FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[DuffMan]

Is it safe to say that the Johnnies have exorcised the red pants demon?

[art76]

MIAC Week 7

After a heart stopping win this past Saturday, the Tommies have their bye week this coming week.

The first of the four conference games this week is Carleton at St. John's. This game portends to have the widest spread in points this week. The Knights had their helmets dented pretty good last week in the loss to Bethel, so it will be interesting to see if the Johnnies post more points than the Royals did.

Hamline travels up to Moorhead to take on Concordia, with both teams having 2 and 1 conference records. If the Cobbers keep their wits about themselves, they could end up punishing their opponents so that there are no longer 11 Pipers piping, or even tweeting. Hamline could give them fits if they come out flat after the disappointing loss to the Tommies.

The next game for week seven is Augsburg traveling down to St. Olaf. The Oles have to be thinking that this is a winnable game, as the Auggies have lost a step or three this year with the graduation of their previous quarterback, Ayrton Scott. This is the first of the two more competitive games in the MIAC this week.

The other game is Gustavus, that is headed North and East up into Arden Hills, to take on Bethel. I've selected this contest as the game of the week, as the results will help clarify the middle of the pile in the MIAC for the year. Bethel has to win to have hopes for at least a .500 season. If the Gusties win, they would most likely end up with a 4 loss season and end up fourth in the conference.

With five more weeks left in the conference schedule, I'm going to go out on a limb a bit here and post what I think will be the standings in the MIAC at the end of the year.

1. St. Thomas
2. Concordia
3. St John's
4. Bethel
5. Hamline
6. Gustavus
7. Augsburg
8. Carleton
9. St. Olaf

[USTBench]

I think it'd take some convincing to take the UST/SJU game off of their respective campuses. First you would have to convince the coaches to give up their home field (not that it has made a difference in the last 4 regular season games), then it'd be an issue of what percentage of the gate/concessions/etc the host team would get.

[hazzben]

I think it'd take some convincing to take the UST/SJU game off of their respective campuses. First you would have to convince the coaches to give up their home field (not that it has made a difference in the last 4 regular season games), then it'd be an issue of what percentage of the gate/concessions/etc the host team would get.

But didn't you hear, there could be marching bands involved 

[USTBench]

I think it'd take some convincing to take the UST/SJU game off of their respective campuses. First you would have to convince the coaches to give up their home field (not that it has made a difference in the last 4 regular season games), then it'd be an issue of what percentage of the gate/concessions/etc the host team would get.

But didn't you hear, there could be marching bands involved 

UST experimented with a pep band a few times when I played. It was like 7 people, and I think 4 of them played the trombone.

[DuffMan]

But didn't you hear, there could be marching bands involved 

He never said marching bands. 

[nkwest]

Lost in all the fireworks was Saturday was the big time throw that Fenske made to win the game. A 25 yard corner route with the ball thrown on a rope to a small window on the sideline. Kid was 22/30 for 370 against a stout Cobber D.

The throw in question can be viewed at the 0:17 mark here: http://www.tommiemedia.com/sports/video-tommies-crush-cobber-homecoming-in-last-second-play/

[BDB]

UST experimented with a pep band a few times when I played. It was like 7 people, and I think 4 of them played the trombone.

Funny stuff. Better than kazoos?

[USTBench]

UST experimented with a pep band a few times when I played. It was like 7 people, and I think 4 of them played the trombone.

Funny stuff. Better than kazoos?

Well, I don't think they did it ironically, so more sad than funny. But anything was better than the 2 or 3 Nickelback jams on the pregame warmup mix.

[miac952]

Lost in all the fireworks was Saturday was the big time throw that Fenske made to win the game. A 25 yard corner route with the ball thrown on a rope to a small window on the sideline. Kid was 22/30 for 370 against a stout Cobber D.

The throw in question can be viewed at the 0:17 mark here: http://www.tommiemedia.com/sports/video-tommies-crush-cobber-homecoming-in-last-second-play/

Camera was in the right spot. Not often you get that good of a highlight at field level. Here are the two game film views from the D3football youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiAwLZasvJY&list=PL2O_uY7lJEsIfXTMKR1TmHU3zVhIKwlZT&index=1

What's crazy to me is Concordia drops 7 into coverage, and UST max protects with a TE and RB staying into block, but they get 1 on 1 coverage with their top threat.

Fenske was focused on that route from the snap. I think he sees his top 2 threats (Reed & Waldvogel in a 2 on 3 situation). One of them is going to get man coverage. A post / corner combo between the slot and receiver and they got Waldvogel 1 on 1 with a safety trying to race out to the pylon. That throw was legit. If it doesn't get there quickly, they dont win the game on that play. The coverage was actually pretty good. The safety avoided get caught in the wash and was on Waldvogel's hip. The big issues for Concordia were no pass rush with the 4 they brought and the LB's not getting enough depth in their drop to make a second level throw like that hard to make.

