FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[SJUrube]

(my guess is nothing left that is very effective, or Ramler would have used it in the 4th quarter at UST).

Yeah, I am sure Ramler tapped out all of his offensive ideas within three games at SJU.  Keep telling yourself that, Doney. X2

[sfury]

I am quite certain THIS will be on Robert Zimmerman's Christmas list.

I am a bit of a Bob fanatic, so I already have all of his albums except one.  I refuse to buy the album he released a couple years ago called, "Christmas In The Heart," that's where I draw the line!  Other than that, I have all the studio albums, live albums, and even some unreleased bootlegs.  I consider myself an amateur Dylan impersonator; I even have a harmonica neck holder so I can play guitar and harmonica at the same time.  Here I am doing one of Bob's songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeRQ8LbZ7jE

I saw you do this when you were the selected faculty speaker/performer for my son's HS graduation. (Apollo '05) It was memorable.

Robert's kept at it over the years, despite not having the full support of those around him. And even more impressive than when he plays in his garage or in front of a graduating class is when he drunkenly performs Dylan while being verbally ridiculed -- and possibly physically assaulted by flying cans and pillows -- by two of his oldest friends.

As someone noted, the weather again looks rainy for Saturday; not the best luck with the home schedule so far for the Johnnies.

I'll be following while at Columbia's home opener. Lions coming off a 52-7 defeat at Fordham. Bring on the Bison.

[SJUrube]

Excited for SJU football in one week.

Agreed. Looking forward to seeing what the new coaching staff is able to do in year one. I'm a complete Ramler bobo and think some of the staff changes should provide a more cohesive staff. Hoping that cleans up some of the silly mistakes that have bit SJU in the last few years that were never a problem before.

I was curious and wanted to look back at what folks had anticipated for Ramler this season.  I found this post funny b/c the staff may be cohesive, but Ramler's ball security drills are anything but 

Looking forward to the game at the Scoreboard Bowl Sat. St Glenn and his costars, or are they just extras, are the favorites for obvious reasons...#2 ranking (or is it #1), 36 straight MIAC wins, 3-in-a-row over SJU and a home field advtange which should be roughly 60% UST supporters.

Ramler though is one of the reasons I have some optimism this weekend. The Jays have not been world beaters the first two weeks but 2-0 is better than the alternative. I gave the team a pass on week one for it being a road game to open the season with a lot of obvious changes. The week two opponent was better, and at full strength, and it sounds like the Jays had chances to break it open.

My hope is Ramler and company have been holding some things back in anticipation of this game. A win at this stage for new staff would be a huge start for them. I have to imagine there will be some new formations or play calls this Sat on offense that haven't been used so far.

Defense will probably be as is in terms of scheme. The Johnnies should be ready for St Glenn's play calls. I feel like I know what they are going to run or fake 75% of the time. SJU cannot give up a TD on the roll out right, throwback to the left play this Sat. It's coming, you know it is. A friend of mine who is a UST grad and did his grad work at Bethel mentioned the Royals call that play "A$$hole." I'd tend to agree but every team falls for it.

I'm guessing that was the case, as you predicted.

UST proved in the second half that Ramler's creativity can be stopped.....stopped blitzing and plugged up quick hitting bubble screen and draws.

Does Ramler have anything left?  If not, I give the advantage to Bethel and Concordia. Given Ramler's schemes and how to stop them are now on film.
(my guess is nothing left that is very effective, or Ramler would have used it in the 4th quarter at UST).

I'll play along. In general I think SJU's offensive game plan was sound. The passing game took advantage of the underneath stuff and mixed in some throws in the middle of the field. Offensively it was heavy "read" option with Sura diving up the middle. Outside of the big run, which is currently trailing Concordia by some 50 votes in the MIAC poll, it was a lot of 3 yards and a cloud of dust. However, it kept the defense honest and when UST overreacted SJU took advantage of it.

SJU went for very few big plays. I can remember one deep pass in the first half up the SJU sideline otherwise it was all intermediate stuff. Part of that is based on personnel and they defense they were playing. SJU hasn't shown they have a burner receiver or a big guy to go up and get the ball on downfield passes. Maybe they don't have it or maybe they are saving it. The UST defense is solid and I'm sure getting rid of the ball quick was a big part of the game plan to avoid sacks and TOs. SJU avoided a potentially costly sack/fumble in Q1 when Bruns rolled right and was sacked from behind. I think it was 8-0 at that point and a TO deep in UST territory would have been deadly.

