FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

Personally, I think playing the game early in the season the past three years has benefitted UST. We've all touched on it the past few weeks, but I think if SJU wants to be a little more prepared for this game they need to strengthen their non-conference schedule. This was the first time they had to make real in-game adjustments. Not a good thing one month into the season for both the SJU players and coaches. It's hard to know what areas you need to improve on when you haven't been tested.

This is what I'm struggling with.  Sure, you walk into the game 3-0, but what have you really learned about your team?  When everything you do works and works well, you get stagnant.  SJU averaged 339 ypg rushing prior to Saturday, and they rushed for ONE yard versus the Tommies.  U$T is obviously on another level, but it was disappointing to see the lack of adjustment from the Johnnie offense.

This.

[AO]

Personally, I think playing the game early in the season the past three years has benefitted UST. We've all touched on it the past few weeks, but I think if SJU wants to be a little more prepared for this game they need to strengthen their non-conference schedule. This was the first time they had to make real in-game adjustments. Not a good thing one month into the season for both the SJU players and coaches. It's hard to know what areas you need to improve on when you haven't been tested.

This is what I'm struggling with.  Sure, you walk into the game 3-0, but what have you really learned about your team?  When everything you do works and works well, you get stagnant.  SJU averaged 339 ypg rushing prior to Saturday, and they rushed for ONE yard versus the Tommies.  U$T is obviously on another level, but it was disappointing to see the lack of adjustment from the Johnnie offense.

The Tommies were clearly still figuring things out too.  3 points in the 2nd half with Perra showing some inexperience.  You'd think they'd also get penalized less later in the year.  If you're looking to pull an upset, I think early in the year is the best time to play. 

[AO]

Sidenote:  St. Scholastica is 3-0 in the UMAC and outscoring opponents 132-48.  How terrible is the UMAC? 

We've been better?  How many MIAC alumni were playing in the NFL yesterday?  St. Thomas might have an FCS transfer at RB, but the UMAC has an SEC transfer at RB.

Yeah, it's probably as bad as it's been, but better days are ahead.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Personally, I think playing the game early in the season the past three years has benefitted UST. We've all touched on it the past few weeks, but I think if SJU wants to be a little more prepared for this game they need to strengthen their non-conference schedule. This was the first time they had to make real in-game adjustments. Not a good thing one month into the season for both the SJU players and coaches. It's hard to know what areas you need to improve on when you haven't been tested.

This is what I'm struggling with.  Sure, you walk into the game 3-0, but what have you really learned about your team?  When everything you do works and works well, you get stagnant.  SJU averaged 339 ypg rushing prior to Saturday, and they rushed for ONE yard versus the Tommies.  U$T is obviously on another level, but it was disappointing to see the lack of adjustment from the Johnnie offense.

The Tommies were clearly still figuring things out too.  3 points in the 2nd half with Perra showing some inexperience.  You'd think they'd also get penalized less later in the year.  If you're looking to pull an upset, I think early in the year is the best time to play.

Definitely agree with that.  There were times that UST clearly wasn't quite where they want to be, but I think that having been challenged in prior weeks did them a lot more favors than SJU.  It seemed obvious, especially early, that SJU hadn't seen size / strength / athleticism on the defensive side of the ball like UST presented.

Maybe they do a better job (3 points worth?) of adjusting if they've been forced to make some adjustments in prior games, rather than having complete cake-walks.  I get that you want to have some tune-ups in games 1 and 2, but I think they (SJU) didn't do themselves any favors by playing teams that were so far below them.

Will be fun to see how the Cobbers play into the mix.  Now having watched 1 SJU and 1 Concordia game, I think the Johnnies offense will still give the Cobbers a lot of trouble, and ultimately get their second place finish and playoff spot.

[DuffMan]

Well, on to a Monkey Stomp^TM of Bethel... 

[sjusection105]

This is what I'm struggling with.  Sure, you walk into the game 3-0, but what have you really learned about your team?  When everything you do works and works well, you get stagnant.  SJU averaged 339 ypg rushing prior to Saturday, and they rushed for ONE yard versus the Tommies.  U$T is obviously on another level, but it was disappointing to see the lack of adjustment from the Johnnie offense.

A mid-level WIAC or IIAC team(s) for non-conference would give some idea of what needs to be worked on. 98-0 tells you your 6th string can beat CSS.

[faunch]

This is what I'm struggling with.  Sure, you walk into the game 3-0, but what have you really learned about your team?  When everything you do works and works well, you get stagnant.  SJU averaged 339 ypg rushing prior to Saturday, and they rushed for ONE yard versus the Tommies.  U$T is obviously on another level, but it was disappointing to see the lack of adjustment from the Johnnie offense.

A mid-level WIAC or IIAC team(s) for non-conference would give some idea of what needs to be worked on. 98-0 tells you your 6th string can beat CSS.

