Weekly Recaps

My back and arm are so sore right now... Sometimes it can be hard to pat yourself on the back after an amazing week. This week I decided to pull out all the stops. I've been 4/5 each week to this point when I pulled out a solid 5/5 on my predictions. Once again I have proven that my knowledge of Scholastica Football is clearly the best of anyone. Let's just enjoy how close my prediction was. My prediction for the final score was 34-24 (actual score was 31-24) I think that's close enough for a victory. I said this "I think Westminster will have the lead in this game, but Scholatica will come back and win it." can you guess what happened? Yep, once again I was correct. Let's go to the part where I said Tyler Harper would throw 4 touchdowns to 4 different people, turns out to be 3 to 3 different people.(I'm still gonna pat myself on the back) I also said that Robinson would get a receiving touchdown and boom look what happened. (Though I also said he would get a rushing one, but O'Neil stole that 1 yard touchdown carry) so I'll give myself 50% on that. Matt pint also helped out my prediction of "a solid forced fumble" on a return and helped the Saints tie it up at 17. Sooooo now that I have tooted my own horn for my extremely close predictions I can probably admit a lot of it was luck, but for right now please refer to me as Mr. Cleo (I took her last name because she was so famous)

Well enough about me.. let recap this past weekends games.

Ouch of the week goes to Morris from their lack of ability to score on turnovers. (See below)

Morris @ Eureka

Eureka tried so hard and I mean so hard to give Minnesota Morris this win. We all kinda were cheering for them to win it too. Six turnovers... SIX! how do you win when you have six turnovers? Easy I guess, they got some turnovers back from Morris and made enough of them count to win this game late. The game was tied at 10 for the longest time and all I could think of was... how is this happening? Eureka came into this season seeming so promising, but alas that no longer is the case. Just keep fighting Morris hopefully you can find a big win here this season. Though I'm sure that 27 yard touchdown with 16 seconds left might haunt you for a little while. Just remember Taylor Swift once said "Shake it off" and she seems to be doing alright for herself. 

 Greenville @ Martin Luther College

 I want to say that the close score on this game means a lot, but I think the only thing it means is that Martin Luther is just a tough team to face in New Ulm. Once again I disrespected Martin Luther with a blow-out score prediction, but I gave them a little more credit on offense too.. so we will call evens. I like the way that Martin Luther is playing right now, but they just don't have what it takes to be in the running for the UMAC. I do fully believe that they could maybe pull up a big upset still this season with how solid their defense looks and if they can make a big turnover. This game just came down to the face that Greenvilles offense is just too high powered to keep stopping all day and when Martin Luther hit a slump on offense Greenville was going to take control of the game.

Northwestern @ Crown

This game was one of those games where I knew that Northwestern was going to win big, but give up a couple garbage touchdowns at the end like every team has against crown. My score prediction was 38-13 and the final score was 40-14, so I think it's safe to say I kinda know how things are working right now for a lot of the UMAC teams.(especially CSS and Northwestern) Right now Northwestern just seems to have it all, arguable the best defense in the sense of how balanced they are and an offense that will score enough to get them the W.  Obviously this week will be the week where everything will most likely be decided.

MacMurry @ IWC

I picked against IWC last week and just because they proved me wrong I decided to go with them on this week. To be honest I didn't see any of this game or even the stats from the game, but I'm pretty sure neither of these teams have players that read my blog... so whatever.  Keep it up IWC!

CSS @ Westminster

Usually I leave the CSS game for the last one to force people to read all the other games before they get to read this one. (If you scrolled down the others straight to this one... quit being a jerk and go back through them) I really don't have much to say about this game that wasn't in my intro about how awesome I am about predictions, but I'll still say a few things. Westminster could possibly be in the top 3 teams in the UMAC. Obviously with the loss to CSS they are at best 2nd, but I think they could pull off a win vs Northwestern or Greenville if things worked out for them. So many games left in the UMAC, but over half the teams in the UMAC have their tombstones engraved. Westminster has the West part on the tombstone but if they can pull off winning the rest of the season maybe they can fight for that number one spot. Just to recap some individual performances... I liked what I saw in Robinson and I'm hopefully he is willing to put himself in a "Team on my back" roll next week, because they might need every yard he can get. Tyler Harper had statically one of his better games, but still needs one more step up this week to do what he does best.. (That is win games) So far I think "The Irish Blessing" (Shane Finnegan) is playing well and I think he is about to become a big part of this team on offense if he is up to the challenge.

