What we learned in Week 3: 104 schools move forward without a loss

The IHSA football season is already one third of the way complete.

That was fast.

And the one-third marker usually gives everyone a chance to take stock exactly where they are.

104 teams got through the first three weeks of the season without a loss, which is right in line with tends to happen this time of year. For comparison purpose, 100 schools were undefeated through three weeks of the season last year.

What is different is multiple names of teams on that list. Only three of the defending state champions (Wilmington, Byron and Cary-Grove) have gotten through the first three weeks without a loss and a whopping 17 schools of the 104 were not playoff qualifiers a year ago. Two of them, Fenton and Olney East Richland, were winless in 2023.

If those surprising teams continue to evolve, odds are we are going to see a much different looking bracket than is customary in six weeks time.

Here’s a look at some of the most intriguing 3-0 upstarts:

• Benet: At the conception of the CCL/ESCC collaboration in 2019, Benet started its first season in the new league with five consecutive wins. Since that streak ended, Benet has gone just 13-19 since (not counting the COVID shortened season). The Redwings have had three consecutive 4-5 seasons since having to maneuver the brutal rigors of their conference. While the 3-0 start guarantees nothing, it does put Benet in much better position to get back into the postseason for the first time since 2019.

• Fenton: Fenton snapped a 10-game losing streak with a Week 1 victory over Elgin. And the newly realigned Upstate Eight Conference has certainly seemed to energize the program, particularly the offensive unit. Fenton has posted 132 points through its first three games, one more point than the Bison scored in all of 2023.

• Manteno: The Panthers were a playoff regular between 2010 and 2017, but in full seasons since 2018 Manteno has only been able to rack up a collective record of 11-32. The Panthers still have some perilous problems on their schedule to deal with, but breaking the playoff drought that extends back to 2019 looks like a distinct possibility.

• DePaul Prep: One has to go back to when the school was known by a different name (the school changed its name from Gordon Tech to DePaul Prep to begin the 2016 school year) to find the last time the football program started this well. The program won a 6A state title in 1980, but since 1992 it has had just four winning seasons. Like Benet, the remaining schedule does the Rams no favors, but there’s still a reasonable chance they could add a fifth.

• Woodstock North: The competition might be a little suspect to date, but it is hard not to notice the offensive productivity posted by the Thunder to start the year. Woodstock North has scored 152 points through three games, easily making them one of the top 10 most prolific scoring offenses in the state thus far. Not bad for a program that has only netted three wins over the past three complete seasons.

On the flipside

248 teams are above the .500 mark through the first three games of the season.

Teams under .500 aren’t obviously eliminated from playoff consideration at this point, but 1-2 teams have to go at least 4-2 over their last six games to reach the traditional playoff standard of five wins while 0-3 teams must close with a minimum of a 5-1 mark the rest of the way to clear that five win threshold.

As I’ve been discussing all season thus far, the numbers strongly indicate that we will need at least a small handful of four win teams to fill the field of 256, but that’s no guarantee.

So for the 97 teams that haven’t recorded a win yet, there’s basically no breathing room at all.

Some surprising 0-3 teams include Knoxville, Villa Grove, Auburn, Hillcrest, Neuqua Valley, Westville and Glenbard West.

Glenbard West, for example, hasn’t lost three regular season games since 2007 and the Hilltoppers haven’t started a season with an 0-3 record since 1999.

CCL/ESCC conundrum

Conventional wisdom always seems to fall on the side of CCL/ESCC teams racking up tons of playoff points and being prime candidates to snag whatever at-large berths might come via the four-win route.

It’s usually pretty sound rationale.

But so far that theory may not hold as much water than in years past.

The list of undefeated teams in the CCL/ESCC through six weeks is down to just six (St. Francis, St. Laurence, DePaul Prep, Marist, Benet and St. Viator). And to be completely forthright that list of teams is a bit varied from what most expected in the preseason.

Why does that matter? Because in years past when you had one of your crossover games against the CCL/ESCC Blue Division, odds are you were going to be an underdog, but even if you lost the contest it came with the benefit of a large chunk of playoff points to add to your bounty.

But the CCL/ESCC Blue is just 6-6 collectively so far this year, and teams like Loyola that almost always seem to be a lock for eight to nine points for opponents now needs to run the table just to get to seven.

It might not sound like a lot, but every point matters when you are trying to put together a cache of them.

It’s no longer enough to just play in the CCL/ESCC, it matters which of the CCL/ESCC teams you are playing. If your crossover opponents aren’t winning at a high level CCL/ESCC teams are going to average three to four playoff points a week in most cases and that’s not enough to separate from other teams schedules.