This is the time of the year that I dread the most, the realization that it’s finally all over. I know it’s the Christmas season and that I should be festive and happy but how can I be after watching two great National Championship games that wonderfully tied together a very good set of playoffs. While it’s true we do have one game left in the FCS, that game is not for over two weeks and in that time I don’t know what I’m going to quite do with myself. The first thing though is that I’m going to offer my sincere congratulations to our 2011 National Champions. Congratulations to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Pittsburgh State for coming through when the most was asked of you and persevering.
We’ll start with the Stagg Bowl which has the most history, back drop, and story line of any championship game played. This was the seventh consecutive meeting for UWW v. Mount Union in the Stagg Bowl, and if you didn’t read my article earlier this year on dynasties, suffice it to say these two are the models of what a dynasty is. UWW came in riding a two-game winning streak over Mount Union and left with a three-game winning streak.
As for the game itself, the matchup between the two powers was a hard fought defensive battle that came down to the final drive. Both teams combined for only 448 yards total offense which was three yards under what Mount Union alone averaged per game this season. Neither Jeremy Murray nor Levell Coppage could get much of anything going, with each held to under 100 yards on the day and combined to average only 2.7 yards per carry. The defenses carried these teams and in the end the difference was the ability of UW-Whitewater to jump out early and get a 10-0 lead going into the fourth quarter. That small lead allowed UW-Whitewater to kick a FG in the fourth and put the game just far enough out of reach for the Purple Raiders.
Now, let’s move over to the Division II title game.
Wayne State came into this game determined stop the Gorillas rushing attack and they did a good job doing that by holding Pittsburgh State to only 187 rushing yards on the day. What they did not want or need was the four turnovers they had, three by way of interceptions from QB Mickey Mohner. Giving up field position and chances is not something you can ever do when playing a team as talented as Pittsburgh State is. QB Zac Dickey was effective through the air for Pittsburgh State despite throwing two picks. He went 10 of 16 for 190 yards and a score and most importantly got the ball into the hands of Pitt St’s 2nd most dangerous playmaker in WR John Brown. Brown didn’t have a score, but did go for five catches and 99 yards. On the other side there was another All-American caliber WR in Troy Burrell; unfortunately for the Warriors the combination of Mohner’s accuracy issues and blanket coverage by Elijah Olabode led to Burrell only hauling in one ball for 15 yards.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Toney Davis’s effort in this game. The playmaking sophomore came into this game with an ankle injury but with Josh Renel down after flipping over the metal bench on the sideline, Davis found a way. He ran for 178 on 28 carries and averaged 6.3 ypc. He along with DB Jeremy Jones were the lone bright spots for this Wayne State team that saw its Cinderella story sadly slip away.
In the FCS we had two semi-finals games that weren’t all that close, despite one having a score that made it appear so.
In the first matchup Sam Houston State (or as I shall refer to them as this point on, Tim Flanders) beat up on a Montana Grizzly defense that looked over matched and unable to do much of anything v. this ground attack. Flanders ran for 298 yards on 26 touches in this game and averaged over 11 yards per carry. Meanwhile across the country to the Northern border the Bisons dismantled the Eagles of Georgia Southern in a fashion that we haven’t seen in quite some time. Everything that could go wrong for the Eagles did and the Bisons were they to capitalize. RB’s DJ McNorton, and Sam Ojuri combined with QB Brock Jensen to rush for 288 yards against a very good Eagles defense. Anytime you put a triple option team down that much they have to abandon the run and try and throw the ball which the Eagles are not equipped to do. The Bison defense was swarming all game long and had six tackles for loss and were flying all over the field. The Bison’s will take on the Bearkats in Frisco, Texas on January 7th. This game has
the makings of living up the billing that both the Division II and Division III games set for it.
That’s it for me for a couple of weeks, I’ll be back to preview the FCS National Championship game and write one final wrap up piece before I go into off season slumber mode and concentrate fully on the NFL Draft in April.
For all Matt Elder’s small-school college football insight, follow him on Twitter @MatthewCElder.