Score Predictions

 

Whew! I can't believe what I saw after traveling to the future to make my predictions for this week! Since I've already seen what happens these really aren't predictions anymore, but just inside info on what the future has in store for you. Me coming back to the past and telling you this predictions actually could be creating a different future though because I'm altering things that weren't happening. Unless of course I went to the future again after posting this and checked and then updated my predictions, but would that in fact change the future also? Now I'm confused... Lets just get to the score predictions.

Morris @ Eureka

This game I could've left the Flux-Capacitor at home because I didn't need time travel to know the outcome of this one. Eureka is just too good for Morris to have a shot especially since they're not winning games at home, let alone on the road. Eureka will have no problem scoring in this game, but I think they'll give up a couple touchdowns to Morris also. I think Morris will play it's best game of the year here, but it still wont be close enough to pull out a win.

Final Score

Eureka 38  Morris 14

Greenville @ Martin Luther

I'm going to prove that I have a very short term memory because Martin Luther was so close with Northwestern, but I'm still going to pick them losing by a couple of touchdowns in this one. I know... I'm sorry Martin Luther, but even with that miraculously close game with Northwestern (close compared to expectations) I still wont believe I was completely wrong about you. If you do make this a close game though I would be more inclined to think you've improved though. Martin Luther does play really well at home, but Greenville plays on a grass field too. Don't expect a huge home field advantage here and prepare for a possible blow-out.

Final Score

Greenville 40 Martin Luther 22

Scholastica @ Westminster

I don't think a lot of people realize how important of a game this is one is. Both of these teams are undefeated in the UMAC and both have played Crown. This gives us the ability to at least have an idea of what this game could be. Westminster won 34-13 but the game was at Crown, while Scholastica won 48-14 but they were at home. I would have to say these teams match up relatively evenly and I think Westminster's pass game could be trouble for Schoalstica who has yet to face a dangerous pass team. I'm not going to lie, I'm quite nervous that Westminster might pull off a big win with Scholastica coming off a long bus trip against a good team. I didn't realize how close this game could be until I started to type this, but now I wonder what is going to happen. I've been to Westminster twice in my lifetime. Once I went as a player and broke the world record for brickbreaker on the blackberry after playing for 13 hours there and 13 hours back on the bus like the whole time. (No big deal)

 The other time I was there was broadcasting and lets just say that one was too close for comfort. I think Westminster will have the lead in this game, but Scholatica will come back and win it. The freshman Robinson is going to struggle at the beginning of this game for Scholastica, but will catch his groove late in the 2nd and will break a big one. He will have a combined rushing/receiving 140 yards and a rushing touchdown and receiving touchdown too. Tyler Harper will throw four touchdowns all to different wide receivers. The defense will struggle in this game though they'll have a few sacks and a solid forced fumble. 

Final Score

Scholastica 34 Westminster 24  

MacMurray @ IWC

Hmmm... I wanted to pick IWC last week, but didn't and that was the only one I was wrong about. My issue though is I think MacMurray is a pretty solid team this year. I guess this one might be the one I get wrong no matter which way I pick. I've got to keep that 4/5 streak going here. So I'm going to make a complete guess on this one and be wrong.

Final Score

IWC 28 MacMurray24

Nortwestern @ Crown

Finally another fun one to predict here. This one is going to be under the lights in Crown and I think this game will let us know a lot about Northwester. If Northwestern can't bottle up the offense of Crown that would show that maybe they aren't the power house that we think they are. I do know that they're coming off a closer than comfort game against Martin Luther at home and I think they will be fired up and ready to go against Crown. This won't be a close...

Final Score

Northwestern 38 Crown 13

UMACKLEMORE

Being in radio I figured I better keep up the music references. Personally I can't stand the "Rapper" Macklemore, (The word "Rapper" used out of pity) but he usually has Talented people on the track with him... So I decided this week's recaps should be done by picking a different song to explain the team and/or how they played this weekend.

