Definitely inbounds. Photo by Todd Allred for D3football.com

By Keith McMillan
D3sports.com

Here are our most memorable moments from the entire season, around the nation:

Best regular-season game
Bridgewater’s 31-28 come-from-behind win at Hampden-Sydney gets our vote over dozens of great games because it had all the elements of a classic, plus playoff implications. The Tigers finished 9-1 and had the nation’s second-best offense behind Mount Union, but the loss to Bridgewater essentially kept them out of the playoffs. The Eagles, meanwhile, went to the national semifinals. H-SC took a 21-0 lead, before the Eagles stormed back to go up 24-21. The Tigers responded with a touchdown drive to go up 28-24. The Tigers thought they had won when the Eagles came up short on a late fourth-and-10 pass, but a roughing the passer penalty extended the drive and Brandon Wakefield connected with Brian Awkard for the game-winner with 34 seconds left. At the end of that game, Hampden-Sydney pretty much knew it had lost a chance at the playoffs. They ended up on the outside looking in when the three Pool C (runner-up in automatic bid conferences) teams — Simpson, Bethel and Baldwin-Wallace — were chosen.
• Honorable mention goes to UW-La Crosse for its 28-24 win against Division II South Dakota, and so many other great games across the country.

Best playoff game
The playoffs overflow with candidates for this category each year, which is part of what makes the 28-team playoff system beautiful. In just the opening weekend, there were several deserving candidates, as a Redlands comeback fell short in a 31-23 loss to Linfield, Ithaca held off Brockport 14-9 and Bridgewater knocked down a Waynesburg pass in the end zone to preserve a 28-24 win. And those aren’t even our top three. St. Norbert rallied from down 20-7 to beat Simpson 26-20 in double overtime. Montclair State kicked a 52-yard field goal and blocked a 36-yard Allegheny attempt with seven seconds left to preserve a 20-19 win. East Texas Baptist blocked a Trinity (Texas) PAT in OT to win 42-41. In later rounds, Linfield beat Wartburg 23-20 but came up short against St. John’s 31-25 and Lycoming beat ETBU 13-7 in OT but lost 13-9 to Bridgewater. RPI held off Ithaca 21-16 in the snow … eh, you get the picture.

Best rivalry game
Once again it’s Cortland State-Ithaca, maybe because the Red Dragons keep knocking off the favored Bombers. This year they won at Ithaca to retain the Cortaca Jug, when Ryan DeCamp kicked a 26-yard field goal on the game’s final play for a 16-15 win. Even though Ithaca players and supporters surely say they’d rather win two playoff games and play into December, Cortland alumni will take a 5-4 year with a win over the Bombers any day.

Best play

There were amazing plays every week all across the country, but our favorite came from the division’s top player in its biggest game. Nursing a 10-6 lead, St. John’s receiver Blake Elliott lined up at tailback, spun off an All-American defensive tackle 2 yards deep in the backfield and shot up the middle for a 51-yard touchdown run. The score put the Johnnies ahead of Mount Union 17-6 with 13:34 left in the championship game. But what’s really extraordinary is that wasn’t even Elliott’s best play of the game. He caught a touchdown pass from halfback Josh Nelson over two Mount Union defenders and still managed to keep his feet inbounds in the back of the end zone. Officials said it was no catch, but TV replays showed Elliott had not one, but two feet inbounds.
• Honorable mention: Augustana junior Mike Clark hit a 54-yard field goal to beat UW-Platteville 27-26, setting the record for longest game-ending field goal. (We had to recognize kickers somewhere).

Most significant play that seemed meaningless at the time
I guess we should call it a non-play, since, by rule, Hardin-Simmons did not attempt a PAT after scoring in overtime to beat East Texas Baptist. But the 20-14 win came back to haunt the Cowboys, because ETBU beat Mary Hardin-Baylor 28-21 in overtime, and UMHB beat Hardin-Simmons 43-36. Since margin of victory in head-to-head games was the American Southwest’s three-team tiebreaker, ETBU got the automatic playoff bid due to its plus-one margin of victory in games among the three. UMHB had a seven-point win and seven-point loss, so they were even, and HSU was down one point — the PAT they didn’t kick in overtime because they elected to play defense first and held ETBU! What kind of reward is that? The only way they guarantee a chance to kick the PAT is by electing to go first, and since they won the toss, they had that option. But who would think of something like that when the coin is flipped in overtime?

