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Our Friday podcast is our game day special, the one you listen to when you know to know everything about the upcoming week's games. Pat and guest co-host Frank Rossi of In the Huddle go through a half-dozen big games, then a half-dozen one-liners, and Frank makes six picks at the end to see if he can take them to the house. Basically, this entire podcast consists of putting Frank on the spot, as he was called to fill in for Keith McMillan. We waited for the full class period before leaving, though, since Keith must have a Ph.D. in Division III football. Our guest this week is Western New England coach Jason Lebeau, who talks about how you find Division III schools with football everywhere in New England, what it's like taking over at your alma mater as a first-year head coach (sound familiar?) and talks about his players to watch so far this season. Plus, Pat clucks like a chicken and talks like a computer, and Frank autocorrects Pat on his six incorrect picks from last week's batch of 25. That and more in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football.

Are you new to Division III football? Is your team in playoff contention for the first time in a while? Are you a coach of a team which hopes to be in the playoffs someday? Or do you feel like you're an expert when it comes to the Division III football postseason? If you fit any of these categories, this episode of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast is a must-listen. That's because we have brought in Division III football national committee chair (and Lake Forest head coach) Jim Catanzaro to talk about how the playoff process works, how teams are paired up, and everything you need to know about the playoffs. If you're a head coach, he'll tell you what the members of the committee want to see from a playoff contender's non-conference schedule when considering them for an at-large bid to the playoffs. Do you think that the current selection criteria aren't enough for a committee to make a decision on so few non-conference games? He'll let you know what other factors might get used, and how much "human element" is involved. There's no excuse for not understanding how the playoffs work -- this is your playoff introductory class. And Keith and Jim talk about old-school hip-hop, too. That and more in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football.

Well, there were some interesting losses and some unexpectedly narrow wins on Saturday. While that didn't change the playoff picture as much as it changed the Top 25, there were still some key changes. There's one team out there specifically that has to feel much better about its playoff chances after this week, and Pat and Keith talk about that and more in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. So, with Wesley dropping out of the picture, who's next up? There are plenty of possibilities, plus Frostburg State still has Salisbury to play, and Frostburg didn't exactly look like world-beaters on Saturday. You can hear Bobcats coach DeLane Fitzgerald's reaction on this edition of the pod, then find out where they ended up on Pat and Keith's Top 25 ballots. Plus, what team do Pat and Keith make up the vast majority of the votes for? All those nuggets are in this pod, plus game balls, the off-the-beaten-path highlights and everything you've come to expect from our Monday wrapup podcast. That and more in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football.

Our Friday podcast is our game day special, the one you listen to when you know to know everything about the upcoming week's games. Pat and Keith go through a half-dozen big games, then a half-dozen one-liners, and Keith makes six picks at the end to see if he can take them to the house. But on one Division III football campus, there was a lot more going on this week than just preparing for a football game. Our guest is Averett coach Cleive Adams, whose team and campus had about six inches of rain dumped on it in very short order this week when the remnants of Hurricane Michael blew through. He tells us about how his team stayed safe and tried to put that aside to prepare to face the USA South's defending champion, Huntingdon. Plus, Pat makes 25 picks, from west to east, and Keith picks an animal to punch above its weight class. That and more in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football.

Every Sunday night we take questions from listeners and followers on Twitter with the intent of answering the best one on the Monday podcast. When listeners turn around and give us 10 additional good questions, well, we need to do another entire podcast! Pat and Keith tackle the following: What's the most interesting conference race? Does the CCIW race make the conference seem stronger or weaker? How far can the Johnnies go if they make the postseason? Will UMHB secure more votes for No. 1? Who is most likely to get upset later in the season? How much better is Brockport this year than last year? What part will Marietta's momentum play this week vs. John Carroll? Will Delaware Valley win the MAC? Can a team from the East Region compete on the national stage? How do you leave Randolph-Macon out of the Top 25? And do not go away when that's done. We talked with Averett coach Cleive Adams about what his team and his university is struggling with in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael. You can hear a preview on this podcast, with the full interview to come on Friday.

