2018 Pre-season Coaches Poll and Week One Preview

We're back! Crown kicked off tonight at 5pm against St. Olaf, and with it the entire 2018 UMAC football season. The 2018 Pre-season Coaches' Poll came out a few weeks ago, with some interesting twists involved. Here are the results of the poll:

 

2018 UMAC Football Preseason Coaches’ Poll    1. MacMurray – 57 points ( 4 First Place Votes)
    2. St. Scholastica – 55 points ( 2 First Place Votes)
    3. Northwestern – 52 points ( 2 First Place Votes)
    T-4. Greenville  – 41 points (1 First Place Votes)
    T-4. Westminster – 41 points
    6. Martin Luther – 28 points
    7. Iowa Wesleyan– 22 points
    8. Minnesota Morris – 16 points
    9. Crown – 12 points

 

Now, there are some interesting things about this poll. Number one is that MacMurray was voted by the coaches to the first spot. While not completely surprising, it is worth noting that MacMurray is now receiving the respect that they deserve as an upper tier UMAC team. They proved it by taking down St. Scholastica last year, and -- surprise, surprise -- will again duke it out the last week of the year on November 10th. It is pretty cool that two years in a row, the UMAC champ could be decided on the last week of the year. Number two is that Greenville was voted by the coaches tied for fourth, and even received a first place vote. Now I'm not the expert and I'm too lazy to find out for myself, but I'm curious as to how this voting takes place. You would think that the voting coaches shouldn't be able to vote for themselves, but if they are, that is interesting; I mean, who else would vote for Greenville to be in first place? The question is begging to be asked; who was that coach that voted for them? I'm not saying that Greenville is trash; they had a pretty legit offense last year led by returning QB George Harris, and they could make some waves this year, but they have some work to do before upending St. Scholastica and MacMurray as the frontrunners. Number three is the point spread between MacMurray, St. Scholastica, and Northwestern. The fact that these three teams received first team votes isn't surprising, but the narrow margin between them is interesting. Like I said, I'm obviously not an expert on the polling system that the UMAC uses with these coaches, but MacMurray received 4 first place votes to St. Scholastica and Northwestern's 2 first place votes and is still only 2 points ahead of St. Scholastica and 5 points ahead of Northwestern. This just speaks to the diversity of votes by the coaches. Finally, number four is that my projections of a three-tier UMAC seem to be holding true, with St. Scholastica, MacMurray, and Northwestern being thought of as perennial contenders; Greenville, Westminster, and Martin Luther jousting to break into that upper tier; and Iowa Wesleyan, Minnesota-Morris, and Crown remaining the bottom-feeders of the conference. Like I mentioned before; nothing really shocking about this poll, just some mildly interesting tidbits.

 

Here is my Way-Too-Early 2018 Preview standings:

1. St. Scholastica
2. MacMurray
3. Northwestern
4. Martin Luther
5. Greenville
6. Westminster
7. Minnesota-Morris
8. Crown
9. Iowa Wesleyan

I'll stick with what I thought last year. Then I can say I'm basically a magician when one or two of them stick. The only thought I have is that I maybe have Martin Luther a bit higher than they should be, but what the heck. I'll see if they can pull off another miracle year and bust out a winning record. Here are my thoughts on the teams and their week one games:

St. Scholastica is going to remain a perennial powerhouse in the UMAC if only because of their numbers. Most UMAC schools start the year off with anywhere from 50-80 athletes, and most years I would say Scholastica has more than 80 which gives them a few more guys to pick from. When you start with 50 guys, you don't have much of a say in your starting lineup. The departure of previous head coach Kurt Ramler might have a bit of a ripple effect, but my guess is the program is stable enough that inter-rim head coach George Penree will be able to lead the Saints to compete for the UMAC title, especially since All-UMAC QB Zach Edwards will return to head the conference-leading passing attack. The Saints are one of the only UMAC teams that do not have a game this week; they'll be starting their season next weekend on September 8th against Mayville State.

MacMurray proved to everyone last year that they deserve to be up at the top by beating St. Scholastica on the last week of the year to keep them out of the championship running. While they will be missing dynamic RB Chazz Middlebrook this year, they should have enough pieces to remain near the top of the pack. They start off the year tomorrow by facing Rockford University, who they were able to tackle opening week last year. I think it'll be a good start to the year for MacMurray, but it'll be a close one: MacMurray wins 21-14.

Northwestern is in an interesting time; they've had plenty of success in the past decade of UMAC football, yet they graduated a crapton of seniors last year; many of them starters. The offense was near the UMAC basement last year, so they have a bunch of concerns going into 2018. 2nd year head coach Matt Moore has his work cut out for him, but because of the past success of the program, I can't see them sliding too far. The Eagles start out the year facing Central College, who is a decent Iowa team. I can't see Northwestern sliding by them: Central wins, 35-14.

Martin Luther surprised everyone last year by going 5-5 just a year after a winless 2016 season. Can they keep up the magic? They didn't lose many to graduation, but Martin Luther seems to have positional changes quite often, so who knows if we'll see the same returners. If we do, they had a surprisingly okay offense and may be able to keep up with most UMAC teams this year. They start out the year with a tough matchup against Gustavus Adolphus College. The Knights have a tough road in week one: Gustavus wins, 42-7.

Greenville had a great offensive year, but struggled to close out games and surely ended the year wanting more. Apparently somebody believes that they have the stuff to be conference champs, but they need to shore up that defense before that can be possible. They start the year off against DIII powerhouse Wartburg. This won't be a pretty one: Wartburg will cruise, 56-14.

