry) and about 50 called pass plays. Forcucci, who completed 71% of his passes last year, completed 55% and Wheaton had 2 drives that were turned over on downs in Mt Union territory. Wheaton, typically very balanced run/pass, was anything but that today. Clearly the strength of Wheaton's team is the QB and the WR unit, led by Kortenhoeven (who looks as good as any WR in D3). The are RB by committee so I'm sure they thought they needed to throw to win. But they had great success on the ground when they called it so I'm not sure why they didn't adjust.

Mt Union, for their part, looked very good. They only returned about 5 starters from last year but they still start 10 upper classmen on offense and 8 on defense, which is what great teams do (reload with upper class players who have been in the program). Maloney is as good as advertised at QB. Both Kaleb Brown and Wheaton's Johnanik had sacks and were impact players today.

Mt Union plays ranked Grove City next week (who beat #10 Cortland today) and Wheaton is off before travelling to Rock Island in 2 weeks vs Augie to open conference play. 

Hmmm. Carroll vs UWEC or Eagles vs Cowboys in the NFL opener? Tough call....

Quote from: D3fanboy on September 03, 2025, 10:31:14 AMas we finally inch closer to kickoff on Saturday, and the inevitable "experts" picking an upset in Alliance.  I thought that we would look at a couple of things that analytics doesn't pick up on.

Mount Union has won 37 straight season openers, last season opening loss 1987 vs Wooster. 

Mount Union has not lost back-to-back games since 1988 (@Denison 27-41 and @Berg 14-24)

Mount Union has won 74 straight regular season games, currently the longest streak in all divisions

Since 1985, Mount Union is 283-13-3 at home

Since 1990, Mount Union is 339-4-1 in the regular season

Mount Union is 6-0 against Wheaton, with an average score of 41-13

not saying that Wheaton can't win on Saturday, they most certainly can.  They are likely on par, or even better than some of the teams that gave Mount an L on the above list.  The pressure is squarely on the Purple Raiders to continue the most incredible dynasty in the history of college football. 

Isn't this why it's called an "upset"? 13 losses in 40 years shouldn't give any Mt Union fans cause for concern.

Any inside info on Matt Jung at Wisconsin? Didn't look like he played in their opener. He shows up in the participation section of the box score but no stats. He's listed as backup safety on 2 deep.