The Johnnie-Tommie game definitely fits the bill of someone taking down the big dog, and so does WashU's win vs. Wheaton. Both get a good amount of discussion, especially with the state of the CCIW standings and the D3football.com Top 25. Why isn't WashU ranked? You'll hear some of that in this podcast. Plus, a reader question prompts a discussion of what separates the power teams in Division III from everyone else. Is it geography? Is it coaching? What were the most surprising results in Week 7? When does a chain of results become useless for trying to make out your Top 25 ballot? And when will Earlham win a game? That and more in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football.

This weekend's key games include one game for first place, and a bunch of games that could help determine who remains in the playoff hunt. And now, heading into Week 7, there's just enough reason to begin to really talk about the playoffs. If you're new to playoff consideration, we'll give you a quick rundown of how the NCAA calculates and tabulates strength of schedule and where you can find the latest numbers. This weekend we have the Tommie-Johnnie game, plus a key game in the WIAC and tough tests for playoff contenders in the Empire 8, OAC, MAC and for the one Centennial team which plays this week. Our guest on this week's podcast is Redlands coach Mike Maynard, plus Pat and Keith and company preview the big games in Week 7. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football. 

A weekend of big games begged the question for D3football.com Top 25 voters as to which team should be No. 1. While there are 19 voters who picked Team Alliance Purple as No. 1, there are now six in Team Belton Purple's camp. Are you of the mind that "the champ is the champ until they lose," or are you more likely to favor whoever is playing better at the time? Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan lay out the arguments for Mount Union and for Mary Hardin-Baylor in this week's podcast. (And just maybe someone might consider Team Purple St. Paul if the results work out.) On Sunday, Pat Coleman and Adam Turer each got a chance to weigh in on the legacy of John Gagliardi, and Keith McMillan does as well. Plus, we give you the key takeaways from the top 10 shootout and the top 10 shutouts, and Pat talks to the team that snapped a 33-game losing streak. That, along with game balls and much more in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football. 

There are six huge games between ranked teams (or ranked teams and unbeaten teams) this week, and this is a week Pat will be on the road, as he is heading out to Los Angeles to see a pair of games involving evenly matched teams at each end of the SCIAC. Big games abound: No. 7 Hardin-Simmons at No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor; No. 5 Frostburg State at No. 6 Wesley; No. 10 UW-Oshkosh at No. 8 UW-Whitewater; No. 9 St. John’s at Bethel; No. 20 RPI at No. 23 Ithaca; and No. 19 Case Western Reserve at No. 12 Washington & Jefferson. We'll preview each of those. Plus, our guest this Friday is Marietta coach Andy Waddle. His team is one of the surprising 4-0 teams through five weeks, and he talks about what goes into the decision to go for a two-point conversion at the end of the game, even when it bucks the conventional wisdom. He talks about where his current running back, Tanner Clark, stacks up with some of his program greats, and we put him on the spot about the purple power that Marietta faces at the end of each season.  Pat and Keith also give us a quick overview of a half-dozen more games, and then they put each other on the spot. And this week, nobody has to rhyme their answers.

We love a gutsy call. Sure, our job isn't being put on the line when a coach makes the decision to go for two at the end of a key game, but this is Division III -- the coach's job isn't really on the line on one play call. We love a little gamble, especially when it pays off. Whether you call a Philly Special (or something that looks similar but fools the broadcaster) or something else, rolling the dice and getting it makes for a great highlight. So, for Marietta and Simpson, which chose to go for two, or Wittenberg, which had no choice, it was a big Week 5, and Pat and Keith honor that by going for two with the D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast.  Plus, the Little Brass Bell went back home with the team it came with, nobody was trapping Mary Hardin-Baylor or Hardin-Simmons, UW-Whitewater wore UW-La Crosse out and just maybe The Streak is in play this year. Teams mentioned: Denison, Wittenberg, Simpson, Wartburg, Marietta, Ohio Northern, Wheaton, North Central, Hardin-Simmons, Mary Hardin-Baylor, UW-La Crosse, UW-Whitewater, Linfield, Whitworth, Muhlenberg, Franklin & Marshall, St. Thomas, Concordia-Moorhead, Case Western Reserve, Illinois Wesleyan, Susquehanna, Dickinson, Greenville, Westminster (Mo.), Dubuque, Loras, Wisconsin Lutheran, Rockford, Methodist, Huntingdon, Wesley, Southern Virginia, Martin Luther, St. Scholastica, Brockport, St. John Fisher, Worcester State, Fitchburg State, Louisiana College, Sul Ross State, Millsaps, Husson, SUNY-Maritime, FDU-Florham, Misericordia, Dean, Finlandia, Olivet, Moravian, Gettysburg.

