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| The defending Presidents' Athletic Conference champ, Carnegie Mellon, takes on Grove City this weekend as the PAC heats up in September. Carnegie Mellon athletics photo |
By Joe Sager
D3sports.com
It’s only September, but playoff implications are in effect in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.
One of the biggest showdowns takes place Saturday night when Carnegie Mellon (3-0) visits Grove City (3-0).
“We know it doesn’t matter what happens in the past or the future – we just worry about one week at a time. This week, it’s Grove City,” CMU coach Ryan Larsen said. “They are a good team and we know they are. They know we are as well. This is what college football is all about – two great teams playing in an amazing environment. It should be a heck of a football game.”
The No. 14 Tartans are the two-time defending PAC champs. The Wolverines have given them all they could handle the last two years in close defeats (40-33 last year and 13-6 in 2021). Grove City won the previous four matchups, including a 29-26 double-overtime thriller in 2019.
“With Carnegie Mellon, our games have been really exciting,” GCC coach Andrew DiDonato said. “We’ve built a pretty good rivalry and had some great games. With them coming here and our night game atmosphere, it sets up for a really special environment at Grove City on Saturday night.”
Both teams have risen to the top of the PAC standings. For Carnegie Mellon, that was expected as it returned a veteran squad that won an NCAA tournament game last year before it dropped a 28-7 decision to eventual champ North Central. The Tartans cruised to wins over conference foes Geneva (31-0), St. Vincent (38-0) and Waynesburg (41-10) to open the year.
“Especially last year, we had such a great defense. I feel like our offense is getting up to that same kind of standard. It’s definitely clicking on both sides of the ball for us. That’s what it’ll take to achieve our goals. It can’t be a one-sided attack. It has to be firing on both sides,” CMU running back Tre Vasiliadis said. “We try to focus on the team ahead of us and we always do. But, when it got to Sunday and knowing what was ahead of us, it was definitely exciting. A team like Grove City is going to be a real challenge, but also a great opportunity at the same time.”
Meanwhile, the Wolverines have survived an early conference grind to remain unbeaten. They downed rival Westminster, 17-7, in the opener and picked up a 43-27 win at Waynesburg. A wild 27-24 overtime triumph at Case Western Reserve followed last week. It was the program’s first win at CWRU.
“Having some tough football games already was really important going into this week. They helped us expose some things that needed to be exposed,” GCC guard Vinny LePre said. “We’re real pumped for this week. We know it’s probably going to be the most physical football game we play all year. The physicality they bring on defense and we bring on offense with our running game makes for a real fun football game.
“Historically, our night games have a really good atmosphere. This might be the biggest game in school history when it comes to attendance. It’s hard to not look forward to it. We’re pumped to play this game.”
Things don’t get easier next week for the Wolverines as Washington & Jefferson (3-0) pays a visit for another crucial PAC showdown.
“We know what’s at stake every week and we know these other teams keep winning. Carnegie Mellon is a clear-cut favorite in our league. They have a lot of veteran players back and they proved they can play with some of the nation’s best teams last year,” W&J coach Mike Sirianni said. “I think Grove City has a chance to beat them. That’s a good team. They’ve certainly had a tough schedule to start. We have to take care of business Saturday, but don’t think we won’t be watching.
“No matter what happens, though, there’s a lot of football left. But, those three teams have separated themselves a bit in the conference.”
The Presidents have been rolling, too. They opened with wins over Saint Vincent (51-0), Bethany (42-7) and Westminster (48-3). They welcome Thiel (1-2) on Saturday.
“We played three and won three; you can’t get much better than that,” Sirianni said. “We’ve been able to correct mistakes we make while still winning, which is key. We know we have to continue to improve, though, because we have some big games coming up.”
Hitting the ground running has been important for all three teams. This year, the PAC switched to a conference-only schedule. With 11 football-playing members, that gave each team one game against each opponent. So, that meant teams had to be ready to go Week 1.
“There’s no room for taking our time. We had to come out swinging,” Vasiliadis said. “It just takes one game and it could ruin the entire season.”
“I think what we’ve done is just taken it week by week. We want to win every rep and get the most out of each rep,” LePre added. “It’d be easy to get caught up in the big picture, but if we take it day by day and rep by rep, it makes it a lot more manageable.”
In the past, the PAC played with an unbalanced schedule. However, it led to a situation in 2017 when both Case Western Reserve and W&J did not play each other, but both finished 8-0. Nevertheless, the two squads both advanced to the postseason and won a playoff game.
“There’s no perfect answer with 11 teams. We had 11 teams from 2014-17 and played an unbalanced schedule. That situation from 2017 of two teams being unbeaten is always in the back of your mind that it could happen again,” PAC Commissioner Joe Onderko said. “That’s what probably drove the opinions of the ADs in landing where they did with this format. I think the first priority is having a champion that’s played every other team.”
The PAC’s conference-only format is in place for at least next year, too.
“With 11 teams, I think it’s the only fair way to do it,” Sirianni said.
“There are pros and cons with anything. Last year, it was weird for us to not play Waynesburg. It think playing everybody certainly makes sense. It keeps those rivalries intact,” DiDonato added. “Our whole conference is pretty close in radius. I think playing all the teams every year is important. Our league has been pretty competitive and pushes and prepares our teams well.”
Others, like Larsen, would prefer to play some nonconference games. Two years ago, the Tartans got to travel across the country to visit Whitworth in the front end of a home-and-home series. Last year, the team visited and beat RPI.
“Although we have a very, very tough and competitive league, my issue is, without out-of-conference games, that makes it very difficult for a second team to potentially get in the NCAA tournament and could hurt seeding, in terms of home and away teams. If you don’t win the league, it’s hard to get a Pool C bid,” he said. “Look at some of the respect the conference got last year. We beat Whitworth and RPI; W&J beat John Carroll. Westminster lost a close game to DelVal. I think those things help our profile as a conference. Also, I think out-of-conference games are amazing opportunities for our student-athletes. At Carnegie Mellon, we have the ability to travel at a national level. That’s an amazing experience for our kids.
“But, there are a lot of decisions made in life that you don’t agree with, but you can understand why. We’ll see how it shakes out and see how long it lasts.”
