FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sjusection105]

I received my invitation in the mail today for the groundbreaking of Gagliardi Field ----> http://www.csbsju.edu/forward/college-of-arts-and-sciences/place/gagliardi-field-and-seasonal-dome

I got one.  I thought maybe I was a VIP or something, but if you got one, they obviously sent them out to everyone!

Nice to see you hit that hanging curveball out of the park....

[SJUrube]

I received my invitation in the mail today for the groundbreaking of Gagliardi Field

I got one.  I thought maybe I was a VIP or something, but if you got one, they obviously sent them out to everyone!

They must be scraping the bottom of the barrel - I received one too.

[Boys of Fall]

I received my invitation in the mail today for the groundbreaking of Gagliardi Field

I got one.  I thought maybe I was a VIP or something, but if you got one, they obviously sent them out to everyone!

They must be scraping the bottom of the barrel - I received one too.

Mine came to "Resident".

[art76]

I received my invitation in the mail today for the groundbreaking of Gagliardi Field

I got one.  I thought maybe I was a VIP or something, but if you got one, they obviously sent them out to everyone!

They must be scraping the bottom of the barrel - I received one too.

Mine came to "Resident".

At least you got one...

[SJUrube]

I wrote a story for Vice Sports on someone familiar to folks around these parts: John Gagliardi. I've written thousands of words on him for free over the years, but it was nice to get paid to write about him. Obviously familiar ground to Johnnies and non-Johnnies, but there is a new, relevant hook: The Ivy League just announced it was banning tackling conference-wide in practices starting next season. (not that I needed an excuse to write about John, but that's a good one).

http://bit.ly/1UUPVlT

A quality read, especially for those prone to the Johnnie Smokefest. There was a new nugget about John's coaching career at Carroll College  that I don't remember hearing before. I'll leave that as a tease

[SJUrube]

Fury's Vice story on John mentioned he's still teaching a class during spring semester. Leadership Lessons With John Gagliardi is an evolution of his Theory of Football class he taught for many years. One of my few regrets of life as an SJU student is not taking this class.

The class often features guest speakers and the Coach John Gagliardi Facebook page often posts a post class interview with the guest. I like to think of it as the equivalent of when John Stewart and the Daily Show had additional interview footage available online. Todays' guest was former SJU QB Tom Linnemann. In a surprising twist Tom found another year of eligibility and John is coming back to coach. https://www.facebook.com/CoachJohnGagliardi/

Outside of today being 4/1, I found it interesting that John referenced 500 wins. I always got the sense from afar that he wanted to stick around long enough to get the 11 more wins he needed to do so. Also, it's funny that his Facebook page includes the use of Coach when players never called him Coach, just John.

[AO]

Good job as usual, sfury.

A thought just popped into my head. Assume this no-contact takes off now that a whole big-school conference has adopted it. I wonder if Gagliardi acolytes might start getting calls from places they haven't been called from before.

Gags can probably also claim partial inspiration for the one of the newer safe practice technologies.  Robotic Tackling Dummies!

[OzJohnnie]

Well, I'm at the MCG for the Grand Final rematch against West Coast. I've got perfect seats, first row on the second deck right at midfield. Luke Hodge, our captain, broke his arm against Geelong last week and is out for six weeks. I'm hoping our depleted side (four Premiership players out due to injury and three more gone to retirement or trade) can gel against the Eagles. Time for the minor leaguers to stand tall and win a permanent spot in the senior side.

(Of course, it's midway through the third quarter and Geelong are getting smashed by the Detroit Lions equivelant Greater Western Sydney. The Cats, every team it seems, always brings their best game against the Hawks.)

[OzJohnnie]

That was quite a game, for a quarter, and then it was over.  The Hawks showed great form and won 99-53. The MCG is letting fans onto the field after select games and yesterday was one of those games. I took a picture from the field that you don't get Many opportunities to take and another as I left showing how many fans still packed the turf.

[faunch]

That was quite a game, for a quarter, and then it was over.  The Hawks showed great form and won 99-53. The MCG is letting fans onto the field after select games and yesterday was one of those games. I took a picture from the field that you don't get Many opportunities to take and another as I left showing how many fans still packed the turf.

That place if freakin' huge!!!

[OzJohnnie]

Yeah, it's pretty big. It seats just under 100k. The roar when it's at 80k+ is pretty cool.  I've been to a few games with 95k+ fans and it's pretty exciting.

But the place is a barn. Yesterday's game had just over 42k and it felt empty. The Hawthorn members and general admission stands were pretty full so when play was in front of them it was pretty good.  But the MCC members (where I sit) and the AFL members (which have a large section on the opposite wing) were prett empty.

[HSCTiger74]

Yeah, it's pretty big. It seats just under 100k. The roar when it's at 80k+ is pretty cool.  I've been to a few games with 95k+ fans and it's pretty exciting.

But the place is a barn. Yesterday's game had just over 42k and it felt empty. The Hawthorn members and general admission stands were pretty full so when play was in front of them it was pretty good.  But the MCC members (where I sit) and the AFL members (which have a large section on the opposite wing) were prett empty.

   And that's without taking into account the field dimensions, which are a bit less than half again as long and three times as wide as an American football field. You need a pretty big stadium with a ground that large.

[OldAuggie]

More Big Ten blood for the MIAC:

Patrick Reusse
‏@1500ESPN_Reusse
Jim Zebrowski has been hired as ass't head football coach at Hamline by Chip Taylor. Zebrowski was Gophers' QB coach fired by Claeys.

[finsleft]

I received my invitation in the mail today for the groundbreaking of Gagliardi Field

I got one.  I thought maybe I was a VIP or something, but if you got one, they obviously sent them out to everyone!

They must be scraping the bottom of the barrel - I received one too.

Mine came to "Resident".

I got one, but that's "work" weekend at the up-north cabin. Just called Tom Stock to let him know. They're changing the date.

[badgerwarhawk]

More Big Ten blood for the MIAC:

Patrick Reusse
‏@1500ESPN_Reusse
Jim Zebrowski has been hired as ass't head football coach at Hamline by Chip Taylor. Zebrowski was Gophers' QB coach fired by Claeys.

JZ is an excellent coach.  He had success at Lakeland College before joining our staff as offensive coordinator.  That led to the OC job at Northern Illinois with Jerry Kind who took him to Minnesota.  It's a good hire though I question whether he could have the same kind of success that he had at Lakeland at Hamline.  There's a huge difference between the level of competition within the conference. 

Good luck, Z.