December 5th, 2000 12:00am
Last week's semifinal games proved the old adage about playing the games on the field. Had they not been, North Dakota State and UC-Davis would be in Florence, Alabama this weekend for the Division II national championship game.
But the games were played. Two teams that were not on any radar screens when the season began came away victorious and now will vie for the D-II national title.
North Dakota State Bison fans might argue that they were cheated of a home game, that field conditions in Cleveland Mississippi were poor; and that injuries forced it to go with a rookie quarterback. But in the end all of these are excuses. The Bison lost - period.
The Bison had their chances. In a game played by both teams positioning themselves to get the stiff wind at their backs, the Bison had the favorable breeze blowing behind them in the third quarter. And what did they do with it? Nothing.
The Bison lack of third quarter scoring essentially ended the game and handed the Delta State Statesmen a trip to Florence. Although it is doubtful, maybe the Bison showing will stop the "we are the best conference" argument. If you measure conferences by title game appearances, the Gulf South now holds the lead 7-6 over the North Central folks.
UC-Davis has no one to blame but itself for its loss to Bloomsburg. Sporting a 19-point lead to start the fourth quarter, allowing Bloomsburg to score 29 unanswered points is unforgivable. No team can do that and expect to claim they are a championship-caliber team.
Perhaps more than any team this year, Bloomsburg proved the point that football is a team sport.
There are excellent athletes on the Huskies' squad, but stars do not dominate their winning formula. The formula was merely getting good athletes to work together.
There has been a gripe from Bloomsburg fans that the team was cheated in not having many players represented on All-America teams. We don't think so. Considering the vastness of the D-II landscape, throughout the country there are many excellent players that deserved their post-season selection as All-Americans. But that's not what this is all about. Most of those All-Americans are not playing for the national championship. The Huskies' team is.
Bloomsburg's first entry into the D-II playoffs came in 1985. A first round win was followed by a season-ending loss to North Alabama, the host school for the D-II national championship.
The Huskies want to avoid a repeat of an interesting coincidence with the 1985 season. The Huskies are on a 12-game winning streak after starting the year 0-2. In 1985 the Huskies won 12 games in a row before losing to the eventual national runner-up, North Alabama, in the semifinals that year. (Note that in 1985 the D-II tournament had one less game than is played under the current format) The only other Husky appearance in the D-II tournament came in 1996 when it lost a first-round contest to Clarion, which eventually moved on to the semifinals against Northern Colorado.
A post on this site's forum board this week stated that the Huskies are successful, not because of their head coach, Danny Hale, but rather because Bloom has very competent assistants coaches. We can't argue about the competency of the Husky assistants, but the post fails to recognize who hired the assistants. One of the key tasks for a head coach is to assemble a competent staff. Hale has done that. For this and many other reasons, the American Football Coach's Association picked Hale as the Northeast Region coach of the year.
Bloomsburg is a relatively small school, which is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.
Located in the northeast quadrant of Pennsylvania, Bloom is situated in a picturesque mountain area that in the shadow of Happy Valley, home of the Nittany Lions. On most weekends, the Huskies lose the battle for attendance to the Lions.
But attendance has not been a key issue at Bloom. Improving its overall athletic performance has.
Despite its relatively small size, increasingly Bloom has become a major factor in most of its intercollegiate sports. Football was one of the last to match the improvement in other sports.
Bloom's football improvement started eight years ago when coach Hale arrived. Since then he has posted the most career wins by any Bloom coach (64).
Seeing Bloom in the national final has to irk the folks at West Chester, one of Bloom's PSAC East Division foes. Hale was the head coach at West Chester for five years where he had a combined 40-13 record.
As we have consistently heard the story, politics forced Hale out of West Chester and into coaching hibernation for four years until he got a call from Bloomsburg. The rest, as they say, is history. Hale is 6-2 against his old school since coming to Bloom.
Led by a journeyman quarterback, Eric Miller, Bloom has not dramatically outscored its opponents, but its late-season performance has been nothing shy of spectacular. Miller has a phenomenal 59.5 percent completion percentage for more than 3000 yards.