Scholastica: "Can't Hold Us" -UMACLEMORE. I only pick this song from the Irony of it. Because if you looked at the penalties from the last game... Scholastica can hold you for sure, and they will get flagged for it too. Over 120 yards in Penalties is impressive and I'm just surprised the officials could keep up. This game we saw both of my predictions basically called perfectly with the Specht getting a touchdown of 12 yards on a jump up (predicted perfectly) and he actually got a bonus touchdown too. I also predicted "The Gas" would get 128 yards (he got 119) and two touchdowns and I nailed it. Even if you act like you're not impressed inside you should be like... "Holy cow this guy know like everything" I don't but I'm working on it. Scholastica per usual had a slow start here in this game, but finished strong. They just need four quarters of good football and they have a shot at that #AQ4

Martin Luther: "Baby What A Big Suprise" - Chicago. I picked this song after seeing you were up at half time and I nearly had a stroke. Rothe played his offense perfectly. Killed the clock like a pro and kept UNW of the field on offense as long as he could. They just missed by a little bit, but maybe they'll be able to pull out one or two more wins before this season is over.

Crown: "I Won't Give Up" -Jason Mraz. I picked this song from the fact that your offense worked perfectly on that first drive, but at some point it stalled and you needed a new game plan, but instead you stuck with it and it didn't work out in the end. You've got the pieces there to make a solid team, but right now your no throws over 6 yards and run the ball as much as we can method doesn't work on teams that can score points. You just got caught in a come back battle that didn't allow you do what you wanted to.

Norwestern "Counting Stars" -OneRepublic. While you were counting stars Martin Luther was scoring points. Glad you found a shooting star out there and made the wish to comeback in the second half. Once again solid running game going and it did help set you up in the second half, but if you're not careful you won't have enough time to come back from being down in the first half. (Similar issue to Scholastica)

IWC: "Celebrate Good Times" -Funktown You basically can't take last place now and you beat Morris at home! celebrate good times and hopefully this can you be your song to finish out the year.

Morris: "Alone Again" -Gilbert O'Sullivan (Most of you will have to look up this classic) if you don't want to look it up... basically this is a super depressing song and I picked it for the win less Morris who is alone at the bottom right now and needs to figure something out!

MacMurray: "Mud On The Tires" -Brad Paisley. You played at home and your field makes me think about taking my truck out to an open field and there's one spot I don't drive because I know I'll get stuck... That's how I see that field. Close battle though with Westminster and you guys seem to be getting things realitively right these days. I think you'll get one more win this season for sure.

Greenville: "Some Guys Have All The Luck" -Rod Stewart. You snuck out a close win this past weekend with Eureka and I just wonder if you're really good and just didn't play well or if you've just got all the luck. Only time will tell... 

Eureka: "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" -Pat Benatar. This one I picked because Eureka tried to hit it with their best shot this year, but sadly they're basically elminated from contention in the UMAC now. You've got some pieces to the puzzle just need to put it together for next year

Westminster: "Staying Alive" -BeeGees. Didn't win by much this week but you've still got a shot in the UMAC! It's going to take some great passing, and maybe some magic too. It's always tough to throw in MacMurray so I won't look into the score too much.

Now for my ouch of the week....

This one might be hard to believe, but the "Ouch of the Week" goes to.... ME.

"But why Joshua how could it be you? You're so cool and you were 4/5 once again on predictions." - you

"Because my blog reader, I didn't give Martin Luther a shot in the game at Northwestern, and they made me look like I just don't like them."

That's right folks! I'm the ouch of the week and I won't apologize for my prediction, but I will say this. Martin Luther is better than you thought Joshua. Ouch that hurt to say but I had to admit it. Shout out to Martin Luther! Great battle, I even cheered for you too. I do look forward to you attempting to prove future predictions wrong.

Well that about wraps up last weekends recaps.

My editor told me he found numerous mistakes and I didn't fix any of them so make sure to enjoy! 

Feel free to help persuade me with my score predictions this week with comments below 

Score Predictions

Here we go folks! Week 2 of UMAC play and we learned some junk from the first week... First we learned with my 4 out of 5 right in week one that I have the best completion in the UMAC basically. We also learned that the best teams are our usual suspects so nothing really surprising us right now.

So lets take a look at the match ups this weekend!

