FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

For something a bit different, here's a little knitting update.  Luke Hodge, vice-captain of the Hawks, played a game of incredible courage on Saturday night when we stomped the Saints to gain a berth in the Grand Final.  Hodge has been an absolute superstar this year playing in defense and providing a quick transition for the Hawks dangerous big scoring men up front.  Here is a highlight video of Hodge's play on Saturday night.  I can't do a better description than the guy who posted it at youtube:

Hodgey's courageous & inspirational performance for the Hawks in the 2008 AFL Preliminary Final against St.Kilda. Broken ribs? No problem! Bruised lungs? No problem! This bloke is a f***ing legend & will go down as one of the all-time greats of both Hawthorn AND the AFL.

Needless to say, Hawthorn supporters are bordering on man-love this week as Hodge brushes off injury concerns and commits to playing in the Grand Final even if he has to run like a 7-11 hold-up artist to avoid the doctors this week.

[familyguyfaneightyfour]

Willy Wonka,
Schwingler played every offensive down in the game (that's all 4 quarters, and all 6 OT's) against St. Thomas with a herniated disc in his lower back.  I'm sure you knew this already though  .  I'm just setting the record straight.

[OzJohnnie]

d3football.com's Top 25 Rakings are out.  A moderate week for the MIAC:

* SJU falls to 18
* Bethel drops out of the Top 25 and receives a paltry 9 points
* CC picks up 36 points, 2 shy of making the top 25
* STO gets a few more than last week and now attracts 29 points
* Auggie Tech gets 27 points, also improving

So, our big names have been hit, while the others sit on the bubble.

The MIAC is wide open (in case no one already had realized that fact and posted about it) and it's looking to be a bruising year.  I think GAC needs the stuffing beat out of them to get the world aligned correctly again.

[Rugman]

With about 30 hours to reflect on yesterday's game I have officially decided to believe that the Cobbers are that good on defense and not that we are that bad on offense (not that we are that good though).

Here is my reasoning.  The Cobber defensive front four averages 265 pounds and go 280/290 in the middle.  By comparison the Johnnies are 30 pounds a man lighter on our front four.   By far the Cobbers and the Oles have the biggest front fours in the league.  Obviously size isn't everything, but to me these guys looked pretty quick for the size also.

Their linebacks also have good size and quickness.  The one area that we could have exploited more, I think, were the corners and safeties.  It seems like most of our yardage came from mid distance passes that had to be defended by their secondary.  Maybe we could have gone downfield more often; it would ony have taken one big play to win the game.

So there's my optimism.  The next two games should be a good test of my theory, since both Gustavus and Bethel are more typical sized MIAC defenses.

[retagent]

cobbernation - The SJU announce crew, who are usually pretty good at getting the scoop from the sidelines explained that the punter had "established his position on the field after the punt" (which I guess means that he had completed punting and was now a potential tackler) so he was fair game to be blocked. Makes sense if that was indeed the case.

flash, You're on. Was it at the Waterside? If you haven't been there since they remodeled/expanded - the food is quite good.

[OzJohnnie]

With about 30 hours to reflect on yesterday's game I have officially decided to believe that the Cobbers are that good on defense and not that we are that bad on offense (not that we are that good though).

Come back in another 30 after considering that the mismatch on linemen size is nothing new for SJU, particularly in the playoffs.  Although I just listened on the Interwebs and read the post-game analysis, it seems as if our line was consistently out played skill-wise, not just overpowered a couple times by bigger dudes.  How much bigger was the Cobber offensive line that our defensive front four that, after the first quarter, shut everything down a gem?

It seems to me that the offense is lacking in team spirit.  Reading in the post game articles at the SC Times, I hear this lament that we don't have a big talent to go to this year, ala Blake/Gearman/Webber.  What the hell kind of talk is that?  Look, I know I'm no one to second guess anyone on football, much less the best that ever lived and his staff, but if this turns into a "woe is we" season then I may have to just get a bit irked.  The key, key, key to offensive success is not a superstar.  Sure, a superstar may get you a championship, but an offense executes as a unit, as a clock where each little bit is doing it's job.  Almost every bit of the clock sounded broken this weekend, and I'll be damned if I believe SJU does not have some grade A clock pieces (to keep a metaphor going a little to long).

The offense did not play as a cohesive unit.  The QB issue is just another symptom of that malady, and not the cause.

And that's what I think.

EDIT: On even further reflection, this is the issue I see:  It seems as if we're still in spring training.  We treated the first three games as if they were patty cake warm-ups for the real season and now finding ourselves underdone and over confident.  Now we're faced with righting the ship in a number of areas with no idea how to do it.  The QB issue seems to reflect an overall sub-par effort at getting the offense prepared to play top notch football at the first whistle of the first game.  By saying we'll play around a bit and see who proves themselves, everyone took a mental holiday.  "Hell," they said, "we can win these games by frickin' around and trying out one QB after another in a half-assed effort at running an offense.  Why do I need to sweat the details?"  How could that mood not infest the team?  And look at us now.

This was a grade A f-up of the season's preparation.

[TC]

...we don't have a big talent to go to this year, ala Blake/Gearman/Webber...

Let's have a sing-along, shall we?  "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong..." 

It's not that we don't have a singular talent this year, all of a sudden, it's that we haven't had one for five years now--five years directly following a National Championship game and the local and national media-gasm that surrounded Gagliardi and the record setting 2003 season. 