Westminster is a wild card to me almost every year. They had a successful year last year, and they will look to returning QB Trent White to continue that success into 2018. If they can develop some year-to-year consistency, I can see that program heading in the right direction. New facilities and field won't hurt, either. Westminster also does not play this week; they begin their 2018 campaign on September 8th against Millsaps College.

Minnesota-Morris was a struggle to watch last year. Their offense was among the worst in the UMAC, and if not for their semi-okay defense, it would have been even worse. They are a young team and return LB Drew Shipley to lead their defense, but they still have a lot to prove. They start out the year against Wisconsin-River Falls, who is a middle of the road team in a markedly better conference. I think it'll be tough for the Cougars to pull this one out: River Falls wins 28-6.

Crown had a rooooough year last year. Their offense was able to put up some numbers, but the defense couldn't stop anybody and as a result they were unable to scratch out a win. A new defensive coordinater may shake things up a bit this year, but they still have a looooong way to go if they want to be competitive this year. If they can keep up the offensive progression, they may be able to end the losing streak this year. Crown's first game was tonight against St. Olaf, which they lost 49-14.

Last but not least, Iowa Wesleyan is another team that is young and has much to improve before they can be competitive. They showed flashes last year with QB DeMarco Collins, but were unable to get much going. He will need to lead the offensive attack and the defense will need to improve before they can climb themselves out of the UMAC basement. The Tigers start the year off against Cornell College, who spanked 'em in the season opener in 2017. It will be a sad day: Cornell wins 56-14.

Okay, I admit this is a pretty lame season preview. So here's what I'll do for you: I'll write up individual in-depth team previews when I can throughout the year, starting ASAP. Stay tuned for these team previews, as well as the week one review next week! Good luck to all coaches and players in 2018, and remember; what I write on this lame blog doesn't define you. Go out there and prove me wrong!

What to Look Forward to in 2018

Heyyy, it's football season! Several UMAC teams have already started camp and the rest of them get moving in the next week! We're all excited for football, especially the intense, riveting, superfluous, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious style of play in the UMAC that we all know and love. While the UMAC preseason poll has yet to be announced, there are a few things that I'm looking forward to, despite all that I don't know yet this year:

1. Non-conference games. Since Eureka bolted for the NACC after capturing the coveted UMAC crown, only nine teams remain in the UMAC. While it would be interesting to see another team introduced in the future, the non-conference games shake up the 2018 schedule a bit. You can check out the UMAC composite schedule here, but it's not clean cut as it was last year. In 2017 and prior, due to the 10-team schedule, UMAC teams only needed to find one non-conference opponent to play, and it was always the first game on the UMAC schedule. This combined with the fact that UMAC teams rarely took bye weeks during the season ensured that the UMAC schedule finished a week before most other DIII teams. This year, that isn't the case. Most teams do have two non-conference opponents scheduled, but they are not exclusively the first two weeks of the season, and Westminster is the only UMAC team that finishes a week early in 2018. This makes for an interesting twist in the makeup of the UMAC, which I'm excited to see play out. 

2. No defending champ. With Eureka out of the picture, there is no current defending champ of the UMAC. Theoretically, the race is wide open; but St. Scholastica and MacMurray were close to capturing partial crowns last year. In my mind, they still have the upper hand in the conference, with Northwestern looking to push the envelope a bit.

3. New rushing champ. With LeAnthony Reasnover and Eureka gone and Chazz Middlebrook (MacMurray) and Johnny Pruiett (GU) graduated, it leaves the rushing field wiiiiide open. The next leading rushers included many returners, but all were nearly 400 yards behind Pruiett. Who will step up and take the rushing crown? My money is on Marquez Ellison from MacMurray, who filled in nicely when Middlebrook went down for a few games in 2017.

4. Crown winning a game. I've been a part of an 0-10 team. It doesn't feel good. What does feel good is finally breaking that streak. Odds are that Crown will win a game this year. They have at least 3 conference games that they have an okay shot at winning, and a potential non-conference matchup in NAIA opponent Presentation College, so I'm pretty confident they can get one. Please, please get one. We've seen recent success after an 0-10 season with Martin Luther, who went 5-5 in 2017, so we know it's possible, especially in the UMAC.

5. Individual recognition. The UMAC isn't used to the DIII limelight as a perennial bottom-feeder conference, but we occasionally do have a few standouts that get some national recognition. Last year seemed to be as good as it could get, with Reasnover and Middlebrook jousting for leading rushing leaders for much of the year and a few statistical leaders on the defensive side as well with Drew Shipley (UMM) and Javon Muhammad (MacMurray). I think everyone knows that it would be tough for a UMAC team to make a splash in the playoffs, so that's about as good as it's gonna get for the conference. We also had a few guys take home some honors such as Gregoire Franchomme (GU) and Nick Swore (UNW). Not too bad for a conference that is left out of these types of things many a year (for good reason). While Reasnover and Middlebrook are gone, a lot of these guys will be back next year, which is great for the UMAC. It will be interesting to see who can step up and get the UMAC some coverage.

6. FOOTBALL!! While I'm honestly more excited for the NFL season to start, there's something special about bright, crisp fall afternoons filled with football action. While the UMAC can showcase some pretty lousy football at times, there are also glimpses of brightness for each individual team, and it's fun to see teams find their niche and get on a roll. So here's to the 2018 season, and good luck to all players and coaches! Stay posted for the 2018 preseason coaches poll, and more as I mooch off of my dad's D3football.com's Kickoff 2018 subscription (thanks dad!). Football is back, baby!