1975 Season



North:
Preseason rankings had the Knights running the table in what seemed to be an unstable North. Kierport ran out to a 8-2 start to the year, with amazing performances by QB Arnie Kruger, who almost won his second straight MVP, and defensive all-stars LB Thomas Rowe and DB Jon Cole. However, a 1-4 run going into the final week put them into crunch time with two other teams in the North. One of those teams were the Mariners, who came back striking with a vengeance after a disappointing .500 season last year, with free agent acquisitions RB Phillip Lynch and LB Jim Hardin putting in solid performances to help the team enter week 16 with a 10-5 record and a win over division rival Saint Blaise at home would punch their ticket to a division title and the #3 seed. However, that Saint Blaise team was one of the biggest surprises all year. Something clicked within that team, with help from Breakout Player of the Year WR Donald Funk and ROTY runner-up Ryan Overton to push them over the edge and be one win away from sealing the division title on a three-way tiebreaker if Kierport were to win over the lowly Gatekeepers. Kierport would close out a close game against Hadley 13-9 to put themselves in playoff position. The Angels would come in and finally prove that they are ready for the big show, as they pummeled the Mariners 31-19 to clinch their first ever division title in their existence and their first winning season since 1970. With the division race so tight all year long, Hadley was mostly forgotten about. RB Terrance Cockburn, once the bright spot on the team, vastly underperformed on a team that still hasn’t moved past the retirement of QB Jack Reuter 2 years ago. Hadley may go into full rebuild mode while the rest of their division fights tooth and nail to get to the playoffs. 

East:
The 4 UFL teams weren’t expected to win very much in their first season among the big boys of the EFL. Most expected the division winner to come out of either Colnica or Montagrada, however issues plagued both teams. The Roosters had an incredibly tough schedule outside of the East, and failed to live up to expectations after beating the Stars in the final United Bowl in 1973. The Stars, on the other hand, came up oh so close this year. QB Eugene Rankin performed well enough to live up to the hype of former QB Terry Rogers, and the rest of their offensive unit of RB Thomas Amsel and WR’s Peter Travis and Sandy Giraud putting up solid numbers. They only finished 1 game back from the eventual division winners, but 6 out of their 7 losses were by 7 points or less. Those division winners would be the Minola Whales, who were quietly putting together a great team of misfits while still in the UFL. Their receiving core of Eddie Nolan, Guilherme Florencio, and Jerry James paired up quite nicely with QB Simão Rocha to put up some of the biggest receiving numbers all year, with RB Albert Smith making a nice complementary piece to the puzzle. Arcanfall fell off from their United Bowl appearance in the UFL, with a rough schedule not helping the team get adjusted with the EFL.

Central:
This division was even more cutthroat than the North, which was complicated by the fact that 3 time MVP Harold Bauer decided to come to Fort McLeod to complicate things between the already bitter rivals of Ashonta and Homestead. These three would fight all season just to clinch the Central, which by the time the season was coming to a close would prove to be the final playoff spot. Ashonta QB Daniel Haumann had a bit of a down year after the departure of WR Jordan Samson, but still put up solid numbers with new #1 WR Marty Farmer and TE Spencer Maddison. They stumbled into week 16 at 9-6, effectively clinching the Central Division even if they lost to rival Homestead, who they would beat on tiebreakers. Homestead limped their way into week 16, with the injury of DL #1 Cliff Moore stunting their potential for this year, but RB Gerhardt Derby had one of his best seasons yet had put them in position to potentially snag up a playoff spot if other teams were to lose. The Reapers managed to beat the Miners 29-20, but that was not enough to put them in the playoffs. Bauer tried to make his new team of the Generals competitive, but the current Generals didn’t have as many weapons as he did back in Duvall, with only RB Ben Blakesly and WR Kevin Weber to play off of. As a result of that and an incredible tough division, they went .500 for the second year in a row. Sarnia was a complete mess for the first 12 weeks, going 1-11 and solidly held the top spot for next year’s draft. However, they caught fire at the absolute wrong time and won their remaining 4 games of the season to put themselves at the 3rd overall pick. Dispersal draft pick QB Albert Gordon had the best 4 games of his life after an absolutely abysmal first 12 games, which could either get him a place on the chopping block for next year or a new contract in order to help the Sparks get past the identity of the EFL’s worst team.

