Coach Ben McEnroe

If you hadn’t figured it out in earlier, cryptic posts, I'm predicting Linfield to win the NCAA Division III football championship. I was out ahead of that in about week one or two, but obviously I’m not going to say that during our season.  I’ve seen them on film several times and think this might be their best team;

Recruiting is off to a cautiously optimistic start. Several key transfers look to be arriving at the mid-semester, but we have a lot of work to do in recruiting this off-season. Not only do we need to build for the future, but we need to find players who can compete RIGHT NOW;

I am still shocked at the caliber of the running backs in the SCIAC in 2015, it was impressive. To witness all-time rushing leaders at three schools at the same time was a pain in the rear for DCs in Southern California, but as a fan, wow! 

Overall, while there was impressive skill talent at more schools than ever (see above), I felt like our conference was down a bit this past season. The conference race will once again be wide-open in 2016. Parity will reign; 

I’ve spent a lot of time meeting and listening to our returning players as we put 2015 to bed. The thing I appreciate most is the open dialogue, and I will be taking a long, hard look and reflecting upon the words of our players as we prepare for 2016;

Good luck to everyone heading into finals week. Better you than me;

I’ve been involved with two reality TV shows on the History Channel from their inception; The Curse of Oak Island and Hunting Hitler. All I can say is that you better give me something tangible sooner than later or else I’m out;

Final edition before the playoffs.  Might go into the playoff prediction waters once the bracket is released.  Staying local for now:

Whittier at Chapman: The Panthers were the SCIAC enigma of the year, but they're playing angry right now. The Poets are trying to avoid the ohfer, they will have their hands full.

Redlands at Oxy: Redlands was the most physical team we faced this season, Oxy is the most talented at the skill positions. Something will have to give.

Pomona-Pitzer at CMS: I used to love this game, but playing for a street sign has taken the luster off of this one for me. I’m out, and I won’t even check the score on the ride home.

West Region Game of the Week:  #2 Linfield at PLU. I’m all about tradition, and this is a nice traditional rivalry, best suited to be played on the final weekend of the season. Order-up some wind and rain, dump some mud between the hashes, give the NWC auto bid to the winner, and let’s travel back to 1980s the best we can.  This edition is a mismatch royal in 2015, but it’s my pick because of the tradition and history of the rivalry.

My dad had a saying that I heard during my teenage years quite often: the cows don’t know it’s Christmas. Or Thanksgiving, or your birthday, or any other holiday or special occasion. Loosely translated, it means get your butt out of bed, no matter what day it is, put your boots on, and get to work. There are others that depend on you. Don’t feel sorry for yourself, nobody else does, see it through. Accomplish the task at hand. Move on.

Well Carl, the cows (or the Leopards or Tigers or Stags) don’t know where this team is at right now. Nor do they care. Time to get-up, put on your boots, and get back to work. Don’t feel sorry for us, or for them, pity gets you nowhere. Pointing fingers is useless. Do your part. Can you look yourself in the mirror at night when you’re brushing your teeth and say, “I gave my best, my all, for Cal Lutheran Football today?”

Saturday night was a winnable game, eventually won by the team that played at a higher level for a longer period of time. Inconsistency has been an issue with this group. What causes inconsistency? A lot of things, and I will address those issues in private with this team. Football takes every guy in the program, not just the 11 on the field at one time, to be focused, to pay attention to detail, to be accountable, and to give great energy and effort at all times.  Young people should understand that their attitude is contagious, and the choices that they make regarding their attitude come with consequences.

Here we come, down the home stretch...

Not the best game of the week, but certainly the most important: La Verne at Pomona-Pitzer. Win and you’re in for the Leos for the first time since ‘94.

The best game of the week is that team from the east at Chapman. Nobody anticipated this being a match-up of two teams with a combined five victories in ten SCIAC games, but nobody outside of a five mile radius of greater-Claremont would’ve projected the current standings. Going to be interesting to see if the Dawgs can corral J-Mac and the Panthers offensively. Still two of the more talented teams in the SCIAC.

CMS at Whittier.  The only drama here is the Poets playing for their first victory of the season. Last I checked, young Andrew Segre was still running loose somewhere...

West Region Game of the Week: Bad weekend of mismatches.  Probably #13 St. John at Bethel, but that is so 2011. I will tell you this: the 2015 National Champion will come from the West, and I believe that they will come from the West Coast...

