FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wally_wabash]

...

The NCAC is absolutely a meat grinder league right now, even with Wittenberg wandering around aimlessly in the abyss (temporarily, I assume).  There's room for even more depth here. 

Wally, I think Wittenberg's struggles in football reflect the systemic challenges it is facing.  Elsewhere in this thread I noted a comment from the Wabash College BoT that highlights one of the most pressing challenges.

No doubt they are correlated, but I don't think anybody saw an 0-8 coming.  The sky was falling for Wittenberg football after a pair of 7-3 seasons prompted a coaching change after the 2021 season.  There are three teams in the division that score fewer points than Wittenberg.  If you remember when the bottom absolutely fell out from under Allegheny's program from about 2012-2015, this is sort of like that.  Wittenberg has a lot of work to do on the field, but obviously keeping the institution open is a bigger priority. 

[Whitecarrera]

Four in a row.

[DePauwalum05]

Any sensible Monon Bell week chatter to be found here?  DePauw riding a 4-Bell streak, and the better team on paper again this year.  Wabash likely better than 5-4 record suggests, having been up late before dropping close games to good league teams.  DePauw has improved significantly throughout the season as told on Pat's good intv. with Coach Dietz, but did not look its best against Wooster, including some turnovers.  Thoughts?

[Fripp52]

Haven't posted on here in forever.  My son played for DePauw in 07-10 and I played 81-84.  Both of us are 2-2 in Bell games.  I was at the John Carroll game.  And I watched the Wooster game.  DePauw controlled the JC game start to finish.  They ran the ball almost at will.  Passing game was average and I don't understand why we took so may deep shots, none of which were completed.  Defensively, DePauw usually does well against the run and not so well against the pass.  They did both pretty well, especially against a QB that killed them a year ago at Denison.  Wooster's performance concerns me on the defensive side of the ball.  There were a few breaks that went Wooster's way and some questionable PI calls.  Those happen but good teams battle through them.  That did not happen on Saturday.  Wooster ran the ball at DePauw with success and the QB was elusive causing problems.  He also threw the ball up on a few deep balls and they were completed.  Couple starters missing, let down, cold and windy.......

Onto Monon.....Wabash running game concerns me with that big back.  He's a good football player.  Passing game seems to have regressed.  Neither QB seems accurate although the senior has been accurate in the past.  Is he hurt?  They have at least one returning wr who hurt DePauw last year.  Defensively, Wabash is improved vs last year.  Holding Wash U, JC, Denison to low mid 20's is pretty good.  OWU is an anomaly, I think.

DePauw is good on offense and can run and pass well.  The senior QB seems to have settled the team down from earlier in the year.  Defensively, if the JC/Denison defense shows up, that could be a problem for Wabash.  If it's Wooster/Wash U defense, that will be a problem for DePauw.  They have not been great at stopping the run this year.  Pass defense has improved from last year.

Neutral field....who knows how this plays out.  I don't know if it affects either.  Both have incentive.  Wabash to keep DePauw home from the playoffs and not continue the streak.  DePauw to get to the playoffs and continue the streak.  I think this is closer than years past.  But I still think DePauw wins by 2 scores - 28 14 to 35 21, in that range.

[Crawford]

What are the chances the NCAC could get three teams in the tournament?  Washington U #8 and 9-0, Pepauw #16 at 8-1, and John Carrol at #23 at 7-2.  Most likely all these teams win their last game.

[Patrick Coleman]

What are the chances the NCAC could get three teams in the tournament?  Washington U #8 and 9-0, Pepauw #16 at 8-1, and John Carrol at #23 at 7-2.  Most likely all these teams win their last game.

In the NPI, WashU is No. 6, DePauw is No. 22 and John Carroll is No. 41, the only numbers which matter for this purpose.

With a win, John Carroll will still need some help. It would be similar for DePauw if they were to lose on Saturday.