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| Johns Hopkins athletics photo |
By Keith McMillan
D3sports.com
BALTIMORE — Just as we were able to travel last year and give you snapshots of Division III football life in Wisconsin and Mississippi, I decided the couch was no place for me to be last Saturday, even if I had to work later that night. A tolerable trip from home, I thought I’d take in the atmosphere at a Johns Hopkins football game and share it with our national audience.
Problem was, I didn’t exactly pick the greatest day to travel. While the remnants of Hurricane Who-the-heck-can-keep-track-anymore left muddy and waterlogged fields across the East and Mid-Atlantic, wind was the troublemaker at Homewood Field for the Blue Jays’ game against Carnegie Mellon.
There’s wind that ruffles the flag out front, rattles your shutters and perhaps knocks over a thing or two. Then there was Saturday’s wind, the kind that takes punts which ascend on an arc and sends them back to the turf in a straight line.
Oblivious, I drove into Baltimore on my way to the game, past the purple seats of M&T Bank Field and brick warehouses of Camden Yards. I weaved my way into the city, past light-rail cars, auto repair shops and row houses. The route to Johns Hopkins is quite a bit different from a lot of Division III schools, which are tucked away in an undisturbed countryside. To get to Homewood Field, you drive over the multi-colored Howard Street Bridge, pass the concrete-pillared Baltimore Museum of Art until you see a brick hotel called the Inn at the Colonnade that towers over the home sideline.
Inside the stadium though, the Division III spirit is still present. Fans and friends fill stands that are probably better suited for Hopkins’ Division I lacrosse games than its football team’s contests.
Though many Division IIIs are making the change from grass to turf, both Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon have each had turf longer than they’ve had their senior classes. So while the Mid-Atlantic was belted with enough rain to cancel most Friday night football games, the Blue Jays’ turf was in great playing shape.
Then again, every team seems to have a coach who walks through stretching yelling ‘It’s a great day for football!’ regardless of whether it’s 96 degrees and sunny or snowing. As anyone who watched synchronized swimming in the middle of the night all August can attest to, every day there’s a game is a great day for football, regardless of the weather. That’s part of the beauty of the game, it goes rain, sleet, hail, snow.
As noted, wind changed this game. An early Hopkins kickoff, from the 35-yard line as usual, sailed through uprights. A point after nearly knocked the camera men off their high perch. Hopkins punter Ben Scott at one point stood with his heels on the 21-yard line, put a good foot into a punt, watched it die around the 40-yard line and take a negative roll. Scott’s line on the halftime stat sheet read one punt for 2 net yards. That’ll kill the ol’ average.
When Tartan quarterback Jarrod Highberger saw Mark Davis streaking past his defender on a deep post, he let one fly. The pass fell short and became a Chris Chauvin interception. Later, while Hopkins had the wind at its back, Zach DiIonno — who has some zip on his passes anyway — overthrew an open receiver near the end zone by about 10 yards. The pass seemed to be rather flat, trajectory-wise, but kept on going.
The wind made for more than a fun atmosphere column, though. How the Blue Jays and Tartans handled it made for good demonstrations on game management.
Neither team took the ball when given the choice at the start of each half.
“The wind was really a major factor,” said Rich Lackner, Carnegie Mellon’s coach since 1986. “I think it had a great effect on the game. Just the fact that they chose to kick off in the first half and defend the goal (says something).”
Going with the wind, the Blue Jays’ first three possessions ended in touchdowns, good for a 21-0 lead at the end of the quarter. Despite holding the ball for 11:11 of the quarter (perhaps because they were running, trying to avoid passing into the stiff wind), Carnegie Mellon went blocked punt, fumble and interception on their first three possessions. The Tartans' average starting field position was their own 20. Johns Hopkins’ average was Carnegie Mellon’s 29.
“Obviously, going into the wind was a very challenging situation,” said Lackner, who nevertheless blamed his team’s poor execution, not the wind, for its early deficit.
When the teams flipped sides to start the second quarter, however, Carnegie Mellon went 80 yards in 15 plays for a touchdown. And so it went.
“Every other quarter, you become very predictable,” said Blue Jays quarterback Zach DiIonno, who went 10 of 19 throwing short passes and screens, not the deep balls he prefers.
After Hopkins got up early, Carnegie Mellon didn’t allow much. A mid-third-quarter TD made it 24-14, and the Tartans drove to the 4-yard line before a false start penalty eventually led to a 25-yard field goal attempt.
Even in Division III, 25 yards is a gimme. But nothing kicked into Saturday’s wind was easy, especially as it died down and picked back up unpredictably. It was hard to fault kicker Nate Greenstein for his miss with 6:13 left, as the kick caught air and fluttered wide left.
