It’s a wonderful time of year. 

Leaves are falling while day turns to night a bit earlier, but November is also a time when football games and their results are of ultimate consequence. Part of the beauty of college football is the demand for perfection.

Now is when a loss could cost a team a trip to the postseason. Teams that win big games in November fit the familiar coaches’ cliché of playing their best football at the right time.

In the D3football.com’s first set of playoff projections this week, nearly all of the considered teams were familiar with the postseason, or at least expected to be very good this year.

There are a few surprises, such as Whitworth, MacMurray and first-year team Christopher Newport.

Anderson’s trip to Defiance marks one of those big-time November games with a probable conference championship and trip to the NCAA playoffs on the line.

Both teams, at 7-1 and 4-0 in the conference, could qualify as Cinderellas, having combined for just six wins two seasons ago.

But these Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference teams would rather not look back when there is so much to look forward to.

On Saturday, the Yellow Jackets or the Ravens will become the first Heartland team other than Hanover to earn an NCAA tournament automatic qualifier since the 28-team system was adopted for the 1999 season.

Defiance wasn’t so far from accomplishing such a feat last season, when a 31-30 loss to Bluffton dashed their playoff hopes. The Yellow Jackets led 14-0 in that game, but had to rally from a 31-17 deficit to make it 31-30 with 33 seconds left. The extra point missed wide right, leaving Defiance to digest their third defeat in their final four games after starting 2000 at 6-0.

The Yellow Jackets started this season 7-0, and the games weren’t even close (the tightest being a 13-point win against Adrian). They stumbled last week against unbeaten Thomas More, a potential playoff participant (Pool B) that beat Anderson 24-21 in its opener.

Now, for Defiance to avoid letting a second consecutive great start go down the drain, they must take care of business in front of a supportive Coressel Stadium crowd. Just beyond Anderson, who the Yellow Jackets beat 16-0 last season, is another season finale against Bluffton.

Anderson doesn’t have such a burden to uphold. The Ravens’ success, while sweet, has been unexpected to most who don’t wear black and orange and are unacquainted with third-year head coach Steve Barrows.

In Barrows, the Ravens have a coach who genuinely believes his 7-1 team should be 8-0. He says he expects that kind of perfection, and lists the national championship as Anderson’s number one goal.

But first, he knows, the Ravens must defeat Defiance and 2-6 Manchester. "Actually," he adds, "I’m very humbled by our success so far."

It’s maybe not the ‘so far’ that’s surprising, but ‘so fast.’

Barrows’ Ravens were 2-8 in 1999 and 4-6 last season. But the way they demolished Hanover last week, when 11 school records fell in a 51-27 victory, indicates that these aren’t the same old Ravens.

Those same old Ravens hadn’t beaten Hanover since they last won the Heartland in 1993, Barrows said. They hadn’t defeated the Panthers and Bluffton in the same season since 1983.

That’s all in the past. Anderson just looks ahead. "To be on the verge of the playoffs is exciting," Barrows said.

No extra pep talks are needed this week, he added.

"Our kids know what’s at stake," Barrows said. "Our practices have always been upbeat. Our kids are pretty smart. We’ll celebrate or [sulk] for a day, then move on."

Barrows, who spreads credit for the turnaround to administration, players and coaches, says there’s a "palpable aura on campus that there’s hasn’t been in a while."

This week’s game against Defiance — like a playoff game in itself — will do that to a campus.

Games to watch
With that, let’s take a look at a few of the week’s top matchups, starting with the Yellow Jackets and Ravens.

Defiance, which led Thomas More 17-14 before falling 33-17 last week, needs to forget about last week’s game and bounce back. They allowed the Saints to go 5-for-5 on fourth down. 

Sophomore running back Maurice Hooker rushed for 118 yards last week and is averaging 103 yards per game, and Mike Moran is adding 91 per game. The Yellow Jackets have also outscored opponents 138-39 in the opening half.

Anderson’s Joel Steele was 40 of 62 last week for 470 yards and six touchdowns. He threw just one interception, earning him the nod at quarterback for our Team of the Week.

No. 9 Mary Hardin-Baylor at No. 7 Hardin-Simmons
Just like last season, the winner of this matchup will control its own destiny in its season finale with regard to the American Southwest Conference’s automatic qualifier. 

Both the Crusaders and Cowboys are 6-0 in the ASC, and the only blemish on either schedule is Hardin-Simmons’ 35-28 loss to Menlo on Sept. 8. The Cowboys, who won 21-7 in 2000, would earn their 40th consecutive ASC win and the 100th overall for coach Jimmie Keeling with a victory.

The Crusaders, fourth nationally in total defense, allow just 15 rushing yards per game.

The game’s loser is on shaky ground in Pool C, but is still alive. It would be a lot shakier for Hardin-Simmons.

No. 15 Central at Cornell
Cornell is one of three IIAC teams with two conference losses, so a win over Central would make the Nov. 10 conference slate a precursor to a massive tiebreaker procedure. None of the four teams in contention (Central, Cornell, Coe, Wartburg) face each other in the final week.

Central, which beat Coe and lost to Wartburg, can clinch a share of the title with a victory.

No matter what, the IIAC has its first champion since 1987 that did not cruise through the conference unbeaten.

No. 18 Worcester State at Westfield State
The NEFC championship game is officially scheduled for next week, but one might as well consider the 5-0, 8-0 Owls and the 5-0, 9-0 Lancers of the Bogan Division big-time favorites to defeat the Boyd Division winner and capture the automatic qualifier in that game. But first they play each other.

No. 23 Whitworth at Linfield
The cardiac kids of Whitworth keep the always-exciting Northwest Conference race in the spotlight, as they travel to Oregon to face last year’s conference champion. The Pirates haven’t sniffed a NWC title since the mid-70s.

UW-La Crosse at No. 12 UW-Eau Claire
UW-Stevens Point at UW-Platteville
We can finally anoint a favorite and three contenders in the WIAC. Eau Claire is 4-1, 7-1 but games against La Crosse (3-2, 4-4) and at Stevens Point (3-2, 5-2) stand between the Blugolds and the title. Platteville (3-2, 4-4) is still in the hunt.

Baldwin-Wallace at No. 1 Mount Union
Capital at Ohio Northern
Mount Union has the Pool A bid pretty much locked up, even if they stumble this week. But the top four teams in the OAC are in action against each other, which will factor into how the Pool C playoff bids are distributed.

Also keep an eye on: Kalamazoo at Albion, Chicago at Bethany, Randolph-Macon at No. 4 Bridgewater, Brockport State at TCNJ, Muhlenberg at Hartwick, Occidental at Cal Lutheran.

An honest coach
I don’t normally include notes verbatim from other sources, but this one from Central's weekly press release was too good to pass up:

Serving as a role model for Central players and abiding by team rules is important to coach Rich Kacmarynski. When two starters were late for a team meeting early Saturday morning, they were benched for the first quarter. But then Kacmarynski himself was tardy for another meeting later that morning. So he benched himself. He took off the headset he normally wears and let his assistants call the shots during the first quarter.

"When the players were late, I didn't feel like we could ignore that," Kacmarynski said. "But then I had a punt team meeting at 10:25. I got busy talking with the other coaches about how we would change our substitutions in the first quarter with those two guys out. The next thing I know, it's 10:30. I thought it would be kind of hypocritical of me to overlook that, so I benched myself.

"Our assistant coaches probably loved having me out of their hair for a quarter." 

Standing quietly on the sidelines made for a long first quarter, Kacmarynski said. 

"I'm not sure who had a more miserable first quarter, those two players or me," he said. "But there were three hungry guys at the start of the second quarter."