By Clyde Hughes
D3sports.com
For Carthage and Wheaton, from the Collegiate Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, one would think everything is building up to their showdown at Wheaton on Oct. 29.
And why wouldn’t it?
Both teams are nationally ranked — Carthage No. 16 and Wheaton No. 18 in the latest D3football.com poll. Only seven other conferences in Division III football can boast about having multiple teams ranked in the Top 25. In case you didn’t know, the Ohio Athletic Conference and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference each have three teams while the Northwest Conference, Old Dominion Athletic Conference, Empire 8, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and the American Southwest Conference joins the CCIW with two teams each.
Both teams made the Division III playoffs and won games until they both ran into the postseason buzzsaw annually known as Mount Union. Wheaton was picked to win the CCIW this year followed closely by Carthage.
So as conference play opens this week, it wouldn’t be unusual to suggest that both teams may be taking a one-eye-covered peek at that Oct. 29 date.
Don’t you dare suggest that to Carthage Redmen coach Tim Rucks and the Wheaton Thunder’s head man Mike Swider. They said they have to take these conference games one at time and any teams can beat another on any given Saturday if their opponents are not prepared.
It’s the kind of clichés and rhetoric you would expect from two conference favorites who know darn good and well while their teams may wear the giant “S” on the front of their shirts, there is a huge bull’s-eye on the back of them.
This time, though, there may be something to this coach-speak. If you look at the other teams receiving votes in the polls, you will find CCIW conference members Augustana, North Central and Millikin all receiving double-digit votes. That means five of the conference’s eight teams are either in the Top 25 are receiving serious consideration for it. That doesn’t include undefeated Elmhurst, which has scored 128 points this season, third best in the CCIW.
Sounds like an ambush is brewing?
“This conference is just brutal,” Swider said. “You will have to come and play every day to win in this conference. There will be two or three conference games each week that could go either way.”
Rucks wasn’t convinced that this conference was a two-team horserace either.
“I’m in my 16th year as a coach and I have never seen so many top teams in one conference,” Rucks said. “If you look at each of those teams, you can make an argument for all of them. I think it was be very exciting conference race.”
And for the Oct. 29 showdown? The coaches said they will be happy just to win their conference openers. The bull’s-eye will be in plain view when both teams hit the road Saturday. Carthage travels to Decatur, Ill. to battle Millikin at 1 p.m. while Wheaton will take the hike to Naperville, Ill. to tangle with North Central at 7 p.m. on the D3football.com Game of the Week.
“We’ve won or shared the conference title for three years in a row and you know that everyone’s going to gunning for you,” Swider said. “We know that we’re going to get everyone’s best shot and we have to be ready.”
And those national rankings don’t seem to bug Rucks. He said (if you chose to take this with a grain of salt) he doesn’t even know where his team and Wheaton are ranked.
“I participate in the poll but to be honest, I really don’t know,” Rucks said. “Now, I know kids will be kids and they will be on D3football.com and the chat rooms. We can only take care of what we can control.”
Rucks and Swider said there will be more peeking — zero, zilch, nada — at that Oct. 29 date where they could not only be playing for the conference championship but a prime spot in the ranking and the Division III playoffs.
“We can’t control the rankings,” Swider said. “We can’t control what somebody else is doing. The second we start worrying about those things, that’s wasted energy and that affects our play. All we want to focus on is Wheaton College.”
Rucks said the fact that they are ranked higher that Wheaton but are not favorite to win the conference has not meant extra incentive or bulletin board material.
“That doesn’t even factor into it,” Rucks said. “If we don’t win Saturday, the rankings and polls won’t mean anything. We have a healthy respect for everyone.”
While the top coaches made a strong case for the other teams in their conference, there is a strong case for Carthage and Wheaton. The Redmen and Thunder have registered wins on the heels of hard-nose defenses, both ranked in the Top 10 among all NCAA Division III teams after four weeks.
Wheaton’s giving up 169.0 yards a game, fourth-best in Division III and Carthage is surrendering 186.0 per game, ranking them seventh. Teams have scored 8.7 points a game against Carthage and 10.0 against Wheaton so far.
Wanna run? You may want to take second options with these two stingy teams. Carthage has given up 41.3 yards a game on the ground this year (No. 6 NCAA rushing defense), while Wheaton has allowed 51.3 yards per contest (No. 9 NCAA rushing defense).
Both coaches said winning the turnover battle will play a huge role in their success this year. Rucks said Carthage’s offense needs to find more consistency if they plan to return to the playoffs again in 2005.
For now, all they want is a win on Saturday — and that might not be as easy as we think.
Anderson by air and ground ...
Few would be surprised that Anderson is one of the NCAA leaders in passing offense, averaging 301.1 yards a game as they are throwing an average a little over 32 passes a contest. The surprise is that the Ravens, behind junior Denny Kimmel, is averaging 238.3 yards on the ground and an eye-popping 5.9 yards per running play. Kimmel is averaging 199.7 yards a game and broke the school’s single-game rushing record with 283 yards in a 48-7 win against Earlham on Sept. 17.
Games to Watch
Wheaton (3-0) vs. North Central (3-0) at Naperville, Ill., 7 p.m. CT:</B> Something has to give. North Central’s offensive numbers are gaudy. The Cardinals are 11th in the country in passing offense, averaging 327 yards a game and have gained nearly 1,000 yards in the air already this season. North Central is also averaging 44.3 points a game, 14th best in the nation. Wheaton’s pass defense isn’t too shabby, with a defensive pass efficiency rating of 79.8, 11th-best in the country, providing the most intriguing matchup in the tough conference. Wheaton’s offense, though, is averaging 43 points a game and it may come down to the question if North Central can score enough against a tough Thunder defense to actually keep up.
<B>Hanover (1-3) vs. Mount St. Joseph (3-0) at Cincinnati, 1:30 p.m. EDT:</B> Don’t let the record deceive you about Hanover because the Panthers have played a tough schedule before league play that included nationally ranked Washington & Jefferson and Bridgewater (Va.) Hanover is averaging 352.8 yards a game, seventh best nationally and they are fighting to get coach Wayne Perry (165-72-2) one more win so he can become Indiana’s all-time winningest coach. But Hanover may need more than that to beat a Mount St. Joseph team that is scoring more and giving up fewer points than their Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship team from last year. Hanover won the first 12 meetings between the two teams before the Lions broke through with a 29-10 victory last year at Hanover. Mount St. Joseph is also riding a 13-game regular season winning streak as well.
