Coach Sherman Wood is 40-23 at Salisbury. Photo by Pat Coleman, D3football.com

By Keith McMillan
D3sports.com

All that, and “we haven’t done anything yet,” says coach Sherman Wood, laughing.

True, Salisbury has been bounced in the opening round during its playoff appearances in 2002 and 2004. But this year’s first three games have Around the Nation believing there won’t be another early exit.

On the surface, beating Methodist (7-3 last year, No. 93 in our preseason 1-231 ranking), Brockport State (6-4, No. 42) and Christopher Newport (9-3, No. 16) may seem only mildly impressive. But a closer look reveals the Sea Gulls as a team to seriously consider among the nation’s top 10.

They scored 27 points in a row against the Monarchs on the way to a 48-28 win in their opener. Down 23-7 at the half after a nine-hour trip to Brockport State, Salisbury rolled up 296 second-half yards and won 35-30. On Saturday, they opened up 21-3 and 41-10 leads against the Captains, getting revenge for last season’s seven-turnover, 35-24 playoff defeat and surprising even their coach.

“I’m a member of the committee that votes on the (coaches’) top 25, and when we had to rate teams by region this year, I put Christopher Newport ahead of us,” Wood said. “I thought the world of them. They’ve got a great staff and great facilities. To me, they have it all that a quality Division III football program would want.”

Wood isn’t being disingenuous when he talks that way. He doesn’t beef up other teams and down his own by rule, as some coaches do. With seven starters back on each side of the ball, including quarterback Dustin Johnson and running back Leroy Satchell, he knew the Sea Gulls were going to be pretty good, maybe even better than last season.

But the past two wins have given Wood a much clearer idea of where his team is.

Hired in 1999 after six seasons as head coach at Division II Bowie State, Wood returned the school from which he graduated in 1984. He was a player and assistant coach during the Sea Gulls’ most successful era, which culminated in a 1986 Stagg Bowl appearance against then-powerhouse Augustana.

After his hiring, Wood says he was criticized for talking about getting Salisbury back to the Stagg Bowl. And while he says he honestly doesn’t know if it’s realistic or not, he says the national championship is the goal. He’s certainly assembled a team that can make a run at it — literally.

Photo by Pat Coleman, D3sports.com

The Sea Gulls rushed for 311.5 yards per game in 2004, on a whopping 6.1 yards per carry and 566 carries. This season, they’re up to 367 yards per game, or 1,101 in the first three games.

Being able to run the football was just one of three building blocks Wood wanted to start with when he took over. The other two are effective special teams and an aggressive defense, but clearly the 2005 Sea Gulls are an offensive lineman’s dream — built to run.

On 61 carries so far, Johnson is averaging 7.5 yards per, while Satchell averages 6.3. Jamar Garner has a 79-yard and a 40-yard touchdown run among his five touches, and already eight Salisbury players have a run of 9 yards or longer.

Brett Wehnert, Sung Yang, Kristos Miliotis, Kelvin Ricks, Matt Manning and Brad Schroeder are among the linemen that pave the way.

But one of the biggest keys to success, Wood says, is how Salisbury has been able to maintain the nucleus of its coaching staff.

“Over the past five years?” he asks. “Every one, except a position coach here or there, (has stayed). … Evidently, they saw something too.”

Since some of the coaches maintain ties to Salisbury’s playoff past, what they saw was perhaps a chance for a future just like it. Although Wood says they’re not there yet — What else would he say? — the future is now.

Polar Bears’ coldest day
Wednesday’s announcement that Ohio Northern will be prohibited from participating in this season’s playoffs for rules violations from 2003 is even more disappointing than Lewis and Clark’s decision two weeks ago to cancel six of its games. In both cases, the players bear the brunt of the punishment for poor decision-making above them, but Ohio Northern’s problems were more preventable.

We knew the Polar Bears’ violations were serious business when Tom Kaczkowski was placed on administrative leave before the 2003 season began. Stacey Hairston coached the season, and Kaczkowski never returned. 

Dean Paul was hired away from Thomas More in 2004, and got word of the punishments during Tuesday’s practice. He broke the news to the team later that day. The Polar Bears will also spend two years on probation.

There are so many reasons why this bugs us.

Ohio Northern apparently held so many extra practices that the NCAA had to do something. That we understand. But punishing players and coaches in 2005 who had little or no control over violations in 2003 we do not.

First, if the cheating involved extra practices, that’s probably where the punishment belongs. The Polar Bears could have been forced to practice less often than their opponents.

Second, Kaczkowski lost his job after coaching there for 17 years. Isn’t that punishment enough? D3football.com is not aware of Kaczkowski being hired by any school at any level since.

Third, why punish players at all? Practicing before the NCAA allows it is not something a student-athlete is expected to know not to do, as accepting money from a booster might be. But even if one did, what could he do? Not show up? Take a stand and lose his spot? Players practices when the coaches tell them to. Nobody but the coaches set practice dates and times, and nobody else is responsible for those violations.

The NCAA must have felt that the institution must also be punished, and in Division III there are no athletic scholarships to take away. If a playoff ban was deemed to be a gut punch necessary to make the school feel the pain, at least they could have moved quickly enough so that the 2003 team was punished for violations committed in 2003.

Punishing a team with a new coach and a new lineup makes little sense. But then, this is what we’ve come to expect from the NCAA over the years.

Paul is now charged with the difficult task of keeping his players’ spirits up. I’ve played for and covered teams that looked lethargic as soon as the chance to win the conference championship looked bleak. Here, in an expanded playoff format, the seventh-ranked Polar Bears were virtually guaranteed a bid, provided they finished as expected — 9-1 with a loss to 10-0 Mount Union, perhaps — or somewhere close to it.

One could point at the NESCAC, arguing that those teams play for pride each week, and don’t need playoffs to feel validated. But those kids know that they day they commit to the program. There aren’t many worse things that can happen to a senior’s football career than having the rug his goals rest on swiped out from under him, before he can even mount chase. Shoot, it’s almost too late to fake an injury, get a medical redshirt and play again next year.

So those kids will serve the time for someone else’s crime, although they were likely also among the players who were actually on the roster at the time of the illegal practices. For everyone else, no matter how they play out the string, it’ll be a bittersweet bunch of woulda-couldas. Imagine if they beat Mount Union and can’t play in the playoffs. The Polar Bears simply have to play for fun and to get better, while postponing their competitiveness until 2006.

Ohio Northern plans to accept the NCAA’s findings and probation, but appeal the playoff ban. Here’s hoping they can keep themselves in hunt long enough for the decision to be overturned.

Poll positions
Interesting that we might review the first American Football Coaches Association poll in Around the Nation, since we seem to recall them not being allowed to vote for Division I-A teams when on probation. The seventh-ranked Polar Bears will stay eligible for our poll, and are eighth in the AFCA poll. Their 40-member panel has No. 9 St. John's ranked sixth, while dropping No. 8 Occidental to 11th.

Other oddities: 
-> Our poll takes the cautious approach with the CCIW, ranking Carthage 18th, Wheaton 20th and placing Augustana and North Central among 21 teams also receiving votes. The AFCA likes Wheaton at No. 9, Carthage at 14 and the other two also in their getting-votes crew.

-> Alma, Wooster, Hobart and Cortland State are all ranked and probably prefer the ACFA poll. They are all receiving votes in ours, which ranks McDaniel, UW-Eau Claire, Capital and Christopher Newport instead.

Week 4 quick hits
-> Eye-opener of the week: Monmouth surging to the front of the Midwest Conference pack. After a 9-1, no-playoff 2004, the Scots don’t appear to be leaving the postseason to chance this time around.

-> Sweet revenge: Ohio Wesleyan lost 78-21 at Olivet last season, and scored 21 against the Comets again this season. At home this time, the Battling Bishops won by 14, and are 7-2 in their past nine games, with a loss at Wooster to end last season and a three-point defeat at Thiel this year.

