Chargerblue.com: Hillsdale College Football News and Comment

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Hillsdale's Glendening wins GLIAC Rushing Title

He saved his best performance of the 2012 season for his last game. It was only fitting that it would be a Joe Glendening fourth down conversion followed by a Joe Glendening touchdown on the next play that would secure Hillsdale its 7th win of the season and a share of its third straight divisional title on Saturday at Northwood.

Glendening's 212 yards was enough to place him atop the GLIAC rushing standings at 137.9 yards per game. Not only did Glendening lead in yards per game, he also led the league in total rushing yards with 1517. That was sixty more than Notre Dame's Pedro Powell.

Below is the complete list courtesy of GLIAC.org

Yards per game	#
J Glendening Hillsdale	137.9
M Williams Findlay	134.8
P Powell Notre Dame (OH)	132.5
J Vander laan Ferris St.	121.6
T Davis Wayne St. (Mich.)	105.4
Complete leaders

Friday, November 09, 2012

d2football.com's Tony Nicolette: Week 11 Previews

Here is Tony's preview of the Chargers and Timberwolves.

Northwood (4-5, 5-5) at Hillsdale (6-3, 6-4)

The two private schools in the North Division will conclude the slate with 2012 installment of the "Pat Riepma Bowl". Riepma was a standout player at Hillsdale, and in his early coaching career was an assistant at his alma mater. He then went on to build Northwood into a perennial GLIAC power and playoff contender. Riepma is still at Northwood as the AD, and there may not be a finer GLIAC Man out there. We'd love to know if he really is OK with whomever wins this one, although we'd hardly fault him either way!

In any case, this year's versions of the Timberwolves and Chargers saw promising results escape them over the past month. The Woodies finally halted their five-game losing skid last week after opening 4-0. Hillsdale, on the other hand, had control of their own destiny in the North and possibly in the playoff race...but two straight losses have dashed those hopes. Now, it's about pride for both of these clubs...the Woodies can get to the good side of .500, and the Chargers don't want to see one of their all-time greats go out on a three-game skid.

So who gets it done? Well, we have to say we were perplexed at how ineffective Hillsdale was offensively last week. It's been a long time since we've seen such a poor output, and it's hard for us to see that being repeated again...especially back within the confines of Muddy Waters. While Mark Morris has made large leaps forward in play at QB for Northwood, we're still not sure if NU can play the kind of game that has troubled HC's defense of late, and that's power. This should be an entertaining affair, but it's just so hard for us to see Hillsdale dropping three straight. Hillsdale 27, Northwood 22.

Rest of article and other previews

HillsdaleChargers.com: Glendening Regional Finalist for Harlon Hill

Press Release

November 9, 2012 - Hillsdlae College senior Joe Glendening made the first cut on his path to win the most prestigious individual award presented to an NCAA Division II football player.

Glendening is one of six finalists among Super Region 4 schools for the 2012 Harlon Hill Trophy, given to the most outstanding football player in NCAA Division II.

Nationwide, a total of 24 players - six from each region - are on the initial Harlon Hill ballot. Players will be voted on by the sports information director of the 168 Division II football-sponsoring institutions in the next week.
The top two vote-getters from each region will advance to the national ballot.

In 2011, Glendening was a regional winner in the Harlon Hill balloting and was a national semifinalist for the award. He is one of two players in the nation to reach this stage of the balloting in back-to-back years, along with Kutztown QB Kevin Morton.

The other five nominees from Super Region 4 include Ashland QB Taylor Housewright, Indianapolis RB Kay Fiecher, Midwestern State RB Keidrick Jackson, Saginaw Valley State WR Jeff Janis and West Texas A&M QB Dustin Vaughn.

Glendening is Hillsdale College's all-time leading rusher with 4,561 career rushing yards and his 60 total touchdowns scored in his career are also a school record. Earlier this season, he surpassed the school career record for carries, and has 936 entering Saturday's season finale at Northwood.