Biggest upsets
The Massey Ratings liked 153rd-ranked Oberlin over No. 77 Wooster, 14-7 on Oct. 11. We appreciate a team once known for its losing streak knocking off a playoff contender, but the Scots did play without running back Tony Sutton, who led the nation by averaging 217 yards and more than three touchdowns per game the nine times he did play. The final Saturday of the season (Nov. 15) provided a number of jolts, particularly to teams in the playoff hunt. Ferrum beat No. 11 Christopher Newport 19-17, Cortland State beat No. 14 Ithaca, Buffalo State stopped No. 22 Washington & Jefferson 10-7 and Hobart beat No. 25 RPI 43-25. Pomona-Pitzer’s 35-31 Sept. 20 win over 2002 Stagg Bowl runner-up Trinity, then No. 8 in the poll, turned some heads, as did New Jersey’s 22-20 win over then-No. 7 Rowan on Oct. 3.

Wildest playoff shootout
Phil Butler threw for 500 yards and seven touchdowns and lost — by 10. Butler’s seventh-seeded Hope team lost 55-45 against Wheaton in the North bracket first round, after the Thunder had beaten the Flying Dutchmen 43-26 early in the season. Wheaton led 41-13 in this game, before cutting the lead to 15 entering the fourth quarter, in which the teams piled up 33 more points. In the same bracket, Baldwin-Wallace’s 54-32 win over Hanover gets an honorable mention.

Wildest regular-season shootouts
We’ve got two: Coe 66, Cornell 63 in the teams’ 113th meeting and Delaware Valley’s 56-55 overtime win over Widener. It’s hard to tell which was crazier. The Aggies scored on a two-point conversion in overtime, but twice had to rally from 18-point deficits to get there. After they scored 21 in a row in the fourth quarter and took their first lead at 48-41 with 1:36 left, Widener tied the game at 48 just 25 seconds later to send it to OT. In the Coe-Cornell meeting, each team rolled up more than 600 yards of offense and combined for 18 touchdowns. Cornell scored 63 points, rolled up 688 yards and lost on a Michael Herzberger field goal with two seconds left.

Most surprising playoff blowout
Mount Union’s 66-0 pasting of Bridgewater, which had won 12 games by an average of nearly 26 points per, coming into the national semifinal. We thought the Purple Raiders were better, but come on … these teams nearly played to a draw last time they met. The Purple Raiders’ 56-10 pasting of Wheaton gets honorable mention.

Most surprising regular-season blowout
Wabash and Wittenberg each made the playoffs in 2002, and their 46-43 meeting in the regular season was our game of the year. Too bad the 2003 game wasn’t half as exciting. The Little Giants paid the then-10th-ranked Tigers back for years of beating on NCAC teams by surging to a 31-0 lead in a 41-14 rout.
• Honorable mentions: In Week 1, then-No.15 UW-La Crosse beat No. 5 Howard Payne 42-0. In Week 9, Then-No. 22 UW-Stevens Point beat No. 13 UW-Whitewater 60-30.

Least likely to take a knee
Rockford did not take a knee while crushing Trinity Bible 105-0 in coach Mike Hoskins’ debut. The Regents, which led 98-0 after the third quarter, threw only two passes in the game. Each went for a first-quarter touchdown, 40 and 44 yards. Rockford played all 69 players, and then were held to a field goal a week later in a 23-3 loss to Wisconsin Lutheran.

Least bang for the buck
Central 3, Augustana 0. The Dutch kicked a field goal at 3:43 of the first, surely thinking they — or someone — would score again. No one could, proving that defense wins games too.

Best moment
John Gagliardi’s 400th victory was last year’s best moment, and his 409th coupled with his victory in the Stagg Bowl are this year’s. Division III fans may be sick of hearing about Gagliardi by now, but he brought positive attention to our level of football throughout the year, and wins No. 409 (against MIAC rival Bethel) and 414 (over Mount Union) were a testament to Gagliardi’s perseverance, innovation and genius. Not to mention that, at age 77 with no plans to retire, he’s still fun to be around and humble, representing all that is good about Division III in a nutshell.

Worst moments
Ricky Lannetti practiced for Lycoming on the Tuesday before the national quarterfinal game against Bridgewater. Before game day, he had passed away due to a staph infection. Lannetti had 70 catches for 955 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Lycoming offense, but he was a team leader in spirit as well. His death was a shock to the Warrior community. It was also the biggest loss during a year when on-field injuries to Hardin-Simmons’ Shay Ratliff and UW-Eau Claire’s Justin Greenwood sent ripples through their respective communities.

