Things are lining up nicely for the IUP Crimson Hawks to make the playoffs. Maybe even without leaving town.
In the latest NCAA Division II regional rankings, head coach Paul Tortorella’s team moved up a spot to No. 4 after last week’s fourth-ranked team, Assumption, lost to unranked Bentley in a Northeast-10 Conference game.
The regional rankings are used to determine the 32-team field for the NCAA tournament, which begins November 22. National polls, such as the AFCA Top 25 and the d2football.com Top 25, do not factor into the regional rankings.
The bracket is broken down into four “super” regions. In Super Region One, which includes 43 teams from New England to North Carolina, the Crimson Hawks (7-2) are behind No. 1 Kutztown (10-0), No. 2 Virginia Union (9-1), and No. 3 Johnson C. Smith (9-1).
IUP plays at Kutztown on Saturday in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship game. Kickoff is at noon. Virginia Union and Johnson C. Smith also play Saturday in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association title game.
On Sunday evening, the playoff field will be announced. Should IUP finish in the top four in the region, it will open the playoffs with a home game. The top four teams are awarded home games, while the remaining four teams are unseeded, then paired with an opponent that avoids rematches from regular-season games and potential travel via flight.
Saturday’s PSAC title game likely has little bearing on the playoff field. Head-to-head results are a top criterion the NCAA uses to rank teams, and in this week’s poll, California is No. 5, and Frostburg (Md.) State is No. 6. Earlier this season, IUP beat California, and the Vulcans beat Frostburg State, so it seems unlikely IUP would fall in the rankings should they lose to Kutztown on Saturday.
IUP has more all-time playoff appearances (21) and playoff wins (23) than any other program in the PSAC.
INJURY UPDATE: Tortorella said on Tuesday that defensive end Logan Goodwin (ankle) will play Saturday at Kutztown. Goodwin suffered the injury against Gannon on November 1 and did not play last week at Clarion. Goodwin has 35 tackles, including 12 for loss, and six sacks this season.
The news isn’t as good for left tackle Anthony Shovlin, who has a knee injury that will keep him out of Saturday’s game. Shovlin did not play against Clarion, and Kellen McDonough will again replace him in the starting lineup.
PROUD MOMENT: In Saturday’s 45-42 win over Clarion, linebacker Tai’Don Strickland had the final tackle of the game, and it might have been the best one.
The Golden Eagles faced a fourth-and-1 at their own 45-yard line with a minute left to play. Quarterback Anthony Guercio, Clarion’s best player, took the shotgun snap and faked a handoff to running back Khalon Simmons and peeled off to his left with the ball.
Strickland, who was at the 50-yard line, initially stayed back, but then was engaged by Clarion left tackle Devon Webb. Strickland shed the block and raced toward the backfield, where he snared Guercio and tackled him for a six-yard loss.
“(He was) one-on-one with the best athlete on the field,” Tortorella said. “Help is coming, but he had to make the first hit. He stopped (Guercio) from cutting back and outrunning him. (It was a) great open-field tackle. (He) beat a block too. That’s as good a play as you can make with the game on the line.”
‘NEW’ EAGLES: If you looked at Saturday’s score and were unimpressed that IUP only beat Clarion by three points, you probably ought to learn some more about the Golden Eagles.
The 2025 version is nothing like the ones that IUP beat 13 times in a row before Saturday. The Golden Eagles have good players on both sides of the ball and a scheme that’s hard to play against. Clarion won’t make the playoffs, but it’s 6-3 right now and has a chance to win its seventh game in the season finale at East Stroudsburg on Saturday.
That’s quite a change from just four years ago, when head coach Ray Monica took over a team that lost the final 17 games of the Chris Weibel era before he was fired after the 2021 season.
“I told Ray after the game, what he’s done in four years is miraculous,” Tortorella said. “Four years ago, they only had 55 guys. He told me they were the worst team in Division II football. We beat them bad. Now, those guys are seniors. They developed them and got a couple of JUCO transfers. He’s done a hell of a job. In his first year, he had players who shouldn’t have been in Division II. It’s been a process. They got better each year. Now they have 21 seniors. I think they’ll beat East Stroudsburg. They’ll finish 7–4.”