UST would have had one more crack at it too, since the Cobbers jumped offside.

[DuffMan]

I've got 4 reserved tickets for the SJU/Carleton game that I can't use.  PM me if you could use them.

[nkwest]

Camera was in the right spot. Not often you get that good of a highlight at field level. Here are the two game film views from the D3football youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiAwLZasvJY&list=PL2O_uY7lJEsIfXTMKR1TmHU3zVhIKwlZT&index=1

What's crazy to me is Concordia drops 7 into coverage, and UST max protects with a TE and RB staying into block, but they get 1 on 1 coverage with their top threat.

Fenske was focused on that route from the snap. I think he sees his top 2 threats (Reed & Waldvogel in a 2 on 3 situation). One of them is going to get man coverage. A post / corner combo between the slot and receiver and they got Waldvogel 1 on 1 with a safety trying to race out to the pylon. That throw was legit. If it doesn't get there quickly, they dont win the game on that play. The coverage was actually pretty good. The safety avoided get caught in the wash and was on Waldvogel's hip. The big issues for Concordia were no pass rush with the 4 they brought and the LB's not getting enough depth in their drop to make a second level throw like that hard to make.

UST would have had one more crack at it too, since the Cobbers jumped offside.

It really was a great throw. Waldvogel is barely into his break when the ball comes out, at which point the field side LB has only dropped eight yards and is still on the hash marks with his hips turned the wrong way. Was he spying the RB (who was clearly in protection the entire way)?

[USTBench]

Lost in all the fireworks was Saturday was the big time throw that Fenske made to win the game. A 25 yard corner route with the ball thrown on a rope to a small window on the sideline. Kid was 22/30 for 370 against a stout Cobber D.

The throw in question can be viewed at the 0:17 mark here: http://www.tommiemedia.com/sports/video-tommies-crush-cobber-homecoming-in-last-second-play/

Camera was in the right spot. Not often you get that good of a highlight at field level. Here are the two game film views from the D3football youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiAwLZasvJY&list=PL2O_uY7lJEsIfXTMKR1TmHU3zVhIKwlZT&index=1

What's crazy to me is Concordia drops 7 into coverage, and UST max protects with a TE and RB staying into block, but they get 1 on 1 coverage with their top threat.

Fenske was focused on that route from the snap. I think he sees his top 2 threats (Reed & Waldvogel in a 2 on 3 situation). One of them is going to get man coverage. A post / corner combo between the slot and receiver and they got Waldvogel 1 on 1 with a safety trying to race out to the pylon. That throw was legit. If it doesn't get there quickly, they dont win the game on that play. The coverage was actually pretty good. The safety avoided get caught in the wash and was on Waldvogel's hip. The big issues for Concordia were no pass rush with the 4 they brought and the LB's not getting enough depth in their drop to make a second level throw like that hard to make.

UST would have had one more crack at it too, since the Cobbers jumped offside.

It appears the nickel was zoned which left the safety to recover to take Waldvogel late with Reed and the corner manned on him causing enough traffic to create some delay. Almost like a pick play at a 20 yard depth. I see maybe one LB kind of playing Rover at 15-20 yard depth.

I can see why the nickel was late getting depth to the corner to make it a tougher throw, because Molina could have squirted out into the flat, but he stayed home the whole time. Right coverage by the Cobbers, good call by UST (which somewhat makes up for NOT just kicking the XP to go up 10)

[SJUrube]

Cobbs made their fair share of mistakes but there was some questionable officiating throughout the game.  The "white hat" was slow all day and then threw the penalty on Herzog after the two-point conversion.  From our vantage point he was throwing the ball back to the official.  The official wasn't looking and it hit him and he overreacted. What would Herzog have to be upset about?  They just scored on a miracle play against a top 5 team. Unless I missed something, I believe this was very questionable - especially considering the situation.  What's really bothersome is that Coach Caruso was allowed to sprint to the five yard line to scream at not just one official but seemingly all of the officials after the goal-line stand.  He was simply escorted to the sidelines w/o a flag.  Maybe they are scared of him, but at no point does it make sense to allow a coach 25 yards of leeway to scream at officials.  Selective enforcement causes problems.  Regardless, it was an exciting game.

Pathetic. How many times do the Cobbers need to bring stuff like this up against this particular coach? The transparency is obvious.

[OldAuggie]

Thankful that the UST and SJU games are in the rear view mirror. A brutal two weeks of education - literally the college of hard knocks - for the young guys on the team. Now we are on to the games that could be competitive and if there was anything learned by these young guys during the two previous games we should see it now.