FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

Just saw the first 2012 D3 national rankings.  Lindy's has UST #4, SJU #14, and Bethel #15.  Anybody surprised at these?

No -- I would pay Lindy's no heed.

Ditto that view. UST @ #4?  Those guys are friggin' nuts.

I'm a little more surprised that SJU is ranked #14 ahead of Bethel.  Aside from Fischer, who do they have coming back?   

Pat was commenting on SJU when he said pay Lindy's no heed.  I was twisting his meaning with a little old' fashioned anti-Tommie bigotry.

Actually, I also think St. Thomas at 4 is too high, but my comment was more general.

Isnt Lindys the one that has had guys on its AA teams at wrong positions, listed at incorrect schools and even had a recently graduated player on its preseason AA team once? I think they once listed Beloit as in IL....so all in all, not exactly the most football savvy of publications 

That's possible, but in all honesty, I do not ever buy it, I never read it, and I only see what people post as the Top 25 preseason team.

Hey Pat,
When will D3football come out with their preseason Top 25?

By Aug. 1. I have a business trip for my new day job early next week, so that will push the timeline back.

[sfury]

Faunch, I completely agree with everything you wrote. Although technically, the Johnnies could fail to win a conference title this year and the senior class trend you talk about could still be possible, provided they'd win the title in 2013. Not that we want to wait for next year.

[sju56321]

Agreed-it will be an interesting year no matter what.
I think SJU will be ready to get back to the playoffs.
4,000 pages-Wow!

[Boys of Fall]

Seems like the interest in next season is ratcheting up, let's take a stab at how this fall will look:

1. St. Thomas: It's theirs until someone takes it away from them.
2. Bethel: The formula is working, a strong defense with a good running back, although they'll miss Aakre.
3. St. John's: A lot of experience coming back, can they move back to the top?
4. St. Olaf: Best receivers in the league with a decent defense.  Maybe they'll use last season as motivation.
5. Concordia: Fairly strong on both sides of the ball, can they move to the upper tier?
6. Augsburg: Can they replace Brumm?  With him they only finished .500.
7. Gustavus: Will they be able to move the ball?
8. Carleton: New coach/new system.  How will they react?
9. Hamline: They need to show something before moving up.

A lot of new QB's in the league this year, it'll be interesting to see who steps up.

[faunch]

Seems like the interest in next season is ratcheting up, let's take a stab at how this fall will look:

1. St. Thomas: It's theirs until someone takes it away from them.
2. Bethel: The formula is working, a strong defense with a good running back, although they'll miss Aakre.
3. St. John's: A lot of experience coming back, can they move back to the top?
4. St. Olaf: Best receivers in the league with a decent defense.  Maybe they'll use last season as motivation.
5. Concordia: Fairly strong on both sides of the ball, can they move to the upper tier?
6. Augsburg: Can they replace Brumm?  With him they only finished .500.
7. Gustavus: Will they be able to move the ball?
8. Carleton: New coach/new system.  How will they react?
9. Hamline: They need to show something before moving up.

A lot of new QB's in the league this year, it'll be interesting to see who steps up.

Way to go out on a limb on your 2nd post....   
Just dishing out a little crap to a newcomer.

[Tom Thumb]

I'm a little more surprised that SJU is ranked #14 ahead of Bethel.  Aside from Fischer, who do they have coming back?   

Most of O & D lines
QB
All 3 RBs that rotated for the past 2 seasons
2 TE that rotated last season
2 LB (maybe 3,I'm going from memory)
Secondary- including Powell who missed most of the season (including the Augsburg debacle) & afore mentioned Fischer
Kicker with a couple of 50+ yd FGs last season

They are "seasoned",so now the talent is either there or it isn't.
If this team misses the play-offs the Johnnie faithful will really be restless.

With the $$ being spent on athletic facility upgrades the pressure is on the coaching staffs (not just FB) to provide championship banners for the financial donors & alumni.

This might be the most pivotal season in 25-30 years of SJU football.  Dating back to 1971  every senior class would have either won or shared a conference title during their four years in Collegeville...at least I think I've got that correct...see below.
(1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009)


The coaching staff claims they have stepped up their recruiting efforts the past four or five off seasons yet have two disappointing seasons to show for it.  The time is now.  UST and BU should be a bit down from last season however I believe they will both field formidable squads.

My biggest concerns for the Johnnies on offense are:
1.  At QB....the starter of the week this year is reported to be Connor Bruns.  I tend to agree with the decision however there are no returning WR's that did much of anything last year and the fact is that Bruns plays best out of the shotgun.  Our returning RB's (IMO) seem to be better suited for the traditional SJU pro-set offense.  Colin Moynihan did play in a spread offense at Edina and should be able to contribute in shotgun or spread type set.
2.  The O-line over the past few years seems to have gotten bigger but slower.  I hope some of the boys have been doing footwork drills over the summer.

On defense:
1.  Similar theme to our O-line in that the Johnnie D appeared slow.  Much of this may have been due to their lack of "seasoning" and hopefully they'll pick it up a notch or two in September.
2. Conversely the D-line and LB corps were a bit undersized...quite frankly they got pushed around by some of their opponents.

All that said if SJU does not demonstrate significant improvements compared to the 2012 campaign the responsibility falls squarely on the coaching staff...top to bottom.  They are first and foremost recruiting the players.  Either they are recruiting quality D3 football players and not getting enough out of them or they are recruiting second and third tier D3 talent.

