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!
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