FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[miac952]

After a quick (emphasis on quick) glance @ Berry's Saturday game here are my quick thoughts:

Offense:

Pistol Spread formation - very little personnel or formation change. Almost always 3 wide, 4th eligible can be a an H-Back, TE, or they bring in a 4th WR in long yardage
A slow no huddle with plays called in from the sideline to reduce / eliminate defensive substitutions.
Close to 50/50 run , pass mix.
Passing is quick releases. Nothing intricate. They try to hit seams with fly routes and go to the slant OFTEN. Some quick outs as well.
Finesse O-line. One biggin at RT, but not the size you see from MIAC/WIAC schools.
Running is downhill. Don't know that its a true "read" option, but it has the look of it. QB can run. RB's LOVE to bounce to the edge when the ends cave.

Defense:
3-4 - although often the look is a 4-3 or 5 -2 with a standup LB's on the edge.
DL is smallish. Plays a finesse style with lots of stunts and speed
LB are a little bigger. Similar size to DL. Move well to the edge
When blitzes do come its usually the edge LB's
DB's are SMALL across the board.

Special teams:
I only saw 3 punts, but each one was a nightmare. A 15 yard shank, a punt that hit the back of the protectors, and another short one. They go Rugby style

I'm trying to imagine how you even manage to hit the protectors when you're taking a few steps to the side for the rugby style punt?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF_LT6bo8uI

57:50

[miac952]

Here's some fodder for complaining about from the game on Saturday:

* UST went for the 2 pt conversion 4 times out of 7 touchdowns. We failed on 3 of the 4. I believe all 4 involved odd formations and snaps to Stephen Wagner.
* Our 3rd EP kick was by Vinny Pallini, WR and punt returner.
* We went for it on 4th down 8 times. Of these, we converted 4. 1 failure was on a punt fake on 4th and 15 from our 45. Another was on 4th and 13 from our own 32.
* QB Jacques Perra punted 3 times with an average of 51 yards. Punter Robert Petitjean punted 1 time (in the 4th quarter) for 25 yards.
* Up 40-0 deep into the 3rd quarter, starting QB Jacques Perra passed multiple times and then UST went for it on 4th and 14 (this time from Eureka's 39) but did not complete.
* After a 54 yard kickoff return by Tom Loeffler for UST, several flags were thrown and the refs were seen consulting with Coach Caruso on the sideline for a length of time. According to some Eureka fans in the stands, the refs were asking Caruso's opinion on how they should call the game and whether the penalties should be against us or them. I believer they also confirmed dinner plans for Saturday night. Actually, it turned out they were checking with Caruso because all 3 flags were on Eureka and he accepted the 15 yard facemask. So I guess there wasn't any shenanigans at all but Caruso's reputation apparently made its way to the fine folks from Illinois.
* Backup QB Ronnie Jones passed the ball in the 4th quarter, up 47-8. (It was something of a swing pass to the backup FB on 2nd and 10 to allow us to run the clock out.) If I recall correctly, he was in for a few drives prior to that, but only handed off the ball.

Also of note:
Tucker Trettel did not start or play. Gabe Green was the starting WR alongside Iverson. Franzese was back and alternated with Chris Fondakowski at the 2nd CB spot (with Jordan Lundell filling Fonda's safety spot when Fonda went to CB). Michael Greene started at RG. The rest of the line was fairly standard.

In Pallini's defense, he was an All State 1st Team kicker in high school. I believe he even had a few scholarship offers from D1 and D2 schools to kick, but he wanted to play WR.  I'm wondering if he will take up kicking duties after Steinsapir graduates.

Oh absolutely. I'm aware of that, but was trying to introduce anything that might get folks dander up. Thanks for ruining it for me, TT.
I think you are absolutely right. Carter Schmitz has the leg, but I've not seen anything to suggest that he gets the necessary lift on his FG kicks to be successful. Petitjean has handled some kickoffs also, but I don't think he's kicked FGs for us.

