2017 Season Review

The 2017 season has come and gone. We had a new UMAC champion who will never be one again, and a few teams and individuals who ended the season in the top 20 in the nation in certain areas. 2017 was one for the books, and 2018 is now up for grabs. Because Eureka will be leaving the conference, there will not be a repeat UMAC champ in 2018. Will St. Scholastica regain their iron grasp on the UMAC, or will some other team (ahem, MacMurray) battle them for the crown? Let's look back at each teams 2017 season, and see what they have to look forward to in 2018. Just for fun, lets start with the last place team and work our way up.


Crown - Poor, poor Crown. Crown's terrible defense this year (last in UMAC in scoring defense with 43.3 ppg and yardage with 455.6 ypg) led to their second 0-10 season in the UMAC era. While they showed some offensive flash at some points of the season, inconsistency led to the 8th ranked UMAC offense with only 17.2 ppg and 277.5 ypg, only slightly better than Northwestern and Minnesota-Morris. There have been years in the recent past where Crown's record has not shown how competitive that they can be, but this was not one of those years; only three of their games were lost by 14 points or less. Crown had only six seniors this year and they have a lot of young guns and a smaller roster, so if they can keep the guys they have while bringing in a decent recruiting class, they may be able to compete next year. Notable losses include starting OL Cody Bedlion (All-UMAC second team), Chris Larson, and DL Brian Howard. Rotating senior QB Ryan Synoground and junior Taylor Watkins will turn the reins over to freshman Luke Lithander, who started a few games at the back end of the 2017 season.


Minnesota Morris - Morris had a rough offensive year. If not for sophomore QB Justin Masloski ripping off a long TD run once in a while, they barely showed any life at all. Luckily for them, their defense wasn't completely awful, ranking 5th in the UMAC in scoring defense (28.6 ppg) and 7th in total yardage allowed (381.3 ypg). That defense was led by sophomore LB Drew Shipley, who led the UMAC in total tackles with 114, which was also good enough to tie for #12 in the nation. If they were able to show a little bit of offensive spark, they may have been able to turn the corner on a few close games this year to Martin Luther (twice), Northwestern, and Iowa Wesleyan, and their record could have been very different. Morris also presents a young and small roster, with only four seniors listed, which bodes well for co-head coaches Marty Hoffmann and Matthew Johnson if they are able to bring in a sizeable amount of recruits. Senior WR Taylor Holleman will be missed, along with senior DB Mitch Fischer, as they were solid contributors to their respective units.


Iowa Wesleyan - The Tigers haven't had a great run since going to NCAA DIII and the UMAC, with only one winning season (6-4 in 2013) in their time in the conference. They didn't fare much better this year, but I guess they aren't the first team I reviewed, so that's...something. Iowa Wesleyan has been known to be fairly efficient offensively, but lacking on the defensive side of things, and it was the same story this year; they ranked 6th in the UMAC in offense (23.9 ppg, 321.6 ypg) and 9th in defense (allowed 37.8 ppg, 449.6 ypg). The Tigers did pull it together and had a couple close games with Greenville and Westminster at the end of the year, but came up short and only were able to boast victories over Crown and Minnesota Morris. Iowa Wesleyan has only five seniors listed on their roster, but two of them are WRs Rodolfo Amezcua and Joshua Broadway, who played a huge part of the offense this year, with 73 receptions, 951 receiving yards, and 9 TDs between the two. Senior QB Alex Payne conceded the starting role to freshman DeMarco Collins during the season, who didn't put up huge numbers but showed some talent. Again I will say that if the Iowa Wesleyan coaching staff is able to gain a nice amount of recruits in the offseason, they should be able to be competitive in the future.


Greenville - The Panthers had a pretty stellar offensive season, ranking 4th in the UMAC in scoring offense (26.6 ppg) and 3rd in total offense (417.6 ypg). That last statistic was no doubt bolstered by the tremendous 811 yard effort against Iowa Wesleyan, but they were definitely proficient in most of their games, they just weren't able to come away with as many victories as they probably would have liked. While Greenville has perennially been one of the better teams in the UMAC since the establishment of the conference, in the past 3 years they have gone a combined 9-21. This year was an improvement from last year, however, so they have that to talk about. With an upset of Northwestern in week three that you could argue derailed the Eagles season and playing pretty tough against MacMurray, Eureka, and Westminster, you can hardly call this season a failure though. Greenville has 8 seniors; 3 of them starting offensive linemen, one of which was Steven Davis who was named to the 2017 All-UMAC first team. They will also lose senior RB Johnny Pruiett, who was the #3 RB in the UMAC with 948 rushing yards and 6 TDs and named to the 2017 All-UMAC second team. These losses may put a dent in their overall offensive experience level, but they are still left with some decent weapons for 2018.


