FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[NCC2010]

Interesting sequence with regards to clearing the snow in Waverly. I should start by saying I was watching 3-4 games and Wartburg was by far the best at clearing snow. They had an army and some big heavy equipment. NCC was at the other end of that spectrum.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped try to keep the field clear, but in the first half NCC's field looked significantly worse than any of the other fields I saw.

The Hope/UWL first half was probably the second-worst in terms of conditions and contributed to the 0–0 halftime score. UWL's starting QB is back and healthy, which makes for a very tough third-round matchup in Naperville this coming weekend. UWL's front seven will be the best NCC has faced thus far and a real test for this offensive line.

If McNeal is unable to play again, I think this game will be much closer than Logan or Massey currently have it lined.

Congrats to Wheaton on the big W and hope both CCIW teams can continue their winning ways this weekend

[JCUStreaks70]

DePauw strikes me as very similar to Wartburg. A great rush D, that hasn't faced an offense that is the combo of balanced and as good up front as Wheaton is. Wartburg's offense scored 17 (at "vaunted" Walton-Hoover) against a Coe squad that other Top 10 teams laid 50 on. They just weren't going to keep pace offensively and needed a defensive score and Wheaton with some redzone TO's. Better weather would have only helped Wheaton IMO.

DePauw run D was the perfect poison for UWW, who is totally one dimensional. Good neutralizing good. But Wheaton's best weapon is their passing efficiency and a mobile QB. That's what will open up the run game for them against DePauw. That and the weather can't be anything but better Saturday, which will only make the passing attack that much more potent.

JCU says hi. lol, sorry couldn't resist. But as a team, JCU averages almost 200 on the ground, and 263 through the air per game. Against DePauw, the numbers shifted to 72 rushing and 292 passing

[Fripp52]

You mean 297 passing and 39 rushing.

[JCUStreaks70]

I did mean 39, my bad! My eyes were looking at the incorrect chart. Please forgive me!

[Fripp52]

Forgiven.  Good luck to JCU this weekend.

[wally_wabash]

DePauw strikes me as very similar to Wartburg. A great rush D, that hasn't faced an offense that is the combo of balanced and as good up front as Wheaton is. Wartburg's offense scored 17 (at "vaunted" Walton-Hoover) against a Coe squad that other Top 10 teams laid 50 on. They just weren't going to keep pace offensively and needed a defensive score and Wheaton with some redzone TO's. Better weather would have only helped Wheaton IMO.

DePauw run D was the perfect poison for UWW, who is totally one dimensional. Good neutralizing good. But Wheaton's best weapon is their passing efficiency and a mobile QB. That's what will open up the run game for them against DePauw. That and the weather can't be anything but better Saturday, which will only make the passing attack that much more potent.

I think this is a good take and I think Wheaton's success this weekend is pegged to how stubborn they're going to be and how many possessions they're going to throw away trying to run.  The temptation is to take DPU's rush D stats with a grain of salt because they played "only" in the NCAC. But this isn't your nephew's NCAC and that run D is legit.  My POV is that DPU went up to UWW five years ago, got walloped 45-0 and have spent the last five years getting iteratively better (successfully!) at the LOS, and now they're legitimately excellent where it counts.  Teams just don't by accident go up to UW-Whitewater and shove that team around in a game that was only going to be about who can shove who around better.  That should be validating regardless of how one might correct for the perceived level of competition in the NCAC. 

Teams that have had success against DPU have thrown.  JCU did the deed thanks to Semptimphelter & Montgomery. Denison nearly pulled it off by just not running at all period.  I think Wheaton can take advantage of Seth K./Juska/Titherington/Jewett with a high volume game from Forcucci. 

[JCUStreaks70]

Forgiven.  Good luck to JCU this weekend.

Phew! lol. But thanks!

[JCUStreaks70]

Forgiven.  Good luck to JCU this weekend.

Phew! lol. But thanks!

and good luck to DePauw of course! With the addition of Wash U next year, it will be quite the competitive conference at the top

[USee]

DePauw strikes me as very similar to Wartburg. A great rush D, that hasn't faced an offense that is the combo of balanced and as good up front as Wheaton is. Wartburg's offense scored 17 (at "vaunted" Walton-Hoover) against a Coe squad that other Top 10 teams laid 50 on. They just weren't going to keep pace offensively and needed a defensive score and Wheaton with some redzone TO's. Better weather would have only helped Wheaton IMO.

DePauw run D was the perfect poison for UWW, who is totally one dimensional. Good neutralizing good. But Wheaton's best weapon is their passing efficiency and a mobile QB. That's what will open up the run game for them against DePauw. That and the weather can't be anything but better Saturday, which will only make the passing attack that much more potent.

I think this is a good take and I think Wheaton's success this weekend is pegged to how stubborn they're going to be and how many possessions they're going to throw away trying to run.  The temptation is to take DPU's rush D stats with a grain of salt because they played "only" in the NCAC. But this isn't your nephew's NCAC and that run D is legit.  My POV is that DPU went up to UWW five years ago, got walloped 45-0 and have spent the last five years getting iteratively better (successfully!) at the LOS, and now they're legitimately excellent where it counts.  Teams just don't by accident go up to UW-Whitewater and shove that team around in a game that was only going to be about who can shove who around better.  That should be validating regardless of how one might correct for the perceived level of competition in the NCAC. 

