[NU Sports] Thompson and Mathews returns

Thu Sep 28 12:04:33 CDT 2006

Well, I'm embarrassed too that we lost to a I-AA team, but I'm not so sure
New Hampshire wouldn't finish in the middle of the Big Ten this year.
Before you dismiss that, let's look at it objectively.

Talking with one of my good friends and fellow NU alums who has season
tickets and was at the UNH game, he told me that he saw an article in the
Wall Street Journal (I think, but maybe New York Times) a week or so ago
that ranked all of the I-A and I-AA teams together and put New Hampshire at
#35.  That is pretty consistent with these rankings, which is a combined
ranking of 702 college football teams, including I-A, I-AA, II, III, and
NAIA teams:

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Gym/3270/ncaaf.html

New Hampshire comes in at an impressive #33; they're the only I-AA team in
the top 56 (Division III juggernaut Mount Union is pegged at 31, and, having
seen Mount Union several times in the D-III playoffs over the past few
years, I won't argue that they should be much lower).  The ranking seems
pretty reasonable and unbiased:  The top ten are USC, tOSU, Florida, Cal,
Nebraska, Louisville, Texas, Tennessee, Michigan, and TCU.  Only five Big
Ten teams are ranked above UNH:  tOSU (2), Michigan (9), Iowa (17),
Minnesota (21), and PSU (26).  The rest of the Big Ten is ranked as follows:
MSU (36), UW (66), Purdue (67), Indiana (76), NU (95), and Illinois (102).
Incidentally, according to this ranking there are 13 I-AA teams, 1 Division
II team (North Dakota), and 1 Division III team (Mount Union) ahead of NU.
Nevada slips in at #85, Miami of Ohio at #125, and Eastern Michigan at #129.

I think we have the potential to be better than that, but at the same time I
don't believe it's unrealistic to think that the top five teams in I-AA are
maybe flat-out better than the bottom half of the I-A teams and could even
occasionally rise up to bite a decent I-A team if all of the stars align
properly.  The elite I-A teams would have to try pretty hard to lose to even
the best I-AA teams, but they'd have to try pretty hard to lose to
lower-echelon I-A teams too.

This isn't an excuse for poor play, but perhaps things aren't as bad as they
seem.

-Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of DPENDERG at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 10:32 AM
To: tkmaycock at yahoo.com; nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Thompson and Mathews returns

Yes, I saw the UNH game at Ryan.  The UNH quarterback and their top
receiver 

are quality players, but a team filled with veterans from a winning NU  team

should not lose to a D-IAA team.  The Cats had the size and  talent on both 

sides of the ball, which should have won the game, but we  prepared and
executed 

poorly. It was embarrassing and my  confidence did not increase by what I 

witnessed in the EMU and  UNR games.  

An argument could be made about UNH against Indiana and Illinois, but even  

those teams, I think, should beat a D-IAA team.  I really think that
Illinois 

will develop over the season and we'll have a very tough game when they
visit 

Evanston in November. 

In a message dated 9/28/2006 9:42:04 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  

tkmaycock at yahoo.com writes:

>  State or any other Big Ten team is on a completely  different  level

> than Nevada or UNH.  

I really don't think that is  true at all. UNH is probably significantly

better than Illinois and  Indiana. I suspect they'd have a good chance

at beating at least 2 or 3  other Big Ten teams as well. Did you see UNH

in person? If not, trust  me--they know what they are doing. 

That game was basically a toss-up.  NU made more mistakes, and so they

lost.

I think NU displayed  significantly more talent than Nevada, but made

WAY more mistakes, and so  they lost. 

Sense a theme here?

NU will get pounded some this  year, no doubt. I think there will also

be a bunch of winnable games, but  only if we cut down on mistakes.

That's a big "if" with all the changes  this year, so it might not

happen until next year. But then again, it might  happen a few times

this year.

I say we get at least 3 conference  wins, and threaten in one or  two

others.

Tom

_______________________________________________

nwu-sports  site  list

nwu-sports at tssi.com

http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports

_______________________________________________

nwu-sports site list

nwu-sports at tssi.com

http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports