Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 17, 2026, 08:06:28 PMTrinity announced their schedule for the upcoming season - basically a repeat of last year with McMurry replacing Belhaven in the second game - in San Antonio.  TLU and PLU will return 2025's visits; a week 5 contest with Berry marks the start of SAA competition in San Antonio after a bye the previous week.  The team's first "road" game will be at Southwestern the following week, after which Maryville will pay its first visit to San Antonio.  That means that other than the short bus trip to Georgetown, Trinity won't travel until week 8 (Oct 24) when they play at Millsaps.  That will begin a run of three away games in four weeks, interrupted by a home game Halloween against Sewanee.  The season closes at Centre and Rhodes.

Yawn. Trinity scheduling John's Hopkins for future play tells me Urban is not shying away from competition to cater to new playoff criteria, but still bummed to not have a shiny out of conference game to begin the year.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 05, 2026, 11:36:48 AMLong-timers (lol, not many of us still around) probably still remember the call by a Trinity student, Jonathan Wiener, of the "miracle" ending to the Trinity-Millsaps game way back in 2007.  At the time there was a lot of "this kid has a future in broadcasting" commentary - turns out he is a news anchor for the ABC station in Houston, KRTK, where he heads up the 4 and 6:30 pm broadcasts.  He goes by "Jonathan Bruce" as his professional name.

What always stood out to me was his ability to hit the names of almost everyone as the touched the ball. Without spotters that is hard to do in real time and it was very impressive, particularly for a student broadcaster.

The son of Trinity star WR Canaan Factor, who shares his dad's name, committed to play ball at Trinity. He is apparently a great athlete, and has the size (6'2) to make a great weapon outside in D3. His dad tore it up in the late 90s during Trinity's rise and is still top 5-6 in many of the receiving categories. Hope his son turns out to be a stud, too.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on January 15, 2026, 03:29:39 PMTrinity today announced a home-and-home with Johns Hopkins - '27 in SA (6 or 7pm start), '28 there (early afternoon start).

Hell yeah. Assume this will be first time the schools have matched up in FB?

Quote from: D3Navy on December 06, 2025, 05:21:03 PM10 yards rushing?  I wasn't able to watch the game.  Is that right?

10 yards rushing?!

They effectively abandoned run in second half and should have done it earlier. Disappointing to see the line unable to open much room after their success against Hardin Simmons. Berry has some very effective D-linemen.

Berry was also double covering or shifting safety to Tavarez' side the entire first half so Hondo wasn't able to open things up until they went to more receiver sets. Tavarez dominated the third, but starting the half down 22-0 was not ideal.

Glad our boys made it a game at the end. Fumbles in first half and horrific special teams is what ultimately did us in. Refs all over the place. Main announcer needs to quit (color guy was fine IMO).

Edit: oh, and the WR drops....brutal...

Tough way to end the season but they fought until the end. Hats off to Berry once again.

Would be amazing if Taverez stayed for his final year - he should not be in D3.

Quote from: D3Navy on December 03, 2025, 09:55:12 PMFor those interested, the Trinity and Berry women's volleyball teams are representing the SAA very well.  Both are in the final four of the NCAA championship and could meet in the final.

Well done, ladies!

I felt some judgment during lunch yesterday because I had my phone out watching TU's match...

Quote from: Ralph Turner on December 01, 2025, 03:36:18 PMI looked up Trinity's games against the ASC in post-season play.
2025 Update

Year........	Team......	Score....	W/L....
1999	HSU	40-33	Win
2000	at HSU	30-33	Loss
2001	UMHB	30-6	Win
2002	UMHB	48-38	Win
2003	at ETBU	41-42	Loss
2004	UMHB	13-32	Loss
2005	UMHB	6-35	Loss
2007	at UMHB	23-52	Loss
2011	McM	16-25	Loss
2021	at UMHB	3-13	Loss
2022	HSU	14-7	Win
2022	UMHB	17-24	Loss
2023	HSU	20-6	Win
2024	UMHB	22-29	Loss
2025	HSU	(27+pick six 7 = 34)-24	Win

How many other games were "closer than the final score"?

2021: Trinity's 13-3 loss to UMHB in first round. For 58 minutes Trinity held the national champs and #3 offense in the country to only two field goals (I think they missed a third). Down 6-3 with 2:13 left, Trinity held UMHB to what would have been an attempted field goal on 4th and 6 from Trinity's 22, which would have given Trinity one last drive to try and tie. Trinity's player jumped offsides attempting to block the field goal, making it 4th and 1, so UMHB went for it and scored on the ensuing play. I'm pretty sure Urban instructed them to let him score so they could get the ball back, but it made the final score look less close than the game was played. The entire game was a defense masterpiece by both squads.

That is probably the saltiest I have ever been when it comes to the unfair Texas-teams playoff matchups. Trinity's defense was probably the best in the program's history and #2 overall in D3 that year. Their offense was also very good, but it was Tucker Horn's first year as a starter and they couldn't get anything going against a great UMHB front.

After Trinity, UMHB steamrolled through the playoffs and put up 42 against #13 defense BSC, 49 against #12 defense Linfield, 24 against #22 defense UW-Whitewater, and 57 against Defending Champ North Central in the national championship. I know most people know all of this since the game was fairly recent, but I thank you for bringing up this painful topic to allow me to vent some more.

