Let me open where I closed last week’s blog. With Franklin and Marshall football.
Back from Pittsburgh with a win over Carnegie-Mellon, the #25 Diplomats hosted perennial Centennial Conference powerhouse, #3 Johns Hopkins on Senior Day. A large contingent of F&M rooters (including yours truly and my wife) nearly packed the home grandstand on a cloudy day with temperature hovering in the mid 50’s.
This game marked the first time in CC history that two teams faced each other with perfect conference records in the final regular season contest. The winner would get one of 27 automatic bids to play in the NCAA Division III playoffs, with 13 at-large berths to be determined by a committee and announced on Sunday evening. While D III conferences don’t have championship games as part of their season, this was a de facto championship to decide which team would win the CC.
Hopkins was the favorite to win this game. They had a high NPI ranking in their region—much better than F&M. And looking at the size of the players for the Blue Jays, there was a definite disparity between JHU and F&M.
When I saw the schedule had F&M ending the regular season with CMU on the road and JHU at home, I felt that this was going to be too daunting for the Dips. Yet F&M showed moxie when they withstood a CMU run which put the Tartans ahead, and scored the winning TD and two point conversion to seal the victory.
CMU had played Hopkins earlier this year in Baltimore. The Blue Jays won that matchup 28-27, but the CMU people I spoke to in the press box last week said that their team, not JHU, should have won the game.
For much of the first half, JHU dominated F&M. They also received some help when the officiating crew awarded them pass interference calls while ignoring the same for F&M (they also didn’t call many obvious holding penalties agains JHU). F&M managed a late TD and extra point to make the halftime score 21-14 in favor of the Blue Jays.
From there, the two teams battled. F&M finally knitted the score in the fourth quarter, as the defense continued to thwart a talented JHU offense. An offense which made a final spurt to get into field goal range with just over two ticks left on the clock.
What would have been a heartbreaking loss for the Diplomats was saved by a blocked kick as time expired. Overtime loomed larger than ever, as it was a feeling of sudden death to determine the CC champion.
Hopkins scored a touchdown and converted the extra point. F&M was in the most critical place it could be in—score a TD or lose the game. The F&M side was in a frenzy.
Then it happened. F&M met the challenge of the Blue Jays defense and scored the TD they desperately needed. A kick would tie the score.
Except that Head Coach Mike Phelan elected to go for the win. His team had rallied time and time again. Could they muster just enough to take home the trophy?
With a fake into the line, Diplomats QB Ty Tremba arched a pass to an uncovered Louis Paris. He caught it. Game over. F&M won. Delirium ruled in Lancaster.
This was the first time since 1970 I had watched F&M play football in consecutive weeks. With a game like this, I don’t need to make the very hard trek to Lancaster any more. For this was the best F&M game I had ever seen—and likely will ever see. A win over a very solid team with NCAA championship ideations with everything on the line.
It is F&M’s first NCAA playoff berth in school history. So well-deserved. If the teams played each other 10 times, I would guess that JHU would win 8 or 9 times. They just didn’t win the one which counted the most.
On Sunday evening, the NCAA announced the selections for this year’s playoffs. Even with the loss to F&M, Hopkins was rewarded for its fine season with a home game on November 29th versus the winner of a play-in game between Springfield College and SUNY Cortland. If JHU prevails, they will host the winner of Salisbury University-Endicott College.
Meanwhile, the Diplomats’ first NCAA football playoff game will be in Lancaster also on November 29th. Their opponent will be Eastern University, the winner of the Middle Atlantic Conference, sporting a 9-1 record like F&M. Should F&M win, they will likely face an undefeated Christopher Newport University on the road; CNU won the New Jersey Athletic Conference title and was rewarded with a bye and then hosting the winner of the Susquehanna University-Washington & Jefferson College play-in game.
Hopefully there will be rabid F&M fans not too stuffed or hung over from Thanksgiving who will make the trek to Lancaster for the game and pack the home stands. I honestly have no clue how many Eastern fans will travel the roughly 55 miles to Shadek Stadium.
While I am tempted to make another trip to Lancaster, there won’t be another game which could match the JHU-F&M contest in intensity or the outcome for all the marbles in the CC. The foot-stomping, vociferous crowd made it difficult for Hopkins to call plays at times. That was a once-in-a lifetime game. I’m good watching the Eastern game on my computer.
Despite my fixation on my alma mater’s football team for the past two weeks, other things have happened in the sports world. Those events are far more important to a wider array of people than those interested in Division III sports.
In major college football, I got my first look at Ohio State. They thoroughly dominated UCLA in Columbus. The defending champs look worthy of a top ranking and appear ready to defend their crown. Poor Rutgers, in search of one more win to be bowl eligible, will have to wait until Penn State comes to Piscataway for that opportunity.
I have seen Georgia a few times. They are quite good; they throttled Arch Manning and a ranked Texas squad. Manning has great potential but he is far from ready for the NFL.
Even with Ohio State and Indiana at No. 1 and 2, the SEC seems to be stronger overall. Texas A&M survived a scare from South Carolina and overcame a 27 point deficit. Alabama was stunned by Oklahoma in Tuscaloosa, making the Crimson Tide’s to the playoffs that much more difficult. Add Mississippi and Vanderbilt to the mix along with Tennessee and the SEC could once more dominate the playoffs.
The big news in pro football was that the New York Giants finally pulled the plug on the misery created by Brian Daboll as head coach. It’s not going to right the ship immediately. But the intensity level versus Green Bay is indicative of a team that can succeed in the future.
As for the New York Jets, another stumble in New England. New England’s Drake Maye looks like a solid quarterback, running a smooth offense behind a solid offensive line. Head Coach Mike Vrable has the team performing well. He looks so right coming back to the team he played for and assuming the reins.
The top teams in the AFC appear to be Denver, Indianapolis and Buffalo, with nobody else really a contender. In the NFC, two divisions stand out. In the North, Chicago sports a 7-3 mark, closely followed by Detroit and Green Bay. Out West, the Los Angeles Rams downed Seattle for first place. San Francisco still looms large.
Who may be on the outside looking in? How about the Kansas City Chiefs? The once-powerful team of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and company has lost all five of games decided by one score. That is not a recipe for success. Indy comes to town next week. A return match on Christmas Night with Denver, which defeated the Chiefs with a field goal as time expired on Sunday, may be the key to KC’s chances to make the playoffs.
I will be seeing my first college basketball game of the season on Tuesday when American plays Rutgers. I spent a semester at AU in the Washington Semester Honors Program and I worked out with Kermit Washington, their All-American player while there; the weight room was a disgrace. I have attended classes at RU and did my pre-bar exam class there. You know I am rooting for the Scarlet Knights to prevail.
Finally, the MLB Awards were announced this week. No real surprises. For those thinking that Cal Raleigh, Jr. would be the AL M.V.P. over Aaron Judge—that was foolish thinking. Judge had a way better year. Judge and NL winner Shohei Ohtani are the best players in baseball.
As for pitchers, Tarik Skubal of Detroit repeated as the AL Cy Young recipient. Pittsburgh phenom Paul Skenes was the deserving winner in the National League. No doubts there. The bigger stories involved the Tigers and Pirates trading their star players, as they are unaffordable to those franchises once they become eligible for bigger contracts. Such a shame, especially in the Steel City, where the loyal fans yearn for a rerun of the glory days in the late 1960’s and ’70’s.
For me, the storyline was trips to Pittsburgh and Lancaster on successive Saturdays to root my alma mater to victory. A F&M victory for the ages. The rest of the events in the sports world were just normal happenstance.
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