D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast

D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast

The OG among Division III football podcasts, part of Division III football and D3football.com since 2007.

  1. 3D AGO

    ATN Podcast 386: Too early surprises, disappointments

    It's sad to think that we are already phasing out of Great Non-Conference Game Season, but at least it is leaving us with some quality memories. Yes, Mary Hardin-Baylor and UW-Whitewater still get to grace us with their presence, and so do Springfield and UW-Platteville, and Johns Hopkins and Susquehanna, but ... well, OK, we'll hold on for one more week. Meanwhile, the rest of the ranked teams got on the field this week in Week 2, as did the NESCAC, and Case Western Reserve managed to get through and finish a game. We'll talk quite a bit about the new quarterback situation at North Central, and how the answer was not really what people thought it would be, or thought they had discovered. We'll do the same with the quarterback situation at St. John's, and we dive into UW-La Crosse's first game as well as the opener for Bethel. Plus, with a number of non-conference games over and done, we'll take a suggestion from the mailbag and look at which conferences have surprised and which have disappointed so far through two weeks. The answers ... well, they might surprise you a little, some of them. We talk with Mount Union quarterback Mikey Maloney -- Patrick Coleman went out to Grove City to see that game with Mount Union in person, and has a glowing report and an interesting Fast Five subject. Plus, Grove City coach Andrew DiDonato reflects on what his team went through in the 49-14 loss and what he sees his team needs to do to take that next step up the Division III ladder.  Patrick and Greg Thomas hand out game balls, Logan Hansen talks about which games in Week 3 have the most leverage, plus we take mailbag questions about the season's first PAC showdown and whether it's necessary to Fear the Moose, as well as whether Great Lakes states Indiana and Michigan can join Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin as producers of Division III championship teams.  All that and more in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

    1h 21m
  2. SEP 8

    ATN Podcast 385: Whatever you do, don’t overreact

    Finally, games! A huge week of Division III football, with a couple of thrilling upsets, and more than 200 Division III teams taking the field, means there's a lot to talk about. So, we in the media were admonished not to overreact, huh? All we have to do is look at our social media feeds if we want to see overreactions run wild, but we'll play Michael Wilbon's game. We decided to take four big storylines from this week's games and decide what the appropriate level of reaction is, and what might constitute an overreaction. So, we take on: The starting debut of Mount Union quarterback Mikey Maloney The plight of the freshman starting quarterback in general The as-of-right-now still unresolved end of the Case-Rowan game The WIAC getting off to a 7-0 start Plus, we talk with Belhaven quarterback Brock Morris, who lost his dad over the offseason. His dad was also a college quarterback and ... well, we'll let Brock tell the rest in our Fast Five segment, a five-minute interview in our regular season podcasts because it's hard to carve out more time than that. I mean, have you seen how long this episode is? Patrick and Greg had content on-site from Belhaven-Millsaps, Catholic-McDaniel, Susquehanna-Union and Lake Forest-Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. They also hand out game balls, highlight the interesting stats from Week 1, and go around each region to spotlight even more games from Week 1 and start to look ahead to Week 2. There's this and more in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. Mailbag topics include: Should North Central be on upset watch next week vs. UW-Oshkosh? Are we already regretting some of our answers to the 20 Questions that we posed just a week and a half ago? And what's the best stadium food we've experienced? And there was so much bonus content this week. Links below: Extended interviews from Susquehanna Extended interview from Catholic Extended interviews from Belhaven Stat of the Week highlight from Berry

    1h 32m
  3. SEP 2

    ATN Podcast 384: Looking ahead

    Games kick off two days from now, so there's no time like the present for a Week 1 preview! Patrick and Greg take you through Division III football's opening week, going region by region with a region Game of the Week and more games to watch in each region, Region 1 through Region 6. Plus, we bring back J.P. Williams, the NCAA's liaison for the Division III football championship, aka the person at the NCAA who runs point on the football season, playoffs, and the committee. This part of the conversation is about some more hot-button issues around the Division III football playoffs, such as, seriously, artificial noisemakers. That's an issue being discussed. So is trying to stagger the start times of the quarterfinals so that they overlap a little less. Great, now how about the first three rounds? Anyone? And are wearables or radios in helmets coming to the Division III playoffs this season? And listen, you might not be happy with the possibilities for the Stagg Bowl, the Division III football championship game. It's hardly set in stone yet, but consider this your first warning that it might be ... interesting. Listen for more. Plus, the season is here, and if you've listened to our podcast over the past several years, you might remember that big occasions sometimes call for big productions. There is one of those in this podcast, as We've Got Our Eyes on 2025. Patrick and Greg have this and more in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. Mailbag topics include: Which games in Week 1 could most upset the apple cart and change expectations for the Division III football season? And, what three games this week need to have a rivalry trophy and a title? And check the bottom of the podcast page for the names of teams mentioned in the episode -- it's a big number!

