November 28th, 2000 12:00am
The Final Four are here - North Dakota State, Delta State, Bloomsburg and UC-Davis. The road to this status was tough for everyone except Davis.
Despite the loss for the rest of the season of both of its top-two quarterbacks, North Dakota State's Bison made it to the Final Four with 43 unanswered points to overcome a 14-0 early deficit.
The Bison relied upon its Harlon Hill candidate, Lamar Gordon, and backup quarterback, Graig Gorder, to bring NDSU to the final four.
J.T. O'Sullivan et al mauled Mesa State - end of story.
Bloomsburg nearly as easily handled Northwood.
Delta State defeated Catawba, but certainly not with ease.
But regardless of how the teams got here, this weekend's match-ups will be interesting.
Most interesting to some people is where the games are being played. The most controversial venue choice has Delta State hosting the Bison. The location of the game, however, is controversial only among those fans that failed to read the comments made in this column three months ago.
Delta rightfully hosts this contest. The logic is simple. There was no hocus-pocus; no payment of extra bid money; no political favors were called in. The NCAA committee used the criteria outlined before the season began.
Without going into the entire list of criteria, all you need to know is that the choice of Delta to host this weekend's semifinal, as was assumed when the season started, moved to utilization of the "secondary criteria" outlined by the NCAA.
First considered was conference standing. Delta won this one. Next was late season performance (last four regular season games), which was a tie. Then came opponents' records, which went NDSU's way. Finally records against ranked teams came into play, which went to Delta. That's it. Delta won the criteria fight 2-1 with one tie.
In the Bloomsburg-Davis matchup the Bloom Huskies journey to the West Coast which might seem to be a natural, but even if Bloom had won the right to host based on the criteria, the game would have been in California. Bloom did not bid on the semifinal game. Neither did its now defeated opponent, Northwood.
So despite some confusion and anger about where this weekend's games are being played, the fact is all of it was according to Hoyle, A.K.A, in this case, as the D-II national committee.
Question of the week - can NDSU win using a freshman quarterback? Answer - yes.
Several things lead me to the conclusion NDSU can win. One is its offensive line. Right behind them comes Lamar Gordon who may be the best running back in D-II this year.
Home field advantage does give a little edge to Delta, but that edge goes away after the first series or two. Then it's trench warfare, which NDSU should win.
Delta may be tempted to stack the line and challenge NDSU to win by running all the time on the assumption the Bison may not be able to pass. This would be a very bad assumption. Jason Jordan has been a practicing quarterback with sufficient skills to be worthy of inclusion on the team. Although this may not sound like a ringing endorsement, at the very least he is a major step up from using someone who has not
played the position before. He should be able to pass enough to keep Delta from solely defending the run.
Offensively, Delta State running back Rico McDonald and quarterback Josh Bright lead an overall talented team against the Bison. Both were considered for the D2football.com All-America team. Defensive back Rory Bell was chosen for the team. Delta State placed eight players on the Gulf South All-Conference Team. Bright also was co-owner of the Conference's offensive player of the year designation. Bright and McDonald also combined to become the first pair in Delta history to rush for over 1,000 yards in the same season. In addition, they are only the second pair in Gulf South Conference history to score over 100 points in the same season.
The Bison-Delta State Statesmen match brings plenty of history with it in terms of their conferences. While conference superiority seems to be a constant rallying cry for North Central Conference fans, it is interesting to note that both the North Central Conference (Bison) and the Gulf South Conference (Statesmen) have had seven title holders in the last sixteen national championships.
The Bison and Statesmen have met only once previously with the Bison winning by a score of 16-13 in 1995. A score nearly this close again would not be a shock.
This game will be a lot closer than North Dakota State will like. If the Bison are not careful it would be easy for them to be on the wrong end of the score, but despite this and the fact they are breaking in a new starting signal caller, the Bison should get another visit to Florence Alabama.
The UC Davis-Bloom matchup to some fans may look like a runaway for the Davis Aggies. We would suggest taking another look.
When it has had to do it, Bloom has stepped its play up another notch. Two weeks ago everyone said Bloom's Huskies would fold in the face of Saginaw's passing. They did not.
Slippery Rock was supposed to muscle the Huskies. It did not.
Bloom was supposed to be intimated by a Northwood's high-scoring option offense. It was not.
Clearly Bloom has proven it is not a team to be taken for granted.
Quarterback Eric Miller has had a very successful season and was considered for the D2football.com All-America team. Marques Glaze, helped by his offensive line, has provided the running punch Bloom needed to open things up for Miller.
But Bloom has another major asset. His name is Danny Hale.
Readers of my meanderings over the years know Hale's name. He has been the focal point of positive comments for a long time. Transplanted from West Chester and after a few years off, as head coach at Bloom, Hale steadily has been building a solid program. This is his best effort to date.
Part of the reason Bloom has surprised fans has been game preparation. Hale and his staff successfully have found ways to neutralize or minimize opponents' strong points.
But this stated, Hale has his most challenging task to date in figuring out how to stop the Aggies - a team with so many strong points you can not focus on any one and expect to win.
So how does Bloomsburg beat the overwhelmingly favored Aggies? We think several factors have to be present to allow the Huskies to be able to board a flight to Florence next week.
In contrast to previous years the Aggies so far this year have not had a mistake-plagued game. In previous years penalties and other non-forced errors haunted Davis one or more times. Not this year. Could there be one of those games ahead for the Aggies? Bloom has to hope that the Aggies get nostalgic and have one of those coaches' nightmare games this weekend.
