September 15th, 2015 12:00am
As young kid growing up, the one game that really made me fall in love with college football was the 1984 Orange Bowl in which Miami beat Nebraska 31-30. Most of you 40 years old and up will remember that game as the one where Nebraska’s Tom Osborne elected to go for the 2-point conversion to win the game instead of kicking the PAT to tie it up.
Adding another layer of intrigue to Osborne’s decision was the fact that his team would have won the national championship if he had played for the tie and kicked the PAT (there were no overtimes in those days). Instead of playing it safe, Osborne rolled the dice and lost everything.
Ever since then I have found the game-winning 2-point conversion attempt to be the most fascinating play in college football. Although there have not been many iconic 2-point attempts to win games in D2 football, who can forget the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, where Boise State ran the Statue of Liberty play to beat Oklahoma? That play and the resulting victory literally put BSU football on the map and made the Broncos a national brand.
Football coaches are normally conservative in their decision making process on the field, so when they decide to go for two points and the win it really goes against the grain, especially when you consider that it normally is not the percentage play: In college football the 2-point attempt only succeeds a little over 40% of the time.
Last week CSU-Pueblo head coach John Wristen rolled the dice on the 2-point conversion. With his team trailing 31-30 at West Texas A&M, Wristen elected to go for two and came up empty. The defending national champs left Texas with a loss.
What makes Wristen’s decision so interesting is that the general rule of thumb when deciding whether or not to go for two and the win is this: If you have the better team, play for the tie and take your chances in overtime.
The problem is that on this night, the Thunderwolves really were not the better team. Their four touchdowns had come on an 80-yard run, two interception returns and a kickoff return. There was very little consistency on offense and no passing game to speak of. The Thunderwolves maybe were better off letting it all ride on one play when the offense just could not get it going.
It will be interesting to see where CSU-Pueblo goes from here. The Thunderwolves have a very solid running game and a ball-hawking defense. But new starting quarterback Malcolm Ruben has struggled, completing less than 50% of his passes with four interceptions thrown in two games. The Thunderwolves will need much better production from that position if they want to have a chance to defend their national title.
News and Notes from Week Two
-Lenoir-Rhyne’s 22-game regular season winning streak came to an end in a surprising 35-13 loss to North Greenville. The LRU running game is still terrific but it is obvious that the Bears are not close to the same team defensively as they were the last three previous years where they went 33-6 overall.
-Glenville State beat West Virginia Wesleyan 64-48 on Saturday and the two teams combined for almost 1300 yards of total offense, including 846 by the Pioneers. GSC running back Rahmann Lee ran for 412 yards in the game on just 22 carries. Lee became the career leading rusher in Glenville State history and fell just six yards short of the single game D2 rushing record.
-Grand Valley State took a huge step back towards respectability with a come-from-behind 27-24 win at Ohio Dominican. The Lakers were out-gained, but forced five Panther turnovers to pull out the win, which sets up a huge game with Ferris State this Saturday.
-What has happened to the program at Saginaw Valley State? The Cardinals lost 40-0 to Tiffin to drop to 0-2 after going just 2-9 last season. On the flip side Tiffin is 2-0 for the first time since joining the GLIAC in 2008. The Dragons won a total of just two games in their first four seasons in the league.
-I said a couple of weeks ago that this might be the year for a team other than Northwest Missouri or Pittsburg State to win the MIAA, but through two weeks it appears as if the Bearcats and Gorillas are still the class of the league.
-Mother Nature wreaked havoc with a few Thursday night MIAA games last week. Washburn and Nebraska-Kearney had to stop their contest in the third quarter and resume the game on Friday. Central Missouri and Emporia State were tied at 24 at the half before thunderstorms set in and they elected to finish the game on Saturday afternoon (ESU won that game 45-34).
-Minnesota State-Moorhead drove 94 yards in just 28 seconds with no timeouts remaining to defeat Concordia-St. Paul 30-28. The winning score came from 15 yards out as a pass from quarterback Jake Hodge intended for receiver Damon Gibson was tipped into the hands of Cory Ambrose to provide the winning points. The Dragons (2-0) have won five straight going back to last year and will host Augustana in what might be the biggest game for MSUM in over 20 years.
-The Delta State at Texas A&M-Commerce game more than lived up to the billing with DSU scoring a late touchdown to win 51-44. The two teams combined for 1151 yards of offense, including 918 through the air.
Top Games this Week
Midwestern State (2-0) at Eastern New Mexico (2-0)
The Greyhounds’ ground game has been outstanding with 725 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground so far. MSU has been very strong defensively through two games, but can the Mustangs score enough points to win this one? Midwestern State 21 Eastern New Mexico 20
Mercyhurst (2-0) at Bloomsburg (1-1)
The Huskies discovered their running game last week in gutting out a 20-13 win over California, but they are far from explosive on offense. They will have to have another good defensive performance to win this one.