The GLIAC rushing leader in 2010 and 2011, Glendening was a First-Team All-American and the GLIAC Player of the Year last year, and holds every significant single-season rushing record in school history. He has 25 career 100-yard rushing games and has at least one rushing touchdown in eight of the team's 10 games this season.

One more chance for the Chargers to "Leave No Doubt"

When Hillsdale adopted its "Unfinished Business - Leave No Doubt" motto for the 2012 season, a lot of the mentality was playoffs or bust. Those playoff dreams went bust a couple of weeks ago against Grand Valley and last week just seemed like more of the same as the Chargers never got their bearings in Houghton.

On paper this sure looked like all of the pieces had fallen into place for a big run but the meat grinder of the GLIAC North took its toll and a handful of pieces refused to fall into place. It might be easy to assume this crew is going to just "play out the string" tomorrow in Midland against Northwood. I serious doubt that will be the case.

Tomorrow is the last go for a truly great senior class including Hillsdale's newly minted all-time leading rusher Joe Glendening. His 4558 yards may likely stand as long, if not longer than Scott Schulte's 19 year record did. Not only does tomorrow end Joe's college career, it ends one of the truly great amateur football careers the State of Michigan has ever witnessed. Let's hope he and his offensive line put on a show to appropriately cap his amazing run.

A victory tomorrow gives this senior class 34 wins, the same number last year's seniors had. 34 wins is the most of any class since a couple of groups in the 1980s had 37. A win over Northwood would also give this group a .720 win percentage.

Don't forget either that Hillsdale might be out of the playoff hunt but they are still alive for a share of the GLIAC North crown. If Hillsdale can win and Saginaw Valley can beat Grand Valley, then the Chargers, Cardinals, Lakers, and possibly Michigan Tech (who needs to defeat Wayne State) would all share the title. It's a shame that in this scenario none of those clubs will be playoff bound either.

Regardless of playoffs or not, this team and program's body of work over the course of the last six years has left no doubt that Hillsdale College has clawed its way into the upper echelon of one of the great Divsion II conferences. There will always be unfinished business. Let's see how these boys can end this season tomorrow.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Joe Glendening just 10 yards from Hillsdale record

Last Saturday in Hillsdale sure didn't go according to the script I had mentally written.

Hillsdale was supposed to come out, handle Grand Valley and Charger running back Joe Glendening would run for 167 or more yards, becoming Hillsdale's all-time leading rushing in his last home game at Muddy Waters Stadium.

None of the Above happened. It was an ugly day. Joe finished with 157 and as I think of it now, I am glad he wound up short. As hard as it was for these seniors to have a blowout ruin Senior Day, at least Glendening's record breaking moment doesn't have to be associated with last Saturday. Joe is all about team and even if he had broken Scott Schulte's record on Saturday there would have been little to celebrate.

The greatest thing about football is that except for one weekend, there is always another opportunity and a fresh start just seven days away. Hillsdale can still win its third straight GLIAC Divisional title with wins in its final two games. Last Saturday might as well have been 4 years ago instead of 4 days ago. The Chargers are going to get on a bus and regroup together all of the way to the U.P. to face Michigan Tech. They'll think about all they can still accomplish and how wonderful it is that they have at least two more Saturday's together. They'll get Joe his ten yards to complete his clean sweep of every Hillsdale rushing record on the books. Hopefully all of the pieces will come together and a happy ride home with a win over Michigan Tech will be a fitting celebration.

Joe Glendening has been about team ever since he decided to attend Hillsdale College. He'd be the first to tell you that his records are more about his linemen blocking for him, his coaches calling the right plays, and every other teammate doing his job seven days a week than about him.

I was fortunate enough to play with Scott Schulte and when we still talk about Charger football I tease him about his record slowly fading away. Scott just laughs, "The war is over Andy. I hope the kid gets his record."

So do I Joe. So do I.