Carnegie Mellon had to kick on fourth-and-goal from the seven because they were down by 10. They needed two scores, by virtue of the 21 first-quarter points and 33-yard field goal kicked into the wind by Scott, the same guy whose foot produced a 2-yard punt.
Scott’s field goal was the only time either team when it did not have the wind at its back.
“He kicked his into the wind,” Lackner said, again dodging excuses.
The Tartans’ last losing season came in 1974, before Lackner had started a Carnegie Mellon career during which he was a three-time all Presidents’ Athletic Conference linebacker. Now one of four Division III football teams in the University Athletic Association, the Tartans have had only one .500 season over those 30 years, but at 1-2 may need a good confidence boost to avoid breaking the streak. Their play in the final three quarters, including one fourth-quarter stretch where CMU intercepted a screen pass, got stopped on downs and then forced a first-down fumble to get the ball back, gave the Tartans something to build on.
“That’s a good football team, a top 25 football team,” Lackner said. “Our kids played their nuts off today, I think. … our kids learned today that we can be a damn good football team.”
Johns Hopkins, recognized by the D3football.com poll as a good football team, left the field apologizing for what they felt was a game gone lackluster.
“That was a very bad game,” said DiIonno, who nonetheless complemented the Tartans on their play. “I feel like this is almost a loss.”
“You don’t want to get a couple of quick scores and hold on, but that’s what we did,” Blue Jays coach Jim Margraff said. “I’m a little disappointed in myself and my guys.”
Hopkins will get a chance to redeem itself when it kicks off its Centennial Conference slate on Friday, Oct. 1 against Dickinson.
Weathering it all
Okay, thanks for playing along with my atmosphere piece for September. But there is a point. Perhaps you would call it a moral.
Your team might find itself in some big game — against a rival, or in the playoffs — and the weather might decide to do what it does best, be unpredictable. We’ve seen what wind (in the 2002 Stagg Bowl), rain (check out the Sept. 26, 2002 column on that topic) and snow (in last year’s playoff games in New York) can do to games. So if you root for a passing team that loves short timing routes and the field is sloppy, that’s bad news. If your team has turf, maybe they can play on it late into the season, but can’t catch passes in the cold weather. (Players, except those pretty boys who wear gloves, know what those days are like, when it hurts your hands just to catch the ball.)
Playing in everything but lightning, and always outdoors is one of the things that makes Division III football great and its players tough. When the weather affects games, keep an eye on how your team’s coach adjusts his game plan, if at all. Picking up on the nuances of the game will surely heighten your enjoyment while watching it.
Schedule strength
On that same turf mentioned above, Johns Hopkins will host Hampden-Sydney on Nov. 6 in what is expected to be a clash of Mid-Atlantic up-and-comers, if not titans. The Blue Jays and Tigers each went 9-1 and missed the playoffs last season after losing to a conference opponent who snatched the automatic bid. This year, if a similar situation presents itself, a win in that game could be the strength of schedule boost needed to earn a Pool C bid.
We’re always trumpeting aggressive scheduling here on the site, but we do have to give the schools the benefit of the doubt sometimes.
Pat Coleman and I were doing a little speculating the other day. If a game on last year’s schedule was the second half of a home-and-home contract, it likely means that schedule was put together sometime in 2001. That year Hopkins was 6-3 and the Tigers were 5-5. How could they have known they’d need a stronger out-of-conference schedule to get into the playoffs in 2003?
Each of those teams, of course, is hoping it doesn’t matter in 2004, since they’re chasing automatic bids. But some games that were aggressively scheduled might end up hurting more than helping.
Bridgewater (Va.) and Christopher Newport each enter this year’s Oyster Bowl in Hampton, Va., with a loss, the Eagles 14-11 to McDaniel in the opener and the Captains 33-32 to Rowan that same day.
Saturday’s loser will begin its conference slate with two losses, knowing the only route to the playoffs is with the automatic qualifier. Then again, the Captains’ toughest games might be its first four (Rowan, McDaniel, Bridgewater and Shenandoah). If CNU gets past the Hornets on Oct. 2, they might have the USAC locked up. Bridgewater probably feels the same way about its Hampden-Sydney game that day.
Another South Region team that went out and scheduled a tough opponent for Oct. 2 could be looking at a more difficult situation. Lycoming already has a loss, and a game at Ithaca looms Oct. 2. The Bombers are 2-0 but could come in roughed up, if not with a loss, after visiting St. John Fisher on Saturday.
Ithaca will get a chance to chase an automatic qualifier for the first time, now that a spot in the 28-team field is reserved for the Empire 8 champion. But you get the picture. Games designed to help teams’ strength of schedule can end up being the game that knocks them out of the playoffs with just a single in-conference slip-up.
