Musings of an old "smart dog"

 As we wait patiently for the season to start and recruiting to end, I had some free time to put down some thoughts.  Read them at your own risk.

First I would like to welcome all the new coaches to Rockne D2.  Akua29 has done an exceptional job making Rockne a place to be to play this game.  I don't have a lot of history with most of the new coaches, but there are three I'm gonna call out.  Coming out of a self-induced retirement after winning multiple titles at Midwestern State, Dessasdad05 takes over at Glenville to give those three old-times in the SAC a run for their money and hopefully pushes them all to higher levels.  In time, I hope to renew my out of conference rivalry with him.  The second coach is Pete_61 taking over at Texas A&M-Kingsville.  From being a personal witness and being on the wrong end seven out of eight times against his powerhouse Hillsdale team in Camp where he has won 13 of the last 14 national championships, it will be interesting to see how long it takes him to become a top-5 team.  Texas A&M-Commerce and coach Akua29, you have been served notice to watch out.  The third coach is Mojolad joining the PSAC at Slippery Rock.  He has won national championships in several different worlds.  I haven't had much, if any, luck against him either.  Just maybe I should schedule TAMK and SR for some OOC games now before they get their teams set up; I sure could use a few career wins against their coaches.

After looking thru next season's scheduled OOC games for the human-coached teams, there are a few teams that deserved recognition.  I know there are pros and cons in scheduling human-coached teams and the number of other human-coached teams in your conference also plays a factor, but for this article none of that is considered.  The following teams currently have games scheduled against three human-coached teams (HCT from now on):  Chadron St, Edinboro, and Henderson St.  With four HCT games, West Liberty St and Ouachita Baptist will have more chances to be chosen for Game of the Night honors (shameless plug).  And all by themself at the very top with five HCT games is Winona St.

My early picks to be a surprise team and possibly earn their coach Coach of the Year honors are North Alabama, Humboldt St, and Winona St.  My surprise teams have to be outside the top 10 in the rankings and have a chance to make it to the Elite Eight.

Lastly, my picks to win the 12 conference championships:  CIAA-Virginia St, GLIAC-Northern Michigan, GSC-Valdosta St, LSC-Texas A&M-Commerce, MIAC-Cheyney, NCIC-Humboldt St, NE10-Long Island, NSIC-Winona St, PSAC-West Chester, RMAC-Midwestern State, SAC-Tusculum, and SIAC-Saint Joseph's.

Agree or disagree with my choices for surprise team or conference champion, I invite you to post your choices or changes in the Rockne forum.

I hope everyone had or will finish with a successful recruiting season.  Don't forget to schedule your three preseason games.