ATN Podcast 308: Best things to watch in 2022

We’re getting ready to kick it all off with the first week of Division III football games for 2022 this weekend, and this week’s podcast takes you around to the big stories and big things we’re watching across Division III this season. We take it on, region by region. What’s fun in the 1? What’s new in the 2? What do we see in the 3? What’s in store in the 4? Who’ll thrive in the 5? What’s in the mix in the 6? Pat and Greg run it all down, along with special guest Frank Rossi of In the Huddle weighing in on Regions 1 and 2. Plus, we know — we know, sometimes it’s hard to pay attention in the offseason. If that’s you, never fear — Pat runs down the big news from the offseason, in song form. Yes, in song form — picture the Yakko’s World song from Animaniacs, and if that doesn’t resonate with your generation, just know we tested it against a 9-year-old, a 20-year-old, a 39-year-old and a 49-year-old and they had all heard the original. Lyrics below, in case it’s too fast to follow! There are a number of big games — rest assured we’ll talk plenty about UW-Whitewater at St. John’s and Muhlenberg at Mary Hardin-Baylor in other ways before those games kick off, so we focus on two additional games to watch. Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas talk about it all in the latest D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. The D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast is a regular conversation covering the wide range of Division III football. Hit play, or subscribe to get this podcast on your mobile device. Full episode: [display_podcast] You can subscribe to the Around the Nation Podcast in Apple Podcasts, and many other places. You can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/?feed=podcast Here’s how to find us on some of the major podcasting apps: Apple Podcasts: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast Google Podcasts: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast iHeart Radio: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast Stitcher: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast Spotify: D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast Theme music: Power 2 by DJmentos. Photos: Delaware Valley athletics photo; Westminster (Pa.) athletics photo by by Jason Kapusta; Wittenberg athletics photo by Nick Falzerano Full lyrics to D3 world:  UMHB won the national title and blew the ’19 champs away And 36 weeks later, offseason’s over and let’s all get ready to play Coach Fred retired and Jeff Thorne got hired at D-I so both guys are gone So how many coaches still left have a title? It turns out the answer is none. Hilbert is taking the field this season, with seven games all on the slate And 229 others are hoping a postseason trip is their fate (Sorry, NESCAC, let us know when you are ready for the playoffs) The Carousel turned and coaches were spurned with many more moving around Defiance keeps turning, Alvernia’s learning it’s hard to get teams off the ground Jim Collins is back and the bottom of the PAC sees new coaches at Bethany and Thiel Three guys from Columbia, while at UW-Platteville they gave an assistant a deal. Oh and Whitewater’s offense guy went up to Oshkosh and now calls the Titans his team Then Titans assistants went 84 miles west and make up the whole Pointer scheme (Seriously, four coaches on the website and three are former Oshkosh assistants) No one got drafted, yes D-III got shafted, with two guys on free-agent deals While HSU managed to find an opponent for happier playoff reveals The first month’s obsession will make an impression, with Whitewater up at St. John’s Then hosting the Cru, while there’s Muhlenberg too, Wheaton, Trinity chase Walnut and Bronze. Hopefully COVID won’t be a big deal and we can play all of our games! And 16 weeks later we’ll know all the scores and then you can learn lots of new names. (No big Week 1 showdown for Mount Union.) And here’s what we have for the ’22 season en route to Stagg Bowl 49 The Cru down in Belton with defense reloading and Kyle King, QB divine The Raiders in Purple might almost be sleepers with two titles in the last nine and YOU DUB DUB Whitewater lost some big players but probably looks to be fine Remember the Stagg Bowl is now in Annapolis, that’s where you’re wanting to be. No matter what happens at least more than just two teams have some good chances to win a few playoff games, If the committee will give them a bid So you better just go win your league.