FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sfury]

Without a doubt, you have to be at full strength to even have a shot at UWW or Mount. A Freshman QB, no matter how much potential, not sure that is the ticket.
The 1999 defense was one of the best ever at SJU and this D is not in that league. They only gave up about 7 points per game. Novak and LaBore, were unreal, when SJU needed a turnover, those guys came up big. This team can make a good run in the playoffs, win a couple of games, but they need their #1 QB to have a shot at the region final and beyond. Didn't Denne QB after Linnemann (sp?) got hurt?

Stanger was the QB. It was similar to when Denne took over for Keating, as Stanger had been playing tight end.

That defense was awesome, but it got better and better as the season wore on, like this one appears to be doing. In 1999, they gave up 28 to Eau Claire, 18 to St. Thomas and 24 to Bethel in the first five weeks of the season. The 1998 defense was actually even better than 1999.

[sju56321]

Corey Stranger-right.
1999 D was giving up more like 12 points a game, stand corrected.

[retagent]

I remember being at the 2002 Homecoming Game. Ross Denne played QB, and I thought he was VERY good. I wasn't even aware that Keating had been the starter, and found it hard to believe that they had another QB who might even be better than Denne. Also, being an astute judge of football talent, I remember telling my son, sometime in the 1st or early second quarter, "That #2 for St John's looks like the best player on the field."

[sju56321]

Wasn't '98 the first year of the radio broadcasts over the internet? The old dial-up connection and you would get booted at least twice during the game and hope to connect up to the maybe 5 connections they had.

[stanbob]

Wasn't '98 the first year of the radio broadcasts over the internet? The old dial-up connection and you would get booted at least twice during the game and hope to connect up to the maybe 5 connections they had.

That was the one sju, they played PLU at home while I was stationed in Washington state and fighting with the dial-up, and the next year the Johnnies  went out there and I was in Korea.

[chewey]

The Johnnies will be fine.  AK was a good solid QB but he hit his plateau in Freshman year and stayed there.  Jimmy G is not as bad as some make him out to be, in my opinion, and I have had some criticism for him with my absolute wealth of football knowledge  .  The J's have an absolute surplus of great backs and great receivers and the defense is top notch.  They just need a QB with some confidence who can check down instead of focusing in on only one guy.  SJU has had this problem before in 1997 when they went through 4 or 5 QB's in the Auggie game and came up with Linneman.  I remember in 2000 at the Central playoff game when Linneman got hurt and both Keating and Denne got in there and did nothing and Linneman toughed it out, after all.   Denne and Keating were both great QB's but I think Denne was a bit better, even though he started as a TE (like Stanger).  SJU had a season of gut checks last year and that's served them well this year with a tougher and more balanced MIAC.  It reminds me of the late 80's when I was there.  They will be fine.

It looks like my friends at Linfield have the real deal this year.  It's been a long 2 years for them but they're due and they have an outstanding team once again.  I hope SJU gets the chance to face them again as I have a lot of respect for them and it's time for me to get another Linfield sweatshirt.  Plus, I'd like to be 4-0 (or whatever it is) against them and give Coco and Wildcat11 and Bluenote crap about it for another off season. 

[D O.C.]

Has anyone contemplated "Wildcat?"

Thank-you!

Yes.

Every day.

The chew can have the shirt off my back when we come back there and the game is over. Red hoodie so you can wear it often and the near - sighted will never know.

[bluenote]

It looks like my friends at Linfield have the real deal this year.  It's been a long 2 years for them but they're due and they have an outstanding team once again.  I hope SJU gets the chance to face them again as I have a lot of respect for them and it's time for me to get another Linfield sweatshirt.  Plus, I'd like to be 4-0 (or whatever it is) against them and give Coco and Wildcat11 and Bluenote crap about it for another off season. 

Hey chewey.....nice to see you've still got some good insight. We're also hoping for a rematch with the Johnnies if we can keep winning. If things worked out it would be great to play Central and if we could get by them....a rematch with SJU in the West Final! (fingers crossed!)

[OzJohnnie]

Nope.  I reckon the Johnnies are done for.  They're easy-beats.  It's the lovers and not the haters that are delusioned.  In fact, it only due to undeserved luck that these Johnnies have managed to stay un-upset despite mutiple picks as the most likely to be upset.  Look past them, look past them.

[sju56321]

oz-you still on that Qantas flight with the free drinks??

[WithasilentK]

The Johnnies will be fine.  AK was a good solid QB but he hit his plateau in Freshman year and stayed there.  Jimmy G is not as bad as some make him out to be, in my opinion, and I have had some criticism for him with my absolute wealth of football knowledge  .  The J's have an absolute surplus of great backs and great receivers and the defense is top notch.  They just need a QB with some confidence who can check down instead of focusing in on only one guy.  SJU has had this problem before in 1997 when they went through 4 or 5 QB's in the Auggie game and came up with Linneman.  I remember in 2000 at the Central playoff game when Linneman got hurt and both Keating and Denne got in there and did nothing and Linneman toughed it out, after all.   Denne and Keating were both great QB's but I think Denne was a bit better, even though he started as a TE (like Stanger).  SJU had a season of gut checks last year and that's served them well this year with a tougher and more balanced MIAC.  It reminds me of the late 80's when I was there.  They will be fine.

