FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[WLG Old Historian]

I want to put in my 2 cents worth as well as respond to Whitecarrera's comment. I am not arguing the point, but I have followed this board for about 20 years and read numerous quotes over the years wanting Wabash to step up their program and once again play in a Stagg Bowl. The Division III ranks have grown in size and competitive football has surpassed what we accomplished in 1977. I believe that Mount Union has 160 or more players out every year. So does St. John's (Minn.) and I can name a few others that are perennial playoff contenders, if not Stagg Bowl participants that have 160 or more players. They also have huge coaching staffs to handle those numbers.

Now back to Wabash. The week of the Hampden-Sydney game Wabash could not have consistent practices due to the extreme heat. Practices were shorter and held in the morning to attempt to choose cooler times of the day for practices. Game day saw field temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, making game conditions brutal. These circumstances had to add to the poor play in game 1. Coach Gilbert even said on his coach's show before the Wittenberg game that he made some errors in preparing the team for the game. He said he could have done better.

My next point. If Wabash is to truly take the next step, I feel Coach Gilbert is making an effort to do so. First he is recruiting some of the best players not only from Indiana but across the country as well. In the 2 years he has been head coach he has started the year with 150+ players just like the perennial playoff contenders I mentioned. And this year Wabash has 17 coaches to handle those 160 players and also has 2 special assistants to handle quality control and digital operations. This is another step forward to handle the large roster.

So now Wabash is stepping up their program but the first comment I read is the coaches can't handle this big of a roster. And please do not take my comments the wrong way, Whitecarrera. I have a former Stagg Bowl teammate who recently told me the same thing about large rosters.