Point patrol
Top 25s Waynesburg (73) and Bridgewater (72) each put obscene numbers on the scoreboard this weekend, but the MIAA’s Olivet had the highest output in a 78-21 win against the NCAC’s Ohio Wesleyan. The Comets, under Wing-T teacher Irv Sigler, rushed for a Division III-record 670 yards. (They passed for 25, by the way).
Wheaton (65), St. John Fisher (65), Millikin (63) and Ripon (62) did the TD thing a whole bunch too.
We have no way of telling how many teams called off the dogs in the 40s and 50s.
While we’re here though, let’s welcome Howard Payne back to the national scene, after it outscored East Texas Baptist 58-45. For shootout of the week, their 103 points beat Linfield 46, UW-Stevens Point 35; South Dakota 45, UW-La Crosse 44; Grinnell 48, Macalester 35 and Albright 51, Ursinus 34, who were all over 80 combined.
Five things you should know
Around the Nation is very playoff-focused and conference championship-driven. While that’s not something we plan to change, I would like to find ways to acknowledge some of the 231 Division III schools that aren’t realistically in the hunt for a championship, but still playing the game for all the right reasons.
Starting with the next ATN, I’d like to give you five things you should know as a regular department each week, including facts about schools we rarely talk about. From Greenville to Redlands, UW-Whitewater to Blackburn, Wittenberg to Whittier, Lawrence to St. Lawrence, Earlham to Eureka (shall I keep going?), I’d like to be able to say Around the Nation hit all of Division III by the end of this season.
So if you have a statistic, a historical fact, an off-the-field story or anything you might think is interesting about the team you play for or follow, even if it requires a little legwork on my part, send it on to keith@d3football.com. Please put ‘Things you should know’ in the subject line, and if your suggestions are cool, I’ll use them and credit you.
Five games to watch
No. 18 Bridgewater vs. Christopher Newport at Hampton, Va.: The Captains are a young program, but already they’ve started a nice rivalry with the Eagles. Last year’s 16-12 home win over Bridgewater put the South Region on notice that the Captains were for real, but the Eagles went to Newport News in the playoffs and won 26-3.
For those not up on their Old Dominion geography, this will be a lot like a home game for CNU. Each team also has a big conference clash that D3football.com will broadcast set for the following week.
No. 21 UW-Whitewater at No. 13 UW-Eau Claire: Beating the defending national champions was a nice start for the Blugolds, but the going always gets rough when the WIAC games begin. Hosting the Warhawks first will leave us with early frontrunners to go along with No. 9 UW-Stevens Point and No. 3 UW-La Crosse.
No. 11 Ithaca at St. John Fisher: We’ll have one early leader in the Empire 8 as well, with Springfield also expected to be in the mix. The Cardinals have been balanced so far, rushing for 228.7 yards per game and passing for 220.7. Mark Robinson already has nine touchdowns, including five last week against Mount Ida. Expect scoring to slow some, however. The Bombers have surrendered just eight points so far.
No. 10 Wheaton at Hope: Like Bridgewater and CNU, these teams met twice last year, but the Thunder won in the regular season 43-26, and the playoffs, 55-45. If the Flying Dutchmen can summon a little defense, they might earn the MIAA some respect. Coming off a 35-14 loss to DePauw, upsetting Wheaton would get their season back on track. The Thunder are averaging 53.5 points per game in their 2-0 start.
Delaware Valley at Susquehanna / Lycoming at Albright: This double-dip will help us sort out the packed MAC standings, at which Moravian and FDU-Florham join the Aggies and Lions atop at 2-0. King’s, Widener and Wilkes, some of the conference’s traditional top-half teams already have two overall losses each, and the Warriors are 1-1.
Also keep an eye on: No. 12 Trinity (Texas) at DePauw, No. 20 Waynesburg at Hanover, Menlo at Willamette, Curry at Mass-Dartmouth, RPI at Hobart. Also, the NESCAC opens up this weekend, with Colby at Williams perhaps the premier matchup.
Who are those guys?
Our weekly roundup of which teams are leaving Division III for competition (UMAC games not included):
It’s a short list, just four vs. NAIA: New Jersey visits Southern Virginia, UW-Stevens Point goes to Waldorf, Alma takes on Tiffin and Millsaps faces Belhaven.
Housekeeping
In last week’s roundup of teams playing outside of Division III, I missed one. UW-Platteville beat I-AA non-scholarship Drake 33-23.
Also last week, I said the Lycoming-Wilkes game could have a big effect on the MAC race. Because the 11-team conference requires each team to play nine MAC games even though some teams schedule 10 conference schools, the contest only counted in the MAC standings for the Warriors, who won 21-13.