Probably the most-asked question I’ve fielded now for three weeks goes something like this: “What’s the deal with La Verne and CMS being at the top of the SCIAC?” Here’s the deal: they have good players. When a program wants to get good in Division III football, it is not a hard thing to do. It just takes the entire village to make it happen, and that’s what’s happening at those places. Is either of those programs poised to run the table for a few years? I don’t think so, and feel free to tack that up on your bulletin boards and I’ll eat crow if you pull it off, I’m just sharing a professional opinion. What I see coming to the SCIAC is parity with multiple conference champs over the course of the next 3-5 years. Sure, someone may win a couple during that stretch, but you are more likely to see tighter races than a dynasty. Why? Because we’re all now drawing from a very similar pool of players. When that happens, parity exists. 

I was impressed with the Tailback at CMS,  Andrew Segre. I haven’t seen a guy do more with smaller openings than that guy in a long, long time. Reminded me a bit of Dan Mosier stylistically; not nearly as elusive or fast, but had a knack for hitting it hard and making things happen. I didn’t think that team was the most talented team we’ve faced in the conference, but they play well together and believe they can win, which goes a long way with young people. Heck, that goes a long way with any people! There’s your message for the day: BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, commit fully to what your doing, and positive things will happen.

This weekend will determine “survivors” in the chase for the SCIAC title with a couple of key games, one being ours with CMS:

Chapman at La Verne: Mathematically-speaking, the Panthers need to beat the Leos for any of us to realistically have a shot at grabbing a slice of the pie. A ULV victory keeps them perfect in SCIAC with two games to play, with them holding the tie breaker with the current second-place team. A Chapman victory drops the Leos one game closer to the pack with two to play. Most intriguing conference championship race we’ve seen in a long time in these parts;

Oxy at Pomona: The Tigers are very, very good offensively with probably the best group of skill players in the Conference, top to bottom. The Hens need to eat clock, score when they have opportunities, and continue to play stingy defense to win this one.

Whittier at Redlands: The Poets are struggling. The Dawgs have been up-and-down. Redlands is the better football team.

West Region Game of the Week:  Probably Chapman at La Verne, but not many people would get excited to see the 2-4 Panthers at the 5-1 Leopards unless your kid is playing! Hey, I’ll watch it... There is also the Battle for Tacoma, PLU vs. Puget Sound.

Not good on a professional level. Brandman played their best game of the season, we played our worst game, and the score showed. They did a nice job, I have nothing bad to say. Shout out to #33 Conner Larkin for saying hi and thanks for reading my blog. Good luck to you guys down the stretch.

Bus ride down there was miserable, no AC in the offensive bus, driver tried to get off on both the 60 and 91 freeways, not cool. Literally, not cool in that bus. Coming home, he drove us right into the teeth of the I-5 closure and a surface street tour of East Los Angeles. Pretty typical of the night.

Oxy at CMS. Zinda Field has been good to the Stags lately. I won’t do the research, but my guess is they’ve won the majority of the games there over the past two seasons. Oxy has it going on offense, I expect this one to be one of the higher scoring games of the weekend.

Pomona-Pitzer at Whittier. I haven’t seen the Poets on film since we played them and I saw the Sagehens last weekend in person. This one will be a defensive struggle, I ride Aseal to win.

LaVerne at the school east of here. Angry Bulldogs playing a night game for Homecoming at the Runner. The Leos are putting-up crazy offensive numbers. We will know a lot more about ULV after Saturday night, something has to give...

Best 1-4 team in the nation. Defending champs, playing at home, coming off of a tough loss. 

Nice win by the Kingsmen, a lot of kids got into the game. Topsy-turvy weekend around the SCIAC, it reminds me of the mid-90s when I was a strapping, young O-line coach with a man-crush on the Inside Zone play (from under Center, of course) and LaVerne was in first place. Watched a bunch of Brandman film last night, I am perplexed by how that team is 1-4. Not my business, I’m sure they’re wondering the same thing. Kwame Do from Oxy looks GOOD. In fact, he may replace Aseal Barir as my favorite player not wearing purple. Barir looked good, as usual, against us, but Do is like a one-man force of mayhem and destruction. Love what Smitty is doing with the Wildcat Power over there.

I was talking with another coach last night and wished him well against the wrong opponent, so I may have DQ’d myself from writing this...

The Dawgs at CMS: Last week I warned the Stags about the hangover that followed their victory over Brandman, but I am pretty certain that the team from east of here won’t let something like that happen.  If CMS is going to win this game, they’ll have to force turnovers (something we didn’t do) and take advantage of field position (something else we didn’t do). I don’t foresee an upset unless UR opens the door.

Brandman at Oxy: Loser is pretty much out of contention in the SCIAC race. This will be a fun film to watch when it is time to watch it. Two of the premier tailbacks in the SCIAC going head-to-head make this one worth the price of admission. 

Whittier at LaVerne: ULV has been good on the ground one week, good through the air another. The Poets are struggling defensively, they will have to make this one a track meet to get the road W.

