FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[tmerton]

St. Thomas may be inexperienced and young but perhaps its best player, Ben Wartman, has been to the promised land, and won a national championship in baseball.  Since he gets about 40% of UST's offensive plays its not like, at least at one position, nerves are jitters should be a factor.  Plus he does not fumble very often (ever?).  Linfield's chances of getting turnovers will be limited.  Bottom line, if UST "can pound the rock" (oh Brewster, haha) they will win the game.  Defense tightens late for a UST victory.

UST         7  14   0   7  7  35
Linfield    0  14  14  0  0  28

Who's starting at QB?

[CAT BAT 22]

I just dont' see UST being able to rely on the run in the 2nd half.  

Nerves won't have as much  to do with fumbles as white helmets with purple and red kittens on them will.  

[tommiegun]

Tmert - I believe they are going with the ol' switch it up according to my source.  Situational changes.

True enough cat bat, but I gotta think as a catcher in baseball he will be up to the challenge.

[D O.C.]

Hey Cretin!

UST         7  14   0   7  7  35
Linfield     0  14  14  0  0  28

That 5 quarters is an overtime win then?
Can't you at least have LINFIELD getting the ball first in OT but only managing a field goal and then Tinkerbell sprinkle the dust on the Tommies while they click their heals and think of home after their winning touchdown? Have a heart.

[hazzben]

Every Friday, Wildcat11's site/blog runs a link dump of articles of the past week with regards to the previous game/upcoming game.  Lots of Linfield and UST stuff to check out.

ADvantage Catdome = AROUND THE CATDOMEO'SPHERE

The catdome is an extremely difficult place to win.  Their fans will be all over the place, in the stands, on the fence and with UST fans.  They will yell, cheer and yell more at fans and players.  It was quite an experience.  The only way UST can win is if they score early and often.  You take the crowd out of the game then you might have a chance.  Linfield doesn't usually give up many 2nd half points, they make great halftime adjustments.

Wow, UST should really work on some silent snap counts.

With Linfield ranking 71st in average D III home attendance (through games of Nov. 30), there is no way the players or coaches won't be shaken by the noise. I mean those 2,300 fans a game are raucous. Oh, and wait, the game is played in a dome so the noise must be amplified as well

[tommiegun]

From reading the board all week I feel the most poetic victory in overtime would be Linfield getting the ball first and committing a fumble scoop stumbling bumbling 6.  So I guess my prediction would have to be 34-28.  But I gazed into the crystal ball and saw a blocked field goal followed by a first play play action to Wartman who has been punishing defenders all day, LB's jumping the run, and a sweet fade to seldom used Tony Margarit in the back corner.

[WithasilentK]

St. Thomas may be inexperienced and young but perhaps its best player, Ben Wartman, has been to the promised land, and won a national championship in baseball.  Since he gets about 40% of UST's offensive plays its not like, at least at one position, nerves are jitters should be a factor.  Plus he does not fumble very often (ever?).  Linfield's chances of getting turnovers will be limited.  Bottom line, if UST "can pound the rock" (oh Brewster, haha) they will win the game.  Defense tightens late for a UST victory.

UST         7  14   0   7  7  35
Linfield    0  14  14  0  0  28

Probably not if UST is trying to throw with Morse.

[tommiegun]

Probably not if UST is trying to throw with Morse.

Hence, IF St. Thomas can pound the rock, they will win.  aka, limit throws. On the otherhand, Coe's vaunted D was only able to pick him a grand total of zero times.

[WithasilentK]

I'm going to go with:  Linfield - 104 (they miss an extra point)
                             St. Thomas - 3

The asshole has spoken!  

Wow...not sure that the Linfield D can stand up to that prediction...after all I am sure they would put in the reserves once they got up by 70 unless they went to the Pete Carroll/Jim Harbaugh school of football etiquette...

Linfield 31  UST W/TDT suggesting plays to Caruso 26

Doesn't seem too unlikely...

4th
 02:25 LIN - Hurn,David 41 yd pass from Inns,Mickey (Kunioka,Maika kick)
                                                1 play, 41 yards, TOP 0:06, PLU 36 - LIN 62

Edit:  It is the backups, but they're still passing.