Maybe the WIAC, IIAC and MIAC need to coordinate non-conference scheduling.  Geographically and competitively it would make sense.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Well, on to a Monkey Stomp^TM of Bethel... 

Wish I could say that I expected otherwise...

[miac952]

The Cobbers disadvantage this year is they have to travel to UST and SJU.

Many have complained in the past about the last couple weeks of the MIAC schedule not meaning much. That end of season game between the Cobbers and Johnnies will have huge implications. I am guessing there will be a very large crowd for that one.

[RoyalsFan]

Be careful carrying all that water. Wouldn't want you to spill it. I guess when this stuff pops up so often you have plenty of practice carrying it so spilling probably isn't a concern.

Objectively speaking, taking UST and Caruso out of the equation, and replace them with SJU. You're down 3, you have one time out and the other team has the ball and is in the victory formation. If they fumble the snap and you recover, you have the ball at midfield and one timeout. What do you do?

Technically we didn't have a time out.

Doesn't really matter because evidently blowing up the victory formation now is a personal foul.

[miac952]

Looks like 2018 & 2019 is open on the SJU non-conference schedule.

http://www.d3football.com/opendates/2018/index

Not much out there to work with opponent wise however. MHB is open on the exact dates, but that is a very challenging endeavor and expensive travel if you do a home and home. Whitewater has openings, but not on the same dates. You would need some serious conference schedule jockeying to make that one work.  Muhlenberg would be a fun test, but is only open one year, and requires some serious travel.

[RoyalsFan]

Sidenote:  St. Scholastica is 3-0 in the UMAC and outscoring opponents 132-48.  How terrible is the UMAC? 

We've been better?  How many MIAC alumni were playing in the NFL yesterday?  St. Thomas might have an FCS transfer at RB, but the UMAC has an SEC transfer at RB.

Yeah, it's probably as bad as it's been, but better days are ahead.

So you are basing the quality of an entire conference on 1 player? 

[jamtod]

Looks like 2018 & 2019 is open on the SJU non-conference schedule.

http://www.d3football.com/opendates/2018/index

Not much out there to work with opponent wise however. MHB is open on the exact dates, but that is a very challenging endeavor and expensive travel if you do a home and home. Whitewater has openings, but not on the same dates. You would need some serious conference schedule jockeying to make that one work.  Muhlenberg would be a fun test, but is only open one year, and requires some serious travel.

Is there anyway to determine what other teams have locked in for future non-conference? I suppose UST will stick with the Eau Claire matchup, but this is year 2 for Stout, so that might change?

[USTBench]

Just my few takeaways from the game:

I was surprised at how much Jeremy Molina was part of the game plan as a ball handler. With Roberts, Trettel and Parks all presumably healthy, to have your fullback carry 9 times just shows how much faith Caruso has in him. There was a lot of football played between the 40s on Saturday, so I didn't really think about quick hitters to the FB as being a particularly effective means of advancing the football, but if you can trap a d-tackle or catch a linebacker in the wrong gap, sometimes there's hay to be made there. I doubt we'll see much more of that as the year goes on, but that was a interesting part of the game.

Between, Molina, Trettel, Roberts and Parks there were about 39 carries. Roberts is still the work house, and though his YPC didn't really reflect it, I thought he ran the ball with more authority on Saturday. He seemed to be more confident and was able to move the pile a bit.

I'm curious to see the distribution as the year goes on. Roberts has to feel like he's beating his head against a wall right now, and I'd really love to see him have a big game, presuming he got out of Saturday unscathed. With all three of those guys healthy, I get the feeling that they'll start hitting their stride in about two weeks against the Cobbers. To be able to rotate three of the arguably top 5 RBs in the conference may be able to make up for some deficiencies in line play and I think it may start paying dividends as the year progresses.

Regardless of the fact that UST wasn't making huge gains on the ground, I think their commitment to it really opened up the play action, and allowed for some big time plays.

Defensively, I knew Clark was going to get a big play at some point, but overall, I think UST did a better than fair job of mixing up coverages and for the most part keeping him in front of  them. UST still had an absurd amount of penalties, but the big difference between this game and UW Stout was the ability to get off the field on 3rd down. That was huge.

Anyway, out of 37,355 people in attendance, the one guy I decided to strike up a random conversation with turned out to be Hansen Ratings, which was cool. In an ode to Hansen Ratings, there was only a .0000267% chance of that happening.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Sidenote:  St. Scholastica is 3-0 in the UMAC and outscoring opponents 132-48.  How terrible is the UMAC? 

We've been better?  How many MIAC alumni were playing in the NFL yesterday?  St. Thomas might have an FCS transfer at RB, but the UMAC has an SEC transfer at RB.

Yeah, it's probably as bad as it's been, but better days are ahead.

So you are basing the quality of an entire conference on 1 player? 

I think you may have missed some intended sarcasm.   

Or perhaps I'm missing yours?