Big day for Tyler Vogelpohl and for the Thomas More offense. And defense. Thomas More athletics file photo

The opening week of the season brims with the excitement of seeing which teams are reloading and which are rebuilding and how that translates into on-field success. Before Week 1, we’re forced to project a team’s potential based on stat sheets and 2014 performance.

We learn that some teams are the real deal, some are pretenders, some have rust on their pads, and some need to find a way to come together if they want to have any hope of winning.

As a Top 25 voter, I love this first week because I can now make adjustments to my ballot based on reality.

Yet, some wins don’t tell us much.

Mount Union, Wheaton, St. John’s, St. Thomas, Washington and Jefferson and more fit this category of “untested.” We know they’re good -- nay, great -- teams. What’s unclear are the specifics of where they fit in, especially in relation to each other.

I don’t want to take away from the pomp of their victories, nor do I want to detract from their vanquished foes, but there’s no difference between a 30-point victory vs. a 40-point victory vs. a 50-point victory. Yes, one team far out-matched the other, but it’s the scale of that lopsidedness that’s hard to get a handle on.

We can’t realistically use them as score comparisons down the road. If you come to me in a couple of weeks and say Wartburg must be better than Wheaton because the Knights beat Coe by, say, 55 points while the Thunder won by “only” 38, I’ll semi-politely roll my eyes and move on with my life. Wartburg might be better, but those kinds of margins are meaningless in this context. Coaches have different philosophies when the scores get that high -- second-teamers might be put in earlier or the passing game may be put on hold.

Those are the kinds of things that Week 1 doesn’t tell us. Perhaps I should be addressing what it does tell us.

It tells us it’s going to be another awesome season (you knew that already, right?).

We’ve already seen some upsets and surprises (mentioned below). I’ve seen what I’d call vulnerabilities in the Top 25 ranks: I’m skeptical of No. 8 John Carroll’s spot in the poll, and a 26-3 win over a team that was sub-.500 last year isn’t helping the case. In fact, JCU shut out that same team last year 44-0. No. 17 Wittenberg and No. 20 Bethel could also be in that bunch, unless we learn over the course of more games that their opponents have gotten significantly better since 2014.

That’s not to say any of these teams are bad (they all did win their games), but the strength of their performances against average competition this weekend could raise some questions about their longevity in the poll. There are a couple of teams in the “others receiving votes” that are earning their right to be placed a little higher up.

The Top 25 poll, which will come out later this evening, will surely shuffle as the weekend’s results are digested. In the end, we’re left hungry for more football.

There are four games that stood out as particularly significant on a national scale:

No. 23 Thomas More 48, No. 19 St. John Fisher 0. What just happened here? I had Fisher at No. 14 on my Top 25 ballot, and it’s a safe bet that their slide off the edge of it will be a fast one.

One person on the D3football.com message boards referenced the Cardinals performance essentially as sleep-walking for 60 minutes. It makes sense. When Thomas More breaks records (as the 207 receiving yards by wideout Tyler Vogelpohl did), it’s not often that they’re going to happen against a team as traditionally solid as Fisher, coming from as strong of a conference as the Empire 8.

Rowan 24, No. 12 Widener 10. Big plays mean big things, and Rowan, which was already getting a healthy number of Top 25 votes, made the biggest statement of the day. Wit Marcelin became Rowan’s all-time leading rusher after his 164-yard performance that included a 31-yard scoring run to tie the game and an 82-yard dash for a touchdown that put the Profs out front. To seal the deal was a 22-yard pick-6 by Bobby Barbieri in the fourth quarter.

The team’s performance was a tremendous one that has put Rowan squarely in the national discussion and will surely give them the needed lift to crack the Top 25.

The other side of the coin is: What does this mean for a Widener team that made it to the national quarterfinals last fall and had a lot of, ahem, pride going into 2015? On paper, it means very little.

For starters, Widener is in an automatic qualifier conference. Win the MAC, and a playoff spot is assured. Saturday’s loss will affect the Pride’s seeding, but there’s no consequence that has to define this loss. The quicker Widener can move past this loss and look at the season ahead, the better.

Even Stagg Bowl teams have suffered regular season losses. One game isn’t a season. This isn’t just a lesson for Widener to take to heart but for all who have felt defeat this first weekend.