Eureka @ Greenville

No doubt after last weeks beating Eureka took against Northwestern I can't pick them to win in Greenville. Although we don't really know how good Greenville is since we don't really know how good Morris was when they beat them 44-9, but I can use my overall UMAC geneiousness to pick this one. This game you will watch Greenville option their way up and down the field and I don't really see Eureka having a shot. Though I think they'll throw some TD passes up on Greenville it won't be enough

Final score

Greenville 38 Euerka 20

Westinster @ MacMurray

This is going to be your classic tale of two cities. (Actually I've never read that book or know even what it's about, but I'm assuming it's about two different cities) soooo back to what I was saying Westminster is going to be up in the air and MacMurray is going to be more grounded and I think MacMurray needs a big wind storm to move in at game time to be in this one. Sadly I'm a big Highlander fan but their chances are slim to none here. I suspect Westminster throws for over 300 yards and has no issues stopping the Highlanders on defense. Though I do think Hall will rush for over 100 yards here, but he will need 400 to win this one.

Final Score

Westminster 44 Macmurry 14

Upset of the Week!!!!

Martin Luther @ Northwestern

You heard it here first! Martin Luther is going to upset the Power House Northwestern handing them their first home loss at the new stadium! It's hard to believe but I think they've got what it take and with Northwestern underestimating them extremely I think they've got a chance to go in and shock the UMAC! Northwestern will have a solid day on the ground but is going to throw three interceptions in the first half opening the door for Martin Luther to walk in and hold on to a lead until the end where a close finish will insue and Martin Luther gets a big stop for the Win!!!!!

Just kidding...

Final Score 

Northwestern 54 Martin Luther 12

IWC @ Morris

I would pick this as the game of the week if it wasn't for the fact they are both 0-2. This will be one of the best games to watch this week and I want to pick IWC soooo bad but I can't. Morris at home coming off a hard loss won't cough the ball up as much and it should be a close game but Morris pulls it off.

Final Score

Morris 24 IWC 13

Finally I will do the game I will be at.

Crown @ Scholastica.

Preseason I would've said that Crown has a good chance of a big upset if they play near perfect ball, but now they'll need perfect ball and a CSS mistake to pull off the upset. The thing Crown does have going for them is the quick dive with oversized running backs and the line-backer core for CSS will have to fill hard or they'll get 4-5 all day on them. I think CSS will underachevive a little bit on this one and will be closer than what it should be, but I suspect "The Gas" gets 128 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Specht gets a nice 12 yard jump touchdown. 

Final score

CSS 32 Crown 14

There you go! Take it or leave it. Tons of grammitical errors, but I work in radio so get over it.

Return of the MACK... The UMAC that is!

Week 1 of UMAC play has wrapped up and I catch myself with Mark Morrison's "Return Of The Mack" stuck in my head. Some of my blog readers might be quoting the words "you lied to me" from the song with my one incorrect prediction for who was going to win a game. That of course would be the game when I gave Crown the benefit of the doubt that they were on the rise and could beat what was a middle of the pack Westminster team last year. Some of my scores weren't super close, but hey 4/5 on who was going to win isn't bad for week one games.

Lets take a look at the match-ups from last week and I'll give you some thoughts from the games.

First off I'd like to start a segment called "The OUCH of the week" I think we can all kinda guess what it's about.

Couple teams were fighting for "The OUCH of the week" and they didn't even know it existed yet!

The winner this week is going to be Minnesota Morris! Not only losing the game 44-9 to Greenville at home, but the real ouch was the -19 yards rushing on the game. Also I would say a second ouch throw at you for the 3 fumbles lost in the game. I gave Morris a lot more credit than what I should've in my season previews since they quickly move to the "OUCH" section in week one.




Let's do a little recap of the Greenville @ Morris game.

It's tough to tell what this game really meant since we don't know who is good yet, but I gotta say Greenville looking pretty solid with a big road victory to start off UMAC play. Not as much of a fall off from losing their starting quarterback from last year as I suspected. So that means as always Greenville is a big threat for the UMAC Championship. I will chuck up a little of this lopsided affair to the three fumbles lost by Morris, but still it seems that Greenville is once again in the top 3 of the conference.

Eureka heads to Greenville this Saturdays and It should be interesting as the Red Devils head to Greenville in a Christmas colors battle royal. (Get it? Red and Green) yea I know that was dumb...

Next game let's talk about the scariest team in the UMAC as Northwestern faced off against Euerka. I don't think I've seen Euerka take a beating like that at home since the regular season finale of 2011 when "Mr. Unstoppable" Alex Thiry and the Saints came in and steam rolled them with a score I believe was 48-7 (don't quote me on that and I don't want to go look it up) this is just a sign that Eureka isn't the team I thought they were and also Northwestern is everything I feared they would be this year. Can they be stopped? Sadly I don't believe so... I think the only thing that can stop them might be a fluke win similar to the one they got in 2012 against CSS in Duluth. Or maybe a shoot-out with Greenville that doesn't go their way. Either way just looking at Northwestern and their 512 total yards offense and their ability to recruit every brother of anyone on the team I think the UMAC is theirs to lose this year. I really hope Eureka is just a bad team this year,but I find that kinda hard to believe.