Teams that have had success against DPU have thrown.  JCU did the deed thanks to Semptimphelter & Montgomery. Denison nearly pulled it off by just not running at all period.  I think Wheaton can take advantage of Seth K./Juska/Titherington/Jewett with a high volume game from Forcucci. 

There's a lot to unpack here. I'll put some more detailed thoughts about DePauw in a later post but I will say outright that going into this game for Wheaton it would be a colossal mistake to decide in advance not to run the ball. That's a recipe for getting beat handily IMO.

First, I'll repeat it's really hard to analyze teams by comparison with very little relative data (unlike basketball or baseball where there are a lot more games played). While DePauw and Wartburg have some strikingly similar statistics, they couldn't be more different defensively. Structurally Wartburg is a 4-3 and DPU is a 3-4. Wartburg sits back and lets their defensive front defeat blocks and gang tackle you. They don't blitz much (neither does DPU) and they go through blocks more than around them.

DePauw's strategy on defense is simply "chaos". Their 3-4 alignment allows them to show 7 and sometimes 8 people at the line of scrimmage and you don't know who's coming at any given time. They slant HARD on almost every play and if you watched the Wabash game you would be shocked at how many times an ublocked player was in the LG's backfield (I was). This happens because their front causes assignment confusion. Add to that, they have some stud athletes on their front 7 and they embrace the idea that "penetration kills the run game". Whichever 4 are coming on each play try to get into the opponents backfield at the snap on every play. If they are slanting into the side you are running, it's likely a dead play and negative yards. If they are slanting away, and you happen to get it blocked, you can actually get some yards but their secondary is right there to make tackles and they are good at it.

I will say UWW is not the legacy program we all remember. They have the #45 rush offense and #88 total offense in the toughest league. But 19 yds is 19 yds in a physical contest. It's eye catching for sure. The best rush offense DePauw has faced is JCU (#38). Wheaton will be the best scoring offense DePauw has faced (#7--JCU is #13) and DePauw will be the 3rd or 4th best defense Wheaton has faced.

Wheaton's offense is pass efficient but reliant on their run game. They showed that at Wartburg where they ran it well enough (3.3 ypc and 112 yds total) with 34 attempts and 32 passes. It will take similar efficiency Saturday while trying to limit a very good DePauw offense. This sets up for a shootout in my view

[GusD]

I'd also add Donovan McNeal to this list; his health is currently my biggest concern for NCC's playoff run. From what I'm hearing, we will not see him play this Saturday. Assuming they get past Hanover, we'll have to wait and see if he's able to return the following week against the Hope/UWL winner.

Don't know if dreams will come true or not, but McNeal is listed as the starter for NCC on the 2-deep vs. LaCrosse.
Should he not be able to go, the running attack will be in good stead with Allen, Rashid, and Williams.

[NCC2010]

I'd also add Donovan McNeal to this list; his health is currently my biggest concern for NCC's playoff run. From what I'm hearing, we will not see him play this Saturday. Assuming they get past Hanover, we'll have to wait and see if he's able to return the following week against the Hope/UWL winner.

Don't know if dreams will come true or not, but McNeal is listed as the starter for NCC on the 2-deep vs. LaCrosse.
Should he not be able to go, the running attack will be in good stead with Allen, Rashid, and Williams.

He was listed as the starter last week as well and did not play.  The rest of the RB group is good, but they aren't on McNeal's level, IMO.

[NCC2010]

Congrats to both Mark Forcucci and Thomas Skokna for being named Gagliardi semifinalists!

https://www.d3football.com/notables/2025/12/gagliardi-semifinalists-announced

[USee]

LaCrosse is going to be in trouble today. They are a physical team and good up front but NCC's defensive line, led by JP Sullivan, is at a different level. There isn't an OLine in the bracket that can contain him and his cohorts IMO. I don't see LAX scoring more than a couple of times. That means LaCrosse's defense will have to step up and try to control the NCC offense led by their physical run game. If that happens we may see a low scoring, close game. If NCC gets to 21 points I think its game over.

[USee]

For Wheaton, their offense is the strength and while they are balanced, they have a QB/WR group that is as good as anyone in the country. Its strength on strength against the DePauw defensive front that is #1 in rushing and held UWW to 19 yds rushing and JCU to not much more. DePauw is also among the nations leaders in TFL (70) and sacks (36). Wheaton needs to get to 30+ pts because DePauw has a similar offense with a deadly accurate QB and a talented WR set led by Robby Ballentine (88 rec). This game is a great matchup because it will likely come down to how many stops Wheaton's defense can get vs the DePauw offense IMO. I think Wheaton has a favorable matchup with their two DE's vs DePauw's tackles and Depauw will like it's matchup of their DL vs Wheaton's OL.

I see a shoot out and the team that can get to 35-42 wins.

[CCIWFan69]

NCC with a shoutout on ESPN College Gameday this morning