Tuesday, December 1, 2015

DII Football Notebook: Take aways from the Second Round

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana -- The second round of the playoffs provided some more upsets and some interesting story lines, although not quite as shocking or surprising as the opening round.

With teams like Grand Valley, Northwest Missouri, CSU-Pueblo and Shepherd surviving, we have some traditional playoff teams still in the mix - three that have won national championships. Slippery Rock, West Georgia, Tuskegee and Emporia State are providing us with some new blood, giving the playoffs a great balance.

Slater's Homecoming

Tuskegee upset North Alabama to advance to the regional finals against West Georgia. It is significant for a couple of reasons.

Tuskegee is once again showing it can compete with the best teams in Division II after opting out of the playoffs for so many years. It now has playoff wins against teams from two other conferences in this year's playoffs. The Golden Tigers will have to beat West Georgia in order to have an opportunity to beat a team from a third conference. They have represented the SIAC well.

Also, Tuskegee's coach Willie Slater was the offensive coordinator for Bobby Wallace and UNA when the Lions won three national championships in a row from 1993-1995. The Lions remain the only team to accomplish this.

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