Northwestern gets to face Martin Luther at home and I'm not sure who to feel more sorry for... Martin Luther or the person that has to take Northwestern's offensive stats. I'll be sitting by my phone looking anxiously for the biggest upset in UMAC history.




This next game kinda hurt me because it was the only one I got wrong this week, but to be honest it's my fault for thinking that things had changed. Westminster seems to have returned to the 2010-2011 Versions of themselves and actually maybe would be a contender if it wasn't for those teams like Northwestern,Greenville, and CSS. That being said I think they could beat one of those three teams this year, but no way they take all three of them. Fumbles and interceptions were a clear deciding factor in this game and actually Crown didn't look terrible either, but they look incredibly one dimentional this year and that's kinda the way they've always been. If you can stop the dive you most likely will beat Crown this year.

Westminster heads to MacMurry this week and I think sadly they will ruin that one game winning streak they've got going this year. I'll give more details of that on my Friday breakdown. I can't give away too much...



The game I'm actually excited to talk about was the "upset" of Martin Luther in a loss to MacMurry. I received a little flack for predicting that they were going to beat Martin Luther and lookie here what happens... This game involved both teams getting over 400 yards on offense and the time of possession was incredible lopsided in the favor of the losing team 40:03 to 19:57 and that just goes to show you that MacMurry was scoring on bigger plays and that a big run can be used against Martin Luther this year. I think this was both teams only shot at a victory and I gotta tip my hat to MacMurry for making my prediction correct and for their win! Not surprised one bit that Patrick Hall had 150 yards in this game and 3 touchdowns. He's one of the better running-backs in the UMAC, but I think most teams will be able to bottle him up with more solid defense.

Both teams head to play good teams and face a uphill battle... but that hill they are going up is probably a mountain. Once again I always cheer for an upset that isn't against Scholastica!




Last game to breakdown here today is The Scholastica vs IWC

first off... you can not be serious with the camera feed that they had going... I mean I was glad there was a live feed, but I couldn't see a single play happen. I had to watch to see which team jumped up and down to know which team did well on the play. Good luck telling who was the person that scored. I will send $10 to IWC for a new camera if they ask for it... Start a kickstarter project or something.

Scholastica did their usual slow start to the game and even let IWC get on the board first. This is just something that can not happen against other teams in the UMAC. That's really about all I have to say negatively, except maybe I was a little disappointed in  rushing game, but sometimes it's just not there. IWC had some real fight in them at the start of the game, but The CSS defense played a great overall game and that really just outweighed any momentum that they would have at any point in the game. Tyler Harper once again didn't have the greatest completion percentage, but somehow finds a way to win games so who really cares on that front. He's doing a great job of leading his team into battle, but he will need to bring that percentage up a little if he wants to lead the saints to some victories over the other powerhouses of the UMAC. One last negative thing actually... 2 for 14 on 3rd downs? That's gotta change and really quickly. It was nice to see Preston Robinson get going in the rushing game and hopefully that is a sign of things to come. The IWC defense did a great job of keeping "The Gas" in the can, but I think we will shake that one off as a one time thing. My score prediction on this game was relatively close which means I know at least a little about how things work for the Saints. I think with linebacker core that CSS has they have a chance to bottle up the run game for a lot of teams this year, and they're going to need it when they face against the run happy Crown on Saturday.

That's just a little look at week 1 of the UMAC recaps.

Player of the Week: Eric Northey. With 11-17 and 2 touchdown passes combined with 168 yards rushing and a two touchdowns rushing I think this one was kinda easy to call.




Well I'm signing off... Please post negative comments below. 

Score Predictions for Week 2

That's right folks! It's time for the predictions from this self-proclaimed UMAC football expert. Week two is filled with some of the most hard to predict games this year, but no need for concern people... I've got this. 

CSS vs IWC

It's an undeniable fact that CSS football plays some of their worst games in states they aren't fimilar with. This was true for the "Almost Presentation College Disaster" which they played in one of those Dakota state things. The game wasn't pretty but they still pulled it off. So what does that mean when the Saints head into the great land of the corn? It means that they pull off the win, but not in the fashion I think they should.