It looks like my friends at Linfield have the real deal this year.  It's been a long 2 years for them but they're due and they have an outstanding team once again.  I hope SJU gets the chance to face them again as I have a lot of respect for them and it's time for me to get another Linfield sweatshirt.  Plus, I'd like to be 4-0 (or whatever it is) against them and give Coco and Wildcat11 and Bluenote crap about it for another off season. 

I'm not saying you're wrong that SJU will be fine because they might be.  But a surplus of great backs and receivers???   They have a strong backfield and a good receiver.  Great backs and receivers make for an easy day no matter the quarterback, which has not been the case.

[chewey]

It looks like my friends at Linfield have the real deal this year.  It's been a long 2 years for them but they're due and they have an outstanding team once again.  I hope SJU gets the chance to face them again as I have a lot of respect for them and it's time for me to get another Linfield sweatshirt.  Plus, I'd like to be 4-0 (or whatever it is) against them and give Coco and Wildcat11 and Bluenote crap about it for another off season. 

Hey chewey.....nice to see you've still got some good insight. We're also hoping for a rematch with the Johnnies if we can keep winning. If things worked out it would be great to play Central and if we could get by them....a rematch with SJU in the West Final! (fingers crossed!)

+K Bluenote.  I'd like the chance to get out to Oregon and be asked how good I think our chances are and see Kellen Blaser run on Linfield the way Kent Crowley did.  Any David Russell's or Casey Allen's or George Carter's this year?

[WashedUp]

The SJU receivers are athletic, but the impression that I always got from playing against them was that they were some of the softer receivers in the conference.  As a group they are below average blockers and had trouble against the press the last couple of years.

[Robert Zimmerman]

The new top 25 poll is out and has SJU moving up to the 4th spot.  There has been chatter that Linfield would leapfrog SJU perhaps, but Linfield is ranked 5th for the time being.  I am looking forward to the regional rankings.  Question for the experts:  Will SJU slip in next week's rankings because of the bye week?  With the way the brackets have been made the last couple years (which has been an improvement by the way), it seems that staying in the top 4 could be a big advantage for seeding in the playoffs.

[chewey]

The Johnnies will be fine.  AK was a good solid QB but he hit his plateau in Freshman year and stayed there.  Jimmy G is not as bad as some make him out to be, in my opinion, and I have had some criticism for him with my absolute wealth of football knowledge  .  The J's have an absolute surplus of great backs and great receivers and the defense is top notch.  They just need a QB with some confidence who can check down instead of focusing in on only one guy.  SJU has had this problem before in 1997 when they went through 4 or 5 QB's in the Auggie game and came up with Linneman.  I remember in 2000 at the Central playoff game when Linneman got hurt and both Keating and Denne got in there and did nothing and Linneman toughed it out, after all.   Denne and Keating were both great QB's but I think Denne was a bit better, even though he started as a TE (like Stanger).  SJU had a season of gut checks last year and that's served them well this year with a tougher and more balanced MIAC.  It reminds me of the late 80's when I was there.  They will be fine.

It looks like my friends at Linfield have the real deal this year.  It's been a long 2 years for them but they're due and they have an outstanding team once again.  I hope SJU gets the chance to face them again as I have a lot of respect for them and it's time for me to get another Linfield sweatshirt.  Plus, I'd like to be 4-0 (or whatever it is) against them and give Coco and Wildcat11 and Bluenote crap about it for another off season. 

I'm not saying you're wrong that SJU will be fine because they might be.  But a surplus of great backs and receivers???   They have a strong backfield and a good receiver.  Great backs and receivers make for an easy day no matter the quarterback, which has not been the case.

The running backs have been doing the work for most of this year.  They have Jimmy Loonan, Stephen Johnson, Harry Awe, Kellen Blaser, Jakob Reding, Nick Schneider, and Mark Waring (I don't know why this kid is not playing because he's excellent as anyone who say him play at Auggie can attest to.  He must really be on someone's s+!+list).  For receivers, they have Josh Overman, Andrew Rotschafer, Sam Pederson, and of course Ben Vanderhayden.  Teams have known from last year that we run a lot better than we pass so they've prepared for the run and still SJU has prevailed.  That tells me a lot about the O-line and about the backs.  Still, the QB's have made enough passes when it counts so I will not scum them.  Teams know how well SJU has passed in the past so they must respect it somewhat at all times and in all years.  We just need one of our QB's to get confident enough to find receivers.  Back in 99, Stanger had a good arm and was a decent QB but he did not have a lot of confidence in himself and he held the ball too long and missed wide open guys.  That's kind of what we have now.  Hopefully, we make the playoffs and Jimmy will have one of them ready to go.