FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[AO]

Oshkosh it is.  Definitely easier than going through Mount or Mary Hardin-Baylor, but Wara is probably the best QB in the final 4.

[retagent]

A great win for UWO, and the Tommies.

[stormyfuture]

looking forward to next weeks MIAC/WIAC semi.  Go Tommies

[sfury]

Also history repeating itself with the 2000 game between St. John's and Pacific Lutheran. Johnnies score 1st in OT, PLU loses on a halfback pass interception.

[hazzben]

Oshkosh it is.  Definitely easier than going through Mount or Mary Hardin-Baylor, but Wara is probably the best QB in the final 4.

Wara is a talent. But Burke for Mount and LiDarral Bailey for UMHB are no slouches either. You could make solid arguments for all three and be totally justified. O'Connell is probably the outlier of the group. Not that he isn't a talent, but he's not at the level of the other 3, yet.

Against UWO, I think UST has the better D. But they'll need it against a very good, experienced and balanced UWO offense.

[D O.C.]

St. Thomas deserves to be where they are.
No injuries I hoping.

[USTBench]

St. Thomas deserves to be where they are.
No injuries I hoping.

Pretty banged up team, but everyone is at this point in the season.

UWO is going to be so tough coming in, but I sure am glad UST doesn't have to go to the Catdome.

[Bartman]

UST is a very impressive, well coached  team, congratulations on your win. Bartman will be rooting for you the rest of the way(as soon as the sting wears off) Nice stadium , nice campus and respectful fans. Good luck!

[K-Mack]

Ugh, I thought that joker had moved on to non-sports pursuits.

I wish I could be happy for Gagliardi here, but this is the same guy who says stuff like Mount Union schedules six home games to gain an unfair advantage without checking to see if they had six away games the year before. As if it even matters where Mount Union plays against 95% of D-III.

Bench, I think K-Mack's dig here is at the TMQ guy, not Gagliardi.

Very much so. Never had a problem with John, he treated me well before I even pronounced his name or Hamline or Gustavus right.

Re: St. Thomas, am I overstating how much they lost off last year's team (Waldvogel, Danna, Tobin, Tracy) or is Caruso building a baby dynasty? I defer to Pat on most matters St. Thomas because he sees them play so often living close by, but when a team reloads (and I know they had some defensive studs return), it's usually the sign of a foundation/system/pipeline that's due to how the program is built.

This side of Berez/Leipold, there's been no greater/faster rise to consistent contender over the past several years than St. Thomas.

[K-Mack]

Yeah that was a really dumb line and as clueless as some of the Mount shots Keith mentioned.

Maybe it means John used the passive voice: "Guys, that game was won by us with some good defense." Should have been more active: "Guys, we won that game with good defense."

It means its a ridiculous column/podcast making assumptions about someone and someplace the writer has never been for no reason whatsoever.  He does it every week.

Okay good, I'm not alone.

I learned a while back, partially through the experience of D3boards, that if you truly don't care about or dislike something, best to (mostly) ignore it.

So St. Thomas. I was sandbagging a little with the pick; the safe bet was St. Thomas, but I thought they'd showed vulnerability against Elmhurst and Hobart was built to compete. If I had only D3football as my job I would break down tape of the O- and D-lines and get a better feel for if the teams could compete along the LOS.

But basically I should just look at the Elmhurst game as a product of CCIW-MIAC matching up, and always trust the conference rankings in quarterfinal games. MIAC > unless WIAC or Mount Union is playing. (or maybe Wesley, UMHB)

[AO]

Re: St. Thomas, am I overstating how much they lost off last year's team (Waldvogel, Danna, Tobin, Tracy) or is Caruso building a baby dynasty? I defer to Pat on most matters St. Thomas because he sees them play so often living close by, but when a team reloads (and I know they had some defensive studs return), it's usually the sign of a foundation/system/pipeline that's due to how the program is built.

This side of Berez/Leipold, there's been no greater/faster rise to consistent contender over the past several years than St. Thomas.

There's no doubt that Caruso is recruiting tremendous depth to St. Thomas, but you can't really be sure about finding replacements for Waldvogel/Tracy/etc.  until they play.  Brenton Braddock and Matt O'Connell were not huge prep names in the area.  Last year's Tommie team was probably a better team, but the competition was also better. 

[K-Mack]

Because this was discussed here, and you always here the charges but not always the dismissals...all charges against Mankato coach Todd Hoffner dismissed. Everything I've seen on the case, seemed like absolutely the right call. Unfortunately too late for his reputation and, possibly, career.

http://www.startribune.com/local/181574761.html?refer=y

Always thought that guy got a raw deal. Hopefully he works again ... but at least he can see his kids without bars in front of them.

[Pat Coleman]

And Brenton Braddock was not the first or second option when the season started.

At the end of today's news conference, Glenn Caruso said this game was the win that signified to him that they had built a good program, not just a good team. Perhaps ...

[DoubleO]

Ok Tommie fans, who would you rather play?

I'm guessing UWO since you get to stay in St. Paul. But that's also the more balanced offense...

Day late and a dollar short, but I would've preferred to see the Toms go to Linfield and beat them. They have some rather obnoxious posters who seem to think that they're the 2nd coming of UWW or Mt. U and it would've been enjoyable to see the Toms go there and silence some of that obnoxiousness. Guess we'll have to wait for that because UWO took care of that!

[DoubleO]

Yeah that was a really dumb line and as clueless as some of the Mount shots Keith mentioned.

Maybe it means John used the passive voice: "Guys, that game was won by us with some good defense." Should have been more active: "Guys, we won that game with good defense."

It means its a ridiculous column/podcast making assumptions about someone and someplace the writer has never been for no reason whatsoever.  He does it every week.

Okay good, I'm not alone.

I learned a while back, partially through the experience of D3boards, that if you truly don't care about or dislike something, best to (mostly) ignore it.

So St. Thomas. I was sandbagging a little with the pick; the safe bet was St. Thomas, but I thought they'd showed vulnerability against Elmhurst and Hobart was built to compete. If I had only D3football as my job I would break down tape of the O- and D-lines and get a better feel for if the teams could compete along the LOS.

But basically I should just look at the Elmhurst game as a product of CCIW-MIAC matching up, and always trust the conference rankings in quarterfinal games. MIAC > unless WIAC or Mount Union is playing. (or maybe Wesley, UMHB)

K-Mack,

I completely agree with your thinking that vulnerability was shown vs Elmhurst. I thought they'd win that game going away-no disrespect meant to Elmhurst. To say that I was more than slightly worried about the Hobart matchup coming into today would be an understatement.

I am very interested to see how the defense/defensive scheming matches up vs an outstanding Wara & crew.