Final Score

CSS-34 IWC-13

Greenville @ Morris

If this game was in Greenville I would say Morris would lose by 2 touchdowns, but since this is in Morris and I don't trust the abilities of the Greenville offense I'm gonna predict this one to be a close one. I think Morris could actually win this one with a couple of bounces in their favor, but am I gutsy enough to pick them to win?!?! No.

Final Score

Greenville-32 Morris-24 

Westminster @ Crown

Now in my earlier blog I went out on a risk... I said Crown might win every home game this year. This one I think is a match-up of two polar opposites on the offensive sides of the ball. Crown loves the hard dive smash mouth football and it looks like Westminster is in gunslinger mode early and I don't think it's a bad thing. I think what is going to make this game a lower scoring game (low scoring by UMAC standards) is that Crown is going to chew up as much clock as possible and should be effective at it against Westminsters defense. If this game does go into shoot-out Westminster wins that's battle, but or now...

Final Score

Crown 21- Westminster-14 

Game of the Week!!! 

Northwestern @ Eureka

What's going to happen when the new UMAC "Powerhouse" goes against the strong passing Eureka team? To be honest... I know exactly what will happen! One of the teams will win and sadly one will lose and their chances at the UMAC are done... Harsh right? Week 2 and you could already be out of the running... That's kinda the way it is tho. If Eureka wins this game that proves their passing offense is the real deal and that most teams will have a tough time stopping them. If Northwestern wins this game it just shows that the rest of the conference better recognize that there is a new sheriff in town. The winner of this game will finish the UMAC with 1 conference loss at the most! Which means the loser will be knocked out of the running. So here's what's going to happen... Eureka is going to pass well, but that pass rush from Northwestern will be the death of them at some point. I don't forsee Euerka being able to stop the run of Northwestern, but this is going to come down to one big event. I'm calling a scoop and score fumble for Northwestern that'll be the deciding factor. 

Final Score 

Northwestern-26 Eureka-21 

Final Game: Martin Luther @ MacMurray

This one I'm kinda excited to see how it finishes up. Too be honest I didn't learn anything about either one of these teams in week one so I'm taking a shot in the dark.

Winner?

MacMurry-28 Martin Luther-21

Week One Recaps

Week one is done and as usual we didn't learn that much about anybody because nobody really knows how good some of the non-conference teams are in comparison to the UMAC as a whole. That won't stop me from speculating based off of no facts for my own entertainment (hopefully yours too) tho.

Obviously being that I was broadcasting for the Scholastica game I will start off with this one. I came into this game not very optimistic about Scholastica's chances to be honest against a team from a slightly stronger conference but I still thought they'd have a chance to beat this team especially since Lawerence a team within their conference lost to us twice back in 2011 and 2012. 

Offensive wise I was pretty impressed with the overall concept of the playbook. Also I thought "Riverboat Ramler" took some good risks though-out the game that may not have paid off that day but set us up for for later in the season. I was surprised to see how much Scholastica went to the air when they've got "Mr. Premium Octane" AKA "The Gas" in the backfield. He had 14 carries for 7.7 yards a carry but I understand maybe you don't want to empty the tank early in the season. WR wise seemed to be pretty solid they caught most of the throws that came there way and made some really nice ones. Still waiting to watch someone becoming that breakout number one guy.  Harper had a solid game and stayed in the pocket and threw the ball pretty well just needs a little more game time to get in the groove completely, but he should be rocking it soon. Had a chance to talk to Ramler after the game and sounds like he has a ton of faith in Harper and even backed him up on the one interception saying he probably would've made the same throw and I really like that he had Harper's back no matter what. It's a good sign of things to come. 

Defensive wise wow did we come out of the gate a lot stronger than what I thought we would for sure. Every aspect looked great right away in the game and I think the only thing that worried me was the ability to continue that level of play all game. Tom Sawyer (yes we had a lot of jokes with that name) seemed to be uncoverable at times later in the game. So hopefully that will come with a little more game experience and the defense will be able to stay up tempo all game. Moran played solid for a guy taking a year off or two if you count all he missed with his injury. Tody was strong at the line of scrimmage there just needs to be a way to stop those easy 4 yard gain dives they had all day.

Overall I would say it was a big win for CSS playing against a team from a better conference who hasn't had a losing season in 20 years.