In the 2nd half SJU stayed true to what worked earlier in the game. It didn't deliver as many points but it was still pretty effective in moving the ball and eating some clock. Two plays stick out to me. In the third quarter SJU ran the "read" option and Bruns actually kept the ball around the left end. I don't think he gained a ton of yards but it was obviously to keep UST honest. The other was a short screen catch by Bungum in the 4th that picked up a ton of yards and shifted field position some.

I'd argue although SJU didn't burn the scoreboard in the 2nd half they stuck to what worked, made a few adjustments, and still came out with a win. I would be shocked if SJU didn't have any additional formations or plays in their playbook. And some Coaches don't feel the need to remind everyone how smart they are all the time.

Speaking of playbooks, anyone know if they are using playbooks now?

[SJUrube]

For those of you who caught my post, delete, post, delete, post, delete, post trouble because I couldn't figure out the "quote" options I hope you enjoyed it. For this who missed it never mind but I am sneaking in another post on my way to 200!

[art76]

Excited for SJU football in one week.

Agreed. Looking forward to seeing what the new coaching staff is able to do in year one. I'm a complete Ramler bobo and think some of the staff changes should provide a more cohesive staff. Hoping that cleans up some of the silly mistakes that have bit SJU in the last few years that were never a problem before.

I was curious and wanted to look back at what folks had anticipated for Ramler this season.  I found this post funny b/c the staff may be cohesive, but Ramler's ball security drills are anything but 

Looking forward to the game at the Scoreboard Bowl Sat. St Glenn and his costars, or are they just extras, are the favorites for obvious reasons...#2 ranking (or is it #1), 36 straight MIAC wins, 3-in-a-row over SJU and a home field advtange which should be roughly 60% UST supporters.

Ramler though is one of the reasons I have some optimism this weekend. The Jays have not been world beaters the first two weeks but 2-0 is better than the alternative. I gave the team a pass on week one for it being a road game to open the season with a lot of obvious changes. The week two opponent was better, and at full strength, and it sounds like the Jays had chances to break it open.

My hope is Ramler and company have been holding some things back in anticipation of this game. A win at this stage for new staff would be a huge start for them. I have to imagine there will be some new formations or play calls this Sat on offense that haven't been used so far.

Defense will probably be as is in terms of scheme. The Johnnies should be ready for St Glenn's play calls. I feel like I know what they are going to run or fake 75% of the time. SJU cannot give up a TD on the roll out right, throwback to the left play this Sat. It's coming, you know it is. A friend of mine who is a UST grad and did his grad work at Bethel mentioned the Royals call that play "A$$hole." I'd tend to agree but every team falls for it.

I'm guessing that was the case, as you predicted.

UST proved in the second half that Ramler's creativity can be stopped.....stopped blitzing and plugged up quick hitting bubble screen and draws.

Does Ramler have anything left?  If not, I give the advantage to Bethel and Concordia. Given Ramler's schemes and how to stop them are now on film.
(my guess is nothing left that is very effective, or Ramler would have used it in the 4th quarter at UST).

I'll play along. In general I think SJU's offensive game plan was sound. The passing game took advantage of the underneath stuff and mixed in some throws in the middle of the field. Offensively it was heavy "read" option with Sura diving up the middle. Outside of the big run, which is currently trailing Concordia by some 50 votes in the MIAC poll, it was a lot of 3 yards and a cloud of dust. However, it kept the defense honest and when UST overreacted SJU took advantage of it.

SJU went for very few big plays. I can remember one deep pass in the first half up the SJU sideline otherwise it was all intermediate stuff. Part of that is based on personnel and they defense they were playing. SJU hasn't shown they have a burner receiver or a big guy to go up and get the ball on downfield passes. Maybe they don't have it or maybe they are saving it. The UST defense is solid and I'm sure getting rid of the ball quick was a big part of the game plan to avoid sacks and TOs. SJU avoided a potentially costly sack/fumble in Q1 when Bruns rolled right and was sacked from behind. I think it was 8-0 at that point and a TO deep in UST territory would have been deadly.

In the 2nd half SJU stayed true to what worked earlier in the game. It didn't deliver as many points but it was still pretty effective in moving the ball and eating some clock. Two plays stick out to me. In the third quarter SJU ran the "read" option and Bruns actually kept the ball around the left end. I don't think he gained a ton of yards but it was obviously to keep UST honest. The other was a short screen catch by Bungum in the 4th that picked up a ton of yards and shifted field position some.

