Messiah 0 Widener 0. First non win ever for Messiah against Widener.  First conference tie or loss since 2015 for Messiah.

This was fun. I bet someone $50 that I could get the Board hyping Messiah even though they started the season 0-5....happened quicker than I thought. Did flush out a hazing scandal along the way too. I should get paid more just for that.

Thank you. Carry on.

Correct!  not a flash at all....and anyone would die for his playbook- it worked perfectly for 15+ years.  Thats the point. The world has changed.  The program hasn't - seems it needs to because D3 soccer ain't what it used to be.

Not at all meaning to be overly personal. But the buck stops somewhere.  And I think the shift in parity in the division requires change - and one person can direct change.  My take was and is based on the radical shift.

No. I'm not the 2017 lycoming player. Not remotely close

Just offering a take that I believe has merit.

And while I agree that there have been far worse cases and outcomes of hazing, it is a slippery slope to minimize it. It is wrong, it is illegal, and coaches and universities should be held to a high standard.

Regardless , McCarty is not the wizard folks have historically assumed he was.

Further to the reality that is unfolding with Messiah - Id offer more evidence related to the inability to adapt, and McCarty's inability to coach - which is the lack of improvement and impact with key talent.  Matt McDonald took the country by storm his senior season and won NPOY - he was a unique and very gifted talent - and as a result of his monstrous season - all eyes were on him and Messiah when he came back for his 5th season.  However, his 5th year was a shadow of the year prior - and I would argue was based on him being a known entity that others adjusted to.  He was man marked and doubled the entire season - and instead of adjusting the shape and scheme to support McDonald - Messiah and Coach McCarty rolled out the only play book he knew - and the results were predictable.  Dave Brandt has shown his ability to be successful at different programs and levels - including putting Bucknell on the map.....and he did this by adapting, by recruiting , and showing that he is a coach.  McCarty continues to show that he operates like the head coach in "The Waterboy" - if it isn't in his "stolen" playbook - he doesn't  have a great means to create or deliver.  Poor results will affect recruiting, and his other tired play book of " Dont call us, we will call you" will be negatively affected as well.  Now, they clearly still have great talent, and this is greatly helped with a very weak conference - which should always give them an AQ path each year...however - much needs to change - or I think the current state may just be the future state.  Its been a great run.....

A coach with limited ability and creativity , a broken culture, and an arrogance not to know the difference.......yes, not a suprise at all that they are off to the start that they are.

Quote from: Kuiper on September 15, 2025, 09:06:40 PM

Quote from: paclassic89 on September 15, 2025, 08:05:01 PMThe MAC Commonwealth is even worse than normal this year so Messiah will still probably go undefeated in conference play (York could potentially give them a game). 

Has Messiah been switching things around, playing freshman, etc in recent games?  That's what I've been seeing from some other traditionally strong schools out west who lost a string of non-conference games and now appear to have conceded that they won't have a chance under the NPI of getting a bid unless it's the automatic conference bid.  They appear to be re-setting their goals for conference play and using the last few non-conference games to heal up, rotate some players, and try some things.  Still trying to win, of course, which is important for mentality if nothing else, but doing more things to set themselves up for conference play than to scrap out non-conference wins.

I'm not sure Messiah et al would do anything differently if it was still under the old committee selection process, but I suspect the NPI, being just an algorithm, is very unforgiving if you don't have enough wins no matter how good your strength of schedule is or how great you are trending after a poor start.  In that sense, it would make sense if they have already turned their focus to the conference season and are just viewing the remaining non-conference games as like preseason games.

The irony of Messiah, Mary Washington, Franklin & Marshall, St. Lawrence, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Redlands, Occidental etc being not as strong straight out of the gate is that if they don't pick things up in conference play, a bunch of schools that thought they were going to get a SoS bump playing them under NPI are going to end up empty-handed or hurt by playing them.  By contrast, other schools that thought they were playing an easy schedule might get an SoS bump from unexpected sources.

The magic  of Dave Brandt is gone, and McCarty has simply been running his playbook for years. The problem is that this playbook was largely succesful because Messiah simply out recruited everyone.  With the parity increasing in D3 soccer, McCarty is showing his weakness as a coach, and his inability to adapt.  Messiah has always been predictable, but in the past, it didn't matter, as their personnel was simply better. Not the case anymore.  They should still be able to handle a very non competitive Mac Commonwealth, but I think the national power is fading.....They only lost 3-4 starters from last season, and haven't seen to be able to adjust. The freshman seem to have potential- but McCarty is going to need to show an ability to field a team based on talent and his opponent verses running the only game plan he seems to know.