September 24th, 2013 12:00am
From 2001 to 2009, Grand Valley was a dynasty: Four national championships, six title game appearances, several GLIAC titles and a 40 game winning streak.
But the 2010 ten season ended with a humbling 38-6 loss to Augustana in the playoffs and things have not been the same in Laker land since. 2011 and 2012 were lost seasons by GVSU standards. The Lakers dropped three games both years and failed to qualify for the postseason.
Grand Valley has many built in advantages that have helped set it apart from other D2 schools. The school has over 20,000 students, excellent athletic facilities, and a surrounding media market of over one million people. Not having a D-I school in the Grand Rapids area has helped GVSU football thrive.
But no one stays on top forever, not even at a school like Grand Valley. In college football there are natural ebbs and flows and every program goes through ups and downs. Ten years ago Alabama was 4-9 and now the Crimson Tide have a legit shot at winning a fourth national championship in the last five seasons. It happens everywhere and often times it has to do with the coaches running the programs. As much as GVSU fans liked to take their shots at Chuck Martin, the program has not been quite the same since he left after the 2009 season.
All that said; I feel it is a question of when, not if Grand Valley will return to its spot among the nation*s elite. College football history has shown us that the programs with great tradition and desire to succeed will always find their way back to the top.
The Lakers are off to a 3-0 start this season, but have been untested as all three games have been at home against inferior competition. That will change this week as they travel to unbeaten Ohio Dominican, a GLIAC newcomer that seems poised to make a name for itself in D2.
After this week the Lakers also play in succession Michigan Tech, Ferris State and Northern Michigan. All three of those teams will test GVSU. The good news for the Lakers is that they appear to be getting healthy at just the right time as they expect several players-- including starting quarterback Heath Parling-- to return to the lineup after missing time due to injuries.
So, is 2013 the year Grand Valley returns to the top? We will find out a lot in the next month.
Random Observations from Last Week
-Is Simon Fraser really the best team in the GNAC? The Clan has started the season with two league road wins, including a surprising 21-14 win at Central Washington last week. SFU is the only Canadian school in the NCAA.
-What a difference a year has made at Ashland. Last year the Eagles went 11-0 in the regular season. This season they are off to a 0-3 start and AU*s next three games-- Northern Michigan, Lake Erie and Ohio Dominican-- will all be very challenging as well. If the Eagles do not get it together soon they could be looking at a losing season.
-Winston-Salem completely dominated the much anticipated game with Tuskegee, winning 35-13. This game showed that Tuskegee has a long ways to go if the Golden Tigers want to follow in the footsteps of WSSU and compete for a national championship.
-The IUP defense has posted two consecutive shutouts but the Crimson Hawks have been very average offensively and that will not cut it come playoff time. IUP did not score a point offensively in the first half against a weak Seton Hill team and on top of that had five turnovers. I know the weather conditions were not the best, but this is a game the Crimson Hawks should have dominated.
-UNC-Pembroke complete the CIAA portion of its independent schedule by beating Shaw 41-20 last week. The Braves are now 3-0 as they move onto the SAC portion of their schedule as they play Wingate, Catawba, Newberry and Tusculum over the next five weeks. If the Braves can take care of business the November 7th game at Valdosta State will be huge.
Top Games this Week
California (3-0) at Indiana (3-0)
This is the game of the year in the PSAC West Division. Both of these teams have been lights out defensively but have had some struggles on offense so far this year. I like IUP because they are playing at home and have a much better running game, but I also expect this game to be close and low scoring.
Indiana 20 California 16
Grand Valley (3-0) at Ohio Dominican (3-0)
As I mentioned earlier, this is a huge game for both programs. Both teams like to run the football to set up big plays in the passing game so it goes without saying that stopping the run will be huge for both defenses. It is tough to tell this early in the season, but my gut tells me that the Lakers are just a little better defensively and that will tip the scales towards them in this game.
