All the interviews and post-game commentary emphasized that the semi-final victory was just another game and the real game is the championship this Saturday. With references to the disappointing performance in the 2007 game against Valdosta State, players and coaches wanted to put the UNA game behind them and prepare for Minnesota-Duluth just like they had Pitt State, then ACU, and then UNA. But Bearcat booster Chuck Place of Albany wants to spend some time on the UNA game because he thinks that game reports did not do justice to the Bearcat performance last Saturday. Here’s what Chuck says:
ESPN2 announcers repeatedly attributed the Bearcat lead to the wind and said little after the second quarter to acknowledge the dominance of Northwest the two quarters when UNA had the wind at their backs. David Boyce in KC did lead with and stress the dominance of the Bearcats over UNA, but both that paper and SJ used the quote from UNA coach Hudspeth saying “I definitely think the play of the game was the opening coin toss.” Northwest deferred and left the choice to UNA; UNA could have taken the wind and accepted one less possession if they thought that one issue was the key to the game — if they thought that was going to result in a 0-20 deficit at the end of the 1st quarter. Northwest scored 20 points with the wind and 21 points against the wind. UNA gave up 1 turnover against the wind (a fumble not a pass) and 1 turnover with the wind (a pass interception). Their punter—ranked 3rd in the nation — averaged 16 yards on 5 punts with a long of 22. To blame that entirely on the wind does not give due credit to the Bearcat punt block team. A shank is a shank. Bearcat punter Michael Stadler punted into the wind and hit a 35 yarder — with no bounce. For the day he averaged 34.2 on 5 punts and angled 2 of those out inside the 20. The much-hyped UNA offense could not run on the Bearcat defense because of quality preparation and execution by Northwest — not just the wind. UNA advanced the ball 79 yards for their only TD. Three penalties accounted for 37 of those 79 yards. The HH finalist was 19-39 with 1 int and ran 14 times for 36 yards. He had total offense of 173 yards averaging just over 3 yards per play. And a significant portion of those yards came at the end of the 1st half when the Bearcats were in a prevent D and against the reserves in the 4th quarter when UNA still used their 1st team and did not score. UNA converted 3 of 16 3rd downs — and one of those was on a penalty! That formerly productive offense called 2 time outs in their first 6 plays from scrimmage! The Northwest offensive line/tight ends/fullback dominated the UNA defense. The first half statistics were not impressive because our 5 scoring drives only had to cover 90 yards total because of the great work of the defense and the punt block team. The offense scored on 7 of their first 11 possessions against a very good team and 3 against the wind. Bearcat preparation and execution was the story of the game not the weather. UNA linebacker Johnson quoted in the Florence newspaper did state that Northwest’s “execution” made the difference. UNA lost 7-41 and was outplayed in every phase of the game; such a result does not hinge upon the coin toss or the weather. Part two of the rant goes to the officials. DII is showcased on Saturday afternoon on ESPN2 and the secondary but less publicized focus was on the bungling officials — from the Lone Star Conference! It was worse on Tivo than it was at Bearcat Stadium. The missed pass interference call(s) and the missed offsides call were judgement calls and errors can be made. The fumble call they got right and then the replay official botched that. The “ticky tacky” unnecessary roughness penalty could have been that the official was too close to the players to understand what had happened or an official excited to be on TV and wanting to assert himself. But the errors in mechanics — problems with down marker accuracy and spotting the ball and the erroneous or non-existent signals — should not happened with a crew chosen to officiate the national semi-final game. Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference: Always remember that Minnesota-Duluth beat Grand Valley State at Allendale. And before that they beat Chadron State 20-10 and then they beat a team that made it to the semi-finals 45-7 (California PA lost to Valdosta State last year in the semis by just 21-28 the week before VSU beat Northwest for the national championship). The NSIC is a 14 team conference made up of a few schools who were in the old North Central Conference before in disbanded at the end of 2007-08. The NCC had lost Northern Colorado, North and South Dakota and North and South Dakota State to DIAA over several seasons and UNO moved to the MAIA. M-D had been in the NCC just the past 4 season after about 25 years prior to that in the NSIC. Each NSIC team plays 10 conference games and only 1 non-league game. In the 13 non-conference and post-season games for schools other than M-D the NSIC record was 5-11. While their non-conference games did include DIAA North Dakota and Chadron State, the other opponents were Minot (two games), Mayville, Valley City, Black Hills, Michigan Tech, Nebraska-Kearney and Drake (DIAA but non-scholarship and regular opponent for Truman, Rolla and Southwest Baptist). Augustana was 7-3 in the NSIC and their rep to the MW Bowl but they lost at the beginning of the season to Emporia State 14-27. Minnesota State was 9-1 in the conference