South:
With the South Division as weak as it already is, everyone thought that the division would have been wide open with Anchors QB Errol Haberkorn taken out for 11 weeks with an injury to his non-throwing arm in week 3. With TC already out to a hot 3-0 start, backup QB Simon Dillon had to live up to the hype of Haberkorn as well as starting games for the first time. He managed to live up to some of the hype, helping the already injury-riddled Anchors cruise to a division title and locked up the #3 seed come week 16. However, TC hasn’t really been at full strength offensively since week 3 and is regaining RB Mitchell Gallagher in the quarterfinals after going down in week 14 with a minor leg injury. That didn’t stop them from racking up plenty of receiving yards, with dispersal draft addition WR Clemente Barreto putting up amazing numbers and gave him All-South Division and 2nd team All-Star team nods. Duvall looked to be on their way to a playoff berth this year, with RB Conor DuBois carrying the team to relevance, including a record-breaking 260 yard performance in week 1 against the Grizzlies. However, their playoff hopes were for naught, as DuBois suffered a broken leg in week 11 and would not return for the rest of the season, dooming the Dragons to a mediocre 7-9 record. Pattalia didn’t have a great year either, going 6-10 after a somewhat hopeful .500 campaign last year. Their lone bright spot was rookie TE Bruno Marella, who was one of three players on the Grizzlies to make the All-South Division Team, the other two being LB Gene Dobson and DL Stephen Scott with Scott being named to the 2nd team All-Star roster. The Owls were the other team fighting for last place with the Sparks, and they weren’t as lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) as Sarnia. They actually tanked better than the worst team in the league and secured the #1 overall pick for next year as Adelaide now has to decide to go all in or continue to tank to potentially do better in the future.

West:
While the Angels were the feel-good story of the league, the real surprise of this year was Wrauport. Rookie QB Stephen Calhoun had a lot of expectations on him for a first year starter, but he sure made it count. With everyone expecting Norfolk to run the table, the Pirates made it a dogfight all season with the Lumberjacks. Calhoun put up record-breaking numbers for a rookie, with some of those records being set by Harold Bauer in the 1961 season, leading the Pirates to a stunning division title over the Lumberjacks on a tiebreaker and winning Calhoun Rookie of the Year. Norfolk looked a bit weaker in the receiving game with the departure of WR Craig Farmer to the Pirates, but MVP winner RB Bruno Fontaine absolutely made up for it, almost single handedly carrying Norfolk to the #2 seed and one of the frontrunners for the Escalian Cup. Orcaster was a disappointment after last year had a lot of promise, with an unexpectedly strong division and tough schedule potential culprits for why the Racers had a below .500 season with such a strong team. The Bulls were more or less pretty mediocre for the entire season, with their young defense showing some promise with LB’s Sean Guthrie and Miguel Moore both making the All-West Division Team. They might need to think for the long run as the West may become a bit more competitive than they think. 







C&C Appreciated! How'd your team do? Any predictions for the playoffs?

Hell yea, Dire! Love the slight changes in graphics to simplify the look. Really like seeing the helmets next to the ranking, but I'd maybe adjust colors for some teams because the text and box tend to bleed together for a few. It is mostly the Stars and teams using green/red for me, but that is such an easy fix. I'd say the same for the division team presentation. Maybe drop the opacity a little bit for the background, or even drop the color boxes leaving the text free floating. It would make it harder for viewers to read by division if you did that, but it isn't like you couldn't just space the divisions a little more and make each name the color of the division they are in.

Just because I got to see the helmets all at once, I will say that I am a sucker for the Angel's halo and really like what the Stars and Miners have.

Last edited by Thehealthiestscratch (11/22/2021 11:36 am)

The updated graphics are fantastic. Less fantastic is Kierport bumbling away the division title. That playoff matchup with Saint Blaise is gonna be fireworks for sure.

Why does every team I like that's named the mariners suck?

