FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[USTBench]

I'm a little surprised that Caruso's action's continues to get under the skin of so many Johnnies.  Holding hands coming onto the field, bringing the non-traveling players entourage, calling the late timeout with the subsequent delay of game, being hoisted onto shoulders after the game, and taking the picture on the SJU logo should be expected by now.  He has a different coaching philosophy than most Johnnies are accustomed to.  While Fasching likes to be in the background teaching humility and character, Caruso likes the limelight, glitz, and glamour that can come with college football.  Who's to judge if one is right or wrong or better than the other, seems like it's a personal preference.  Maybe this adds to the current rivalry.  I guess if the Tommie players (and their parents) are okay with what Caruso is teaching and if the Johnnie players (and their parents) are okay with what Fasching is teaching all is good.

Yeah, if you're okay with a your kid playing for a coach that double parks, puts his seat all the way back on airplanes, chews with his mouth open, bounces checks, exposes magic tricks, squeezes from the middle of the toothpaste, is a 9/11 truther, Holocaust denier and all around TERRIBLE guy, then Glenn Caruso is the coach for you. 

If you want a humble guy who has NEVER given a television, radio or newspaper interview, has personally attended every player's birthday party, mows John Gagliardi's lawn, goes to church every day and twice on Sunday, doesn't take a salary, and devotes one practice day a week to having his players volunteer at the Salvation Army, then Gary Fasching is the man for you.

I mean, who's to judge which one is right or wrong? But for me, if it's not precious downhome Mayberry-esque kitschy Americana it's WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG!

An emotive Italian from New York, that donates large sums of money to St. Jude's, has his players volunteer at children's hospitals and Habitat for Humanity, has players nominated for the AFCA Good Works team, completely turned a program from mediocre to national powerhouse in a few short years who also promotes his program? Is this what the MIAC has come to? It's only okay to promote your program if you do an aww-shucks interview with a very old man who started coaching at your school in the 1890s. THAT IS THE ONLY RIGHT WAY TO DO THINGS.

You better watch it Bench, you're on the verge of being taken off of several Christmas card lists.

Does ANYONE else find it bizarre how often SJU pats themselves on the back for their no frills, coffee klatch, folksy charm say on...ESPN, or in Sports Illustrated, like we haven't read the same lazy story a billion times, and then absolutely lambasts another team from the conference for getting some press coverage for having the audacity to win the conference a few times.

BUT IT'S THE WAY THEY GO ABOUT IT! With their coach, who, you know, gets excited. Arrogantly. With his face, and his shirt with the UST logo on it. Not Gags. He wears a discarded shirt from K-Mart he found at Goodwill and a jacket that someone who got rescued by the Coast Guard was given to prevent hypothermia when he coaches.

You have to roll an old guy out there who kicks the dirt while looking sheepishly at the ground acting totally embarrassed that anyone would even care that he's the winningest college football coach of all time. How humiliating that must be the 10,000th time someone brings it up. Poor old guy. I mean, he's SOOOOOOOO humble.

UST in the meantime pompously decided to get good at football and build some new athletic facilities. The AARC, or as I like to call it, "The Death Star" is just one more example of how they truly are the Evil Empire. I mean, what, are they too good for their old scoreboard? Not at SJU, where Pepsi advertisements from the 1980s and burnt out lightbulbs are all part of the charm.

[d-train]

^ leaning towards "really sarcastic"

[faunch]

I'm a little surprised that Caruso's action's continues to get under the skin of so many Johnnies.  Holding hands coming onto the field, bringing the non-traveling players entourage, calling the late timeout with the subsequent delay of game, being hoisted onto shoulders after the game, and taking the picture on the SJU logo should be expected by now.  He has a different coaching philosophy than most Johnnies are accustomed to.  While Fasching likes to be in the background teaching humility and character, Caruso likes the limelight, glitz, and glamour that can come with college football.  Who's to judge if one is right or wrong or better than the other, seems like it's a personal preference.  Maybe this adds to the current rivalry.  I guess if the Tommie players (and their parents) are okay with what Caruso is teaching and if the Johnnie players (and their parents) are okay with what Fasching is teaching all is good.

Yeah, if you're okay with a your kid playing for a coach that double parks, puts his seat all the way back on airplanes, chews with his mouth open, bounces checks, exposes magic tricks, squeezes from the middle of the toothpaste, is a 9/11 truther, Holocaust denier and all around TERRIBLE guy, then Glenn Caruso is the coach for you. 

If you want a humble guy who has NEVER given a television, radio or newspaper interview, has personally attended every player's birthday party, mows John Gagliardi's lawn, goes to church every day and twice on Sunday, doesn't take a salary, and devotes one practice day a week to having his players volunteer at the Salvation Army, then Gary Fasching is the man for you.

I mean, who's to judge which one is right or wrong? But for me, if it's not precious downhome Mayberry-esque kitschy Americana it's WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG!