    1h 25m
  4. AUG 26

    ATN Podcast 383: A new year awaits

    Teams are in camp, some of them with new head coaches, and few head coaches are in a more interesting situation than Cortland coach Tom Blumenauer. He is in his first training camp as the Red Dragons' head coach, and he's working with a team that won a national title just 20 months ago, but lost a well-loved and highly successful head coach in the offeseason. Plus, he's an Ithaca graduate. We talk to him about what he's seen in camp so far, what he's hoping to instill from a culture perspective, and what it's like returning to the Empire 8, where he played as a player. Few teams -- no team, in fact, according to our preseason All-America team -- should be happier to have a returning quarterback than the folks at UW-River Falls. Kaleb Blaha was hurt in the first game of the season last year for the Falcons and never returned to form, taking the "med red" of a medical hardship season or a medical redshirt. We talk with Kaleb, plus head coach Matt Walker, plus offensive coordinator Joe Matheson, about the expectations at River Falls this season, how fast and how hard they like to push their offense, and more. We also hear from a Division III football head coach on the topics of whether student-athletes come into camp in better shape than they used to, and we talk to a coach whose program is using technology to try to keep student-athletes from getting hurt in camp. This edition of the podcast is sponsored by GameStrat: The Most Reliable & Fastest In-Game Video Replay System on The Market. D-III football coaches should click here to learn more. Plus, if you're new to Division III football, we'll start off this podcast with a little primer about how things work and what to expect come playoff time. And we also talk about how crazy it was to try to select a preseason All-America team this year with all the turnover from having two senior classes and a lot of upward movement through the transfer portal. Mailbag topics include: Can Johns Hopkins finish 3-0 in their crazy opening stretch of the season? And if you had to name a rock song to define the 2025 Division III football season, what would it be? Hint: One of the answers is related to what the thumbnail image for this episode looks like! Plus, you'll need to stay to the bitter end to find out what someone thinks the next hot tailgate item will be for this fall. You won't want to miss it.

    1h 18m
  5. JUL 31

    ATN Podcast 382: Top 25, more replay, new PAC, NJAC

    How about that as the handy guide for topics for discussion in the latest edition of our podcast, namely, ATN Podcast 382? We talk about the preseason Top 25, and the wide range in voting for lots of teams, not just for North Central. Seriously, UW-La Crosse has a far wider range of spots from our 25 pollsters, and so do a number of other schools. Plus, we bring in Kean coach Dan Garrett, who can tell you what might be on a coach's mind when they're filing a preseason ballot in our poll. Patrick and Greg talk about who are the biggest outliers on their own Top 25 ballots as well -- you'll never guess who Patrick has at No. 24 on his ballot, for example. This edition of the podcast is sponsored by GameStrat: The Most Reliable & Fastest In-Game Video Replay System on The Market. D-III football coaches should click here to learn more. J.P. Williams, the NCAA's liaison for the Division III football championship, aka the person at the NCAA who runs point on the football season, playoffs, and the committee, joins us to talk first off about officiating, since he is a Division I football official himself. Want to get involved? Williams tells his story. Plus, how do we get replay review at more Division III playoff games? And what did the committee learn from last year's expanded playoffs? Williams talks through those things. Joe Onderko, the commissioner of the Presidents' Athletic Conference, joins us to talk about the new look of the conference, why the conference's big rivalries tend to draw so well, how the schools get along with each other when they're so close together, and where the PAC stands on putting conference athletic events behind a pay wall, as a number of conferences have this offseason. Plus ... Mailbag topics include: What do we think when we see teams so wide apart in various voters ballots, and what's our take on the Empire 8's attempts to bring redshirting back to Division III. And you'll also learn where Patrick and Greg will be traveling the first two weeks of the season. Patrick and Greg cover it all in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

