Post Season Review

Well it is time to finally put a total wrap on the season, as it has been over for nearly a month and the post season awards have been done for a while. Overall the Crusaders finished with a 10-3 record with a perfect 8-0 record in the ASC. The Cru ended the year ranked 8th in both the D3football.com and AFCA poll marking the third year in a row the team has finished in the top 10. Finishing 8th in the nation out of 200 plus teams is amazing, however it is not where the Crusaders wanted to end the season. With all of our success, nothing short of a national championship is going to make everyone happy.

Now for the post season awards which includes 5 All-Americans, 8 All-South Region players, and 18 All-Conference players.

Jerrell Freeman was our most honored player as he was named to the 3 All-American lists including the AP Little All-America Team, the AFCA All-American Team, and and the D3football.com All-Ameriacn Team. The AP Little All-America Team is a team of the best in DII, DIII, and NAIA and Freeman is the 5th Crusaders to be honored by the organization. Freeman was selected as a member of the First Team on the D3football.com list, and the other 2 groups do not include more than one string of players. Freeman was also named to First Team All-South team made by D3football.com and was named to the First Team of the ASC All-Conference team.Freeman will surely become the leader of our defensive which should return 7 starters and continue their domination of offensives around the country.

Two other Crusaders were named to the D3football.com First Team All-American list. They include Josh Kubiak and Zach Newcomb, two seniors that will be very hard to replace next season. Kubiak was also named the ASC Defensive Player of the Year and will easily end his career as one of the best players our school has ever had. Newcomb was an amazing kicker and ended his career as the all time leader in points scored for UMHB.

Terrance Carroll and Caleb Woodall were named to the Honorable All-American list. Carrol is another senior who will leave big shoes to fill for our defensive tackles as he was named the ASC Defensive Lineman of the Year. Woodall was part of a line that better every game and will help anchor an offensive line that should all return everyone next season.

The All-South Region list was made by D3football.com and included 6 players on the First Team, 1 on the Second Team and 1 on the Third Team. Making up the 1st team included Josh Kubiak, Jerrell Freeman, Elliot Barcak, Jarvis Thrasher, Caleb Woodall, and Zach Newcomb. The second team player was Terrance Carrol and the third team player was Josh Littlejohn.

The ASC reward our perfect conference record by naming an amazing 18 players to the All-Conference team and giving us three of the individual awards. Coach Pete Fredenberg was named the Co-Coach of the year, and Kubiak and Carrol received their awards as mentioned earlier. Making the First Team roster included Josh Kubiak, Terrance Carrol, Jerrell Freeman, Eric Henri, Derrick Williams, Josh Littlejohn, Caleb Woodall, Jarvis Thrasher, and Zach Newcomb. The second team included Pete Medlock, Andrew Judy, Mel Williams, William Dewease, Ricky Lopez, and Hunter Hamrick. Josh Welch, Anthony Carter, and Freddie Rollins were also named to the Honorable Mention list.

Well this was a pretty long entry so I will write about the 11 seniors that won't be back next year in my next entry, so until then I hope you all have a good end to your break and I will see yall in class.

UMHB vs. Wesley College Game Review

UMHB vs Washington & Jefferson Game Review

By just looking at the scoreboard you would think that the game between us and W & J was a lot closer than the actual game. Now don't get me wrong, the President gave the Crusaders a little fright, but it really was not that close. The final score 30-27, includes for them 13 points that came off of turnovers that were unusual at best.

The offense for the Crusaders did something a little amazing at the game, they only passed the ball 3 times and completed only 1 the entire game. It worked out in that game, but even according to Coach Pete they will not work next weekend or anytime after that. The Cru finished with 397 yards of total offense, with 382 coming from rushing and 15 coming from passing.

Freddie Rollins and Jarvis Thrasher both had great games again as they punished the President defense. Thrasher led the way with 157 yards on 24 carries and Rollins had 128 yards on 22 carries. Josh Welch had the only rushing touchdown for the Crusaders as he rushed 8 times for 33 yards.

