We start with the Sioux Falls Cougars as they continue their quest to threepeat as NAIA football champs. The Cougars are 4-0 and this week host a team with one of the coolest logos in the biz, the Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves. NWU is not having a great year so we won’t rub it in, we’ll just remind readers that USF stars like QB Jon “Jonny East” Eastman, RB Chevon “Fire” Walker and K “Brassy” Braden Wieking (Everybody say “MITCHELL!”) will be in action at USF Sanford Complex looking to go 5-0.
It’s Wisconsin, so the “UW” part is assumed. The 18th-ranked Eau Claire Blugolds are getting ready for their Homecoming opponent, but they’re not facing the cupcakes a lot of schools like to schedule for Homecoming. No, they’re facing the Stevens Point Pointers, who have won the last 2 in a row in this series. A few weeks after his boys upset St John’s, Blugolds Head Coach Todd “Not Albert” Glaser (fans of bad movies will get it) hopes to keep this season’s positive vibe going in Eau Claire’s 1st conference game of the season. Both teams come into Saturday’s game sporting 2-1 records.
Speaking of 2-1 records, that’s also the record held by the Wingate Bulldogs who will be hosting the Catawba Indians this weekend. You could call this game “The Coincidence Bowl” because both teams are also coming off bye weeks and both teams won their previous game. For the Bulldogs it was their upset of the then-ranked UNC-Pembroke Braves. Wingate Head Coach Joe “Joe” Reich is already the winningest coach in the school’s senior college history and his team is burning to keep adding to that win list.
The 3-1 Franklin & Marshall Diplomats take it on the road this Saturday to play the Susquehanna Crusaders in a Centennial Conference matchup. The 1st time these 2 schools played a football game against each other was 1898, when Joe Paterno was only in his 3rd year at Penn State and was pushing the virtues of McKinley-nomics. There’s probably no truth to the legend that JoePa had to cut a player named Leon Czolgosz from the team, forever embittering him toward President McKinley. (Obviously the preceding is all just a joke. Paterno was only in his 2nd year at PSU.) Anyway, QB John “The Arm” Harrison lit up the Juniata Eagles defense last week and is no doubt keeping the Crusaders Defensive Coordinator up at night this week.
The Johns Hopkins Blue Jays are finally playing their 1st home game of the season and are planning a Blackout (Does that mean the Long Island Black Birds will be planning a Blueout?) ) so all fans are encouraged to wear black. QB “Hurlin'” Hewitt Tomlin (nicknamed for his prowess at throwing the football, NOT for any unfortunate sickness on a Tilt-A-Whirl) and company host the Muhlenberg Mules. Tomlin can become the all-time winningest starter for the Blue Jays with a victory.
Generals vs Quakers may sound like a hot new Reality TV Show, but it’s really the team names in the Washington and Lee vs Guilford football game. The Generals are 12-11 all-time against the Quakers and look to even their record at 2-2 with a road win. Head Coach Frank Miriello is trying to get Washington and Lee to their 11th-straight non-losing season under him. There’s still plenty of time left in the season to win the Generals’ 1st Old Dominion Athletic Conference title since 2006, so stay tuned.
The NAIA’s 14th-ranked Azusa Pacific Cougars leave their California stomping grounds for one of the longest road-trips a team can make, traveling all the way to Florida to play the Webber International Warriors. The Warriors would like to make their own case for a ranking by upsetting the 4-0 Cougars, but Azusa Pacific’s QB, “Johnny V” himself, John van den Raadt, has other plans. Johnny V can kill the defense with his legs as well as his arm, and only Michigan’s Denard Robinson has more rushing yards (for a QB) than van den Raadt! Let that sink in for a minute. Now, for those of you who missed my weekly “Azusa Pacific Rules The World” posts, let me recap their 4 wins for you – In Week 1 they beat NCAA DIVISION FREAKING ONE’S San Diego Toreros! Weeks 2-4 they beat Division 3 teams the La Verne Leopards, the Whittier Poets and the Chapman Panthers. Rumor has it the Oakland Raiders are too scared to play this team!
As a public service to all of us college football fans eagerly awaiting the start of the 2012 season Balladeer’s Blog presents another look at some of the coolest helmets in the divisions covered here.
Balladeer's Blog 