Quote from: tigerguy on October 18, 2025, 03:39:03 PMHondo has found confidence as a dual threat quarterback and he is a capable in both respects. I would like to see Urban give him more opportunities on the ground because I think it will ultimately help with Hondo's internal clock in the pocket. He has historically had an issue holding onto the ball too long, so trusting his legs will continue to add a needed element of unpredictability to this offense.

I love when Urban and his staff review the forums and implement our suggestions. Hondo's legs were the difference today. Also hats off to the defense.

Today, Lagrange was able to rebound from a 48-0 drubbing by Berry earlier in the season and played them incredibly close. Hopefully Trinity has also learned a lot since their loss to Berry.

Hardin Simmons' game notes helped answer that. Looks like HSU has 10 senior starters (majority on offense) and Trinity has 8 (I'm including grad students). I think Trinity would have 9 if you included kickers/punters.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on November 28, 2025, 10:24:17 AMSpotted a pic of Anson Mount (aka Captain Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) wearing a pretty ratty Sewanee Tigers ball cap.  Is he an alumnus?

In other news, every member of the D3football.com panel picked HSU to win tomorrow's game, all by a TD or more.

Saw a post about Trinity having a tough matchup against a "senior-laden" Hardin Simmons team. Appears they have 21, but Trinity has 22. I am not sure how many are starters across either team, so maybe that is where the discrepancy is.

Seems like it was rainy two years ago when we played Hardin Simmons in the 1st round, too. Or maybe that was the year before. The games start running together when a team is your first playoff opponent three out of the last four years...

Quote from: Ron Boerger on November 17, 2025, 05:04:15 PMGreat research!  One thing to remember is that the number of playoff teams has changed quite a bit over the years and as the number of qualifiers has increased, so has the focus on saving travel money. 

Trinity first made the D3 playoffs in 1994 (I was there!) when they hosted Washington & Jefferson.  W&J was the higher ranked team; never knew why we hosted, but they popped us 28-0.  We also made the playoffs in 1997 with a home W against Catholic followed by an away loss at Lycoming. 

The SCAC maintains seasonal record books with results for all teams, current and former; very useful for this kind of look back.  Fall sports are at https://scacsports.com/inside_athletics/record_book_files/2025-26/2025_Fall_Record_Book.pdf .  And I do miss the extra legwork the SCAC put in on things like this, preseason media days, and postseason programs; the SAA could learn from the SCAC.

Thanks for the SCAC resource - extremely helpful. Apparently "McDaniel" was known as Western Maryland back when Trinity was matched with them in 1998-1999.

I didn't know Mohr had some very forgettable first few seasons as coach. During our freshman year camp meetings, he would always show us our amazing record at home "since 94" or something like. Cut off date makes much more sense in context now 

I got bored on Sunday so I took a dive into the historical schedules since 1998. If my review is correct, in years that Trinity has made the playoffs, they have had a non-ASC opponent in the first round only three times: 1998 (McDaniel), 1999 (McDaniel), and 2000 (Wesley). However, it does not appear that the ASC had a playoff representative in 1998.

Trinity/Hardin Simmons made the playoffs in 1999 and did not face each other until the third round. Trinity was given a first round bye whereas HSU got paired up with Washington U in the first round and then Washington and Jefferson in the 2nd. Trinity's 2nd round matchup after the bye was with McDaniel again.

Trinity/HSU both made the playoffs again in 2000. Trinity drew Wesley 1st round, HSU got McDaniel. Both won and faced each other second round, with HSU getting the W.

Something must have changed after 2000, because that is when they started matching the ASC with Trinity, assuming they made the playoffs. Trinity obviously had some lengthy playoff gaps: 2006, 2008-2010, and then 2012-2020.

I believe there have been 11 years in which two ASC teams made the playoffs, and in five of those years (5 years Trinity didn't make the playoffs) the ASC teams were rewarded with a first round matchup with each other. In only two years (2016/2017) since 2001 have two ASC teams made the playoffs and neither team was matched up with an ASC opponent or Trinity for their first playoff game. In 2016/2017 HSU got Linfield, and UMHB got Redlands and Chapman. 

In total since 2001, Trinity's first playoff opponents are UMHB (7 times), HSU (3 times), East Texas Baptist (1), and McMurry (1). Since 2001, HSU's 1st playoff opponents are UMHB (6), Trinity (3), Linfield (2), and Wittenberg.

UMHB has by far had the most diverse 1st playoff opponents of the Texas schools, but they obviously had the luxury of over 12 years without Trinity or another Texas-based SAA/SCAC school making the playoffs. I believe the only exception to this was 2014 when TLU, who (with Trinity) was in the non-auto bid SCAC but received an at-large bid and got paired with UMHB first round. UMHB's first playoff opponents since 2001 are: Trinity (7), HSU (6), Redlands (4), and then Central, Chapman, Christopher Newport, Huntington, Louisiana College, and TLU once.

I would be curious to know what the most common non-Texas playoff matchups have been since 2000. I imagine Linfield has had some common opponents, but I doubt it is as much as Trinity/UMHB. Mind you, I am using first playoff "opponents," rather than first round, to account for byes. The numbers above would be slightly skewed if I limited it solely to first round matchups, but I think the point obviously remains.

I was also surprised by Bishop getting so many plays back to back. He is a senior so it could have been Urban trying to get him as much playing time as possible in likely his last regular season game. Or they could have been testing some stuff for playoffs against what has been a generally solid Maryville defense this season.

I hope Maryville continues to have success in the SAA. Adding quality programs like them raises the competition top to bottom and will continue to give the SAA opportunities for multiple playoff teams each year under the new format.