[WithasilentK]

Probably not if UST is trying to throw with Morse.

Hence, IF St. Thomas can pound the rock, they will win.  aka, limit throws. On the otherhand, Coe's vaunted D was only able to pick him a grand total of zero times.

Coe had a vaunted D?

[tmerton]

St. Thomas may be inexperienced and young but perhaps its best player, Ben Wartman, has been to the promised land, and won a national championship in baseball.  Since he gets about 40% of UST's offensive plays its not like, at least at one position, nerves are jitters should be a factor.  Plus he does not fumble very often (ever?).  Linfield's chances of getting turnovers will be limited.  Bottom line, if UST "can pound the rock" (oh Brewster, haha) they will win the game.  Defense tightens late for a UST victory.

UST         7  14   0   7  7  35
Linfield    0  14  14  0  0  28

Wartman doesn't have to fumble for Linfield to get a turnover ...

[wildcat11]

I'm going to go with:  Linfield - 104 (they miss an extra point)
                             St. Thomas - 3

The asshole has spoken!  

Wow...not sure that the Linfield D can stand up to that prediction...after all I am sure they would put in the reserves once they got up by 70 unless they went to the Pete Carroll/Jim Harbaugh school of football etiquette...

Linfield 31  UST W/TDT suggesting plays to Caruso 26

Doesn't seem too unlikely...

4th
 02:25 LIN - Hurn,David 41 yd pass from Inns,Mickey (Kunioka,Maika kick)
                                                1 play, 41 yards, TOP 0:06, PLU 36 - LIN 62

Edit:  It is the backups, but they're still passing.

See...this is the reason why I'm still pissed about that PLU game.  Linfield was kicking the crap out PLU and had the blench cleared early in the 3rd but with the game out of reach in the 4th quarter, the Lutes still had their 1st string offense in running no-huddle hurry up, going for 2 point conversions, on-siding kicking, against 3rd/4th string Linfield defenses.

The 'Cats would have been content with running out the clock but PLU's staff put Linfield in a position where they still have to keep trying to score with 3rd/4th unit kids.  So we threw a bomb and now folks that look up the game after the fact start questioning Linfield's "etiquette".   

[DustySJU]

St. Thomas may be inexperienced and young but perhaps its best player, Ben Wartman, has been to the promised land, and won a national championship in baseball.  Since he gets about 40% of UST's offensive plays its not like, at least at one position, nerves are jitters should be a factor.  Plus he does not fumble very often (ever?).  Linfield's chances of getting turnovers will be limited.  Bottom line, if UST "can pound the rock" (oh Brewster, haha) they will win the game.  Defense tightens late for a UST victory.

UST         7  14   0   7  7  35
Linfield    0  14  14  0  0  28

Wartman doesn't have to fumble for Linfield to get a turnover ...

Very nice Tmerton, can't wait to resume some ass-kick' in 2010!

[D O.C.]

4th
  02:25 LIN - Hurn,David 41 yd pass from Inns,Mickey

And that was probably worth $28,000 to their mothers.  Personally I don't know the guys - yet.

LINFIELD had 4 straight road games where they gave up 27, 21,7,20 points. At home, where they play at least a 50 players out of 100 they gave up 22, 14, 36, & 44. The last two games of the season, where the average climbed, had in-house circumstances, now resolved.

A sad fact of football is the damage their defense inflicted on individual players. HSU lost two key players, Menlo's Qb was ineffective beyond the 1st quarter after experiencing some rough treatment, Whitworth lost two quarterbacks in one game with the 'CATS. Something happened to Quincy Daniels (I'm just sayin').

The LINFIELD defense is looking forward to battle.

Tommie choice:
Stop the offense
Fool the defense.

[Pat Coleman]

I think St. John's fans assuming Greg Morse will play the same as he did in Collegeville are underthinking things. Things could change in six weeks.

For comparison purposes, Morse looked similar the week before the Johnnie game against Concordia, missing open receivers, not putting the ball in the right spots even on completions. Last week there was none of that. Not to say he couldn't revert, since he very well could. But against Coe, with Dakota Tracy injured and not in good shape to play, Morse did just fine.

Just food for thought. I look forward to watching that game.