Berry gets Gustavus, St Olaf, and Eureka film. For those three games the base offense and special teams have been bland with some little practiced creativity added that we probably wont see going forward.

[BerryCollegeFan]

Yeah, that's the ticket, Pat. That one.

If you want to skip the bridges all together the F.A.M.I.L.Y can always #rowtheboat across the river

LOL #WeAllRow is a tag line Berry uses often.

And thanks for all the great recommendations,  we'll be looking at the list. 

I am excited to see Berry give St Thomas the biggest challenge they had in a month or so.
It'll be good for this young program to see how far they have yet to go...

[miac952]

Yeah, that's the ticket, Pat. That one.

If you want to skip the bridges all together the F.A.M.I.L.Y can always #rowtheboat across the river

LOL #WeAllRow is a tag line Berry uses often.

And thanks for all the great recommendations,  we'll be looking at the list. 

I am excited to see Berry give St Thomas the biggest challenge they had in a month or so.
It'll be good for this young program to see how far they have yet to go...

I was going with our University of MN coach PJ Fleck's "Row the Boat" slogan. You guys will fit right in up here.

[jamtod]

Yeah, that's the ticket, Pat. That one.

If you want to skip the bridges all together the F.A.M.I.L.Y can always #rowtheboat across the river

LOL #WeAllRow is a tag line Berry uses often.

And thanks for all the great recommendations,  we'll be looking at the list. 

I am excited to see Berry give St Thomas the biggest challenge they had in a month or so.
It'll be good for this young program to see how far they have yet to go...

Looking forward to it also. I hope the St Thomas folks treat you well. We can be a bit questionable in terms of character, if this board is to be believed 

Biggest challenge in a month or so is not a tall bar to cross, so I hope that's the case. Recently found out that a friend of mine and his wife are Berry alums (2004) and they are decent people, so I'll assume that the rest of you are alright.

[BerryCollegeFan]

After a quick (emphasis on quick) glance @ Berry's Saturday game here are my quick thoughts:

Offense:

Pistol Spread formation - very little personnel or formation change. Almost always 3 wide, 4th eligible can be a an H-Back, TE, or they bring in a 4th WR in long yardage
A slow no huddle with plays called in from the sideline to reduce / eliminate defensive substitutions.
Close to 50/50 run , pass mix.
Passing is quick releases. Nothing intricate. They try to hit seams with fly routes and go to the slant OFTEN. Some quick outs as well.
Finesse O-line. One biggin at RT, but not the size you see from MIAC/WIAC schools.
Running is downhill. Don't know that its a true "read" option, but it has the look of it. QB can run. RB's LOVE to bounce to the edge when the ends cave.

Defense:
3-4 - although often the look is a 4-3 or 5 -2 with a standup LB's on the edge.
DL is smallish. Plays a finesse style with lots of stunts and speed
LB are a little bigger. Similar size to DL. Move well to the edge
When blitzes do come its usually the edge LB's
DB's are SMALL across the board.

Special teams:
I only saw 3 punts, but each one was a nightmare. A 15 yard shank, a punt that hit the back of the protectors, and another short one. They go Rugby style

I'm trying to imagine how you even manage to hit the protectors when you're taking a few steps to the side for the rugby style punt?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF_LT6bo8uI

57:50

Not a typical special teams day for Berry.  There was a pretty stout 10-15 mph wind and the punter was kicking into it on that play.  During warm ups we saw a punt get pushed back about 12 yards into that wind.  I think he was trying to drive the punt a little lower than his normal kick to keep the wind from playing with it so much.  He just got it too low I think.

Otherwise this is an excellent description of Berry's offense and defensive style.

[Mr.MIAC]

Yeah, that's the ticket, Pat. That one.

If you want to skip the bridges all together the F.A.M.I.L.Y can always #rowtheboat across the river

LOL #WeAllRow is a tag line Berry uses often.

And thanks for all the great recommendations,  we'll be looking at the list. 