-> UW-Stevens Point must be welcoming the chance to play some normal opposition. The Pointers did not look good against No. 4 Hardin-Simmons or No. 1 Linfield (as I expected, so I’ll be eating some words later on), but we really don’t know if that means they will or will not contend in the WIAC.

-> Hobart is the only team in the country (aside from the NESCAC 10) which has not yet allowed a point. The Statesmen have shut out Dickinson and Franklin and Marshall, and have a defense (nine starters returned) that would like a little bit of your respect, thank you.

-> The NESCAC gets underway this week, as Trinity (Conn.) puts its 22-game win streak on the line with just seven returning starters, and expected contenders Williams and Colby clash right out of the gate.

-> Thirteen of the 22 teams in this week’s top 25 that were in action last week scored over 40. No. 3 Mount Union’s 70-0 pasting of John Carroll was the most stunning score, but No. 11 UW-Whitewater won by 61 while scoring 73 against Lakeland, St. John Fisher beat Mount Ida 59-0 and Carthage defeated Benedictine 52-0. Ouch.

-> Last week’s Around the Nation was all about good offensive teams playing defense. Perhaps Ithaca, a 59-41 winner over Hartwick, and Bridgewater (56-42 against Hanover) didn’t read it. And McDaniel’s struggles against Catholic (37-36 in 2 OT) remarkably did not bump them from the Top 25.

-> Talk about a layoff. No. 14 UW-La Crosse last played Sept. 10, and won’t play again until Oct. 1, when it opens conference play against UW-Stevens Point.

-> Whose 0-3 start is more surprising, Wittenberg or Willamette?

-> Okay Otterbein, the win over Capital impressed us. Now let’s see if you can stay within sight of Mount Union.

-> I was watching Division I-A Houston play at University of Texas-El Paso last Friday, and heard the announcer mention that despite being an in-state foe, UTEP was closer to Los Angeles than Houston. It reminded me of last week’s Road Trip of the Week, Mississippi College at Sul Ross State, and provides the segue to this week’s.

Alpine is not quite as close to SCIAC country as it is to its conference opponent, but the hour or two difference on a 16-hour trip would barely be noticeable. For the record, Sul Ross won 36-17.

Road trip of the week
Our favorite travelers, Menlo, Colorado College and Sul Ross State are making some of their shortest trips of the year, to Willamette, Lewis & Clark and Howard Payne, respectively.

So Pacific Lutheran’s visit to UW-River Falls, which is the westernmost WIAC school, gains our notice. Not than anyone would drive the 1,709 miles MapQuest claims separate Tacoma and River Falls, but you could … in more than a day. (24 hours, 33 minutes officially)

Recommended road trips of the week
We get inventive this week, and come up with a few decent suggestions. How about starting with Aurora at Greenville or Rockford at Principia at 1 p.m. CDT, then heading to St. Louis for North Central at Washington U. at night? It’s less than an hour from either place.

In California, Puget Sound and La Verne kick off at noon PDT, allowing plenty of time to get to Chapman for its 7 p.m. game against Redlands, Whittier for its clash with Pomona-Pitzer. The truly ambitious want to head to Thousand Oaks, where Occidental will face possibly its toughest test of the regular season in Cal Lutheran.

If you’re curious about Ohio Northern’s response to this week’s news, you can see them at Muskingum at 1:30 EDT. It might be pushing it, but you should be able to make the hour drive to Marietta to see if the Pioneers remain unbeaten or if John Carroll can rebound from a 70-point loss at 6 p.m.

Five games to watch
A few weeks ago, I couldn’t limit it to five. Now I’m having trouble finding games to get excited about. Thank goodness for these:

No. 17 St. John Fisher at No. 15 Ithaca 
After each scored 59 in a win last week, expect a lot of offense in upstate New York. It’s this week’s only battle between ranked teams.

DePauw at No. 13 Trinity (Texas)
Last season, Trinity needed a touchdown in the last 10 seconds to win 29-28. We won’t guarantee another great finish, but we will guarantee a Tiger win.

Trinity (Conn.) at Bates
The Bantams and their win streak should survive this road test, against a Bobcats team that was 2-6 in ’04.

No. 8 Occidental at Cal Lutheran
These were the only two SCIAC teams with winning records last season. Since the league has been known to throw a curveball (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ 7-0 start in ’02, Oxy in ’04), maybe the Kingsmen will be worth watching.

No. 19 UW-Eau Claire at St. Francis (Ind.)
The Blugolds travel to Indiana to play the second-ranked team in NAIA, which is receiving three first place votes in the NAIA poll.

Who are those guys? 
As tracked by our friend Ralph Turner on our message board, Post Patterns, here’s what Division III teams did while playing out-of-division in Week 3, and which Week 4 games feature unfamiliar foes on the opposite sideline. 

Against Division I-AA: 1-1 in Week 3, 3-6 in 2005
This week’s opponents:
Robert Morris at No. 5 Rowan

Against Division II: 1-1 in Week 3, 4-8 in 2005
This week’s opponents:
Alma at Tiffin
Newport News Apprentice at Chowan

Against NAIA: 0-2 in Week 3, 7-10 in 2005.
This week’s opponents:
Greensboro at Southern Virginia
Belhaven at Millsaps
UW-Eau Claire at St. Francis
Waldorf at UW-Stevens Point

Streak watch
Catholic taking top 25 McDaniel to the wire may be a sign that Tom Clark is starting to recapture some of the magic he had while coaching the Cardinals in the ’90s. But for the time being, CUA is still among the teams who have not won in either 2004 or ’05. No one left the group last week.

Heidelberg (18 consecutive losses, last win against Marietta on Oct. 4, 2003, 0-2 in 2005)
Hiram (16 consecutive losses, last win against Kenyon Oct. 25, 2003, 0-3 in 2005)
Catholic (14 consecutive losses, last win against Guilford Nov. 8, 2003, 0-3 in 2005)
Concordia (Ill.) (13 consecutive losses, last win against Eureka Nov. 8, 2003, 0-3 in 2005) 

On the winning side, Trinity (Conn.) is at 22 in a row, Linfield 15 and Monmouth 10.

Mark my words (or eat ’em) 
I’ve recently begun going out on a limb, just a little bit to get people thinking each week. But the thing I’ve really wanted to start doing is revealing my 25-35. Each week I’m one of 25 voters in the d3 poll, but keep a list of about 10 teams that fall just outside my top 25. If I’m not mentioning your team, I may be voting for them (The group’s 25 and mine tend to have 3-5 different teams each week) or I might not be considering them at all.

In any case, in no particular order this week, the teams I’m not ranking but watching are North Central, Monmouth, Hampden-Sydney, Hobart, Alma, Capital, Trinity (Conn.) and the top halves of the IIAC, MAC and Centennial conferences. I actually expect that list to grow some in the next couple of weeks, as teams back up impressive victories with more.

Other than that, I’ll take it easy this week. But last week Pat and Gordon offered some predictions in the blog, so keep an eye on those.

As far as words I must eat, I was about 50/50 last week. Heath Hotzler of The Forum in Fargo, N.D. had me quoted in his story, looking silly, after Trinity Bible beat Principia 20-18. I’d said that’s good therapy for most teams. It was for Blackburn, which won 41-0 this week.

Feedback
It’s been a slow year for your feedback, so hopefully finishing ATN by Wednesday will give you all more time to interact with us. If you haven’t had time to browse yet, we’ve added a blog for our less-than-official thoughts and your comments. We’re also maintaining a specific thread on our recently upgraded message board for Around the Nation and topics discussed within.

Join us there, or if you’re old school, there’s always our feedback form or e-mail keith@d3football.com.

Attention SIDs
As always, Around the Nation requests media guides and any other aids in helping us cover your school, including game tapes or highlight videos, this season.