Albion has run out to a 3-0 start. Albion athletics photo

Three weeks in is when the preseason predictions and expectations we had for the season really start to come into focus. Every team that’s going to play a nonconference game has done so by now, and many teams have begun down the rocky paths of conference play.

Blending the types of results we’ve already seen, we have a pretty good picture of who’s a contender and who’s a pretender.

There are three teams that have struck me as flying under the radar, either because of what starters they had coming back or what their opening week looked like. (I’m sure there are more that will become apparent in coming weeks.)

Topping that list is Albion. This is a team people need to be paying more attention to. A team from MIAA doesn’t knock off a WIAC team very often -- not since Trine did it half a decade ago, and that was as Trine was at its peak and against one of the WIAC’s worst teams -- so Albion’s win over UW-Stevens Point was as strong a confidence-builder as they come. Albion has gone on to beat Augustana and Lakeland. As of this writing, my Top 25 ballot isn’t finalized, but I suspect I’m going to be giving the Britons a good long look.

I briefly mentioned in this space last week about Cal Lutheran, a team that struck me in the preseason to have potential for a breakout year -- a return to the years of 2012 and before when they strung together several SCIAC-dominating seasons. In their opener, the Kingsmen took down their brethren Lutheran school, PLU. One could argue that Pacific Lutheran’s rebuilding year made that victory a foregone conclusion. But this week, Cal Lutheran again rattled the NWC conference by beating Willamette 27-24, fending off a furious Bearcats rally that led to 21 fourth-quarter points. Willamette was the only team to beat Linfield in the regular season in 2014. Cal Lutheran’s win suggests that the Kingsmen are no flash in the pan.

A third team getting overlooked (largely because of a Week 1 loss) is St. Lawrence. The Saints are a big turnaround team of recent years, so much so that they were featured in an Around the Nation column last November. They went from an 0-10 season in 2012 to seven-win and eight-win seasons in the subsequent years. They challenged Hobart for the Liberty League title last fall, coming just short in that final regular-season game. The Saints are at it again, and while there is still some convincing that needs to be done for them to show they will again compete for a playoff spot, their fortunes have turned since the first game. They are worth keeping an eye on.

Those are the teams on the rise after three weeks. There are many that are swinging in the opposite direction.

In that same ATN column that reached out to St. Lawrence, MIT was showcased during their 10-0 regular-season run. So many close games last year fell their way, making the Engineers' run a true Cinderella story. As expected, the team is stumbling hard in 2015, with three losses right out of the gate. This will be a hard rest of the year for this crew.

Traditional E8 power St. John Fisher is weathering hard times of its own. The Cardinals haven’t started a season 0-2 since 2001, which was the year before the E8 started sponsoring football. And it’s not even that this year’s games have been close: The whopping shutout at the hands of Thomas More was perhaps this season’s most surprising result to date, while Cortland State dominated just about every statistical category in this weekend’s 34-17 result.

The slide is just at steep at Widener, which made a deep run in last year’s playoffs and was expected to repeat a big feat this fall as well. With a 1-2 record, including a conference loss, the Pride are surely feeling some hits to their, well, pride. What’s worse is the last season’s Widener offense couldn’t be slowed, but this year, the team scored just 10 points in each of its losses. In the 2014 playoffs, even as the deep run kept on, Widener’s defense was giving up more yards and more points than they were accustomed to all season. This season needed that unit to clamp down, and help to balance some of the shortcomings on offense. There’s still time, but it’s hard to envision a deeper hole that the Pride have gotten themselves into.

Marquee wins

• The WIAC has a lot to be proud of on a weekly basis, but this week in particular: North Central fell victim to UW-Platteville in an overtime matchup. Platteville, which scored 21 fourth-quarter points against the Cardinals, already has a place in the Top 25, but it’s safe to assume they’ll climb. NCC lost last year, too, to a WIAC team in an early season marquee win for UW-Stevens Point. The testament, though, is to North Central -- just the fact that a win over the Cardinals is such a big deal shows the caliber of that team and how respected they are in Division III.
• Guilford and Emory and Henry are considered the front-runners for the ODAC crown, but it will be interesting how the Wasps respond after dropping a 30-13 nonconference matchup against Maryville.  The Scots, under new coach Shaun Hayes, are a strong program and getting votes in the Top 25 poll, particularly after their win against a fledgling Division I-FCS program in Week 2. But there is little holding back Maryville’s confidence right now. Football is certainly a one-week-at-a-time sport, but do not be surprised if the Scots are still playing the game in late November.

Scoring again and again and again

If you like offense, here are a couple of games you should have been paying attention to.

• The Admiral’s Cup rivalry between Massachusetts Maritime and Maine Maritime was 41-34 at the half en route to a 47-41 Maine Maritime win. More than 1,200 yards of offense were had in the game, the majority of it on the ground. Three running backs from the teams went over 100 yards, while one of those, Kenny Pierce, topped 200 yards.
• The Augustana-Loras game also had a whopping halftime score, with the Vikings up 49-27. But the Duhawks rallied with the game’s only second-half touchdowns -- the final was 56-52 Loras. It marked another more than 1,200-yard game, with highlights going to Loras quarterback Nic Shulte’s 588 passing yards and Augustana quarterback Sam Frasco, who had 273 yards passing and 312 yards rushing.
• It wasn’t so much the offensive output but the defensive stand Berry displayed in shutting out Rhodes that put Berry on the map this week. Rhodes, projected to be one of the top teams in the SAA, struggled to sustain drives, and in the few cases they did gain some yardage, Berry would force a turnover or earn the ball back on downs. After just three games, Berry has already matched last year’s win total, and there’s nothing to suggest that that number won’t grow.

Another thought or two

I mentioned in Friday’s Triple Take that nearly half of the Empire 8 was receiving votes in the Top 25 poll. That’s because the conference has so many strong teams that beat each other up that it’s difficult to decide which is the best. I think it’s safe to say Fisher drops off the list entirely, while Ithaca’s stock is soaring. The Bombers served up Hobart its first regular-season loss since 2011. I feel that there will be more wagons hitched to the Bombers in this evening’s poll.

The Centennial is another conference that remains muddled. Johns Hopkins is a clear power once again, but Franklin and Marshall, Muhlenberg and Gettysburg have all shown good competitiveness and strength. I’m sure I’ll write more about the conference as the season progresses, but be certain that this will be a fun one to watch.

Weekend recap, columns, tweets and more

For the facts and figures of this weekend in football, check out D3football.com’s Top 25 recap and the national roundup.

There will be a handful of opportunities each week for me to showcase what’s going on nationally in Division III. On:

• Sundays, look for my reaction and recap of Saturday’s games in Snap Judgments;
• Thursdays, see my centerpiece feature story of the week;
• Fridays, read our Triple Take prediction column, where Pat, Keith and I give you some things to look out for in the following day’s games, including the top matchups and upset possibilities.

Between all that will be D3football.com’s regional columns, the ATN podcast, and the team of the week, among other things. Don’t go too far!

Follow me on Twitter at @NewsTipps, as well as D3football.com’s main account, @d3football.

(Also, if you are tweeting about Division III football, don't forget to use the #d3fb hashtag.)