An emotive Italian from New York, that donates large sums of money to St. Jude's, has his players volunteer at children's hospitals and Habitat for Humanity, has players nominated for the AFCA Good Works team, completely turned a program from mediocre to national powerhouse in a few short years who also promotes his program? Is this what the MIAC has come to? It's only okay to promote your program if you do an aww-shucks interview with a very old man who started coaching at your school in the 1890s. THAT IS THE ONLY RIGHT WAY TO DO THINGS.

You better watch it Bench, you're on the verge of being taken off of several Christmas card lists.

Does ANYONE else find it bizarre how often SJU pats themselves on the back for their no frills, coffee klatch, folksy charm say on...ESPN, or in Sports Illustrated, like we haven't read the same lazy story a billion times, and then absolutely lambasts another team from the conference for getting some press coverage for having the audacity to win the conference a few times.

BUT IT'S THE WAY THEY GO ABOUT IT! With their coach, who, you know, gets excited. Arrogantly. With his face, and his shirt with the UST logo on it. Not Gags. He wears a discarded shirt from K-Mart he found at Goodwill and a jacket that someone who got rescued by the Coast Guard was given to prevent hypothermia when he coaches.

You have to roll an old guy out there who kicks the dirt while looking sheepishly at the ground acting totally embarrassed that anyone would even care that he's the winningest college football coach of all time. How humiliating that must be the 10,000th time someone brings it up. Poor old guy. I mean, he's SOOOOOOOO humble.

UST in the meantime pompously decided to get good at football and build some new athletic facilities. The AARC, or as I like to call it, "The Death Star" is just one more example of how they truly are the Evil Empire. I mean, what, are they too good for their old scoreboard? Not at SJU, where Pepsi advertisements from the 1980s and burnt out lightbulbs are all part of the charm.

Thomas has obviously gone off the rails.   

[retagent]

Methinks some people need to understand the difference between an observation and a judgement.

BTW - I learned the difference at SJU where all is sweetness and harmony.

[USTBench]

Methinks some people need to understand the difference between an observation and a judgement.

BTW - I learned the difference at SJU where all is sweetness and harmony.

Yeah. Just purely objective, fair and balanced, completely unbiased, non-patronizing  "observation."

[Retired Old Rat]

First of all, we don't "lambast" the team.  The team is off limits.  They're college kids playing for love of the game.  Many of us complimented the team on their dominating performance on the 26th.

1.  We don't like St. Thomas.  That is clearly reciprocated.
2.  We don't like coaches who we think are arrogant pricks.  There have been others on this board expressing the same thing and I've had a few off board conversations regarding this.  It's not just we Johnnies who are turned off by GC's style.
3.  John Gagliardi is a living legend.  Indisputable.

I respect you for defending someone you believe in.

And no, I don't believe it is bizarre.  St. Thomas does the same thing.  As any other school does.  We are in the fortunate to be in the position of having the winningest coach of all time, a stadium ranked in the top ten by Sports Illustrated, we do things differently which succeeding generations of journalists find interesting.

Part of the tight knit nature of being a Johnnie is being profoundly proud of our school and having a life long connection to it.  We are pleased when the rest of the world gets a glimpse of some of the things that engender that level of pride.

Those who are not part of it have a hard time understanding it.

[MIAC23]

Those who are not part of it have a hard time understanding it.

Maybe comes off a little arrogant and prickish? 

[DuffMan]

Glad you picked on their scoreboard USTbench. Open up that dusty wallet SJU, and tear that old thing down.

I believe the topic has been brought up on more than one occasion, but the Abbey won't go for it. 

Turf = fine
Lights = fine
New scoreboard = no f-ing way

I don't get it either. 

[Retired Old Rat]

Those who are not part of it have a hard time understanding it.

Maybe comes off a little arrogant and prickish? 

Not if you know me or any Johnnies who have a similar love and connection to the school and graduates.

I've been told many times by people they don't understand what it is about Johnnies, how they all seem so connected to each other and to the school.

[USTBench]

First of all, we don't "lambast" the team.  The team is off limits.  They're college kids playing for love of the game.  Many of us complimented the team on their dominating performance on the 26th.

1.  We don't like St. Thomas.  That is clearly reciprocated.
2.  We don't like coaches who we think are arrogant pricks. There have been others on this board expressing the same thing and I've had a few off board conversations regarding this.  It's not just we Johnnies who are turned off by GC's style.
3.  John Gagliardi is a living legend.  Indisputable.

I respect you for defending someone you believe in.

And no, I don't believe it is bizarre.  St. Thomas does the same thing.  As any other school does.  We are in the fortunate to be in the position of having the winningest coach of all time, a stadium ranked in the top ten by Sports Illustrated, we do things differently which succeeding generations of journalists find interesting.