Grand Valley State 31 Ohio Dominican 26
West Texas A&M (3-0) Texas A&M-Kingsville (3-0)
There is still a long ways to go in the LSC title race, but the winner of this game will definitely be in the driver*s seat. The Javelinas have a pretty potent rushing attack, which is a good formula for trying to knock off a WTAMU team that is explosive offensively. However, WTAMU quarterback Dustin Vaughan (1,333 passing yards, 11 touchdowns, no interceptions) has been so good this year that I do not think the Javelina defense can hold up for four quarters.
West Texas A&M 38 Texas A&M-Kingsville 30
Mailbag
[Q] In what order do you rank the D2 conferences, from toughest to weakest?
Hamzat
[A] I get this as a mail bag question quite often, but I try to answer it every other year or so at the most because my rankings do not change all that much. The conferences that were the best five years ago are still generally the best right now. This is my 2013 ranking from top to bottom:
MIAA: Pittsburg State and Northwest Missouri State have won two of the last four national championships and Central Missouri, Washburn and Missouri Western are all very solid programs that have experienced recent playoff success. Some of the new teams that have been added to the league over the last 2-3 years have some catching up to do and this has watered down the MIAA a bit, but it is still the best D2 has to offer.
GLIAC: The best case for the strength of this league: former member Indianapolis never won more than seven games in the GLIAC, but joined the GLVC last year and won the league in addition to winning a first round playoff game. Grand Valley is not where it was a decade ago, but five different GLIAC teams have made the playoffs within the last three years.
GSC: Defending national champ Valdosta State did not even win this league last year. That honor went to a West Alabama team that has really come on in the last five years. I do not rank the GSC higher because North Alabama and Delta State are down a bit in addition to newcomers Shorter and Florida Tech are not being very competitive yet.
NSIC: Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota State are legit national title contenders and at least 3-4 other programs are very solid and can compete for playoff spots on a yearly basis. Unfortunately there are still a few programs near the bottom that are just speed bumps for the better teams.
LSC: West Texas A&M reached the national semifinals last year and Midwestern State has been a playoff team each of the last two seasons. With Abilene Christian leaving for FCS programs like Texas A&M-Kingsville and Tarleton State need to get back to playoff form.
PSAC: I really thought the lifting of scholarship limitations a couple of years ago would help this league immensely, but if anything the conference has gone backwards as no PSAC team has made the semifinals in two years while competing in a region it used to dominate.
SAC: Over the last five years or so this has been the most balanced conference in D2 with a majority of the teams having qualified for the playoffs in the timeframe. The problem is that balance has led to some mediocrity as 2009 Carson-Newman is the only team to win the region in the last 12 years.
RMAC: Colorado State-Pueblo has been a tremendous addition to this conference to join Chadron State and Colorado Mines as three solid programs. The problem here is that the bottom teams in the conference are extremely weak.
GAC: Two GAC teams made the playoffs last season, and they both got blitzed. The fact remains that the programs that make up this two-year-old league were generally the less competitive ones from the LSC and GSC and becoming competitive nationally will not happen overnight.
GNAC: The good news for the GNAC is that it finally has the six members required to be eligible for earned access to the playoffs. The problem is that with Central Washington being down the last couple of years and no other teams really stepping up, the GNAC is just not that competitive nationally right now.
MEC: This conference has Shepherd, which reached the national semifinals in 2011. Four or five of the other programs in this league have taken their turn at challenging the Rams but no one has been able to do so consistently.
CIAA: Winston-Salem*s great run in the playoffs last year certainly helps the CIAA from a perception standpoint but the fact still remains that none of the others have shown much ability to compete outside the conference.
NE-10: Despite my ranking near the bottom, this conference has actually made some strides over the last few years. The revival of the New Haven program has helped a lot in addition to the improvement of several other programs in the league.
GLVC: As I mentioned earlier, Indianapolis joining this league gives it a big boost. The problem is that after Indianapolis the quality of teams drops off dramatically. Three of the eight teams have just joined D2 within the last couple of years and it will take time for them to become competitive.
SIAC: This league is just 1-7 in the playoffs over the last five years. There are also some very poor programs at the bottom of this league. Maybe Tuskegee*s decision to compete in the playoffs in the future will help this league become more successful.
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