Josh Welch made his only completing of the game a good one as it went for a touchdown to Anthony Carter. The pass was a 15 yard strike that came right before half-time, and was a key in our victory.

Special teams played a vital role in the game as without it, we could have lost the game. Zach Newcomb scored 12 points in the game for the Cru, with 3 field goals and 3 PATs. His field goals were from 25, 25, and 55 yards out. The 55 yard field goal broke the UMHB record which was his of 52 yards, and this field goal probably could have gone for over 60 easily. Hunter Hamrick also had a good game with 2 punts for an average of 40.5, pinning one of them inside the 20. Joel Munoz also did good in the kickoff department with 7 kickoffs and 5 going for touchbacks.

The defense did exactly what they needed to beat W & J, by totally stopping the run. The President ended up with 278 total yards, with 48 coming from rushing yards. They took a guy that was averaging 126.3 yards and limited him to 32 yards.

Jerrell Freeman led the way for the Crusaders with 9 tackles. Elliot Barcak had a great game with 7 tackles, 2 broken up passes, and an interception that he took all the way back for a touchdown.

This game was most likely the last home game for the Crusaders which was sad, because of the small crowd, but it was another great season for the Cru in Belton. I will probably write about the Wesley game tomorrow, before I start my trip to Dover with a few friends. I encourage everyone who can make it to Delaware to go, because it’s a going to be a great game and a great experience.

UMHB vs. Washington and Jefferson

Thanksgiving break will have to end a a little early as the Crusaders will get another home playoff game against the Washington and Jefferson Presidents this weekend on Saturday. The Cru have played the President before on their way to the Stagg Bowl in 2004.

The Crusaders played W & J in the quarterfinals and built a quick 17-0 lead that led to a 52-16 victory for the Cru. The President were no where near ready for our speed and strength combination, but will certainly not be surprised this time. W & J is no rookie in D3 football as they make their 18th trip to the playoffs, with a 19-17 playoff record, making it to the national championship game in 1992 and 1994.

The President are 10-1 for the year, and beat Christopher Newport last week in their first round playoff game at CNU. In that game the Presidents jumped out to a 27-0 lead, but then let the Captains almost come back, winning 27-23.

The Presidents are a team pretty similar with UMHB as they have a great rushing attack and a great defense. Their offense averages 33.2 points, 194.8 rushing yards, 169.9 passing yards, for a total of 364.7 yards a game. This makes them the 46th best offense in D3 football in total offense, which doesn't look too impressive, but they do put up some big numbers. One thing that President do especially well is hold on to the ball when they have it with only 9 turnovers for the season ( 5 INT, 4 fumbles).

Their rushing attack is a one man show led by Ryan Mendel who has 1389 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns on 279 rushing attempts which averages out to be 126.3 yards a game. If the Crusaders stop him, the President don't really have a back up running plan as only one other player has over 50 carries for the season.

The Presidents do have a very efficient passing attack led by Bobby Swallow who has completed 70.9% of his passes this season. Swallow went 139 for 196 for the season for 1792 yards and 19 touchdowns. I know most teams have one dominate QB, but this team is another example of a team that has given their back up no game time, so if Swallow is injured for any reason they will have a basically no body behind him.

Swallow has spread the ball out evenly to four receivers who all have over 20 catches for the year. David Ravida has the most catches with 34, and scored 5 times for an average of 39.6 yards a game. Right behind him is Tom McCafferty with 33 catches and 7 touchdowns for an average of 41 yards a game. Peter Briggs is next with 27 catches with 3 touchdowns and an average of 38.5 yards a game. Lastly is Kevin Mathews with 21 catches and 4 touchdowns and an average of 20.7 yards a game.

The key to stopping this offense in my opinion is to stop the running back which with our defense is possibly. Like HSU last week this offense is too good to just stop, but we can limit them and force them to do things they don't want too. So in my opinion we must stop Mendel, and then we will control the game.