West Region Game of the Week: Nothing interests me.

Going with a name change. This is a question I answer every day, so rather than the traditional “Opponent Preview”, I’m changing it to “So, how does so-and-so look?”

Here’s my take on Pomona-Pitzer: they are good defensively and have one of the top tailbacks in the Conference. How good is that defense? They have held 3-of-4 opponents to <300 yards of offense, and held Brandman, one of the better rushing teams in the nation last season, to 79 yards on the ground! That is no joke, big boy defense. The Panthers Jeremiah McKibbins is a stud tailback, and he averaged 3.3 YPC last Saturday. The Sagehens have a legitimate front seven that will be a tremendous challenge for us.

My fascination with Aseal Birir is no secret. I just hope he says hi to me in pre-game warm-ups. P-P tailbacks haven’t spoken to me since Luke Sweeney ran over to me and our Defensive Coordinator, Scott Beattie, and yelled in our faces to “buckle up, boys!” prior to the 2011 contest... Aseal would never do that, but he will try to run over and around my players. Pomona’s offense is fairly balanced, they will try to run the ball and throw a multitude of formations at you, and are trying to determine which QB will give them the best chance to win.

Needless to say, there was a sour taste in my mouth when i left the building yesterday afternoon. There were a lot of bitter pills to swallow: the finality of the loss, the penalties, the fumbles, coming inches short several times and the agonizing decisions that accompany those situations, the hurting kids in the locker room, etc. It was tough, and no way to kick-off the annual Homecoming festivities. My head was pounding, I was hangry, and I was bitter.

On the walk over the bridge to the park, I realized that I had to put my money where my mouth is and live in the moment. The game was over, we weren’t getting it back, and all I had was what was in front of me. One step at a time. And what I realized was that, in that moment, I was exactly where I was supposed to be, surrounded by family, then old friends, and former players, and classmates, and fellow employees of our University, and it picked me up. 

I’ve spent a lot of time in my life lamenting over lost football games, rehashing calls and decisions and plays, sometimes throwing a one-man pity party, and definitely not much of a companion to be around. Probably worse than you can imagine. But over the course of these past 10 months, I feel like the Lord has given me perspective like I’ve never had, and yesterday, in my lowest moment, He reminded me to live in the moment. And I am so thankful for that, because, in spite of what the scoreboard read, I was surrounded by love, and I want to thank my family and friends for helping me move forward. Bitterness and pity can cause us to go blind to the beauty of our surroundings, and I am happy that my eyes were open.

The Smudge Pot game at our place takes the cake as far as intrigue goes in the SCIAC. Best game on the slate, bar none. However, there are still three other conference games that have to be played:

The Battle for the Shoes: Oxy at Whittier. If you were a diehard SCIAC football fan, you would come to Thousand Oaks at 1:05, then drive out to Whittier by 7:00 for the 69th or so meeting where these two old foes play for some bronzed shoes. I’m a sucker for history, and rivalries, and great rivalry trophies. Since the Peace Pipe disappeared, this one has become the grandaddy of the SCIAC trophies. Nothing against our Smudge Pot, that thing is awesome, but when the game trophy has been around for seven decades, we must pay homage. As far as the game is concerned, I liked Whittier’s squad, but as I foretold, turnovers are their undoing. Get that fixed and they will have a chance.

CMS at LaVerne: The perks of working in the greater-Claremont metroplex... a five minute bus ride to play LaVerne. Both teams can run the football, but CMS appears on paper to be better defensively. Homecoming for the Leos, and the Stags must avoid the hangover after beating Brandman (dang it, it keeps happening) Chapman at their place on their Homecoming. I won’t be surprised by the outcome of this game unless someone attempts more than 30 passes. Too close to call.

Chapman at Pomona: The Hens host the Panthers in a 1:00 tilt. Here’s my problem with Pomona: Aseal Birir only has 52 carries on the season. Now, my buddy Roger Caron is probably saving him to carry the ball 40x against us, but if he’s healthy, you gotta ride that train! Obviously, I don’t know the inner-workings at the other places, but I really like the way that dude runs with the football. I haven’t looked at any of Chapman’s film yet so I have no idea what is going on down there but I do know they played one heck of a preseason schedule. I can tell you from experience that that will either take a toll or help you to win a conference title. The loss to CMS does not knock the Panthers out of title contention, but a loss at Pomona would.

West Region Game of Interest: Pacific at #3 Linfield. Pacific is not running the ball as effectively this season as they have in years past, but they are putting-up good numbers through the air. However, they will be facing what is traditionally one of the best pass rushing teams in the nation this weekend, on the road. Linfield will score, will Pacific be able to keep-up?