    1h 36m
  6. JUN 30

    ATN Podcast 381: Spicing up the offseason

    It's been a spicy past month or so and when you're coming up on a food-related holiday like the 4th of July, we're keeping the fire hot and the burgers, dogs, bratwurst, corn on the cob and more so that you can grill us with your questions. That's right -- we've got some great mailbag questions and we tackle as many of them as possible on this edition of the podcast. Plus ... This edition of the podcast is sponsored by GameStrat: The Most Reliable & Fastest In-Game Video Replay System on The Market. D-III football coaches should click here to learn more. Plus, we have three great guests to chat with in this edition of the podcast as well, which we snuck just in under the wire for June of 2025. We start with Curry running back Montie Quinn, a second team D3football.com All-America pick who had a fantastic finish to the season. We hear from him about his pursuit of the school's rushing record, who helped him get it, and why it was important that he just keep running. Plus, how did Quinn get from South Carolina to the Boston suburbs? And how is he preparing for the 2026 season and trying to improve on his record-setting performance? Blaise Faggiano, the head coach of Utica, joins the podcast this time around and since he was on the national committee at the time the whole changeover to NPI took place, and the "dials" were set in such a way to almost entirely discount strength of schedule, well, we grill him on that as well. But we also talk about how his team has benefited from taking a foreign tour trip, and what the great local specialties are in central New York, and his hopes for his team for 2025. And we visit once again with Carnegie Mellon coach Ryan Larsen -- we chatted with him briefly in Podcast 380 about his team's trip to Spain, but this conversation is about the CMU schedule for 2025, why he made it so challenging and how he thinks it will help his team improve, even if the NPI might not credit the Tartans the way we would hope. It's a great argument for still scheduling strong even if the committee doesn't want to reward that. Mailbag topics include: Is the ASC done with offers to SCAC teams, who else is looking for bowl game alliances, what's on your Fourth of July menu, what do we make of the North Central quarterback situation, why does D-III spring ball look different than the other divisions, how much will our preseason Top 12 differ from the way last season ended, and what our thoughts are on Geneva and Westminster (Pa.) not facing each other this season. Patrick and Greg cover it all in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

    1h 24m
  7. MAY 28

    ATN Podcast 380: Goin’ on a trip

    For the first time, we whipped out our passport to go abroad to cover a Division III football story. Twenty-six years into running the website and in the 19th year of the podcast and yes, there can still be new things. A number of Division III schools left the country to give their student-athletes an educational experience and to also play a spring football game, and we followed along with one of those teams and you can follow along with three of them in this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. Plus ... This edition of the podcast is sponsored by GameStrat: The Most Reliable & Fastest In-Game Video Replay System on The Market. D-III football coaches should click here to learn more. St. John's went up to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to play the Winnipeg Rifles of the Canadian Junior Football League, and the Johnnies were hoping to learn a little bit more about what they have at quarterback. Since Aaron Syverson has graduated, the Johnnies were looking at five quarterback candidates, one of whom noped out before the trip even started. So four players got snaps up north on Saturday, May 17, and two are in the mix to get the start in Week 1 against Minnesota-Morris. You'll meet them and hear what their receivers, offensive coordinator, and head coach Gary Fasching think of their performance, plus you'll hear about the most Canadian thing ever that happened before the game and meet a few SJU transfers whose names you could be hearing this fall. Carnegie Mellon went to Spain, and we'll find out from coach Ryan Larsen what the Tartans were hoping to get out of their trip, since they lost so many starters and key contributors from a team which had Mount Union on the ropes in the fourth quarter of last year's playoff game. And Hampden-Sydney took its team to Italy, where coach Vince Luvara had a quite different take on what was important for his program and his student-athletes. Plus, you'll be hungry after you hear about the great eating both teams did in Europe! Also, Patrick and Greg will give their take on the top five quarterbacks in D-III football since 1999, and will present two teams which could contend for conference titles after not making the playoffs last year, thanks to two great questions from our mailbag segment. Patrick and Greg cover it all in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

    1h 2m
  8. APR 29

    ATN Podcast 379: A dozen good eggs

    That dozen is not just the number of D-III players currently known to have received an invite to an NFL training camp, for sure. How big of a breakfast does it take to feed an NFL offensive lineman? What did new-old Franklin coach Mike Leonard do when he was away from coaching the Grizzlies for the past five years? And why does Illinois College coach Ray DeFrisco keep coming back, year after year? Those are some of the key questions getting asked and answered on this edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. Plus ... This edition of the podcast is sponsored by GameStrat: The Most Reliable & Fastest In-Game Video Replay System on The Market. D-III football coaches should click here to learn more. No, seriously, that's a lot of eggs. How did Middlebury offensive lineman Thomas Perry get to where he is today, a workout legend and an All-American who got invited to the Baltimore Ravens minicamp? He also talks about his experiences with Julian Young, a linebacker at Colby who will also be going to the Ravens, plus the workout that helped start him well down the road to where he is today. At Franklin, Mike Leonard wasn't expecting to get his old office back, and that space has some new decorations that we talk about. Hear what kind of camp Leonard will be attending this offseason. And at Illinois College, the days of putting up 96 points in a game might be over, with the standout quarterback and wide receiver and the offensive coordinator all moving on, but the philosophy remains. Hear about that and the new names you'll hear this fall and more from IC coach Ray DeFrisco. Plus we talk about the NESCAC finally getting its chance to play in the playoffs -- even if it isn't until 2026. Will that attract more talented student-athletes to NESCAC schools? That's a question in our mailbag segment, and we also talk about the likelihood of radios in football helmets at the D-III level. Patrick and Greg cover it all in the latest edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast.

    1h 15m
4.9
out of 5
114 Ratings

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The OG among Division III football podcasts, part of Division III football and D3football.com since 2007.

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