I'd argue although SJU didn't burn the scoreboard in the 2nd half they stuck to what worked, made a few adjustments, and still came out with a win. I would be shocked if SJU didn't have any additional formations or plays in their playbook. And some Coaches don't feel the need to remind everyone how smart they are all the time.

Speaking of playbooks, anyone know if they are using playbooks now?

They have an ap for that now too, I suppose. 

[ron doney]

Excited for SJU football in one week.

Agreed. Looking forward to seeing what the new coaching staff is able to do in year one. I'm a complete Ramler bobo and think some of the staff changes should provide a more cohesive staff. Hoping that cleans up some of the silly mistakes that have bit SJU in the last few years that were never a problem before.

I was curious and wanted to look back at what folks had anticipated for Ramler this season.  I found this post funny b/c the staff may be cohesive, but Ramler's ball security drills are anything but 

Looking forward to the game at the Scoreboard Bowl Sat. St Glenn and his costars, or are they just extras, are the favorites for obvious reasons...#2 ranking (or is it #1), 36 straight MIAC wins, 3-in-a-row over SJU and a home field advtange which should be roughly 60% UST supporters.

Ramler though is one of the reasons I have some optimism this weekend. The Jays have not been world beaters the first two weeks but 2-0 is better than the alternative. I gave the team a pass on week one for it being a road game to open the season with a lot of obvious changes. The week two opponent was better, and at full strength, and it sounds like the Jays had chances to break it open.

My hope is Ramler and company have been holding some things back in anticipation of this game. A win at this stage for new staff would be a huge start for them. I have to imagine there will be some new formations or play calls this Sat on offense that haven't been used so far.

Defense will probably be as is in terms of scheme. The Johnnies should be ready for St Glenn's play calls. I feel like I know what they are going to run or fake 75% of the time. SJU cannot give up a TD on the roll out right, throwback to the left play this Sat. It's coming, you know it is. A friend of mine who is a UST grad and did his grad work at Bethel mentioned the Royals call that play "A$$hole." I'd tend to agree but every team falls for it.

I'm guessing that was the case, as you predicted.

UST proved in the second half that Ramler's creativity can be stopped.....stopped blitzing and plugged up quick hitting bubble screen and draws.

Does Ramler have anything left?  If not, I give the advantage to Bethel and Concordia. Given Ramler's schemes and how to stop them are now on film.
(my guess is nothing left that is very effective, or Ramler would have used it in the 4th quarter at UST).

I'll play along. In general I think SJU's offensive game plan was sound. The passing game took advantage of the underneath stuff and mixed in some throws in the middle of the field. Offensively it was heavy "read" option with Sura diving up the middle. Outside of the big run, which is currently trailing Concordia by some 50 votes in the MIAC poll, it was a lot of 3 yards and a cloud of dust. However, it kept the defense honest and when UST overreacted SJU took advantage of it.

SJU went for very few big plays. I can remember one deep pass in the first half up the SJU sideline otherwise it was all intermediate stuff. Part of that is based on personnel and they defense they were playing. SJU hasn't shown they have a burner receiver or a big guy to go up and get the ball on downfield passes. Maybe they don't have it or maybe they are saving it. The UST defense is solid and I'm sure getting rid of the ball quick was a big part of the game plan to avoid sacks and TOs. SJU avoided a potentially costly sack/fumble in Q1 when Bruns rolled right and was sacked from behind. I think it was 8-0 at that point and a TO deep in UST territory would have been deadly.

In the 2nd half SJU stayed true to what worked earlier in the game. It didn't deliver as many points but it was still pretty effective in moving the ball and eating some clock. Two plays stick out to me. In the third quarter SJU ran the "read" option and Bruns actually kept the ball around the left end. I don't think he gained a ton of yards but it was obviously to keep UST honest. The other was a short screen catch by Bungum in the 4th that picked up a ton of yards and shifted field position some.

I'd argue although SJU didn't burn the scoreboard in the 2nd half they stuck to what worked, made a few adjustments, and still came out with a win. I would be shocked if SJU didn't have any additional formations or plays in their playbook. And some Coaches don't feel the need to remind everyone how smart they are all the time.

Speaking of playbooks, anyone know if they are using playbooks now?

I am sure Ramler does.  Just not sure if any will be as effective as his new offense in the first half of the Tommie game (I didn't watch the first two games, assuming this offense was different).  And now that its on film......