Part of the tight knit nature of being a Johnnie is being profoundly proud of our school and having a life long connection to it.  We are pleased when the rest of the world gets a glimpse of some of the things that engender that level of pride.

Those who are not part of it have a hard time understanding it.

This is bulls**t

I'm sure I've said this before but in 2008 my brother's carotid artery ruptured from an aggressive tumor in his neck. After sleeping on the floor at St. Paul Regions for a solid 5 days I decided to go to a UST v. Carleton game. Carleton had a solid team that year and Coach Caruso had his guys finally believing in themselves and it made for an awesome game. I can't remember the details but I'm pretty sure that play action naked boot, where the TE sneaks into the flat ended up being a deciding factor (last second W).

Anyway, for a few hours that PM I could kind of get away from reality. I let Coach Caruso know that I was happy with the trajectory UST was heading and that it was much needed reprieve in a letter I wrote to him a few weeks later. I didn't think much of it, but he called me the morning of UST's final game against Northwestern and left me a 5 minute long message. The guy routinely wrote messages of encouragement on my brother's Caringbridge site, sent me a card signed by the entire coaching staff when my brother passed away, he called me and talked to me for 20 minutes the day of my brother's funeral. He even invited me to stand on the sidelines during their spring game in Canada randomly because he knew I lived in Grand Forks at the time and I was relatively close to Winnipeg. All of this and I never even played a down for him, and my brother wasn't even a Tommie, he went to Carlson at the U of M. And I'm certainly not someone that's going to get a phone call from the SID or AD saying they'll be honoring me at halftime, unless it's for most creative ways of sneaking into a game or getting a snack onto the sideline.

That guy has actually reached out to me personally more than I've probably made myself available to UST Football Alumni functions.

So no, he's not Gags. But he's certainly not an arrogant prick as you intimated, and I will certainly take exception to that.

Caruso is what Jimmy V probably was to Dean Smith in the 1980s, albeit on a much smaller scale. He does things WAY differently, and certainly irks his opposition. But him fist pumping, and hugging  his players and telling them that he loves them publicly, and singing with them to the fan base, does not make him arrogant or obsessed with the limelight. UST desperately needed his passion and energy. UST was stale, and boring, and stuffy and admittedly, not all that fun most of the time. I look around at that campus now and it's something that those kids can be just as proud of as you guys are about SJU. That place has really cultivated a community atmosphere on their campus. About 4 times as many students show up to football games than when I was on the team. Campus wide movie night where all the kids brought a blanket and sat on the football field and watched a movie on the video board looked pretty cool. Instead of traditional tailgating all the alumni gather in the quad pregame and if you're of age you can have a beer in the beer garden. There's just a ton more excitement and a ton more pride associated with being a Tommie. It's not just stuffy kids from Minnetonka commuting home every weekend anymore. People stay on campus, go to football games, come back for Homecoming, etc. And a lot of that has to do with Glenn Caruso.

I don't have a hard time understanding Johnnie lore. I've been to your campus. And I'll concede, it's great. But this whole "We don't like St. Thomas and that is reciprocated" is mostly in your head. We don't dislike SJU. Most of us functioning people get that it's a fun Saturday for everyone from both schools to get together once a year, have a few beers and rib each other, but other than that, we really don't obsess over every tiny thing SJU does.

[Retired Old Rat]

I'm entitled to my own opinion, even if you think it is wrong.

[nkwest]

I'm entitled to my own opinion, even if you think it is wrong.

Maybe comes off a little arrogant and prickish? 

Not if you know me or any Johnnies who have a similar love and connection to the school and graduates.

Replace "me" with "GC" and "Johnnies" with "Tommies".

[AO]

Glad you picked on their scoreboard USTbench. Open up that dusty wallet SJU, and tear that old thing down.

I believe the topic has been brought up on more than one occasion, but the Abbey won't go for it. 

Turf = fine
Lights = fine
New scoreboard = no f-ing way

I don't get it either. 

Also wouldn't hurt to get some new speakers on the new scoreboard.  Couldn't really understand the PA from the other sideline once the stadium filled up.  They put up a video board at Wrigley.  Anything can happen.

[OzJohnnie]

Glad you picked on their scoreboard USTbench. Open up that dusty wallet SJU, and tear that old thing down.

I believe the topic has been brought up on more than one occasion, but the Abbey won't go for it. 

Turf = fine
Lights = fine
New scoreboard = no f-ing way

I don't get it either. 

Also wouldn't hurt to get some new speakers on the new scoreboard.  Couldn't really understand the PA from the other sideline once the stadium filled up.  They put up a video board at Wrigley.  Anything can happen.

"Check your program for a sticker and you have won a pizza" times one million times.  Now you can die happy.  And lucky because you didn't hear it the first time, or the 847th.

[sjusection105]

Well, it's Ole week at St. Thomas. We are all waiting for some of that lively Tommie/Ole banter......