I don't know if it is the rest of the MIAC catching up to the Johnnies or Johnnies falling back to the pack, but it doesn't matter who the coach is--without the players, no gameplan is going to succeed.  The Johnnies built a successful program through strong and unique coaching, yes, but having a distinct talent advantage each and every Saturday sure didn't hurt.  Having the occasional player pass through the program that really has no business playing at the D3 level serves as a security blanket for everyone.  That player hasn't existed in Collegeville since Blake Elliott left town.  Call it whatever you want--a lack of urgency, a sense of entitlement, feeling sorry for ourselves, whatever--but things like "Concordia 9, St. John's 6" are going to happen occasionally as long as the talent at St. John's remains at the current level.

Don't take that the wrong way.  I'd still love to see the Johnnies win every game by a thousand, million, bajillion points.  But whether this is just a cyclical thing or something much, much worse, the St. John's teams of the last handful of years simply don't have championship-level talent, and there's no shame in recognizing that.

[OzJohnnie]

Don't take that the wrong way.  I'd still love to see the Johnnies win every game by a thousand, million, bajillion points.  But whether this is just a cyclical thing or something much, much worse, the St. John's teams of the last handful of years simply don't have championship-level talent, and there's no shame in recognizing that.

There's nothing to disagree with you on here.  Quotes like this, however, are a bit puzzling.

Also problematic has been the lack of an offensive playmaker, a breakout player in the Blake Elliott/Kyle Gearman/Brian Weber mold.

"We don't have that guy," Gagliardi said.

Sure we may lack the championship talent that we have had in past years, but we are also lacking in basic crispness and execution on offense.  Sure we may have an O-line a bit off from previous years, but are they as tragic as they appeared on Saturday?  And during the pre-season wasn't the word that this O-Line was looking pretty good?  It seems to me that we aren't using what we have to it's full potential.  And maybe that's another reflection of what has caused the recruitment non-performance, particularly on offense.

So, although I have no standing to question the coaching or administration of the program, I'm disappointed.  To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, we play the season with the team we have.  Not picking the QB one third of the way into the season along with offensive players not doing the basics like they should be seems to indicate we were not prepared for the season to start.

I'm officially done with this line of discussion because I feel I may be hyperventilating a bit in order to be forceful on my point.  Leave it at: I'm disappointed.

[DuffMan]

cobbernation - The SJU announce crew, who are usually pretty good at getting the scoop from the sidelines explained that the punter had "established his position on the field after the punt" (which I guess means that he had completed punting and was now a potential tackler) so he was fair game to be blocked. Makes sense if that was indeed the case.

No way.  He was not a potential tackler at that point.  I was amazed that the flag didn't fly.  It shouldn't have been a personal foul, but I think it should have been a running into the kicker penalty.  Still would have left the Cobbers with 4th down, though.

[DuffMan]

Newsflash: 

BLAKE ELLIOT HAS NOT PLAYED IN 5 YEARS!!!
Yeah, he was great, but move on.  There were a lot of fantastic teams that did not include Blake Elliot.  He's the type of player that you're not going to see very often.  Time to turn the page.

[57Johnnie]

Newsflash: 

BLAKE ELLIOT HAS NOT PLAYED IN 5 YEARS!!!
Yeah, he was great, but move on.  There were a lot of fantastic teams that did not include Blake Elliot.  He's the type of player that you're not going to see very often.  Time to turn the page.

Right on. We got the Gusties on Saturday.

[bcflyguy1]

...we don't have a big talent to go to this year, ala Blake/Gearman/Webber...

It's not that we don't have a singular talent this year, all of a sudden, it's that we haven't had one for five years now--five years directly following a National Championship game and the local and national media-gasm that surrounded Gagliardi and the record setting 2003 season. 

I don't know if it is the rest of the MIAC catching up to the Johnnies or Johnnies falling back to the pack, but it doesn't matter who the coach is--without the players, no gameplan is going to succeed.  The Johnnies built a successful program through strong and unique coaching, yes, but having a distinct talent advantage each and every Saturday sure didn't hurt. 

"To me, coaching is very simple.  If you have the best players, you win."

Thank you, TC.  Finally, somebody else is saying it besides me and Dr. Tom Osborne.  That whole "Ordinary people doing ordinary things extraordinarily well" bit is nice, but SJU has enjoyed a tremendous advantage in the talent department for years.  This is probably just a temporary dip that will make watching your next great team all the more fun.

[The White Silly]

Duffman, you just got my award for best post of the young 2008 season with your Newsflash, and I know that means a lot.  Also, people need to relax on the over analysis.  Double also, I forget who posted it a ways back, but I agree and will also predict Augsburg to bring home the Miac title this year.

[Buckman]

In difficult times, I think it is important to keep a rational and measured perspective, but I have one more quick thing I'd like to add: 

THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH SWEARS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TO ACCURATELY DESCRIBE MY FEELINGS TOWARDS JIMMY [CENSORED] GAGLIARDI CALLING A [CENSORED] PITCH IN HIS OWN [CENSORED] END ZONE WHEN HIS [CENSORED] [CENSORED] OFFENSIVE LINE HASN'T GOTTEN A PUSH IN FIVE [CENSORED] YEARS.  WHAT KIND OF HORSE[CENSORED] CALL WAS THAT?  [CENSORED].

Thank you for letting me vent.  It feels great to get that off my chest.

Go Johnnies!

Trust me folks, this little bit of venting doesn't do any justice to hearing it live, as anyone anywhere near the south parking lot heard, during halftime of the game.

[LBean]

Kind of hard for the Johnnie offensive unit to function cohesively when offensive genius  Jimmy G. seemed to substitute  two players on just about every play.

  Does he have to call every single damn play?    What's that all about?     Is his ego getting in the way?