FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[BU Faithful]

I was at the Royal Ole game today.  Bethel couldn't get pressure on the QB and got lit up through the air as a result.  The Bethel D is all about stopping the run, which they do well.  St 0 stopped running and the Royals had no answer.

[hazzben]

I was at the Royal Ole game today.  Bethel couldn't get pressure on the QB and got lit up through the air as a result.  The Bethel D is all about stopping the run, which they do well.  St 0 stopped running and the Royals had no answer.

Yes, Bethel focuses on stopping the run and making a team one dimensional. They usually do this very well. And while I haven't looked at the stats, they seemed to have little trouble with Leon Clark and co. St. Olaf went max protect almost all game when they passed and we weren't able to get pressure. The bigger problem was that we had a corner who got beat. Several were just exceptional passes and catches by the St. Olaf offense. On one right in front of me our CB had great position and it was just a phenomenal throw/catch. A couple were him letting a man get behind him in zone coverage. When you're playing a WR who is 7 inches taller than you and you let him get behind you, you're dead. Enough said.

The bigger problem for me was that we were up 28 - 10 and had control of the game. We took our foot off the gas and lacked a killer instinct today. We had St. Olaf on the ropes and should have buried them at that point. We let them hang around and they made us pay for it. Hats off to Olaf for playing a full 60 minutes. I was impressed by their QB, and WR's 6 and 89 (86?, Schmeislings younger brother)

The scary thing is this St. Olaf team got absolutely lit by UST! But then again, we beat Olaf by 2 last year and UST and SJU blitzed them. Tough to compare scores.

Of bigger concern is losing our starting left tackle with a knee injury early in the 1st. His replacement will need to step up quickly as so much of what we do is predicated on running effectively.

On a plus, I thought we threw the ball more frequently and effectively than we have in a while.

It's a long season. Need to bounce back next week against SJU. Once again, we've put ourselves in a position of having to win every week from here on out if we want into the dance. We've done it before boys, time to step up and do it again...

[PurpleReign]

Hey, fellow Tommie fans, thanks for not rubbing it in.  It's one afternoon in a long and rich tradition of Tommie-Johnnie football.

[sfury]

Nice to see some other intra-school bickering, hazzbeen.

Yeah, Bethel's still in fine position as far as making a playoff run. And you're right on comparing scores, never works, no matter the sport. If it did, it means the 2003 Tommies are better than the 2003 Mount Union team (yes, we'll cling to '03). Tommies look unstoppable right now, but they looked unstoppable going into the playoff matchup last year, too.

Two desperate teams will meet next week in Collegeville. One desperate to keep playoff hopes alive, the other desperate to...well, just desperate. I'm already dreading those 8-minute Bethel drives and 3rd-and-3 conversions over and over again.

[sfury]

Hey, fellow Tommie fans, thanks for not rubbing it in.  It's one afternoon in a long and rich tradition of Tommie-Johnnie football.

Purple, the good thing for other schools in having this place monopolized by SJU fans is that while it may suck for you guys to have to read the board during good times for the Johnnies, when things go bad, the self-flagellation from the faithful will be much harsher than anything the opposition could deliver. So you guys don't even have to rub it in, since we're already throwing salt on our own wounds.

Unrelated: Nice to see the Tigers filling in nicely for the Twins' standard playoff role of Yankees punching bags.

[corn horn]

Wow...and here I thought it was just a game. Now it's time for the legendary coach to step down? Time to pull the fan base and financial support of the school / program? I hope as the sting of today for the Johnnie (formerly) faithful subsides over the course of the week, some of these posts are looked back upon with a sense of ridiculousness.

Has the SJU recruiting truly been resting on its laurels, or is this just some desperate rationalization for a disappointing season? If so, how much of it is inability to sell the program versus selling the school. Not every player who would love to play for an MIAC school can necessarily come up with the $40K plus a year to attend. This shouldn't disproportionately affect any one school, but might draw some good central MN players to St. Cloud State, Mankato State, etc.

One subpar season will not sink the ship.

The Tommies are tremendously talented. Question...with Mt. Union squeaking by today, do the Tommies jump to at least #2 in the polls, or will it take a loss in Ohio?

Finally, congrats to the Cobbers on a fine win today. (If only they hadn't lost that overtime game to SJU....)

[Mr. Ypsi]

Unrelated: Nice to see the Tigers filling in nicely for the Twins' standard playoff role of Yankees punching bags.

2006: Yankees won the first, Tigers won the next three.

BTW, the Johnnies can console themselves that the Gophers lost worse than they did.  And at least they're not the Vikings!