Martin Luther - After an 0-10 season in 2016, the Knights came back to pull off a surprise 5-5 season this year, which earned head coach Mark Stein UMAC coach of the year honors. Martin Luther boasted a potent rushing offense this year (218.4 ypg), which kept them competitive in most of their games this year, and was good for #3 in the UMAC behind only Eureka and Greenville and also #38 in the nation. Their defense, however, wasn't up to the challenge and slunk to eighth in the UMAC, allowing 33.9 ppg and 391.4 ypg. The Knights were a true middle team this year, beating the bad teams but just not good enough to take out the good ones. They will hope to change that next year, as they only lose five seniors from this years squad. Three of those seniors roamed the defensive backfield with two of them (Josh VanDeylen and Nate Wong) combining for 94 tackles, and one anchored the defensive line (Jacob Schlomer) with 29 tackles and 3 TFL, so they will need to find replacements defensively but should be solid again offensively.


Westminster - This was a tough team to get a read on pretty much the whole year. Is it just me, or is that Westminster every year? They always seem to have the talent to be a good team, but lack consistency to take it to the next level. But I digress. Westminster finished off the year with an upset of MacMurray and an exciting overtime win over Iowa Wesleyan, remaining undefeated at home. Their only close loss was a tight one to Northwestern, and if they would have been able to pull that one out they could have ended with a respectable 7-3 record which would have put them at #4 in the UMAC. 6-4 still isn't terrible, but middle of the pack of a bad conference certainly doesn't earn you bragging rights. You could also argue that this could have been their year, as they had a great trio of seniors offensively in QB Trent White, RB Latif Adams and WR Chase Abbington who all earned All-UMAC honors with White placed on the first team and Adams and Abbington on the second team. Westminster graduates 9 seniors, 3 aforementioned, 2 OL and another WR, and 2 LBs and a DB who combined for 97 tackles, 8.5 TFL, and 4 interceptions. Westminster has the most experienced senior class, which may show a bit next year as some of the most important cogs will be missing.


Northwestern - The Eagles took a slight step back after earning the conference title in 2016, and finished with a 6-4 record and their 7th consecutive winning season. Fourth in the conference isn't too shabby, but for a team that has finished in the top three the past three seasons, it was a bit of a disappointment. They started off the year pretty strong by defeating Eureka, but followed that up with a loss at Greenville that shook up the conference standings early. The Eagles dropped to 2-4 after losses to St. Scholastica and MacMurray, but rattled off 4 straight wins to end the year on a high note. If it weren't for their stellar defense leading the UMAC in points allowed (16.1 per game) and being #3 in yards allowed (318.3 per game), they would have been much worse off, as the offense put up a paltry 17.1 ppg and 238 ypg, nearly last in the UMAC (ahem, Morris). Northwestern will part with a large class of seniors - 14 to be exact, which may put a damper on the overall experience level of the team. Six of those seniors were in the top 11 tacklers on the team and four of them received All-UMAC honors (Beau Walter, Gideon Burnham, Daniel Stratton with first-team, Ben Johnson with second-team), which may speak to the loss they will feel on the defensive side of the ball next year. That group also includes kicker Ben Lyons, who nailed a school record 54-yard FG, and OL Brian Doering, who both received All-UMAC second team honors. First-year head coach Matt Moore will have the task of replacing this talented group, which sounds like may include a bit of work.


St. Scholastica - The Saints go 7-3 again and miss out on the UMAC title for back-to-back seasons for the first time since the beginning of the automatic qualifying bid in 2011. St. Scholastica took a 98-0 drubbing from St. John's in week one, but came back and dominated up until the last few games of the year, where they took close losses to both Eureka and MacMurray. While they are probably disappointed that they couldn't close out the year with the championship, they will come back hungry for a title next year when Eureka is out of the picture. Turns out a dominant offense and an average defense will get you places; St. Scholastica used sophomore QB Zach Edwards to his full potential, as he led the Saints to the #2 scoring offense (34.9 ppg) and #1 passing offense (266.3 ypg) in a run-oriented conference. St. Scholastica has 9 seniors listed on their roster, and many of them were consistent contributors. Senior RB Jack Peru accounted for 413 rushing yards, 200 receiving yards, 3 TDs, and a kick return TD, and WR Hunter Thompson caught 30 passes for 684 yards and a UMAC leading 12 TD catches, which earned him All-UMAC first team honors. Three offensive linemen will depart an experienced group, including Elliot Simon who earned All-UMAC first team honors and Andy Lawrence who earned second team honors. They also will have to do without quite a defensive crew in 2018, including DL Jake Zoellick and DB Kenneth Jinkins, who both also earned All-UMAC first team honors.

