Notes and Quotes heading into Round 2 playoff action

• The key for Whitewater will be to jump on Franklin College early. Even with its 45-0 loss to Whitewater back in September the Grizzlies are averaging 40 points per game and sophomore quarterback Johny West has thrown for over 3300 yards and 31 touchdowns. He ranks 4th in NCAA Division III quarterback statistics.

• UW-Whitewater quarterback Matt Blanchard is no slouch either. The senior is ranked 6th in pass efficiency. Blanchard, who was named a 2011 Gagliardi Trophy finalist, has thrown for just over 2300 yards along with 20 passing touchdowns. Matt’s completion percentage is 68%. Last year Blanchard finished 2nd in pass efficiency.

• This year’s “national” bracketing will have an impact on the – quote – Whitewater bracket. The winner of Saturday’s Whitewater-Franklin game will play the winner of the Salisbury State (Maryland)-Kean (New Jersey) 2nd round game. If Whitewater wins Saturday the 3rd round playoff game will be played at Perkins Stadium.

• This year’s new “national” bracketing in the Division III Playoffs isn’t being favored by everybody. One of Saturday’s 2nd round games has Linfield (Oregon) flying 3500 miles to play Wesley College in Dover, Delaware. Linfield coach Joe Smith said deserves a better buildup. "It's great for Division III [but] it's ridiculous that it's in round two," Smith said. "I think that's an absolute sham. This should be a semifinal-type matchup, or at least a quarterfinal matchup, and I think that's a disservice to the two programs, but there are seven or eight teams [that can win the Stagg Bowl] and these are two of them."
• As of Friday evening at 5:30 it looks like it could be a wet day at Perkins Stadium. Hopefully we’ll be able to draw more than the 1211 that were in attendance at the Perk last Saturday.

• I criticized Warhawk football fans for not making it to Perkins Stadium last Saturday. It led me to do a full breakdown of round-one playoff attendance. I found that Whitewater fans weren’t the “lone rangers.”

• Only five of the 16 1st round playoff games exceeded regular season per game attendance average. Three of the sixteen 1st round playoff games drew attendance figures less than half the venues regular season per game attendance. The two locations – Mount Union and Whitewater.