{"id":1570,"date":"2012-08-22T15:37:05","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T20:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/?p=1570"},"modified":"2012-08-22T15:37:05","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T20:37:05","slug":"previewing-2012-great-lakes-intercollegiate-athletic-association-d-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/2012\/08\/22\/previewing-2012-great-lakes-intercollegiate-athletic-association-d-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Previewing 2012: Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Association (D-II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Indianapolis has departed, as their primary conference (Great Lakes Valley) now sponsors football.\u00a0 However, three new teams enter the fray as Notre Dame (OH), Walsh, and Malone join the conference, ballooning the field to sixteen teams.\u00a0 The coaches seem unsure about the North Division, although Grand Valley State had a comfortable lead as their pick for #1; Hillsdale and 2011 D-II runner-up Wayne State also received significant support for the #1 spot in the North, which is going to be tougher with those two teams moving from the South Division.\u00a0 Ashland is a much clearer pick in the South now that their rivals have scooted north.<\/p>\n

Team capsules follow:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

NORTH DIVISION<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n

Grand Valley State Lakers<\/strong>: The Lakers had a horrible stretch in the middle of last season which cost them dearly, dumping them out of the top five and eventually scuttling their playoff chances altogether.\u00a0 They’re expected to rebound this year, with junior QB Heath Parling returning to defend his national passing efficiency title from last year.\u00a0 They also sport their seven top rushers from a year ago and a defense which returns almost all its starters.<\/p>\n

Wayne State (MI) Warriors<\/strong>: They made it to the NCAA Division II Championship Game last year, losing to Pittsburg State.\u00a0 RB Josh Renel is gone, but QB Mickey Mohner and Renel’s running mate Toney Davis return; both are capable of electricity, and Davis rambled for over 1500 yards last year as WSU’s second<\/em> option.\u00a0 The defense, which forced 36 takeaways last year, lost some talent, but the bulk of the secondary remains.<\/p>\n

Hillsdale Chargers<\/strong>: Hillsdale suffered the indignity of technically winning the conference championship but missing the playoffs.\u00a0 Now they move to the North Division in order to accomodate the conference’s three new Ohio teams, and the question is whether they can survive in a more hostile environment.\u00a0 Joe Glendenning returns at RB after gaining 1600 yards and scoring 31 total touchdowns last year, and the offensive line in front of him returns intact.\u00a0 On defense, the linebacking corps is the squad’s incumbent strength.<\/p>\n

Saginaw Valley State Cardinals<\/strong>: The entire backfield — QB Jonathon Jennings and RBs Tim Hogue and Ronnie Lark — return from last year’s playoff squad, as does WR Jeff Janis, who nearly reached the 1000 yard mark.\u00a0 Grant Caserta returns at LB as a preseason All-American.\u00a0 Saginaw is going to have to be firing on all cylinders out of the gate, as they open the season at home against Gulf South power Valdosta State.<\/p>\n

Michigan Tech Huskies<\/strong>: The defense was decimated by graduation, but last year’s freshman player of the year, QB Tyler Scarlett, returns to guide the offense.\u00a0 Tech probably doesn’t have the horses to challenge, but should be a respectable squad.<\/p>\n

Ferris State Bulldogs<\/strong>: New coach Tony Annese will hope to patch together a squad which was pretty average last year but lost a lot of talent to graduation.\u00a0 The defense is mostly intact, but the offense was ravaged.\u00a0 LB Tayo Moss is the team’s face coming into the year, being named to some preseason All-America squads.<\/p>\n

Northern Michigan Wildcats<\/strong>: RB Prince Young, who ran for 960 yards last year, is the leading returner awaiting orders from new head coach Chris Ostrowsky.\u00a0 The team returns strength in the offensive line and linebacking corps, but other areas have questions.<\/p>\n

Northwood (MI) Timberwolves<\/strong>: Cameron Jackson returns after running for over a thousand yards last year, but the cupboard is otherwise pretty bare.<\/p>\n

SOUTH DIVISION<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n

Ashland Eagles<\/strong>: Other than the new members themselves, Ashland is probably the greatest beneficiary of the GLIAC’s most recent expansion.\u00a0 With Wayne State and Hillsdale moved to the north, Ashland’s path to a division title couldn’t possibly be any clearer.\u00a0 Last season saw a swoon late in the schedule which cost the Eagles dearly.\u00a0 The offense returns mostly undamaged, but the defense has some holes to fill.<\/p>\n

Ohio Dominican Panthers<\/strong>: The Panthers were part of the scrum in the middle of the division last year; they may rise above it all in 2012 behind an experienced offensive line and defense.\u00a0 However, they’re going to have to replace virtually all their skill players on offense, and they could just as easily find themselves back in the pack.<\/p>\n

Findlay Oilers<\/strong>: The dark horse in the south, Findlay improved from 1-10 to 6-5 last year, and return the bulk of their starters this year.\u00a0 RB Monterae Williams ran for over 1250 yards, and QB Clay Belton returns after a 2000 yard season last year.\u00a0 The defense has holes, though the top performers all return.<\/p>\n

Lake Erie Storm<\/strong>: It was a bad campaign, but they did close out with two wins.\u00a0 Half the starters are gone, but the Storm welcome a transfer from Akron, Patrick Nicely, at QB.\u00a0 They’ll struggle, but should fare better than the newcomers.<\/p>\n

Walsh Crusaders<\/strong>: The best of the newcomers, Walsh will try to win by controlling real estate behind a pair of 700-yard backs in Toba Olarewaju and Justin Keith.\u00a0 There’s little else of note, though, and the Crusaders will find their first real year of D-II football a challenge.<\/p>\n

Tiffin Dragons<\/strong>: Nineteen starters, including all eleven on offense, return.\u00a0 Unfortunately, when you’ve got that many returning starters from a team that went winless, it doesn’t help all that much.\u00a0 They’ll pick up some wins thanks to the new teams in the league, but don’t expect much.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame (OH) Falcons<\/strong>: A middling season last year should translate into a mediocre one this year, the team’s third of varsity existence, as the Falcons move into the league.\u00a0 Nobody among the returning starters truly stands out.\u00a0 Notre Dame won’t be around long; they’ve accepted an invitation to join the new Mountain East Conference in 2013.<\/p>\n

Malone Pioneers<\/strong>: They had the worst record among the newcomers last year, so naturally the expectation will be for a last-place finish in their new league.\u00a0 The team managed less than 300 yards of offense per game last year, and no returning skill players have big numbers to boast of.\u00a0 It’ll be a long year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indianapolis has departed, as their primary conference (Great Lakes Valley) now sponsors football.\u00a0 However, three new teams enter the fray as Notre Dame (OH), Walsh, and Malone join the conference, ballooning the field to sixteen teams.\u00a0 The coaches seem unsure about the North Division, although Grand Valley State had a comfortable lead as their pick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,40],"class_list":["post-1570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-division-ii","tag-d2","tag-gliac"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p185sV-pk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1574,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions\/1574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}