FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

Etta is back in the HC search.  Kaufman to Iggy.

[Dr. Acula]

is this not the worst week of the year?  at least Mount is a basketball school now

I wonder where football lands in the final poll.  Hoops is currently at #12, but may move up depending on what happened elsewhere thanks to their nice win on the road. 

[WRMUalum13]

is this not the worst week of the year?  at least Mount is a basketball school now

I wonder where football lands in the final poll.  Hoops is currently at #12, but may move up depending on what happened elsewhere thanks to their nice win on the road.

We finished #9 in 2023 when we lost to Alma, who lost a fairly competitive game to the eventual champs. In 2019 we finished #3 after losing in round 2 to eventual champs NCC.

I'm thinking the ceiling is #5 and the floor is #10.

FWIW here's our current computer rankings
Massey: #6
Hansen: #7

[D3fanboy]

Etta is back in the HC search.  Kaufman to Iggy.

Big time hiring cycle for Etta.  Do they take advantage of a weakened OAC? Or do they fall even further back after a pretty disappointing '25? 

Edit:
https://pioneers.marietta.edu/news/2025/12/15/hinkle-promoted-to-marietta-college-head-football-coach.aspx

[mc1983]

Big time hiring cycle for Etta.  Do they take advantage of a weakened OAC? Or do they fall even further back after a pretty disappointing '25? 

Edit:
https://pioneers.marietta.edu/news/2025/12/15/hinkle-promoted-to-marietta-college-head-football-coach.aspx

Hinkle was tremendous in keeping the team mostly intact after Waddle's departure last season. He was really the only choice to make. We couldn't afford another offseason of getting way behind on the recruiting front.

Kaufman has been at 15 different places since his career began in 2003. Can't say that I'm too surprised that this happened after looking at his resume. He did an admirable job and was, by all accounts, assembling a formidable recruiting class. I don't see too many on his staff (mostly young coaches with college coaching aspirations) following him to the high school level.

The Kaufman tenure will be seen as an interesting interlude. Hinkle adds stability and bring someone who wants to be here. Hope he can hold off too many portal defectors and continue building an important recruiting class.

[D3fanboy]

Big time hiring cycle for Etta.  Do they take advantage of a weakened OAC? Or do they fall even further back after a pretty disappointing '25? 

Edit:
https://pioneers.marietta.edu/news/2025/12/15/hinkle-promoted-to-marietta-college-head-football-coach.aspx

Hinkle was tremendous in keeping the team mostly intact after Waddle's departure last season. He was really the only choice to make. We couldn't afford another offseason of getting way behind on the recruiting front.

Kaufman has been at 15 different places since his career began in 2003. Can't say that I'm too surprised that this happened after looking at his resume. He did an admirable job and was, by all accounts, assembling a formidable recruiting class. I don't see too many on his staff (mostly young coaches with college coaching aspirations) following him to the high school level.

The Kaufman tenure will be seen as an interesting interlude. Hinkle adds stability and bring someone who wants to be here. Hope he can hold off too many portal defectors and continue building an important recruiting class.

hearing some noise about the Kaufman year, wild, sounds like Etta will be in better hands with someone who is not going to jump jobs every other year, despite their promises.  Hopefully Hinkle can build that thing up and get Etta to a perennial playoff contender.  The OAC needs it, and we all know that BW will never be more than consistently mediocre 

[Dr. Acula]

Reading the release the fact that Hinkle played at and has now been coaching for 9 years at Marietta seems to make him a smart hire.  Promote someone who clearly loves the program to bring consistency back.  If I'm a Pio fan I'm hoping the only way he chooses to leave is by getting a bigger job in which case my program is in really good shape when that happens.

[D3fanboy]

https://www.news-herald.com/2025/12/16/john-carroll-football-hits-jackpot-in-transfer-portal/

hopefully the old school belief of the transfer portal at Mount Union is dead and gone.  The portal sucks, but its the new way of D3 football.  How gross is that?  But the Raiders better load up on transfers this off-season

[emma17]

https://www.news-herald.com/2025/12/16/john-carroll-football-hits-jackpot-in-transfer-portal/

hopefully the old school belief of the transfer portal at Mount Union is dead and gone.  The portal sucks, but its the new way of D3 football.  How gross is that?  But the Raiders better load up on transfers this off-season

Wow- That's a lot of stud players that transferred in. I'm assuming this is unusual for a D3 team but I really don't know. Maybe it's just unusual in terms of the significant impact the six have made.
But for, this would be Mt - NCC week.

[WRMUalum13]

https://www.news-herald.com/2025/12/16/john-carroll-football-hits-jackpot-in-transfer-portal/

hopefully the old school belief of the transfer portal at Mount Union is dead and gone.  The portal sucks, but its the new way of D3 football.  How gross is that?  But the Raiders better load up on transfers this off-season

What makes you think UMU has an old school mindset about the portal? Two of our best receivers this year were transfers, we've also always had big time transfers in the past, even before the portal... Pierre Garçon was the most notebable

We can talk about reasons for not getting as good of top tier transfers as we should be but I don't think it's an old school mindset issue

[D3 Poster]

Good summary on the JCU impact players.

Individual transfers have historically made an impact in the OAC.  Many probably have much better detail than me.  A few I recall include Mount getting over the top with Scott Woolf and Jim Ballard had it rolling.  Maybe the two best individual transfers were London Fletcher transferring to JCU from St Francis and Pierre Garcon arriving at Mount from Norwich.

JCU is the first OAC school I can come up with as getting good numbers of impact transfers together.  Basketball did it in the '22-'23 season going from 3-13 (last) to 16-2 (first).  Football didn't need the dramatic rise, but has advanced farther this year than ever.

Some of these current transfers give JCU a shot in the arm several school experienced in the COVID years.  Impact players with 5 to 7 seasons under their belts past high school make life better for coaches.