MacMurray - The Highlanders looked to be the favorite early on, as they won seven in a row to start the year off with a bang. When the nation's leading rusher, senior RB Chazz Middlebrook exited the seventh game due to injury, it changed a few things, and not for the better. Even though junior RB Marquez Ellison was able to fill in adequately in the first game, the MacMurray running game took a huge hit and they were only able to scrape together 102 rushing yards over their next two games, their only losses on the year. Chazz was able to come back and put together a nice 111-yard effort in their final game, a win over St. Scholastica to keep them from sharing the conference crown, but the damage was done and MacMurray's hopes of taking the conference title were dashed. With the downtick in the offense over the last few games of the year, the MacMurray offense dropped to #2 in the UMAC in total offense behind Eureka (430.5 ypg) and #3 in scoring (31.3 ppg). Their defense remained solid, allowing only 20.2 ppg (#2 in UMAC) and 327.5 ypg (#4 in UMAC). MacMurray only lists 6 seniors on the roster, but 4 of them earned first-team All-UMAC honors, including Middlebrook, OL Jon Pollock, LB London Gulley, and DB Cory Farneti. MacMurray will hope to remain dominant and take advantage of Eureka's absence to capture their first conference crown in 2018.

Eureka - What can we say about the Red Devils that hasn't already been said? Junior RB LeAnthony Reasnover ran Eureka to a conference title on his way to UMAC Offensive Player of the Year, paving the way with 1,834 rushing yards (1st in UMAC, 2nd in nation) and 32 total TDs (1st in UMAC and nation). An outstanding offensive line led by Ryan Barth, the UMAC Most Valuable Lineman, made it all possible, along with only allowing three sacks all year. The Red Devils rolled to the top of the conference in scoring offense (39.3 ppg), total offense (432.2 ypg), and total defense (allowing 257.1 ypg) by being stellar on both sides of the ball. Eureka graduates the largest amount of seniors in the UMAC with 19, with notable losses including LB Chris Friend (All-UMAC first team), OL Mike Slingsby (All-UMAC first team), DL Trever Ziebert (All-UMAC first team), and DL Ray Vogel (All-UMAC second team). While they lose a large number of seniors, head coach Kurt Barth seems to have this program headed in the right direction, and they should remain competitive in their new conference, the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference.

Even though Eureka lost to #4 ranked St. Thomas 47-8 in the first round of the DIII playoffs, they represented the UMAC about as well as they possibly could have. They held the #10 offense in the nation to 397 yards, nearly 100 below their per game average (493.2). St. Thomas' nation-leading defense held Eureka to 155 total yards and stopped LeAnthony Reasnover in his tracks, holding him to 41 yards rushing and 76 total yards. Due to the ineffectiveness of the run game, Eureka was forced to pass, which is a little out of their comfort zone, as QBs Drew Barth and Nick Holman combined to go 14 for 28, 109 passing yards, a passing TD, and 2 interceptions. The 28 attempts were the second most Eureka had thrown in a game this year, as Reasnover gobbled up 44% of Eureka's total offensive touches and accounted for 46% of their total yardage over the course of the season. The 8 points scored by Eureka was the most points scored by a UMAC member in the DIII playoffs since St. Scholastica in a 70-13 loss to Bethel in 2013. It wasn't pretty, but it definitely wasn't as bad as it could have been. Hey, they didn't get held to a single yard of offense or give up 97 points, so...yeah.

With Eureka's departure, questions loom including a possible replacement team and who would fit in the conference, along with what the UMAC will do in the meantime. There have been colleges that have been thrown out there, including Carleton, who just finished an 0-10 season competing in the burly MIAC; Hamline, who was also in the MIAC and finished 2-8; and St. Olaf, who just got spanked 97-0 by St. Thomas in the last week of the season. The question remains if these teams would have any interest in joining the UMAC, but it may be logical for them to leave the perenially powerful MIAC to be a bit more competitive in the UMAC. I don't see that happening for a few years at least. The UMAC has been pretty fortunate to have 10 teams, as 18 of the 28 legit DIII conferences have less than 10 teams and only 2 conferences have more than 10 teams. The UMAC will retain their automatic qualifier with over six teams, so that's the important part, and it's why they will probably not seek out a replacement too hastily.

Another UMAC season is done, and there probably won't be a ton to write about in the offseason. I'll write up a little blurb on way-too-early predictions for next year, but probably won't be doing much after that. Check back with me next summer when the 2018 UMAC coaches poll comes out, and I will have some 2018 season previews ready to go for you! Thanks for reading throughout the year!