Farewell
We waved goodbye to three longtime coaches: Pacific Lutheran’s Frosty Westering (305-96-7 all-time), DePauw’s Nick Mourozis (138-52-4) and Williams’ Dick Farley (114-19-3, in 17 seasons, including a 14-2-1 record against rival Amherst). St. John’s Stagg Bowl victory sent Mount Union’s aura of dominance on at least a temporary vacation.

Matt Miller was a second-team All-American at tackle for Louisiana College. Photo by Pat Coleman, D3football.com

Hello, bright future
Mount Union tackle Larry Kinnard, a former Ohio State recruit, is perhaps the most popular choice to join the 13 Division III players currently in the NFL. St. John’s Blake Elliot, a 6- 1, 210-pound wide receiver and the Gagliardi Trophy winner, will get a look. We also hear good things about UW-Stout tackle Ben Knepper, Louisiana College tackle Matt Miller, Salisbury tight end Kyle Acker and ETBU punter Scott Verhalen. But this is by no means a complete list; each year several Division III players get signed to free agent deals. Some last, many don’t. These are this year’s best bets.

Best regular-season coach
Delaware Valley’s G.A. Mangus, whose Aggies were longtime MAC also-rans and were 2-8 last season, turned his team into a threat to make the playoffs. Delaware Valley lost to King’s and Wilkes, which allowed Lycoming to take the MAC’s playoff bid even though the Aggies beat the Warriors 38-27. Mangus, who played for Steve Spurrier at Florida, brought in 104 freshmen and promptly helped a team who scored 19.6 points per game under him in his first season in 2002 score 37.1 a game this year. The Aggies capped with a 54-37 ECAC postseason win over New Jersey.

Best postseason coach
Joe King of RPI got his fifth-seeded Engineers to the national semifinals, even after they lost their finale and were in danger of missing the postseason entirely. They upset the East’s top seed Springfield, 40-34, and had national champion St. John’s tied at 10 at the half.

Best performance by a rookie coach
Rose-Hulman president Dr. Samuel Hulbert said that five wins would be a miracle for the Engineers. Ted Karras became a miracle worker, making the Engineers competitive for the first time in years. Their last winning season was in 1995, and they’d had two since 1991. RHIT went 5-5, and was a 21-19 loss to Centre in the finale from a sixth victory.

Rookie of the year
Four wins for a first-year program probably seemed like miracle work as well, but Endicott managed to go 4-5. They didn’t get lucky all the time either. The Gulls had 31-13 and 27-7 victories, and never lost more than two consecutive games. First-year Husson and Huntingdon didn’t fare as well, combining to go 0-13 while scoring just 155 points between them, 109 of those Huntingdon’s.

Surprise teams that didn’t make the playoffs
Delaware Valley was the top surprise, but we were also impressed by Elmhurst’s jump to 6-4 from 3-7, as well as North Central’s 7-3 year. The Cardinals were 6-4 in 2002, but are becoming consistent winners. Each team is looking to surpass Wheaton, Millikin and Augustana in the CCIW. Elmhurst’s losses came by four to Wheaton, 10 to Millikin, 7 to Augustana and six to North Central. Elsewhere, Albright improved to 7-3 from 2-8 and Menlo won seven games despite Division III’s fifth-smallest full-time undergraduate enrollment. Lakeland, Centre, Monmouth, Shenandoah and Adrian each went 8-2 without having a real chance at the playoffs, mostly after losing to their conference leaders. Loras going 7-3 in the IIAC opened a few eyes as well. 

Surprise playoff teams
Although we had them on our radar, East Texas Baptist still qualifies. They defeated the 2002 Stagg Bowl runners-up in Trinity (Texas) in the first round and then pushed Lycoming to its limit on the road in the second. Not bad for a team in its fourth year of existence which had never played a D3 game outside its conference.
• Honorable mention: Allegheny, which won the NCAC over its two 2002 playoff participants in Wabash and Wittenberg, and contender Wooster.

Took a step forward
The entire USAC got surprise wins from almost every member and left behind the Dixie Conference, in name and in spirit. But with improved performance comes greater expectations. We’ll be looking for Ferrum, Shenandoah or someone to challenge Christopher Newport, and we’ll be expecting the Captains to do more than win a playoff game.

Took a step back
Howard Payne began the season ranked No. 5 in our polls, but finished 6-4 and was nearly fifth in its conference, behind Hardin-Simmons, Mary Hardin-Baylor and East Texas Baptist. Central had its streak of 42 consecutive winning seasons snapped by going 5-5, and Centennial power McDaniel went .500 as well.