While the rest of you were no doubt glued to C-SPAN or your news network of choice to watch a certain hearing of sorts from Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Pat and Keith were listening to a certain interview from Belton, Texas. That's right, Mary Hardin-Baylor coach Pete Fredenburg is back, and there's going to be trouble ... potentially, for UMHB's opponents. Fredenburg talks about what it was like being kept on the sidelines (and away from the sidelines), the team's unexpected riches at the quarterback position, what's the word on the young defense and more in this game day edition of the D3football.com Around the Nation podcast. Plus, the big games have big conference implications riding on them, including in the CCIW, the Centennial, the WIAC, the ODAC, the ECFC ... you get the picture. Week 5 is shaping up to be a big one. Plus, one of the schools playing in one of the aforementioned conference's big games changed offensive coordinators. What? That and more on the Game Day version of the D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football. 

We could spend a lot of time talking about the Mount Union-John Carroll game, and all of its ramifications -- so we'll do that. For a while, for sure. But there were plenty of other games of note on Saturday in Week 4, so we'll have plenty to talk about. Off the beaten path, we have a team which scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to win. We have a team which rushed for minus-50 yards, and won. We talk about the fifth-down play which wasn't really a fifth-down play. We replace divots -- who replaces divots anymore? Who even has grass fields anymore? And how did one MIAC team try to keep its beatdown of an opponent in check. But hey, more about Mount Union -- why is this win important? And what do Pat and Keith think should happen to John Carroll in the poll? And who gets Keith's game ball? That and more on the Game Day version of the D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation between Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan and guests covering the wide range of Division III football. 

There could be even more blowouts than usual in the Week 4 Top 25 schedule, so we're hoping for perhaps a couple of surprises, as well as a great showdown between No. 1 Mount Union and No. 15 John Carroll. Otherwise, the games this week could include a lot of blowouts. So, our correspondents have focused on some great matchups in the middle of conference races, or games that could shape conferences after surprising opening weeks. Keith looks at who will win games in HCAC play, while Pat is asked about whether games will remain close. Plus, we talk with Kean coach Dan Garrett. He took the Cougars on a two-game opening of the season that resulted in some struggles on defense, and no points on the scoreboard. Why did he schedule the non-conference game he scheduled? Garrett is quite frank about it, and gives good insights into scheduling, as well as motivation and more. Meanwhile, Pat and Keith preview the big games, plus a random game, and talk about exercise. That and more on the Game Day version of the D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. 

It was a surprising win for Misericordia, a surprising comeback for Thomas More. There were some great defensive performances and there was some good kicking as well. Yes, we can give a kicker or two a game ball, right? And we've been talking about this rant by Widener coach Mike Kelly, which came before his team lost in Misericordia's sixth win ever, so we'll really get down to it. And with that, most of Division III's non-conference play is over. Columnist Adam Turer will rank all of the conferences a little later in the season, but Pat and Keith take a look at which conferences are the big winners and which are on the other end after non-conference play. Meanwhile, some teams have friends in low places, others get knocked down but get back up again, and it's all good on the Week 3 Monday D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast.

There's rain going on in the southern Mid-Atlantic Region, and that has cancelled games, postponed games and forced games to move up. But there's also a discussion about heat and humidity in one conference, and that is forcing games to move as well. This year, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference instituted a heat and humidity policy which is affecting some games this weekend. It's favored by the athletic trainers, perhaps grudgingly accepted by coaches and ... well, fans aren't fans. But the MIAC commissioner, Dan McKane, joins us to discuss the issue. Meanwhile, our featured interview for this podcast is Tom Journell, the Carleton head coach who came to the school this season, having been a head coach at UW-Stevens Point and Elmhurst. He followed his son, who is a standout wide receiver for Carleton, and talks with us about the challenges of recruiting to one of the nation's elite liberal arts colleges, learning all the new fight songs and what it's like when sprinklers interrupt your game. Plus, we get you around the nation to all of the weekend's big games. It's Game Day for Division III football!