I am excited to see Berry give St Thomas the biggest challenge they had in a month or so.
It'll be good for this young program to see how far they have yet to go...

I'm not too familiar with Berry College, but the campus looks beautiful. It reminds me of a country estate in southern England.

[AO]

And thanks for all the great recommendations,  we'll be looking at the list. 

It probably goes without saying but if you hate crowds, avoid the Mall of America this weekend.  I'm a crazy person so I'll probably be there at some point.

[jamtod]

And thanks for all the great recommendations,  we'll be looking at the list. 

It probably goes without saying but if you hate crowds, avoid the Mall of America this weekend at all times.  I'm a crazy person so I'll probably be there at some point.

[BerryCollegeFan]

Yeah, that's the ticket, Pat. That one.

If you want to skip the bridges all together the F.A.M.I.L.Y can always #rowtheboat across the river

LOL #WeAllRow is a tag line Berry uses often.

And thanks for all the great recommendations,  we'll be looking at the list. 

I am excited to see Berry give St Thomas the biggest challenge they had in a month or so.
It'll be good for this young program to see how far they have yet to go...

I was going with our University of MN coach PJ Fleck's "Row the Boat" slogan. You guys will fit right in up here.

Something about Vikings and rowing a boat, just seems right...  I don't know if Berry's Coach K has any history with Fleck, but Berry started their program the same year Fleck took over at Western Michigan, 2012. We've been rowing a long time to get here. 

[BerryCollegeFan]

And thanks for all the great recommendations,  we'll be looking at the list. 

It probably goes without saying but if you hate crowds, avoid the Mall of America this weekend at all times.  I'm a crazy person so I'll probably be there at some point.

No doubt, that visit won't be happening.

[DuffMan]

We can be a bit questionable terrible in terms of character, if this board is to be believed 

Fixed that for you.

[jamtod]

We can be a bit questionable terrible in terms of character, if this board is to be believed 

Fixed that for you.

Duly noted.

In that realm, I forgot to mention in my "evidence of UST awfulness" that our first punt by Perra was actually a double reverse pitch back to Perra to punt it. It was a lot of razzle dazzle for minimal impact. I wonder what they were hoping to achieve with that, as ultimately I think it let Eureka get a couple guys deeper down the field to down the ball.

[USTBench]

We can be a bit questionable terrible in terms of character, if this board is to be believed 

Fixed that for you.

Duly noted.

In that realm, I forgot to mention in my "evidence of UST awfulness" that our first punt by Perra was actually a double reverse pitch back to Perra to punt it. It was a lot of razzle dazzle for minimal impact. I wonder what they were hoping to achieve with that, as ultimately I think it let Eureka get a couple guys deeper down the field to down the ball.

I think the purpose was if the DE/OLB changed course on the reverse Green was supposed to go for the first down, if he stayed home and was disciplined he was supposed to pitch it back to Perra. Eureka was pretty well-coached.

[art76]

For those of us without a horse in the race, a couple of notes concerning "what ifs".

If St. Thomas wins, and UMHB wins - the Tommies travel to Texas.
If St. Thomas wins and Linfield wins - looks like the the Tommies host.

Here's where it gets kind of interesting, at least for me.

If Del Val wins, they host next week
If Husson wins, they still travel (most likely).
Both Brockport and Wesley would travel to Del Val, regardless who wins that game.

If Wesley wins out that bracket, they travel to St. Paul.
If Del Val or Brockport wins, looks like the Tommies travel.

For the Tommies to have more home games Linfield has to beat UMHB and Wesley has to beat Brockport and Delaware Valley.

FWIW - Linfield looked really good to me this past Saturday. Can they beat the Crusaders? Yeah, they could. Others will use statistics to show probabilities, but in my mind, this game is too close to call.

And in the Del Val bracket there appears to be a lot of parity there as well. I'll throw a dart and say that Brockport would be a great game against the Tommies.

It's been a great playoff bracket so far.