FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Onward on, John Carroll]

Wow. This game is crazy. I thought JCU had it won there...

Once they got close, i wonder if it would have been smarter for JCU just to line it up, and kick the fg instead of trying to get the TD not using all their downs

Absolutely. I thought there were only three viable options on that play  One, Kick the field goal on third town in the event you have a bad snap or unsuccessful hold,  it would give you a second opportunity at the field goal. Two, Take a knee in between the hashmarks at the 3 yard line so that the field goal kick was exactly the same as an extra point. Three, Run the ball right up the gut to see if you can get the 3 feet and, if you do not, kick the field goal. I was baffled by the pass, and when we missed the field goal, I was prepared to blame that play calling for this loss for the rest of my days on earth.

When that field goal attempt clanked off the left upright, 31 years of losing in so many different painful manners rushed over me. I thought this was just the latest on that long list – triple overtime, the comeback at Bedford, strip and score, etc.

[Pat Coleman]

Wow.... why not kick there and live to fight another day?

I think it made sense to go for it.  They had higher changes of winning by converting there, instead of just kicking the field goal and letting it go to 3 OT.  OT after 2 is just two point tries, which I think is just all luck. While if they had converted they would have had 4 chances to get that winning TD from the 2

Yes, I hate the thought of putting a playoff game in the hands of the college football equivalent of penalty kicks.

[Fido0650]

Time to contact a crime scene clean up company to clean up the inside of the Mount Union house. What happened today at Kehres Stadium was nothing short of criminal.  GD gets more out of his stinking piece of gum than he tries to get out of his players.  I am hoping that this will be the song that people will be singing to GD after the first of the new year.
Nah,nah, hey, hey good bye!

He has had enough time to prove to everyone that he deserves to be the head coach of Mount Union.  Starting at the top and working down, get that crime scene cleaning company to really scrub down the Mount Union house. Any  head coach that was not part of the Kehres family household, would be gone by now.  Do not prolong what needs to be done.

[pradierguy]

Mount Union turned off comments on their final score post on social media. Very on brand for this institution that continues to weaken and be a shell of its former self.

[D3fanboy]

Mount Union turned off comments on their final score post on social media. Very on brand for this institution that continues to weaken and be a shell of its former self.

The softness in Alliance has been staggering since VK went off to Toledo

[bleedpurple]

Time to contact a crime scene clean up company to clean up the inside of the Mount Union house. What happened today at Kehres Stadium was nothing short of criminal.  GD gets more out of his stinking piece of gum than he tries to get out of his players.  I am hoping that this will be the song that people will be singing to GD after the first of the new year.
Nah,nah, hey, hey good bye!

He has had enough time to prove to everyone that he deserves to be the head coach of Mount Union.  Starting at the top and working down, get that crime scene cleaning company to really scrub down the Mount Union house. Any  head coach that was not part of the Kehres family household, would be gone by now.  Do not prolong what needs to be done.

This might be the first time in history there is this much calling for the firing of a coach that is 67-5 with 0 conference losses.

[uvmcatamount14]

It is the OAC. Beating up on Wilma, Cap, Musky, et al. means squat. D3's Big Game James. Little F Geoff.

[purple]

It's not the coach's fault that our reliable field goal kicker suddenly lost all confidence. It's not the coach's fault No. 25 fumbled on the five-yard line on first down. That was the play of the game. JCU was the better team.

[edward de vere]

Mount Union, Ohio State and BYU all had one HUGE factor going against them today.  Can anybody here name it?

[emma17]

"This might be the first time in history there is this much calling for the firing of a coach that is 67-5 with 0 conference losses."

If winning the conference was the program's goal you'd have a point. I'm pretty sure Mt's program goal is national championship.

[Fido0650]

It is the OAC. Beating up on Wilma, Cap, Musky, et al. means squat. D3's Big Game James. Little F Geoff.

No one in D3 fears playing  the Purple Raiders anymore.  Fans no longer hate them based solely on them always winning National Titles.  That hate left their hearts when VK left for Toledo.  This kinder, gentler, and much softer version of the football team that has learned to play nicey nice with the opponents is not what the fans expect, want, or deserve.