and made the playoffs but lost 9-29 to Central MO. Northern State was 1-9 in NSIC play and lost early to Mowest 27-36. NSIC teams besides M-D were 0-2 in the play offs. NSIC has a 24 FTE scholarship limit. The NCC had the full DII 36 limit which M-D was utilizing until last year. Most of M-D wins were against teams with only 66% of the scholarship players as M-D. And M-D did not play Minnesota State (9-1) and Wayne State (8-2) in conference play. Those two schools were the other two NSIC NCAA playoff teams. Most of the information points to another conference much weaker than the MIAA and M-D got to 11-0 against very weak competition. But the week before Northwest beat Mowest 42-35, M-D came to St. Joe and won 47-18. In the MW bowl, Augustana beat MW 37-16. And M-D beat Grand Valley State. Minnesota-Duluth: But indeed the NSIC is not the MIAA and M-D is not Northwest. Most M-D players are from Minnesota and Wisconsin with three players coming from outside the US (1 from Canada and 2 from Europe). Most of their players not from the upper Midwest are juco transfers. The M-D stadium just finished a $6.5 renovation but only seats 4500 after spending $6.5 million. Northwest did not spend a tremendous amount more than that for a completely new facility with much greater capacity — and much better asthetics. With an 11-0 regular season and more than a decade of winning football, M-D only attracted an average of 2600 for 6 home games. Their playoff game in Duluth against Chadron — before Thanksgiving — had only 1468 show up. On the road they averaged just 3000 with the 4000 at Mowest being the 3rd largest “crowd” to see them even including play off games. Their November 1 game reported only 473 attendance. M-D reports 11,500 students, wears maroon and gold and uses the bulldog as their mascot. Very important! The M-D site said they use a 3-4 defensive front. M-D was 4-6 last year after several good seasons. AD Nielson returned to as head coach after the coach left for a DIAA line coaching job. Nielson had been coach from 1999-2003 and had raised the program to prominence in that region. He was the coach when they made the playoffs for the first time ever in 2002 and lost 41-45 to Northwest in Maryville. It was as close as that score indicated and they were operating under the lower scholarship limit then. M-D also went to the playoffs in 2005. Until 2008, they were 0-2 all-time in the playoffs. The O-coordinator is in his first year after coming from a DIII school. The D-coordinator has been at M-D for 10 years and he along with the head coach aso got their previous coaching experience in DIII schools in the upper Midwest. Bearcat versus M-D Statistical Comparison: M-D is a very good football team (they beat Grand Valley State and beat Mowest 22 points worse that did the Bearcats), but the NSIC is not similar to the MIAA so statistical comparisons mean very little. But these will give you an idea of what to expect from our opponents. M-D Northwest Rushing: M-D — 622 for 3398 5.5 avg; NW — 573 for 2706 4.7 avg Opponent Rushing: M-D — 392 for 815 2.1 avg; NW — 464 for 1524 3.3 avg Passing: M-D — 208 of 326 for 3,004 yds; NW — 299 of 436 for 3,653 yds Interceptions: M-D — 28 to opponents 9; NW — 15 to opponents 6 Penalty yardage per game: M-D 55; NW 57 Punting: M-D 34.9; NW 39.0 Sacks: M-D 43; NW 31 Time of possession: M-D 33; NW 30 3rd conversions: M-D 51%; NW 53% FG: M-D 8-14; NW 9-12 PAT: M-D 70-80; NW 77-78 The M-D kicker is 1-4 on FG’s in the play offs and 2-6 in his last 6 games. Tommy Frevert has made his last 7 attempts and is 9-10 since 2 misses early in the season. M-D leading rusher is Odim 6’0” 215# 1582 yards, 7.7 per carry sophomore juco transfer. QB 6’0” senior ran 125 times for 2.8 per carry. Leading receiver is a 5’8” 170# freshman with 68 catches. The next best receiver was a distant second. M-D has not returned a punt or kick off for a TD in 14 games. The did return a blocked punt 20 yards for a TD. In the Grand Valley game, the GVS QB was 13-46 with 3 interceptions. They converted 2-15 3rd downs and were 2-5 on FG. The starting GVS RB was suspended for a police altercation after the previous week’s game but the 2nd team RB was able to gain 139 yards and averaged 4.7 per carry. California PA (from the northeast region which has not won a national championship in more than 3 decades) rushed for just 57 yards against M-D but with 4 turnovers and a 0-17 halftime deficit to overcome in the snow, California had to abandon the run and the total was affected by sacks. In the 2nd quarter M-D had a 20 play drive against California – but only got a FG out of it. Other Post-Season Notes: For football fans who have become accustomed to television football from 11 AM to 11 PM each Saturday for the past 14 weeks, the Bearcats are the only choice this Saturday. The only two games I am aware of this Saturday is the DII national championship at noon followed by a DIAA semi-final game at 3:30. Everyone who wants to watch football on Saturday afternoon will be watching Northwest. Saturday’s game will also determine if Pitt State is the 3rd best team in the nation or the 4th best team. The MIAA had won 7 consecutive MW bowl contests over the NSIC before Mowest lost to Augustana 16-37 last Saturday. Both Mowest lines were shredded as the defense allowed 281 yards rushing while the offense ran for just over 3 yards per carry and the QB’s were harassed into 14-36 passing with 3 int’s. MoWest managed just 2 special team TD’s. — Chuck Place, Albany