Cortland State 26, Heidelberg 24. In the preseason at the D3football.com front office (i.e. our email inboxes), there was some talk about how the OAC predictions should play out. One of the teams discussed was Heidelberg. There was a split decision on how Heidelberg would fare against another upper OAC team like Ohio Northern. My observations were that the Student Princes lost too many key skill players on offense and had a defense that was often shaky last year. I’m not sure that explains the game against Cortland, but it should help inform it.

In the waning moments, the Red Dragons sent receiver Jon Mannix jumping to nab the winning touchdown catch. It capped a back-and-forth that saw the teams alternating scores all day. Most importantly for Cortland, it shook off the demons of several narrow losses in early 2014.

Delaware Valley 27, Montclair State 24. As much as I expected the Rowan/Widener game to swing the other way, I also expected the Redhawks to take full advantage of Delaware Valley’s depleted starter ranks. Of course, neither came out that way.

DelVal tapped into a Division I-FCS transfer for its starting quarterback job, and the team used a run game that spread out the touches and to help put the ball in the end zone. In a year when the Aggies were seen to be rebuilding, perhaps they’ve lifted the cloak to show they’re actually reloading.

What else?

To dig a little deeper into the excitement, these may not shake the Top 25 ballot, but they’re fun to know:

• Two teams that were about .500 last season put up some mean offense in their 2015 debuts. Austin topped Hendrix 55-41. If the score alone doesn’t draw you in, perhaps the combined 1,128 yards of offense will. Despite Austin carrying a 42-35 lead into the locker room at halftime, fans must’ve been stunned to see a scoreless third quarter. Things, thankfully, got busy again in the fourth.
• Saturday hadn’t even arrived yet and there were two record-breaking performances. Washington and Lee broke a school record with rushing yards Friday night, totaling 649 in the 63-35 win over Averett. A little farther north, also on Friday, Gettysburg set a Centennial rushing record with its 574-yard ground performance leading to a 49-10 win over Bridgewater.
• Can you imagine losing 23 straight games? Wilmington lived it, starting in 2012. That ended with a 14-10 win over Bluffon this weekend. Backup Austin Jarbo had one completion on six attempts in the game, but it was a doozy. He hit Brandon Mitchell with a minute to go for a 53-yard touchdown strike. An interesting note from Wilmington’s press materials: “The irony of the connection is both players [Jarbo and Mitchell] were in the tightly contested quarterback competition this fall. Mitchell, who finished with five catches for 108 yards, moved to receiver just five days ago. Four of Mitchell's five receptions came on either third down or fourth down, and they all were for first down.”
• If you didn’t catch the Ursinus-Millersville game that ended regulation scoreless on Thursday, read about it here. Five overtimes later, we had a winner.
• Pacific’s opponent wasn’t a Division III team, but that didn’t make the 20-point fourth-quarter comeback any less sweet. Nathan Suyematsu, who had just over 100 career receiving yards prior to Saturday, racked up seven catches for 134 yards. Sounds like he’s off to a good senior season.

And the successor is …

With the graduation of Mount Union’s Kevin Burke, the only two-time Gagliardi Trophy winner, all eyes were on the signal-caller position. The vibe going into the season was that the perennial Stagg Bowl team was leaning toward wide receiver Taurice Scott, who had only four passing attempts in 2014. Roman Namdar, Nick Peyakov and David Burkes were all discussed as well.

Scott took the opening snap on Saturday, and he led the Purple Raiders to 47-0 win.

Coach Vince Kehres had high praise for Scott in the preseason as Mount was letting the competition play out. Kehres called Scott a great athlete with a great attitude. On the field, he’s quick -- the kind of player who can gain yards.

“There have been some guys who have risen through the ranks to make Taurice earn the starting quarterback job,” Kehres said. “We’re high on Taurice as a football player, and rightfully so.”

The bottom line: the coaching staff was going to make sure Scott got on the field one way or another. It just so turns out that the best fit and highest priority need for the team was under center.

The Gentlemen’s Classic

I spent Saturday at Hampden-Sydney to watch the second part of the home-and-home series between all-male colleges Sydney and Wabash. The Little Giants showed just how well they can adjust to an opponent. H-SC looked more dominant at the game’s onset with a key fourth-down completion and nabbing two interceptions, but then the Little Giants defense sunk in its heels and the offense began clicking.

All-conference rusher Mason Zurek was stopped for a 3-yard loss on Wabash’s first play from scrimmage. He ended with 134 yards and two scores. That pretty much sums up the pace of the day from beginning to end.

Tweets, et al.

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.