16th Escalian Cup: #8 Ashonta Miners @ #4 Saint Blaise Angels



Fort McLeod has seen some raucous crowds before in its short time in the big leagues, but it had never seen the hoards of Miners and especially Angels fans swarming into the stadium for the league’s biggest game. Saint Blaise, while they narrowly cruised through the playoffs, got stumped by the much more experienced Ashonta fanbase. On the first drive of the game, rookie DL Ollie Clifton pancaked QB Willis Lincoln and forced a fumble, which was scooped up by DL Calvin Stuart and taken back 34 yards to take the early 7-0 lead for the underdog Miners. The Angels were rattled for the rest of the quarter, getting held to just 1 first down in the first quarter and punting the ball away three times throughout the quarter. Ashonta had slightly better luck, with a long 11 play drive to cut away nearly 6 minutes of the clock, with former MVP QB Daniel Haumann dicing through the inexperienced Saint Blaise defense, leading the Miners down to the 2 before tossing a quick pass to WR Adolph Abel to increase their lead to 14 while the Angels began driving to end the first quarter.
END OF Q1: 14-0 ASH
That same drive the Angels started in the first quarter continued into the second, with RB Benny Baird carrying the team downfield intercut with a Lincoln pass to WR Donald Funk. Baird set up the Angels at the 5 yard line, where Lincoln threw one to WR Marcelos Paiva to put the Angels on the scoreboard for the first time all game. Ashonta got right back into action after that drive, with Haumann throwing up a dime to WR Clay Ewing on the second play of the drive for 47 yards to put their lead back up at 14. With a few punts in between, Saint Blaise had the ball again and wanted to make it a game and not get shown up by one of their expansion brothers. Baird carried the rock for a few plays, but he didn’t find the endzone on this drive. Instead, Lincoln threw up a jump ball for his #1 target all year, WR Donald Funk, where Funk beat his man and waltzed into the endzone for a 58 yard score to put the difference back at 7 at halftime.
END OF Q2: 21-14 ASH
A high-flying second quarter gave way to a slower and more methodical third, with Saint Blaise feeding the rock to Baird on 7 of their 11 plays on their drive to begin the third quarter. Baird finally found the endzone on a 2 yard plunge to tie up the game at 21. Both teams then had a rough bit during the third quarter, as they traded stops on defense without really making much progression down field. The furthest any team got during that time was Ashonta, but they were stopped on the 40 and chose to punt instead of taking a risky field goal. The Miners did get another shot of moving past the 40, but a crucial stop on 3rd and 3 on the 33 by the Angels prevented them from going any further, and K Mariano Montaña nailed it through the uprights to retake the lead at the end of the third.
END OF Q3: 24-21 ASH
Saint Blaise had never led at any point in this game, but Lincoln and Baird were determined to end that on their next drive in the 4th. Lincoln set the Angels up perfectly on a 33 yard pass to Funk to put them within scoring range and possibly tie the game with a field goal. Baird didn't want to settle for only 3 points, and carried the ball 20 yards for a TD to finally take the lead for the Angels. The Miners got down field surprisingly quick after the Saint Blaise TD, but they were held strong by the Angels and HC Isidor Engel decided to go for it on 4th down and very short with about 5 minutes left in the game. Haumann handed the ball off to RB Leonard Arts, where Arts was almost immediately stopped short of the first down by a tag-team of defensive linemen Alexis Correy and Willard Riddle. The Angels began to run out the clock after that, but Baird found one too many openings through the weakened Miners defense, as he broke through on a 65 yard run to effectively seal the game away for another 7 points on the board. Ashonta put together a garbage time drive that ended well before the endzone as Angels players and fans flooded the field to celebrate their first ever Escalian Cup victory.
FINAL: 35-24 STB



Although most of his flashy plays were in the second half of the game, RB Benny Baid was nonetheless named Escalian Cup MVP with a 189 yard, 2 TD game that helped Saint Blaise become the last original expansion team to break through and win an Escalian Cup. This will go down as one of the largest turnarounds for a team, as the Angels went 2-11-2 last year and had not had a winning season in over 5 years, their sole winning season before this year came in 1971. Whether or not this season will be a fluke like the 1964 Augusta Bulls, Angels fans will cherish this team and season for many years to come.




And that's a wrap on the 1975 season! I'll be starting the offseason process soon so now is a good time to submit prospects! I've gotten 111 prospects so far, which is amazing since last time around I only received around 30! Thanks to those who have submitted already, and to those who wish to submit, the link is on the front page or click the link to take you there if you don't feel like going back lol. C&C Appreciated!

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