One-year wonder
Some think it might be Simpson, who will be hard pressed to replace the 317 yards of offense per game that quarterback Mike Donnenwerth generated.

Most overhyped
Tom Fox, a 34-year-old divorced father of a teenage daughter, made a handful of starts at quarterback for 2-8 Blackburn. While that’s certainly interesting, Fox threw for 20.9 yards per game and rushed for negative yardage on a Beaver squad that relies on the ground game. Fox was featured in several national media outlets, but there were other stories more worthy of national attention, especially in 2003.

Most underappreciated
Hanover’s Brett Dietz and Anderson’s Joel Steele lit up defenses in and around the Heartland, as the quarterbacks for conference rivals were No. 1 and 2 in the nation in total offense. Dietz threw for more than 4,000 yards and was one touchdown pass short of 40. Steele’s 367 yards per game of total offense were 14 fewer than Dietz’s. When the playoff-bound Panthers met the 7-3 Ravens, it was all Hanover in a 48-19 rout.
• Honorable mention: Mount Union’s Nick Sirianni. The 6-4, 181-pound receiver was far less heralded than Hampden-Sydney’s Conrad Singh, Susquehanna’s Mark Bartosic, RPI’s Flynn Cochran or even teammate Randell Knapp. Even his brother Mike, the new head coach at Washington & Jefferson, got more press. But most of his 44 catches for 892 yards and 13 touchdowns came against the Purple Raiders’ top opponents, and he was superb (eight catches for 106 yards) in the Stagg Bowl.

Insult added to injury
Plymouth State got outscored 420-34 in going 0-10, and then got left out in the cold as the other members of the crumbling Freedom Football Conference scrambled to find new homes. Western Connecticut will join the NJAC this year, Springfield and Norwich are headed to the Empire 8 while Coast Guard, Kings Point and WPI move to the UCAA. Plymouth State will compete next year as an independent.

Reality check
Salisbury, which started with seven wins in a row against some not-so-stiff competition, had designs on a second consecutive playoff appearance. Closing with two teams in the Top 100, the Sea Gulls stumbled, losing to Shenandoah 23-22 and Frostburg State 15-14.

We got this one right
Brockport State fans couldn’t fathom how we had Ithaca in the preseason poll and not the Golden Eagles, but Ithaca won both meetings, 31-10 and 14-9.

We got this one wrong
Most of our prognosticators picked Mount Union in the Stagg Bowl, and some of us had them blowing St. John’s out. Um … next category.

Worst pronunciation
“Al-ge-heny.” It’s worse than “Mullenberg” because Allegheny’s name should have come up in a particular ESPNews anchor’s geography class in grade school. 

Best one-man show
Defensively, Buena Vista linebacker Michael Irvin averaged nearly nine solo tackles per game, and 14.5 overall (third in the nation). While we’re acknowledging excellent defenders, how about Knox’s Seth Kopf (11 interceptions in 10 games) and Oberlin’s Quammie Semper (10 in 10). Ballhawks like that work wonders for the old turnover ratio. 

Best single-game defensive performance
St. John’s held Mount Union to 60 fewer points than they scored the week before against Bridgewater in the 24-6 Stagg Bowl win. Each starter in the Johnnies’ secondary recorded an interception, none bigger than Mike Zauhar’s 100-yard return in the fourth quarter. Linebacker Cam McCambridge was all over the place, though his stats (seven tackles) hardly told the story.

Season’s turning point
St. John’s came from behind to beat Bethel, a week after surviving to beat rival St. Thomas 15-12. Against the Royals, Johnnie defenders knocked out Bethel quarterback Scott Kirchoff as he went in for the go-ahead score in the fourth period. Blake Elliott returned the kickoff 50 yards, St. John’s scored three minutes later to go up 29-26. With Kirchoff out, St. John’s forced a Bethel fumble on their first play after the kickoff, and win No. 409 had come against the Johnnies’ toughest opponent to date. A loss, and the win where John Gagliardi broke Eddie Robinson’s all-divisions wins record would have been the 50-0 win over Crown, in which the Purple Storm had 12 yards of offense at halftime and trailed by 37. More than 160 Johnnies played in that game. By beating Bethel for 409, the team-of-destiny theory arose, and the Johnnies sealed the deal in Salem by beating Mount Union.