SJU fans complained on the in-game-board that Ramler's play calling was suspect at the end of the game.  He obviously changed the play calling from the read option base.  So you are saying that when the read option was figured out by the end of the third quarter, Ramler said to himself: "Instead of going with my next best stuff, a.k.a. 'showing how smart I am,' I'll go with my average stuff and eek out a win."?  I don't think that is the case, he likely used his best stuff......and it wasn't as effective......which leads me to believe:

That is the best half of offense (163 yards, 14 pts) that SJ1 will have against the likes of UST, Concordia, Bethel and Aug.  More the power to them that they did it against UST.

Its fine if you disagree, that is what these boards are about.  But at the least respect that my opinion is based on some concrete evidence and not some generalities about "showing how smart you are."

[sfury]

Ron, that's fine to believe. But it's also not some crazy belief to think the Johnnies might have a half against those teams where they score more than 14 points. I mean, really? Plus it's not just about film. Give credit to the Tommies too for shoring some things up in the 4th quarter. But that doesn't mean the other teams will be able to do what their defense did, so you might not even need any twists, turns or tricks, each trickier than the last.

Also, they should be getting Voshell back soon, which will add a nice element to the passing game.

[OzJohnnie]

For those of you who caught my post, delete, post, delete, post, delete, post trouble because I couldn't figure out the "quote" options I hope you enjoyed it. For this who missed it never mind but I am sneaking in another post on my way to 200!

You can say that again.

[ron doney]

Ron, that's fine to believe. But it's also not some crazy belief to think the Johnnies might have a half against those teams where they score more than 14 points. I mean, really? Plus it's not just about film. Give credit to the Tommies too for shoring some things up in the 4th quarter. But that doesn't mean the other teams will be able to do what their defense did, so you might not even need any twists, turns or tricks, each trickier than the last.

Also, they should be getting Voshell back soon, which will add a nice element to the passing game.

That's a good point on Voshell.....and I still think the o/u for a half is 14.  I'll take the under.  That is only the offense....the defense if very likely to score as well....probably a pick 6 or fumble return before the end of the year.

[DuffMan]

So, if you look at their last 4 games, U$T is 2-2, and they were beat by what the recently-absent Reverend MIAC would likely term a "mid-MIAC, at best" SJU team that was missing one of their top receivers and their starting (at the time) QB.

Maybe U$T isn't living up to their stratospheric billing.   

[SagatagSam]

......which leads me to believe:

That is the best half of offense (163 yards, 14 pts) that SJ1 will have against the likes of UST, Concordia, Bethel and Aug.  More the power to them that they did it against UST.

As an abstract theory in a vacuum, it works. But, with all of the variables in the real world, I doubt this plays out anywhere close to what you predict. CC, BU and AUG have different players with different strengths and different weaknesses running a variety of different defensive schemes.

And, as sfury noted Rob Voshell is back this week. Also, Gary mentioned in his online SCTimes.com weekly chat that Peter Vakuskas was fitted with a knee brace, and he will try to practice this week. Sean Tillman has started to run and work out, we will see how he feels this week. The punters are both OK and ready to go. There were a couple of people who stood out [in the Sunday scrimmage], a wide receiver, Dan Harrington out of Texas, and Davis Day, a linebacker out of California. We also saw some great things out of some of our young defensive linemen, Ryan Landherr out of Prior Lake looked good.

Perhaps your analysis would work when applied to the SJU teams from 2009-2012, but I think you can throw all of that out the window now.

[OzJohnnie]

I reckon right about now the Cobbers are convincing themselves that they are underdogs with nothing to lose. That they are guys who can play without limits. I hope they are. It's been a few years since the Johnnies have walked the field with the swagger of the overdog.  I wonder how well they can do it.  Can they live with the pressure.  I bet yes.

[D O.C.]

Maybe U$T isn't living up to their stratospheric billing.

Duff Guy....they sure fooled me after watching their crispness in their first game.

[sjusection105]

I reckon right about now the Cobbers  Johnnies are convincing themselves that they are underdogs with nothing to lose. That they are guys who can play without limits. I hope they are. It's been a few years since the Johnnies have walked the field with the swagger of the overdog.  I wonder how well they can do it.  Can they live with the pressure.  I bet yes.

There, I fixed it for you. What time is it down-under? Boozin' Time 

[Boys of Fall]

Observation:  Wondering if the big change at SJU is the change in coaching philosophy as opposed to the change in personnel.  Many of the players are the same as last year, but there seems to be a renewed energy and confidence brought on by the new coaching staff.  Maybe John had slowed down to the point it was rubbing off on the team.  If this is the case the future looks bright for the Johnnies, their roster seems full of players these coaches can work with for years.