Backing up this offense is a very good defense that is very good at creating turnovers. The Presidents have forced 30 of them this season, with 20 interceptions and 10 fumbles. They give up on average 12.8 points, 117.1 rushing yards, 178.5 passing yards, for a total of 295.5 yards a game.

Leading them in tackles is linebacker David Gitlitz with 81 and right behind him another line backer Aaron Bane with 80 tackles. As a group they have recorded 22 sacks, with defensive end Dan Brodland leading with 8.5.

This defense is good, but in their lone loss of the season they gave up over 350 rushing yards. With this in mind, we can do what we want to do by running 75% of the time and we should be successful. If we can get good yards out of Rollins and Thrasher than we should be able to run like we usually do and pass when we think we need too.

Well the game is at 12:00 again with a 11:00 tailgate party I believe so everybody come out and support the Cru. Frankly the crowd last game sucked and the team deserves better. So do whatever tomorrow but then drive back to Belton and support our team. I hope everybody had a good thanksgiving and I will see yall on Saturday.

UMHB vs. HSU Part 2 Review

For the 2nd time this year and for the 6th time out of 7 the Crusaders again beat their biggest rival Hardin-Simmons to the tune of 33-21. The Crusaders worked their way to a sizable lead, then the Cowboys almost got back in the game, but the Crusaders took control and won the game.

I will start by talking about the offense which had a great game particularly the rushers who ended the day with 371 yards. Freddie Rollins really looked back to his old self as he ran for 158 yards and 1 touchdown on 27 carries. Rollins is now only 1 touchdown behind Justin Bryson for both the the UMHB and ASC record for rushing touchdowns. Jarvis Thrasher also had a great game with 132 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. Josh Welch had a good game with 79 yards and 2 touchdowns on 10 carries. The thing these men did the best was getting a good amount each time as Rollins had 5.9 yards a carry, Thrasher had 8.2 and Welch had 7.9.

The passing game of Josh Welch was not the best as he went 4 for 12 for only 36 yards. But he did not get sacked, did not throw an interception, and just did not force things to happen with the pass. Welch has proving that he can pass when he needs too, and obviously by looking at the rushing yards you can see he just did not need to pass well.

Catching those 4 passes was Jarvis Thrasher, Cole Smith and Kyle Green. Thrasher had 2 catches for 11 yards, Smith had 1 catch for 13 yards and Green had the last catch for 12 yards.

The defense had a great game as well, limiting the Cowboys to 160 yards below their season average of 463 yards. Jordan Neal did have a good game against the Crusaders with 288 yards through the air and 3 touchdowns. However the Cru sacked him 3 times and forced him to throw an interception. This means that for the year Neal threw 8 interceptions, and 4 of those came from our defense.

In the rushing department, the Crusader defense simply did not allow much of anything for the Cowboys as they were limited to 14 total rushing yards.

Leading the defense was Elliot Barcak who had 8 tackles with 2.5 tackles for a loss of 6 yards. Ricky Lopez also had a good game with 8 tackles and .5 tackles for loss of a yard. Jerrell Freeman had a great game with 7 tackles, 1.5 tackles for a loss of 21 yards, a sack for a loss of 20 yards, and forced the fumbled that led to a safety. Kelvin Kirby was the Crusader who intercepted the ball, but a couple of Crusaders could have had some but they were dropped.

The special teams for the Crusaders had a good game as well and Newcomb even broke a record in the game. Newcomb was tied with Justin Bryson with 246 points coming into the game and with his first PAT broke the record and finished the day with 253 points because of his field goal and 3 other PATs. Hunter Hamrick had a solid day with 5 punts for an average of 36.2 yards and pinned them inside the 20 three times. Joel Munoz also had a good game with 1 touchback and the Cowboys only managed 20 yards on their kick returns.  

Overall this was a close game at times, but the Crusaders stepped up big and get to move on to the next round against Washington and Jefferson who the Crusaders played on their run to the Stagg Bowl in 2004. But I will talk about them later, so until then have a good thanksgiving and I hope to see you on Saturday.