September 12th, 2001 12:00am
Week three of the 2001 season brings with it the beginning of conference play for most but not all D2 teams.
In the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Grand Valley’s visit to Northwood is the highlight conference contest. Based on what we saw preseason and what has happened so far this season, Grand Valley enters this game as the clear favorite.
As easy as it is to suggest that Grand Valley is the favorite to defeat Northwood this weekend it is easy to say there was no surprise in Hillsdale pulling out the win over Northwood last weekend. Two interceptions by Hillsdale’s defensive back, Patrick Duke, helped pull this game out for Hillsdale.
Grand Valley’s quarterback, Curt Anes, completed 23-of-34 passes for 395 yards and three scores in the win over Saginaw. Anes tossed TD passes of 98, 5 and 84 yards - the 98-yarder setting a school record. His 395 passing yards also set a new school mark. Anes has completed 41-of-57 passes (71.9 percent) for 625 yards and eight touchdowns in two games. Anes has attempted 145 passes without an interception and has been picked off only once since the Northwood game last season.
In contrast to prior years Grand Valley’s defense is part of the action. Prior to Saginaw scoring with 6:16 left in the game, Grand Valley had not yielded a point for the first seven and one-half quarters of the 2001 season. The win was the eight in a row for Grand Valley. The combination of a strong passing game and a clearly improved defense suggests that Grand Valley is the class of the GLIAC this season.
The other key Northeast Region game this weekend sends IUP to New Haven.
The New Haven Chargers appear to have one of their better units in the last few years. On offense New Haven returns seven starters, but hopes to replace the arm of quarterback Jason Barnett. Barnett set the school and New England record for most career touchdowns with 71. Sophomore Rob D'Innocenzio is the projected starter. D'Innocenzio backed-up Barnett last season. He played part of the time against both West Chester and Glenville with two backups getting a lot of playing time. Dawud Hanif, the Chargers' top back, rushed for a team-high 844 yards and three touchdowns last fall.
NH knows this game is crucial to its playoff hopes. Its wide-ranging schedule that puts the team all over the country in games against several I-AA teams means NH cannot afford too many D2 loses if it expects to be in the tournament. Lack of playoff participation the last several years has been a big issue for the team. This year looks like the best shot NH has had since it appeared in the D2 title game several years ago.
The game is equally important to IUP for many of the same reasons. For any team to make it to the tournament, it is unlikely it can have more than 2 losses, and that may be too liberal a guess. East Stroudsburg increasingly is looking like a team that will challenge in the PSAC East. ESU along with Bloom and IUP appear to be the best positioned to see post-season play. A win over New Haven would go a long way toward helping IUP’s playoff chances.
IUP is relatively healthy heading into this game. If this game matches previous contests with the Chargers, it will be a battle. This season it appears IUP's secondary will get a stiffer test than it had last year. Its secondary has to be up for this game and have an overall better performance than it had in the opener against Findlay.
A key imponderable in this game is the emotional impact the tragic accidental death of defensive back Tim Singel will have on IUP. Singel was a well-liked, integral part of IUP’s defense whose memory clearly will be in the forefront of many players’ minds this weekend. In honor of the deceased player, IUP will wear Singel’s number 29 on its helmets for the balance of the season.
In the Midwest, Emporia’s visit to Truman State highlights a relatively modest slate of interesting contests. Truman looks like it should prevail. Central Missouri State University hosting Missouri Western State College offers some intrigue also.
From a ranking standpoint, it appears highly unlikely any of the top-five rated teams have major jeopardy this weekend. In fact, through most of the top 25 there are not many obvious spots where an upset would be considered to have a high likelihood of occurring.
In light of this week’s events, talking football may seem to trivialize the catastrophic conditions in New York. At this time (early Wednesday), it is unclear what the NCAA or individual schools will do regarding this weekend’s games. The NCAA position on this has been that conferences and individual schools have authority to determine whether to play regular season games. Those playing league games this weekend may have a more difficult decision than those still playing non-conference opponents.
Regardless of the decisions made for this weekend, athletic contests will resume at some point. Regrettably, however, some schools in the Northeast area nearest to New York may have the most difficult decisions to make since students and players from those schools may have been personally impacted by the events in New York, including the potential loss of life in their own families.
For those people there is no level of condolences that sufficiently expresses our feelings about their grief. College sports in many respects display the best aspects of our nation. The ultimate shame is that this aspect of our country’s activities may be impacted by individuals whose values are dramatically different than those of the affected athletes and students – and most of the rest of us.
But this if life, I guess, in this era.