Well, well, well we embark on another week of college football in the Northern Sun this week. Its going to be tough to top last week though. Three games came down to the wire, offensive records fell all over the place, and there were even a couple of big upsets, including one in the muddiest college football game I have ever seen.

Congratulations out to Southwest Minnesota State wide receiver Anthony Dean this week. He was named the D2Football.com's National Offensive Player of the Week. My apologies to St. Cloud State Safety Jack Moro for missing his recognition last week as the D2Football.com National Defensive Player of the Week. Both were truly deserving of the awards.

Also congratulations out to Minnesota Crookston coach Mike Fritze, he picked up his first win at the helm of the Golden Eagles program. Although, I think UMC's equipment manager is probably lobbying administration for Field Turf next year. Wow!

It might have been the wildest week of Northern Sun Football since I have been watching games for the last 12 years.

Let's take a look what's in store this week.


Winona State (3-2) at Sioux Falls (3-2)

After an 0-2 start to the season Winona State has scored at least 49 points in every game on this three game winning streak. What we can say about the Warriors is that it looks like freshman Jack Nelson is settling in at quarterback. He had the biggest game of his young career last week as he threw for 333 yards and three touchdowns including one of 53 yards and another of 40 yards.

I don't see that string of 49 points stopping this week. Sioux Falls, despite a win last Saturday in Marshall gave up a conference record 828 yards in a single game. The Cougars gave up over 300 yards on the ground, and another 512 yards through the air. What's more is that it took the Cougars every bit of those 55 points to win in Marshall on Saturday.

The Cougars have a special freshman quarterback of their own. Luke Papilion ran for three touchdowns including the game winner, and threw for two more in the Cougars dramatic 55-48 win in Marshall on Saturday. Papilion's last rushing touchdown, came from 17 yards out with less than a minute to go and proved to be the difference maker. On the season, Papilion is responsible for 12 of the team's 19 rushing touchdowns this season.

Winona's defense on paper is better. The Warriors have the 5th best rushing defense in the NSIC, giving up 113-yards a game. So it will be a good test for the Cougars, but on a three game winning streak this isn't the same Winona team that it was in the first two weeks.

I will take the Warriors on the road.



Concordia(3-2) at Upper Iowa (3-2)

Both of these teams have already eclipsed their win totals from a season ago. Combined they one just one game in the Northern Sun South Division, it happened to be when Concordia beat Upper Iowa.

The point of that is to point out, that these are two of the most improved teams in the Northern Sun this season.

While trying to rally his troops last week Cole Jaeschke threw for over 400 yards at Winona State. The problem for Jaeschke and the Peacocks, simply was turnovers. Upper Iowa turned it over four times in the game, and one of Jaeschke's three interceptions was returned for a Winona touchdown.

The Golden Bears were nearly shutdown last week at Mankato. The Golden Bears didn't score until the final three minutes of the game when James Peterson connected with Corey Cole on the touchdown.

Defensively these teams are evenly matched. Upper Iowa's defense is giving up 22 points a game, Concordia is giving up 21.8 points a game. They both have shut out an opponent this year. Concordia gives up about 174 yards through the air, Upper Iowa allows about 185. Where they differ is on the other side of the ball.

Upper Iowa's is too explosive offensively, while Concordia has been much more inconsistent offensively. The Peacocks score nearly twice as many points as the Golden Bears. They have the conference's top passing attack, and they even run for 50 more yards a game than Concordia.

As long as the Peacocks don't stub their foot with four turnovers this week, there is no reason they shouldn't win on Saturday. I will take Upper Iowa to get their first win ever over Concordia.


Mary (3-2) at Bemidji State (2-3)

Bemidji State has been a tough team to figure out. One week they rally from a big deficit to beat Winona State in Winona, they lose two straight, they explode for 41 against Southwest, then lose at Crookston.

More perplexing, despite Avery Walker rushing for 265 yards on Saturday the Beavers scored just 14 points in that loss.

It took a combination of mistakes from three lost fumbles, to a failure to execute in goal to go situations, to a big safety with less than two minutes to go for the Golden Eagles to get the win.

Again Bemidji will find themselves in a game that they should win. Though, I am not so sure they will, because they will face a much better team. Dariouse Gravely showed that he can be a dangerous back especially if defense's focus too much on the Marauders passing attack. Gravely scored a pair of touchdowns last week against Minot State.

While the Beavers defense is better than most, this week is going to really be a challenge. Mary's quarterback Craig Bagnell has thrown for 1,251 yards in five games and 11 touchdowns already. The Marauders most impressive win came against the University of Sioux Falls when they held the highly vaunted Cougar attack to 10-points.

Over the years this has been a pretty even battle, the Beavers hold a slight 4-3 advantage, and have won four of the last five games between the two teams, but they are seemingly always close.

I think Bemidji is too inconsistent. I like the Marauders to get a big road win on Saturday.



Southwest Minnesota State (2-3) at Wayne State (2-3)

Things were pretty wild in Marshall last Saturday. The Mustangs put up 828 yards, their running back Tyler Tonderum, who leads NCAA Division II in rushing, ran for 272 yards. Quarterback Charlie Kern threw for 512 yards and four touchdowns, and Anthony Dean was the D2Football.com offensive player of the week, with over 300 yards receiving and four touchdowns. You would think with all of those offensive numbers the Mustangs would have won a game, they didn't.

And what we have learned about Southwest is that the defense needs to improve. Losing 55-48, and amassing all of those yards is still a loss, and until the Mustangs can improve defensively, they could be in a lot of these type of games.

In fact, Southwest has given up 49 points to St. Cloud State, 41 points to Bemidji State, and 55 points to the University of Sioux Falls. Last week the Mustang defense was hurt by a few injuries, but who doesn't right now.

The Wildcats have a good defense, they will put pressure on the Mustangs passing game. Their aggressiveness and exotic scheme's could come back to burn them a little on Saturday though with how fast Southwest moves the ball.

But, Wayne will move the ball on the Mustangs, they will score points this week. For the Wildcats they will need to avoid the turnovers, because giving the Mustangs extra opportunities will not turn out well for Wayne.

Expect some big plays, Adam Stark had an 80 yard touchdown reception last week at Augustana as the Wildcats beat the Vikings for the fourth straight time. That's not even Stark's long on the season, he is averaging an eye popping 35-yards a catch.

Southwest has not had a lot of luck in Wayne. They first won in Wayne in 1987, then didn't win there again until 2004 and haven't won their since.

Hard to go against history on this one, I am going to take the Wildcats to limit their mistakes and win a high scoring game at home.



The rest of the schedule

After a big win at home last week, Minnesota-Duluth should go on the road and win in Moorhead. The Bulldogs have had a lot of big yards from Logan Lauters in recent weeks. Their running game will give the Dragons a lot of problems.

I didn't have Northern State at 1-4 on the season coming into Saturday, but following some hard to explain the losses, I have the Wolves dropping to 1-5 after a loss to Minot State on Saturday.

Minnesota State still looks like the class of the league, they certainly are in the South Division, I like the Mavericks to win over Augustana at home on Saturday.

St. Cloud State maybe suffered the biggest disappointment last week, not so much in that they lost to UMD, but how they lost. They should bounce back against Coach Fritze's Golden Eagles this week, I like the Huskies to win at home.