Best postseason conference showing
It could go to the UCAA by virtue of RPI’s run to the final four, because Mount Union and Bridgewater were familiar faces there, and St. John’s of the MIAC watched its conference rival Bethel lose in the first round. St. Norbert went 10-0 and got seeded fourth in the brutal West bracket, which featured the national champion and two other unbeatens. But the Green Knights won a first-round game, over the IIAC runner-up, which is a big step for the Midwest Conference. 

Worst postseason conference showing
The once-powerful New Jersey Athletic Conference got only one team in this year, in Montclair State. While the Red Hawks were a deserving participant, their 20-19 win over a three-loss Allegheny team and 33-13 loss to Ithaca the next week must make NJAC followers long for the powerful conference representatives of years past.

Most painful playoff score comparison
We always pick on Christopher Newport here, and despite their 26-3 loss to a Bridgewater team that lost to Mount Union 66-0, we’ll go elsewhere this year. The abundance of good first round games makes this sort of difficult this year … but not too difficult. If Baldwin-Wallace beat Hanover 54-32, then lost to Wheaton 16-12, and Wheaton lost to Mount Union 56-10, then we can only wonder what the Purple Raiders would have done to Hanover’s defense … that is, if you believe in the commutative powers of score comparisons.

Wish you were here
Trinity (Conn.) went 8-0 but could not participate in the playoffs. The Bantams outscored their opponents 248-30, a per-game average of 31-4, but NESCAC presidents limit teams to just the eight conference games so that football never becomes more important than academics, in their opinion. We don’t think an extra game or two (what are the chances it would be five?) for one of the conference’s teams would cause anyone to fail out of school, or even put the importance of winning above the joy of competing. We think the playoffs are a positive experience, and hopefully NESCAC presidents will allow their football teams to do what NESCAC teams do in all other sports — compete in the postseason.

Lost year award
Not much went right for FDU-Florham, including permit and construction delays pushing back the opening of their stadium from September to November, leaving just two home games. If not for playing first-year program Husson in what became their home opener in Week 10, the Devils would have gone 0-10. 

Glass ceiling awards
Can Linfield ever get past St. John’s and win the West? What about Wheaton against Mount Union in the North? The MAC champ never seems to beat Bridgewater in the South either. Teams that have been moved from other regions have twice won the East in the past four years. Linfield/St. John’s is becoming the nice rivalry that the Johnnies had with Pacific Lutheran for a few seasons, but it isn’t necessary. If four teams go 10-0 in the West again, and another bracket has a top seed with a loss, something isn’t right. Make the four best teams top seeds. Hmm, somehow, we’ve segued glass ceiling into our final category

Next year, this should be changed
We’ve got two strong suggestions here:
1) The folks who want to see two pools in Division III playoff selection will get their wish in 2005, as non-automatic qualifiers will be judged by the same criteria. In other words, there will be no more two-loss teams making it in Pool B while one-loss teams in Pool C stay home. We’re asking: Why wait? In 2005, the playoffs will expand to 32 teams, but the costs associated with taking four more teams shouldn’t prevent the selection committee from improving its process in 2004. We understand the purpose of Pool B, to give non-AQ teams and independents a fair shot at making the playoffs. But in 2003, that came at the expense of Pool C teams. Hampden-Sydney, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Johns Hopkins were each shut out of playoff despite having one loss, while Ithaca made it in Pool B with two losses, and Waynesburg, Montclair State, RPI and Brockport each made it in B with one. Shouldn’t the one-loss teams be evaluated equally, by strength of schedule and performance? And if the answer to that is yes, how many teams should have been evaluated for the two-loss spot taken by Ithaca? Capital, UW-Stevens Point … Lakeland, Monmouth? Who knows? The same 28 teams could have been selected, but the process should be extending opportunities to teams, not taking them away.

2) The next time a proud Division I program in Ohio, or anywhere in the Midwest, fires their coach and goes looking for a jolt of energy, they should look no further than Mount Union’s Larry Kehres. Frankly, we think he’s done about all he can do in Division III (aside from teaching another generation of Ohioans how to dominate with class) by taking his team to eight Stagg Bowls in 11 seasons and winning seven championships. Former Rowan coach K.C. Keeler won a national championship in his second season in Division I-AA, something longtime I-AA head coach Jim Tressel also accomplished after moving to Division I-A Ohio State. Isn’t that evidence that a great coach is a great coach, no matter what level? All it will take is a Division I-A AD with some guts. Whatever the differences between Division I-A and III are, Larry Kehres and staff will figure them out like the offensive-minded coach figures out opposing defenses. Isn’t getting it done on the field the most important criteria for a coach anyway?