Playoff contests are old hat for the Aggies. The hat's a little newer for Bloomsburg. Travel-shortened preparation time does not help the Huskies either.
The biggest factor working for the Huskies might be surprise. On tape Bloom may not appear to have the overall athletic skills the Aggies have. On the field, however, where the real contact is made, the Aggies that might get a surprise. How well they handle it will determine how this games goes.
Despite the respect Hale and his crew are due, they likely will fall short of a trip to Florence. Bloom, however, is not Mesa State. This game should be decided in Davis' favor but by no more than 14 points.
Included on D2football.com this week is the site's All-America team. As is always the case, there may be individual disputes about certain positions, but the overall list is a strong one.
As a small reminder for those fans that might take exception to a pick or two on the AA team, remember most of you have a limited frame of reference. You may know well players in your region or on your favorite team, but their efforts have to be taken in the context of how they fare relative to the much broader national list.
Also statistics are not everything. Some of the best players don't always show up as leaders in their respective stat categories. A truly strong team probably has enough good athletes so that no one player dominates the offensive or defensive play, but that does not take away from that player's potential as an All-American.
And for goodness sake, don't measure any AA selection relative to his worth as a potential NFL player. The fact is that many of the players on the D2football.com AA team or any other D-II All-America squad will never play a down in the NFL or maybe anywhere beyond college. That does not mean they are not worthy of being selected for the AA teams.
While everyone viewing this site is interested in the D-II playoffs, there is a portion of Division II that has something else on its mind. The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference are preparing for their season-ending game, the Pioneer Bowl.
That's fine, I guess, but a mention in a CIAA press release last week makes me wonder - wonder that is if anyone in these two conferences is paying attention.
In a press release promoting the Pioneer Bowl, an official from the CIAA said, " the CIAA is disappointed with the non-invitation to the NCAA playoffs."
In case the folks at the CIAA have not noticed, through this entire season SIAC member Tuskegee was listed in the rankings with a notation that it had decided to not participate in the D-II playoffs. Should the national playoff selection committee consider any conference that chooses to put its own regional game ahead of the playoffs?
Perhaps the official meant a team other than Tuskegee should have been considered. But who might that other team be from either the SIAC or the CIAA?
Either you are in the game from the start or you are not. Someone in these two conferences better make up their mind. A line near the end of a press release taking a parting shot at the NCAA and the rest of D-II is not necessary. From all I know from everyone who has been willing to talk about this, the CIAA and SIAC are welcome to be part of the payoffs. But they can't make up their minds at the end of the season and then take a shot at the NCAA for doing what everyone expected rightfully to do.
I find this logic particularly interesting since it comes from a league that last season had a game called off by the officials because a field where a game was to be played was so badly marked the refs deemed the field to be unplayable.
And finally a little parting comment on decorum ----
In October D2football.com tried to conduct a chat with South Dakota running back, Josh Ranek. The effort was a disaster. It was, not because of any equipment issues or problems like that. It was a mess because of the people who chose to use it as a forum to prove how insensitive and repugnant they could be in a short time. The chat lasted about ten minutes before it was shut down.
The D2football.com forum was shut down for a time for the same reason. Posting quickly deteriorated into mindless insults and totally unacceptable language. The site, which is functioning now, was brought back with a warning on the opening page about the intolerance D2football.com will have with a repeat performance of the initial effort.
For a time the posts were civil, but once again some posters have lowered the bar, seeking to see how far they can drag everyone else down.
I suppose that if you hand someone a microphone you better be prepared to accept whatever they say.
In this case D2football.com stupidly thought that if there was a spot for D2 fans to talk about football people would do it in a civilized way. It was sort of build it and they will come.
And they did - foul mouths and all.
They have also managed to bring with them a clear lack of understanding about much of anything football or D-II related.
Trashing another team might seem like fun, but what has always impressed me are the teams that are truly superior. They come onto a field, go through the game in workmen-like fashion and leave the field without feeling compelled to run the other team down verbally. This seems to suggest that good teams talk with the talent and keep their mouths closed.
Fans on the other hand, seem to think their best weapon is a wide-open mouth ready at any moment to accept their own foot.
I particularly like one post, however, that appeared to come from a Bloomsburg player who was fed up with posts from someone purporting to be a Bloom fan.
After commenting that he wished the trash would end on the forum, he added, "you don't play for Bloom and you are giving us a bad name."
Another post later suggested, "This forum was put up so that intelligent division II fans could discuss intelligent division II topics. All that it has turned out to be is a constant verbal assault on each other's teams. Now we are verbally insulting players too. This is ridiculous." He closed by saying, " Let's try to be civilized on this site and see if we can't be positive in the promotion of division II football. The players deserve it."
I read this last post wondering if the phrase intelligent Division II fans is an oxymoron.
The aborted chat with Josh Ranek and some of the most offending posts on the forum remind me of the very reason some people do not hold Division II sports in high regard. Sure fans of I-A teams at times act like fools, too, but just because they do is not a reason for public displays of stupidity on this site.
This all reminds me of a phrase used years ago to cover this type of behavior. It was bush, as in bush league.
Oddly for the most part it is not the players but rather those who would have us believe they are supporting the players who act like idiots. So I guess what we really have done here is give idiots a "microphone" to let all the world know that D-II is partly inhabited by people you would never hire for a job or be associated with in any way.
But as usual all of this is just my opinion and as you know I could be wrong.