While most teams are happy to have one solid running back, Bloom has two that have amassed a total of 2715 total net yards, two-thirds of which have been tallied by Marques Glaze with the other third coming from Arrastene Henry.
Bloom was nearly derailed enroute to the title game. A one-point win over Millersville and a seven-point win on the road against Kutztown were critical games, but the big one came on the road in the 35-28 defeat of Slippery Rock in the team's regular season finale.
What got Bloom to the title game? According to Hale it was, "senior leadership"
Bloom scheduled its opener against Carson-Newman and told his team that the game would be a test of whether it could stand up to stiff national competition.
The seniors embarked on a rigid off-season regimen to prepare for the "test". So diligent was the team's off-season preparation that even Hale was surprised. He remembers telling people at the time that he hoped "good things would happen for them." They have.
Bloom lost the Carson-Newman game, but a bounce or two here and there and the game could have been won. It did, however, show that Bloom could compete with D-II's best.
A loss the next week to Shippensburg was partly the result of losing several players to injuries and heat-related ailments. Shipp also was at full strength in that game. A season-ending injury to its quarterback later took the steam out of any hopes Shipp had for a big season
Nagging problems at wide receiver were an issue for a few games. Ron Lelko was the only receiver Bloom could count on, but finally Tierell Johnson stepped up to fill the void. From that point on Bloom's offense started to gel.
In Delta State Bloom faces a team with a strong quarterback and good passing game. Saginaw had a good - maybe great - passing game that Bloom handled by taking away the deep routes and allowing Saginaw to hit short passes but not game-breakers.
The bend-but-not-break approach to defense that seems to be Bloom's defensive scheme is an overly simplistic view of how Bloom plays the game. In reality it has a very competent defense that can totally shut weaker teams down and does what it has to do to stay in games against top-notch competition. A very strong and fast deep secondary prevents anyone throwing deep. In part, the failure of both Slippery Rock and UC Davis to recognize the capabilities of Bloom's secondary put the Huskies in the final. Both teams did not take the short pass, which Bloom offered them, and instead tried unsuccessfully to force the ball deep.
This year's title game is made even more interesting when you consider the similarities between the two teams. Like Bloom the Delta State Statesmen like to ram the ball down your throat, but they pass just enough to keep teams honest.
Also Like Bloom, Delta's running attack focuses on two people, quarterback Josh Bright who my colleague at D2football.com, Jeff Whitten, called the best D2 quarterback he has seen play, and running back Rico McDonald who some argue is one of the best backs in D-II. They have combined for more 2871 yards nearly equally divided between them.
Not unlike Bloomsburg, Delta State did not have an easy season. Perhaps its two most critical games were the regular season defeat of Valdosta State followed by another win over Valdosta in the playoffs. Containing the dangerous Dusty Bonner and the capable receivers at Valdosta prepared the Statesmen for what they may face this weekend.
The big task Bloomsburg faces is stopping the option attack of the Statesmen. Although Bloom fans might find solace in the way Bloom handled Northwood's option, make no mistake about it. Delta State runs the option much more effectively with better athletes doing the running.
But Bloom has a decided edge throwing the ball. Quarterback Eric Miller has thrown 14 touchdown passes so far in the playoffs, which surpasses the record of 13 set by Chris Griesen of Northwest Missouri State in 1998. Miller needs just 252 yards passing to break the NCAA D-II tournament record for net yards passing set by Chris Crawford of Portland State in 1988. Bloom receiver Mike Lelko has caught seven touchdown passes in the tournament tying the record set in 1977.
Although the consensus deep into the season still did not suggest either Delta State or Bloomsburg would be in this game, the contest might be far more interesting than had the consensus picks prevailed. The game pits two evenly matched teams in what should be a barnburner, but one that hopefully will not end up as another four overtime marathon stomach-churner like last year's title game was.
Kickoff for this game is at 1 PM. The game will be televised on ESPN.
Concurrent with the national title game will be the announcement of the winner of the Harlon Hill award. This years three finalists include North Dakota State running back Lamar Gordon, Nebraska-Kearney quarterback Justin Coleman and quarterback Dusty Bonner from Valdosta. The winner will be announced at the traditional Award banquet Friday evening before the game.