[uvmcatamount14]

It's not the coach's fault that our reliable field goal kicker suddenly lost all confidence. It's not the coach's fault No. 25 fumbled on the five-yard line on first down. That was the play of the game. JCU was the better team.

It is the coach's fault to not try the field goal on 4th and 5. It is the coach's fault to run Maloney on 4th and 2 instead of just kick field goal. JCU and the entire crowd knew Maloney would run up the middle (remember Milroe vs. Michigan in the Rose Bowl?). It is the defensive coaches' fault to not get the DB to turn the heck around when you are six yards deep in the end zone to bat down or intercept the TD pass. These are the coaches that have struggled with Alfred State, Muskingum in the regular season, and others. There is NO "standard".

This affects recruiting because who in their right mind would want to play for this staff? Brad Spencer can coach. You see it in the team. They should remind you of what Mount Union USED to be. The evidence is overwhelming that this team needs new leadership. Bring back Larry for a year and then get a staff that wants to coach.

[Raider 68]

The Raiders had the talent to make a run at a title this year. The concern this year
was the defense and yet the defense played very well yesterday. Maloney is and will be a
good QB in the next few years.

However, the Raiders will not win the title again until there is a new HC. We have all seen
it several times in the past few years, why won't the University see it. Winning percentage
means nothing if the ultimate goals are not met.

[purple]

 I didn't want to criticize a young player, but the way our kicker was yesterday, going for it on 4th and 5 was the right call. Did you see what happened when he kicked that field goal attempt into the line? It wasn't "blocked",it was kicked into the line. That was his third attempt. The kicker just wasn't with it yesterday. His misses were way off.  He didn't look the same.I don't know what was wrong with him - the cold, the pressure - but he just wasn't with it. 

[WRMUalum13]

Oh boy, this one hurt.

1) TERRIBLE ATTENDANCE, have to agree with D3Fanboy, 2200 fans was not at all what a game of this magnitude deserved. 11 years ago these two teams played on the same weekend in the playoffs and had over double that, I don't know if free streaming wasn't a thing in 2014, but either way it bummed me out.

2) Hats off to JCU, I hope they win it all, if they make it to Canton I'll be wearing my purple raider gear in the stands rooting for our rivals to take home a title.

3) My feeling about this game will depend a-lot on how JCU plays their next game or games. If they get knocked out next round and Berry puts up 4 scores or so... Yikes. But if they win next round and hold Berry to a low score maybe they did have an elite D at the end of the season

4) My biggest gripe against Dartt wasn't this one game, it was his attitude (at least publicly) about where the team was around mid-season. I remember his interviews with Bourquin made things sound pretty rosey. "I know it's hard to believe, but I don't think we've played a complete game yet" type comments when we clearly looked mediocre against inferior opponents. I don't know if this was just for the public, but it sounded like GD really liked how the team was developing and didn't see the red flags that I did. Looking back our inability to put away OAC teams in the first half was GLARING, we had 4 games that were within 10 points at half time against inferior opponents:

UMU 21 BW 17
UMU 14 Berg 6
UMU 27 Cap 17
UMU 17 Etta 13

I think GD thought these were simply slow starts but clearly it was a more serious bigger indicator. The truth is the OAC isn't a top to bottom strong conference and if we're not putting teams away in the first half we're in trouble for the post season.


5) I don't think this team had the offensive superstar that many UMU teams of the past have had, last year it was Echeverry, before that Wayne Ruby etc. Maloney is good, but a Mount QB's typically at least have one other elite level play-maker and I don't think MM had that support.

6) Very confused about our low passing attempts only 24. I know there were more designed passes that Maloney would choose to run but it still seemed like we committed a LOT to the run and it stalled out drives.

We ran 63 offensive plays, 61% of which were runs. Again, I don't know if JCU's secondary was just preventing passes or it was a play call issue but it seems too high.


7) silver lining, at least we didn't lose to NCC this year