A number of the games that decided playoff spots or seeds in NCR’s D1AA playoffs were very close, indicating, perhaps, that we might see much the same this weekend.
Consider Bowling Green’s comeback, one-point win over Louisville that put BGSU in the final eight and left the 2023 NCR runners-up watching from home.
Consider, also, the SCRC final, which finished up 8-7, or the SCRC 3rd-place game that finished 23-15, or the MARC final that finished 31-27.
Only the Liberty final wasn’t achingly close and 31-12 isn’t exactly a blowout.
Defending NCR champs Kentucky had all sorts of trouble with Clemson in their SCRC final, which the Wildcats pulled out, as we said, 8-7.
Clemson Head Coach Troy Hall was characteristically circumspect about his team’s improvement, but the Tigers, most certainly, have come along nicely.
“It was a battle; we hope to see them again,” he said. “It wasn’t meant to be.”
At the end of that game, Clemson went through about 18 phases trying to get that game-winning score, in any form. GRR asked Hall about the idea of maybe popping over a drop goal to win the game—sort of an all-or-nothing proposition but still an option. Clemson has players who can kick a drop goal.
The thought did occur to them, said Hall, but “we were making some gains with our forwards and we were hoping to sneak a penalty for the win.”
Didn’t happen as Charlie Baer ripped the ball out of a Clemson player’s hands—something the Wildcats practice.
As for Kentucky, Head Coach Sam Enari took responsibility for how close Clemson got.
“Clemson’s kicking game was well practiced and very precise,” said Enari. “Their kick and counter-kick were well-rehearsed. They kind of picked us apart and it was something I did not put into the training plan to prepare for.”
But they made adjustments at the second half, and the forwards carried the load for Kentucky. Jared Monnier remains one of the best, if not the best, props in D1AA, and in fact Kentucky boasts a couple of other players who could lay claim to being the best at their position—flanker Holden Hahn, flyhalf Jack Phillips for example.
Overall, Enari said, “we’re not as invincible as we want people to think we are.”