Looking at other scores from the UMAC teams and completely speculating from those stats I will give my idea of what I think teams look like this year.

Eureka

Eureka played in the "Famous" Lincoln bowl game against Knox on Saturday. This is where they play for a statue head of Abe Lincoln, which is kinda weird but cool at the same time I guess. Knox hadn't won it yet in there illustrious 3 year rivalry game until today so I will assume that means that Eureka hasn't improved much since last year, but I also don't think they will be bad this year either. Reviewing some of the tape from their game (watched the one highlight of the Knox game winning touchdown) I noticed that the defensive line really didn't have the fight in them that they will need to be a contender in the UMAC this year. All this being said Knox isn't some garbage team so I give them kudos for playing a team of their caliber or maybe slightly higher. I expect Eureka to be top 3 team this year and if I had to throw out a prediction I'm going to say they beat Greenville this year.

IWC

I feel like Wesleyan is such a hard word to spell that I will just refer to them as "IWC" if you can all keep up with that. So IWC lost big time to Simpson 43-7 but this one is a tough one to really break down because I think a lot of UMAC teams if not all couldn't beat Simpson so how do you break this down? Easy. I make stuff up and go from there. It seems that IWC still doesn't have what it takes to be in the top half of the UMAC but knowing what I do about coach Park I think it's only a matter of time before he's able to turn that program in the direction he wants if he gets the time that he needs. So we will see how they fair against CSS this Saturday which will be one of their toughest games of the season, but you get a chance to play CSS before they get in a mid-season groove so try and take advantage of that. 

Martin Luther

Now Martin Luther joins 3 other teams in the UMAC that won their non-conference game, but they also played a team that is notoriously the bottom of the barrel. That being said you still don't score 63 points that often so I've got to throw them some credit for that, but..... They also gave up 24 points to Maranatha Baptist so that may suggest that their defense isn't going to be to scary this year in the UMAC. I will have to say it will be interesting if they're able to bring back the strength of that triple option that they had in the past and use that to try to outscore other teams, but I would say I didn't learn much about this team from this game except that they didn't shut them out. I think when you consistently play one of the worst teams in college football it's tough to be impressed with a first game win, but if you lose that would be a big indicator of what you're looking at for the rest of the year. Game two wont really tell us much either as they play MacMurry so I suspect we wont find out what they're made of until week 3.

Westminster   

I see that player of the week goes to your quarterback in losing affair so I would have to say it's going to be exciting to watch the offense of Westminster throwing all over the field all day. They're in a similar boat as Martin Luther is that they might have to have a shootout with other teams, but Westminster might be in a bigger boat. They're going to have a really tough game at Crown coming up and we will see how they bode against them.

Morris

First off want to give Morris a shout-out for playing Hamline in game one and I think that will help battle test them for the season. They even scored on them so I look forward to see how Morris does this year. I think they've got a legit shot to be in the top 5. I'm willing to predict a close game between them and Greenville on Saturday. Will they win?! I'll tell you on Friday's game previews. 

Northwestern

 Northwestern might have to be my front runner right now after a big win at home against a MIAC team. I don't care what you say about St. Olaf they're still in a conference 10 notches about the UMAC at least and I think this is a really scary thing for the rest of the UMAC. Northwestern's team of starters were all underclassman last year and this year more experienced and have a lot to prove. Unluckily for them they play most of their tough games away this season. Start off with test at Eureka and I can see if all the credit I give them will be correct.

Greenville

They beat Milikin last year in what I would call a barn burner. Without their starting QB from last year I think this year might be a rebuilding year for them, but we will see when they head to "Big Cat Stadium"

Crown

They put 17 up on a middle of the pack Gustavus team. My brother being a MVP from the Gusties I know they are decent so you've got my attention crown. Let's how what happens in the UMAC

MacMurray

Played a team I've never heard of "Culver-Stockton" but if they're anything like the combo of "Stockton-Malone" you put some points up and that's impressive. To be honest I've been typing for way to long and I'm tired and I don't want to type anymore so lets just wait till next week to decide on you and every other team I typed like 3 sentences for.

There you go... recap of week one. That took way too long.... I was like "Oh I'll finish this in like 30 min" 2 hours later I'm typing things I'm making up to get off the computer and actually work at my job.

Hope you enjoyed and just a heads up I didn't proof-read nor will I ever so get over it!