That's a fair assessment.  If I remember correctly, SJU rotated three different QBs in their lineup last year.  It's hard to built offensive cohesion and continuity when you're rotating QBs every week.  I'm interested in how the offseason workouts are coming along and if they've been able to come together.  From my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong since these are rumors that I heard when I played, many SJU players leave for the summer only to return a few weeks prior to camp.  Do any players workout together throughout the summer in Collegeville?  Are there captain's practices? 

With respect to the SJU coaching staff stepping up their recruiting (and coaching) efforts the past few years, have they hired additional coaches to put in the extra hours?  I believe you have two or three full time coaches if I remember correctly.  Haugen, the defensive coordinator, is also the baseball coach, and your recruiting coordinator, Gary Fasching, is also an assistant track and field coach.  So I guess I'm wondering, when do these guys find the time to recruit?  I'm not privy to what's going on at SJU so I'm sure some of you could enlighten me on that.  Maybe they rely on student coaches, I'm not sure.  When I was at UST one of our problems (and we had several) was that we only had two fulltime coaches (I believe they hired a third my junior year).  Now I believe it's up to six.   

[Boys of Fall]

Seems like the interest in next season is ratcheting up, let's take a stab at how this fall will look:

1. St. Thomas: It's theirs until someone takes it away from them.
2. Bethel: The formula is working, a strong defense with a good running back, although they'll miss Aakre.
3. St. John's: A lot of experience coming back, can they move back to the top?
4. St. Olaf: Best receivers in the league with a decent defense.  Maybe they'll use last season as motivation.
5. Concordia: Fairly strong on both sides of the ball, can they move to the upper tier?
6. Augsburg: Can they replace Brumm?  With him they only finished .500.
7. Gustavus: Will they be able to move the ball?
8. Carleton: New coach/new system.  How will they react?
9. Hamline: They need to show something before moving up.

A lot of new QB's in the league this year, it'll be interesting to see who steps up.

Way to go out on a limb on your 2nd post....   
Just dishing out a little crap to a newcomer.

Faunch,
Dish the crap, but correct it where it's wrong!

[hazzben]

Seems like the interest in next season is ratcheting up, let's take a stab at how this fall will look:

1. St. Thomas: It's theirs until someone takes it away from them.
2. Bethel: The formula is working, a strong defense with a good running back, although they'll miss Aakre.
3. St. John's: A lot of experience coming back, can they move back to the top?
4. St. Olaf: Best receivers in the league with a decent defense.  Maybe they'll use last season as motivation.
5. Concordia: Fairly strong on both sides of the ball, can they move to the upper tier?
6. Augsburg: Can they replace Brumm?  With him they only finished .500.
7. Gustavus: Will they be able to move the ball?
8. Carleton: New coach/new system.  How will they react?
9. Hamline: They need to show something before moving up.

A lot of new QB's in the league this year, it'll be interesting to see who steps up.

Way to go out on a limb on your 2nd post....   
Just dishing out a little crap to a newcomer.

Faunch,
Dish the crap, but correct it where it's wrong!

I think Faunch's point is that your predictions are so vanilla or conditional that they really don't amount to predictions at all.

Here's my prediction:

Either UST, BU, SJU, St. Olaf or Concordia will win the MIAC this year 

[DuffMan]

I predict Hamline will go 0-fer in the MIAC.

[Knightstalker]

I predict Hamline will go 0-fer in the MIAC.

I predict that Duffman will drink copious amounts of beer during this coming season.

[OzJohnnie]

I predict Hamline will go 0-fer in the MIAC.

I predict that Duffman will drink copious amounts of beer during this coming season.

I predict that the Tommies will suck.

[bennie]

did he learn those moves as a cross-dressing SheMale stripper? I'll stick to listening to the music & not watching the videos.

Did you want to explain why it is that you are familiar with cross-dressing SheMale stripper dance moves?

I didn't realize that Minnesota lakes were so dangerous!! Sharks in the ocean, otters in the lakes and weirdos at the pool. There really isn't anywhere safe to swim!
http://news.yahoo.com/video/triathlete-attacked-otter-during-swim-193000424.html

[OzJohnnie]

did he learn those moves as a cross-dressing SheMale stripper? I'll stick to listening to the music & not watching the videos.

Did you want to explain why it is that you are familiar with cross-dressing SheMale stripper dance moves?

Bennie.  Back in style.

And, otter babies maybe?  The blurb reads like the otter swam with her for a mile and a half chewing on her leg the whole way.  More likely, it went after her as she approached shore, maybe near an otter nest?

[sjusection105]

did he learn those moves as a cross-dressing SheMale stripper? I'll stick to listening to the music & not watching the videos.

Did you want to explain why it is that you are familiar with cross-dressing SheMale stripper dance moves?

Block E- Minneapolis,early 80's,Prince,The Suburbs & The Phone would play at 1st Ave,then after drinking too much you end up in some pretty strange places after bar closing 

[OzJohnnie]

did he learn those moves as a cross-dressing SheMale stripper? I'll stick to listening to the music & not watching the videos.

Did you want to explain why it is that you are familiar with cross-dressing SheMale stripper dance moves?

Block E- Minneapolis,early 80's,Prince,The Suburbs & The Phone would play at 1st Ave,then after drinking too much you end up in some pretty strange places after bar closing 

It's like the Minneapolis version of The Hangover II is unfolding before our very eyes.  You're not a dentist, are you, 105?