Catching up on a few weeks of football

Ah yes, Hat Trick returns after a two-week hiatus (I’ve probably been having too many of these in the past few months). But, in my defense, it was mid term week, followed by fall break, so please excuse my recent absence. And though Hat Trick wasn’t blogging much, that doesn’t mean the D-III football slowed down one bit. Let’s take a look at how the season is shaking out, and what lies ahead for the playoffs.

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Monday Morning Quarterback

This weekend Hat Trick had the opportunity to travel up to Alfred, N.Y. for a little getaway. One thing that become immediately clear to me Saturday afternoon - the Saxons are good this year. Really, really good.

Alfred destroyed St. Lawrence 49-19, one week after blowing past Thiel 34-7. For you math lovers, Alfred has outscored their opponents 83-26. That’s a pretty ridiculous point differential. Skeptics will be quick to point out that the Saxons’ next game comes against reigning co-Empire 8 champion Springfield College.

However, the Pride are coming off a bad 33-30 loss to Montclair State, and don’t appear to have the same magic as last year’s squad. Chris Sharpe is still a beast, but Springfield simply lost too many starters on defense for Sharpe to compensate for. If Alfred does get past Springfield, as I expect them to, they won’t face another tough challenge until their final game of the season at St. John Fisher. At this point in the season, the Empire 8 looks to be a two-team race between Fisher and Alfred, which pretty much no one would have expected three weeks ago.

Some other things I learned this weekend: Read more

Monday Morning Quarterback

So it rained this weekend - a lot. There was even an hour-long rain delay in the Ithaca-King’s football game. OK, so the game was technically delayed because of nearby lightning, but seriously, the weather was crazy.

But being stuck inside isn’t always a bad thing. Case in point: Saturday and Sunday were a sports fan’s dream. College football all day on Saturday and the return of NFL Sundays. I spent the majority of my Saturday watching the Ithaca-King’s game on TV, safely away from the rain.

Some thoughts from that game: Knowing that St. John Fisher pounded King’s 49-7 in the opening week, Ithaca should have beat the Monarchs by a lot more than 13 points. I know, I know - a win is a win is a win. But this doesn’t bode well for the Bombers. They welcome Fisher to Butterfield Stadium in two weeks, and if they hope to pull off the upset win, they’d better start taking care of business. They’ll get a good test this coming Saturday in Hartwick, which sports one of the nation’s top offenses, not to mention arguably the top all around player in the country in Lindy Crea.

Click to read my other thoughts and musings from the wild weekend that was: Read more

‘Quarterback’ Sharpe racks up rushing yards

Let?s have a round of applause for the Atlanta Falcons? Michael Vick. No, not for his recent legal troubles, but for becoming the first ever NFL quarterback to break 1,000 yards rushing in a single season. Impressive to say the least, but wasn?t Vick touted as a running back with a cannon arm? Scouts called him a hybrid player for the new era of professional football. And indeed he has been just that.

But with all he has accomplished, Vick can?t hold a candle to Springfield College junior quarterback Chris Sharpe. Why exactly can?t Vick, a 6-foot, 215-pound former 1st overall pick in the NFL draft, compete with Sharpe, a 5-foot-nine-inch, 204-pound quarterback from Derry, New Hampshire? Consider Sharpe?s stats from this past year for a moment: 261 rushing attempts, 1,941 rushing yards, 35 rushing touchdowns. Hell, LaDainian Tomlinson didn?t even have these kinds of numbers.

Staggering would be putting it mildly. Especially when you consider his passing numbers: 15-of-38, 39% completion percentage, 476 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. The fact that Sharpe is a converted running back helps to explain a lot. But his video game-type season can mostly be attributed to the Pride?s triple-option offense. To explain it simply, it means that Springfield runs the ball on nearly every play. Case in point: the Pride had 716 rushing attempts, compared to 40 passing attempts.

Sharpe finished with the second-most rushing yards in Division-III and the most rushing touchdowns in Division-III (by a nine-touchdown margin). Was Sharpe?s season a byproduct of the Pride?s offensive game plan, or just an unbelievable individual campaign? While that?s hard to tell, at least we all will have the pleasure of watching just how many yards he can rack up in his senior year.

That is, unless you?re the team playing him. Good luck with that.