As promised I will start off with the teams to watch out for.
1. If you told me I would be posting this teams name here two years ago I would've got nuemonua from laugher (it's possible) but I gotta say it...
Crown College is a team to watch out for! That's right folks I've seen enough from this team last year and their new field to say that crown might go undefeated at home this season! Assuming they were able to hold on to the new recruits they had last year and they keep building up they could start being a contender in the UMAC, but I personally think they might have a tough time keepin players for 4 years.
Scholastica of course is a team to watch out for with Harper coming back for his final season. Though he is coming off what looked like a grussome injury in the NCAA playoffs I do believe he is easily the most battle tested and experienced QB in the UMAC. The Scholastica players lost from last year from either graduating or not returning though will be a big pain on them and might cost them that UMAC championship. Harper is going to have to find new targets and I think this season rides on whether the O-Line can give enough time and the WR play out of their mind.
Northwestern is another scary team to watch out for. Arguably the best run defense in the UMAC and they basically had all freshman or sophomores playing all their defensive positions. Luckily for the rest of the UMAC I don't suspect the pass coverage will be enough for them to win it all, but they'll put up a fight and realistically could win every game this season if things fall their way. Side note I can't believe all of my high school alma mater that are freshman there... Come on Princeton!
Eureka has a shot this year as always. They took a lot of steps last year to become a real contender in the UMAC. Will this year be the year they jump to the front of the pack? Could be!
Greenville as always will be good, but I think the loss of their QB will just be too much and they'll still be over .500 but I don't think this is their year. But they're always in the top 3 so it's impossible for me assume they don't have a shot. They always do and always will.
2. Teams that I think will come in below expectation or that just won't be in the running.
Iowa Wesleyan first off I want to say hi to head coach Park! After that formality I would like to say it's tough to put them here for below expectations because the bar has been set low for them this season already, but with the loss of my favorite player "Seal" (arrh arrh arrh seal noises) and the amount of freshman they have I just don't see them having a shot at .500 this season. I remember last year all the flack I got for predicting a 30 points plus win for Scholastica over them last year and surprisingly (not really) I was right. Now this may be a team in the future but right now I don't see it. Though I will say I personally hope you guys prove me wrong and become a force this season.
Martin Luther is also on my list here unless they figure out a way to get all home games this year I think they might have fallen off the map as a contender in the UMAC and I don't forsee them climbing out of the bottom of the pack this year or maybe even within the next 10 years (ouch now I'm just being mean) I mean all due respect for the team because they're a gritty bunch and they've got great schemes but I think their ability to fight the big dogs with their craftiness and speed is a thing of the past. Also I'm still salty from getting cut blocked on every single play... Also I got just planted by somebody in 2009 and haven't gotten over that.
Watch what I do here very closely... I'm going to put Greenville as one of my teams expected to go below expectations! And you're probably like "but Mr. blogger you can't do that... You just had them as a team to watch out for" guess what? I just did. I believe they will come out of this season with below expectations but I think most expectations have them finishing at 1 or 2 and it's easy to fall below that. That being said they barely lost to CSS in that last game but without their QB to mount that comeback I don't think they'll do it this year.
3. Best Players
I started a whole list of the best at every position and I realized too many of them I had were CSS players so I decided to delete the whole section. Please feel free to comment below with who should be on this list. But if you tell me there's a better center than Peter Stanley I will be upset.
4. The moment you've all been waiting for! Best names in the UMAC!!
Here are my front runners
Spencer Steel (NW)
Zach Swore (NW) don't be a tattle tale
Ben Greener (NW) how you've Ben?
Zac Cash (NW) I'll pay in Ex-(insert name)
Timothy Tribble (IWC)
Julian Carbajal (IWC)
Christian Husband (CC) This can't be real
Kurt Fickle (CC) just sounds cool
Adam Beard (MAC) better have one...
Mike Montano (MAC) Sounds famous
Jon Vande Waa (CSS) nobody else css?
5. Which team is going to tweet their complaint first at me? This one I kind of set up myself with my 10 years without winning comment on Martin Luther, but I suspect a wild card here "Ripon" I'm guessing with a years worth of material I've been holding on too I won't make it past game one without a complaint.
6. Team who's field isn't up to Par...
Macmurray's field would make a slab of concrete feel like a sleep number bed... I mean can you just water it all season or maybe bring in some grass from out of state. I mean I know it's not Minnesota but you still should be able to grow grass somehow. That being said it is nice to play in warming weather and when I went there I actually really liked your college. So maybe football fields aren't everything.
7. Final Records Guess (guesses based off mascot/team colors/School's Doctorate programs.
Scholastica (8-2)
Northwestern (7-3)
Eureka (7-3)
Greenville (7-3)
Crown (6-4)
Morris (4-5)
Westminster (3-7)
Martin Luther (2-8)
IWC (1-9)
Macmurray (1-9)
If those don't add right I appologize. I did it in like 5 mins and didn't want to look up all the schedules.
PS: note with that non-conference game don't assume I have CSS winning it all... (But I might)
Hope you liked my blog post any comments please put them below! To save you the trouble you're right I don't know what I'm talking about.