Chadron State (1-1) at Colorado Mines (2-0)
This will be the Eagles third straight road game and they have had to travel almost 3500 miles the first two weeks with both games in Missouri. I have to wonder if the Eagles will have enough legs to keep up with Justin Dvorak and the CSM offense. Colorado Mines 41 Chadron State 28
Augustana (2-0) at MSU-Moorhead (2-0)
Both of these teams feature experienced quarterbacks- Trey Heid for Augie and Jake Hodge for MSUM- that can throw the football. Both defenses have given up plenty of yards through the air this fall. However, the Vikings are a little stronger overall defensively and that gives them the advantage. Augustana 31 MSU-Moorhead 21
Northwest Missouri (2-0) at Central Missouri (1-1)
I do not expect the Bearcats to completely shut down UCM like they did their first two opponents, but I also do not think the Mules will be able to do stop Northwest from scoring enough points to win this game. Northwest Missouri 33 Central Missouri 21
Ohio Dominican (1-1) at Ashland (2-0)
The Panthers should be a motivated bunch after last week’s loss to GVSU. Ashland is not a bad team but as long as ODU holds onto the football they should win this game. Ohio Dominican 34 Ashland 17
Ferris State (1-0) at Grand Valley (2-0)
GVSU’s big win last week makes this rivalry game very interesting, but the Lakers will still have to deal with FSU quarterback Jason Vander Laan one last time. In three career starts against the Lakers (all FSU victories) Vander Laan has accounted for 971 yards of total offense- including 559 rushing yards- and ten total touchdowns! Ferris State 40 Grand Valley 27
Minnesota-Duluth (1-1) at Sioux Falls (2-0)
The tough start to the season continues for UMD as they get USF two weeks after losing a heart-breaker to top ranked Minnesota State. This will be a real test to see if the USF defense can stand up physically against a powerful rushing attack. Sioux Falls 31 Minnesota-Duluth 24
NCAA Division II Game of the Week
Winston-Salem at Tuskegee 2pm EDT NCAA.com
Other D2 Games Available Nationally on ESPN3
Edinboro at East Stroudsburg - 1pm EDT
Brevard at Wingate - 1:30pm EDT
Mercyhurst at Bloomsburg - 2pm EDT
Mailbag
[Q] Your discussion of Super Region One in the column last week raises the question of why D2 insists on populating its playoffs regionally when all other divisions select at-large teams nationally while providing conference champions automatic bids (except D1 FBS). The latest Top 25 poll features a combined 17 teams from SRs 3 and 4. Meanwhile, SR1 has 3 entrants in slots 23-25. Under the current model, 3 of those SR 3/4 teams are guaranteed to sit at home, while an additional 4 unranked SR1 teams make the playoffs.
Why not follow the FCS/D3 model: hand out 15 auto bids to conference champions, hand out at-large bids to the next best teams regardless of region, and then create a bracket, that while geographically-minded, is not rigidly SR-based, allowing for NSIC-MIAA and GLIAC-RMIAC semifinals or finals rather than quarterfinals.
I am sure I am hardly the first to propose this change, so then why is D2 the outlier in this regard?
[A] What you are suggesting is a system that is almost exactly like the one I have been proposing for years. It makes sense on many levels but there are a few reasons why it would be difficult to implement.
First of all, D2 does not currently allow football to have automatic qualifiers for conferences. This is because the division has a rule that a minimum number of the overall schools in D2 must sponsor a sport before automatic qualifiers are allowed. Football does not meet that minimum requirement but it is my understanding that there is a push being made to change this by-law.
Secondly, determining at-large bids nationally would be much tougher than it used to be because too many conferences have gone to insular scheduling. The MIAA, NSIC, MEC and GAC do not play out-of-conference games and the RMAC is heading in that direction as well. How are we to determine which schools are worthy of at-large spots when there is no comparison between conferences? A simple way to force these conferences to change this scheduling practice would be for the D2 football committee to announce that leagues that play conference-only schedules are not eligible to receive at-large bids. I bet these leagues would change in a hurry if that happened.
Finally, D2’s regional alignment is unreasonably rigid. It was actually set up to balance the number of teams and conferences in volleyball and basketball without regard to football. This is why there are so few teams in SR2 while some of the other regions have too many. Setting up a new playoff system in football would require breaking down this rigid structure which may be opening a can of worms for the rest of the division. But I would contend that pairing teams from Texas and New Mexico with teams from Michigan as is done in SR4 makes the current regional structure a farce anyway. Hopefully one day the powers that be in this division will see the light and come up with a new playoff structure that makes more sense.
Contact
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