FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[DuffMan]

Why is it that Johnnie fans blame their players when they lose? 

Ummm, they're the ones on the field, aren't they?  Who should we blame?  DustySJU?  Pat Coleman?

[justadad]

Why is it that Johnnie fans blame their players when they lose? 

Ummm, they're the ones on the field, aren't they?  Who should we blame?  DustySJU?  Pat Coleman?

I at the very least question, if not blame, the coaching game plan.  Four games into the season it should be apparent that the offense is not going to score enough touchdowns to overcome the lost opportunities of getting 0 points from inside the red zone.  It appeared from the box score we had a good punting day.  Bury their offense whenever possible, rely on the Johnnie D to keep them from a 80 yard drive.  Take points whenever available and hopefully be in the game at the end.  We have a strength with Russel, why do we not develop it and use it to our advantage?

[DuffMan]

Why is it that Johnnie fans blame their players when they lose? 

Ummm, they're the ones on the field, aren't they?  Who should we blame?  DustySJU?  Pat Coleman?

I at the very least question, if not blame, the coaching game plan.

I don't think anyone has not questioned some of the coaching.

[janesvilleflash]

I would blame Pat Coleman.

[sju56321]

Concerning the coaching, it seems the blame should lie in coaches' evaluation of talent on the offensive side. Jimmy has been calling the same plays for the past fews year and they seemed to work then. Now, maybe what is needed is a QB that can recognize a certain play will not work against a certain defense and call an audible. Either have some confidence in your ability or sit back down. But I do agree SJU needs to plan for next year, start some younger guys.

[janesvilleflash]

Someone said the other day that other MIAC schools could offer an incoming freshman a chance to play right away, but SJU couldn't because of their large roster. Is that a true statement? I would think you'd put your best players on the field regardless. Don't true freshmen ever get a chance?

[Pat Coleman]

I would blame Pat Coleman.

I try to exert my energies towards Indianapolis, not Collegeville.

[DuffMan]

Someone said the other day that other MIAC schools could offer an incoming freshman a chance to play right away, but SJU couldn't because of their large roster. Is that a true statement? I would think you'd put your best players on the field regardless. Don't true freshmen ever get a chance?

Sure, they get a chance.  But with a roster of 180, you're chances of seeing the field as a freshman are much less than a school that carries a roster of 80.

[57Johnnie]

Someone said the other day that other MIAC schools could offer an incoming freshman a chance to play right away, but SJU couldn't because of their large roster. Is that a true statement? I would think you'd put your best players on the field regardless. Don't true freshmen ever get a chance?

Kofoed started as a Freshman as well as Wimmer & Rose, don't know if they were true. That's off the top of my head w/o looking at a roster.

[Rugman]

Someone said the other day that other MIAC schools could offer an incoming freshman a chance to play right away, but SJU couldn't because of their large roster. Is that a true statement? I would think you'd put your best players on the field regardless. Don't true freshmen ever get a chance?

Kofoed started as a Freshman as well as Wimmer & Rose, don't know if they were true. That's off the top of my head w/o looking at a roster.

Mushat too?

[Rugman]

Now, maybe what is needed is a QB that can recognize a certain play will not work against a certain defense and call an audible.

I can't recall an audible being called all year.  I'm sure that's not correct and maybe some have been called that aren't obvious.  But often they are very obvious and I have not noticed any.

[CCKnight]

Someone said the other day that other MIAC schools could offer an incoming freshman a chance to play right away, but SJU couldn't because of their large roster. Is that a true statement? I would think you'd put your best players on the field regardless. Don't true freshmen ever get a chance?

Sure, they get a chance.  But with a roster of 180, you're chances of seeing the field as a freshman are much less than a school that carries a roster of 80.

Way back when I was making my college decisions it seemed to me that if you were not heavily recruited by SJU that it would be very tough to ever get a chance to showcase your talents with so many people on the roster.  It always seemed (from the outside) that if you weren't one of the big names they brought in it would be difficult to get a fair look.  Granted I did not actually go there so I don't know whether this is the case or not but it probably did factor into my decision a little.  In the end it came down to academics for me, but also having a legitimate shot at playing time early on didn't hurt.  Also, Carleton was competative (lost a bunch of games by a TD or less) the season before I enrolled so at the time I didn't think we would be as bad as we were for awhile there.

[janesvilleflash]

I don't mean to be asking dumb questions, but I kinda always thought about 40 or 50 of the guy on the roster pretty much never had a chance to see the field after the first season, and were just along for the ride. Is that a fair statement, or all wrong?

[chewey]

They look at talent at SJU regardless of the size of the roster.  The kicker is that some very good talent only gets a shot during the senior year.  Granted perhaps there is good talent ahead of them in previous years.  I think SJU needs to do a better job of getting younger players in game situations earlier in the year.  It has seemed in years past that the younger guys only get in snippets of time during the 4th quarters of games when they could have been playing the entire second halves of games.  This year would be an opportune time to do this.  Win a couple of more games so that John does not have a losing season (See 4-4-1 1986, my freshman year, for the worst season in a very long time for the J's) and play the younger guys.  It's obvious this year that the better talent is probably not, at least for the o-line and QB, in the advanced years - JR/SR.  I think there is a good deal of playing the older kids and giving them preference because they've hung around a long time.  That is, to a degree, a huge credit to the program and coaching staff.  However, the kids need to perform too and they should be yanked if they are not doing so.  The problem this year is that there are so many at key positions whereas, usually, such a thing has been limited to only a QB,RB,WR or a defensive back or two. 

[TC]

If I'm not mistaken, Jamie Steffensmeier led the '03 team in tackles as a freshman, though I know he redshirted a year at NDSU before coming to Collegeville.  To be honest, that's the way a program newcomer gets a shot--they transfer from a D-I or I-AA school.  Does this lead to resentment from the players that start their college career with the Johnnies?  I've heard that rumor, but it's impossible to know.  It is plausible that a potential recruit would notice this trend and be a little wary of coming to Collegeville, I guess.



Back to blaming the players for a minute.  I agree with Duff when he says that it's ultimately the players that decide whether the team wins or loses.  What I don't agree with are the people who are questioning players' or groups of players' desire or mental commitment.  Without having much more intimate knowledge of the team than anyone on here does, it is impossible to say that the players are failing because they don't care.

Take a look at how much the talent has improved in the MIAC the past handful of years--Bethel has made the transformation from complete laughingstock to a team that can compete at the conference level to a team that won the West Region last year.  Augsburg has knocked off nationally-ranked Wartburg two years in a row.  Gustavus and St. Olaf are putting players on NFL (practice squad) rosters.  St. Thomas... well, the Tommies still suck.  Is it possible that St. John's can't just walk into its conference schedule with 6 guarenteed W's anymore?  I think there is a lot more evidence that this is due to the Johnnies not being (as far) ahead of the talent curve rather than the players simply not being motivated.

That's not to say the coaching staff is without blame.  No one has ever seen a St. John's offense look this consistently impotent and no one is disputing that there is some level of talent on the offensive side of the ball.  This coaching staff has shown absolutely no ability to form the offense to the pieces they have to work with (though, you can argue that it's tough to build an offense around a quarterback that bounces every 5-yard pass and an offensive line that has proven equally inept at run and pass blocking).  A dramatic talent advantage can make a lot of bad play calls look good, but now that St. John's doesn't have that advantage it's even more important that the coaching staff puts the players they do have in a position to succeed.  You know, like not running a toss sweep out of your own end zone against Concordia or turning 5 red zone possessions into 9 points against Bethel.  We just don't have the margin of error to overcome those mistakes this year.