FB: Southern Athletic Association

D3Navy · October 03, 2026, 10:41:06 AM

For those who can access Instagram, this is a nice update on Trinity's OC Wade Lytal. He lost his daughter in the Texas Hill Country floods of summer 2025.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd_2lUgS5M9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&stkn=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

tigerguy · October 03, 2026, 01:57:49 PM

Horn is not the answer for Trinity right now. From what I've seen, Hondo has much better chemistry with Tavaraz and it is critical that he be a major part of Trinity's game plan.

tigerguy · October 03, 2026, 03:35:43 PM

The score doesn't reflect it, but that was an ugly win for Trinity. Outgained by a decent chunk, but the defense won it with some great plays time and time again.

I continue to be frustrated with the offense and the inability to work Tavarez in more. If he is drawing so much attention that Horn can't get it to him, someone else has to be open. I stand by my prior post that I believe Hondo has much better chemistry with Tavarez at this point. Horn is a capable runner and has great size, but he is not fast enough to run outside the edge against good teams. There were way too many plays like that today that really set the offense behind.

Special teams also has got to figure some stuff out. There was an excellent return, but another blocked PAT. While I ALWAYS appreciate Urban's willingness to run fakes (I can't believe teams don't play straight up on every punt by now), we've got to have some confidence in them to make a field goal or pin them deep sometimes.

Trinity's camera crew still has not figured it out. Continue to miss pretty much any play down field. The main camera routinely zooms in too much so to compensate they try to quickly switch to a different camera which is very disorienting.

Hope this team keeps rolling and the offense starts to click. Hard to be negative about a 23-6 win against a solid Berry team but I'm clearly finding a way!

Ron Boerger · October 03, 2026, 05:19:00 PM

Let's face it, this should have been a 30-6 if not 37-6 win. Coming away empty twice on deep possessions is frustrating and that INT at the 10 should never have been thrown into double or triple coverage.

While I will agree that we should have seen much more of Hondo today, it was obvious that Horn was still hobbled from the hammy he suffered a couple of weeks ago; he stayed in the pocket almost exclusively when rolling out would have helped get away from Berry's constant pressure up the middle. His running was also not the up to the standard we saw earlier this season.

My sincere hope is that with what should be a lesser opponent next week (though they did get their first win of the season today) that Hondo starts and lets Horn get healthy.

MCScots2013 · October 03, 2026, 07:17:51 PM

Going to be a barn burner in Danville tonight. Not half way through 1Q and it's 14-7 MC.

MCScots2013 · October 03, 2026, 08:14:45 PM

I jinxed it. Scoring stopped. At half it's 14-7 Maryville. Centre to get the ball to start the second.

I have to say it. The SAA is putting the absolute worse officials in all of football on the field for these games. This is said after several bad calls going our way! Each game it's like no one knows what the hell is going on. Since when do Umpires line up on the offensive side of the ball?? What have other games looked like? The crews that did the Heidelberg and Macon games can run circles around these SAA guys.

MCScots2013 · October 03, 2026, 09:26:17 PM

I will pay a substantial amount of money if anyone can get video that Centre actually scored their last 2 scores to tie the game. SAA—GET IT TOGETHER!

Ron Boerger · October 03, 2026, 10:08:58 PM

You won. Be happy

but I get the frustration with Flo/Centre.

TLU and PLU both won today, which is good for Trinity's NPI (as is defeating now 3-1 Berry). McMurry was on a bye week.

Sunday edit: According to d3datacast.com Trinity has the top NPI in the country. Extremely unlikely to stay that way even should they win out due to weak SAA opponents, but rather start there than lower.

MCScots2013 · October 03, 2026, 10:28:28 PM

I was mad...then madder (missed FG)...then enraged (missed FG). Then irritated (shocker: refs sucked. Centre scored in OT and they missed it), finally happy. Rollercoaster of emotions.

I should add: I'm proud of Dabrowski and his development. 3 pretty tough opponents to start his career and leading the offense well in Game 5. He's completed 61.5% of his passes for 1047 yards, 5TDs/4INT. Let work on that ratio, but couldn't ask for much more from a freshman stepping into that role after Bryson Rollins.

D3Navy · October 04, 2026, 11:54:39 AM

Five sacks and 7 QB hurries won the game for Trinity against Berry.

Ron Boerger · October 05, 2026, 10:19:09 AM

Quote from: Ron Boerger on September 27, 2026, 05:57:16 PMHansen Ratings:
Berry 14.1, @Trinity 25.2 [TU 75.7% to win]
Southwestern 30.2, @Sewanee 21.0 [SW 72.2% to win]
Rhodes 12.8, @Millsaps 42.8 [MC 97.1% to win]
Maryville 14.1, @Centre 23.5 [CC 72.3% to win
Hansen has Berry @Trinity as his #8 game of the week (reflecting combined strength of the two teams)

SP+:
Berry 18.1, @Trinity 23.7
Southwestern 26.3, @Sewanee 25.1
Rhodes 6.1, @Millsaps 46.0
Maryville 16.2, @Centre 26.5

Actual Week 5 results:

@Trinity 23 Berry 6
Southwestern 42 @Sewanee 21
@Millsaps 54 Rhodes 10
Maryville 27 @Centre 21 (OT)

Both forecasts missed the Maryville win; though it was in OT, each forecast Centre by over a TD so this could be a sign that the Scots are starting to figure things out. Congrats!

Let's look at this week's games:

Hansen Ratings:

@Millsaps 23.1, Centre 22.9 (MC 50.4% to win)
@Southwestern 10.1, Trinity 38.8 (TU 96.5%)
@Rhodes 1.1, Berry 41.9 (BC 99.6%)
@Maryville 39.5, Sewanee 14.2 (MC 94.7%)

SP+:

@Millsaps 25.1, Centre 20.3
@Southwestern 7.0, Trinity 38.7
@Rhodes 0.0, Berry 47.1
@Maryville 36.4, Sewanee 15.7

Main difference here is a larger MOV for Millsaps by SP+, and I would agree (if not at least a TD).

Looking back at last week, D3football.com Podcast 420 discusses Berry@Trinity (around 17:00) and Pat Coleman awards his weekly game ball to TJ Scannell (around 29:30); Logan Hansen discusses the teams likely to get a Top 8 playoff seed. That all comes in the first 45 minutes though of course (as always) the entire thing is worth listening to to get a feel for what's happening across the division.

awadelewis · Reply #4211 - Re: FB: Southern Athletic Association

Looks like we may get tropical weather coming in late Friday through the day on Saturday. May see some impact on games in Jackson and Memphis.

Ron Boerger · Reply #4212 - Re: FB: Southern Athletic Association

Quote from: awadelewis on Yesterday at 07:34:26 PMLooks like we may get tropical weather coming in late Friday through the day on Saturday. May see some impact on games in Jackson and Memphis.

Very true. Latest forecast projects it hitting around the MS-AL border as hurricane at 1AM Saturday and rapidly proceeding due north. The saving grace may be that the NW quadrant of a storm is usually the one with the least amount of precipitation and both cities are located in that quadrant. Even if so could be a good deal of wind !