[signed] Tigers, Lions, and Wolverines fan.

[Pat Coleman]

I don't see much happening to Mount Union. They might lose one of their first-place votes but I can't see them falling out of the No. 2 spot.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Unrelated: Nice to see the Tigers filling in nicely for the Twins' standard playoff role of Yankees punching bags.

2006: Yankees won the first, Tigers won the next three.

BTW, the Johnnies can console themselves that the Gophers lost worse than they did.  And at least they're not the Vikings!

[signed] Tigers, Lions, and Wolverines fan.

+K.....and thanks for the laugh

and anyone silly enough to suggest Caruso would be a candidate for the U of MN job should it open has been smoking something super strong. NO D3 coach would EVER be capable of making the jump to head guy at a D-I BS division program, no matter how downtrodden that program might be. A rare exception might be able to handle the jump to D-I-FCS, but I doubt it would be a successful transition.

Personally, I dont see GC leaving UST for a long time....sorry, men in red.

[onearmedscot]

Was at Sweeney's tonight and saw a Tommie fan in the "Don Roney Era" t-shirt.  I had seen it at the game but didn't "get it."  So I asked the kid and turns out there was nothing to get.  Just a bunch of guys who played for Roney and wanted everyone to know so they made the t-shirts.  Actually the kid said, "Roney seems to get a bad rap so we just wanted to support the fact that we played for him and he was a good guy."

Say what you will about the Roney Era but I thought that was pretty cool.

I was at the game early today and saw the collection of UST recruits before they went into the locker room.  It was bigger than a handful of D3 teams.  And can you imagine what watching that thrashing did for recruiting.  Caruso is a recruiting genius topped only by his knowledge of X's and O's.

oAs.

[PurpleReign]

Hey, fellow Tommie fans, thanks for not rubbing it in.  It's one afternoon in a long and rich tradition of Tommie-Johnnie football.

Purple, the good thing for other schools in having this place monopolized by SJU fans is that while it may suck for you guys to have to read the board during good times for the Johnnies, when things go bad, the self-flagellation from the faithful will be much harsher than anything the opposition could deliver. So you guys don't even have to rub it in, since we're already throwing salt on our own wounds.

Unrelated: Nice to see the Tigers filling in nicely for the Twins' standard playoff role of Yankees punching bags.

sfury - I don't want any of us rubbing it in.  I respect the Tradition of SJU football.  Do you remember Don Pribyl?  He and I were great friends and I miss seeing him all the time.  To me, St. Johns football reminds me of Don and I have the up most respect for you guys.

[DoubleO]

Wow...and here I thought it was just a game. Now it's time for the legendary coach to step down? Time to pull the fan base and financial support of the school / program? I hope as the sting of today for the Johnnie (formerly) faithful subsides over the course of the week, some of these posts are looked back upon with a sense of ridiculousness.

Has the SJU recruiting truly been resting on its laurels, or is this just some desperate rationalization for a disappointing season? If so, how much of it is inability to sell the program versus selling the school. Not every player who would love to play for an MIAC school can necessarily come up with the $40K plus a year to attend. This shouldn't disproportionately affect any one school, but might draw some good central MN players to St. Cloud State, Mankato State, etc.

One subpar season will not sink the ship.

The Tommies are tremendously talented. Question...with Mt. Union squeaking by today, do the Tommies jump to at least #2 in the polls, or will it take a loss in Ohio?

Finally, congrats to the Cobbers on a fine win today. (If only they hadn't lost that overtime game to SJU....)

No way, UWW & MU should retain those top two spots until one of them loses.

[retagent]

Nice to see some other intra-school bickering, hazzbeen.

Yeah, Bethel's still in fine position as far as making a playoff run. And you're right on comparing scores, never works, no matter the sport. If it did, it means the 2003 Tommies are better than the 2003 Mount Union team (yes, we'll cling to '03). Tommies look unstoppable right now, but they looked unstoppable going into the playoff matchup last year, too.

Two desperate teams will meet next week in Collegeville. One desperate to keep playoff hopes alive, the other desperate to...well, just desperate. I'm already dreading those 8-minute Bethel drives and 3rd-and-3 conversions over and over again.

At least if there are 8 minute drives, Bethel won't be able to hang 62 points on the Johnnies. Maybe that would be a moral victory.

[USTBench]

Well, at least there was a place to sit in the second half. So...that was nice.

[sjusection105]

Bench,
Nice to visit with you yesterday. Keep the faith on the UND hockey front!

BTW, you really out punted your coverage with the fiancee,quite the catch for a guy like you.....