FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[DuffMan]

Agreed.  Very nice broadcast, USee.

[MadRedFan]

My wife the Bennie and I were able to make the trip to Wheaton from Madison WI yesterday and it was a great game.  What a Johnnie fan turnout, hootin and hollerin. A great atmosphere overall, the Thunder have a nice stadium (concession stand, not so much) and had the home side pretty much filled up. Quite the roller coaster finish, never say die! That Johnnie magic morphed into some black magic on the Thunder at the end.

Hope the Johnnies aren't too banged up - several guys getting taped up or otherwise tended too on the sidelines during the game.  Bartch got his ankle taped up with so much damn tape - guy in the stands next to us said, just put a soft cast on it, that's how big it is now!

There was a great point in the game, when things were looking kind of dark, where LB Richard Carriveau gave an impassioned, I should say IMPASSIONED speech to the defense huddled on the side, we could all hear and see on the sidelines, including a very loud - "we aren't going home!!!" Talk about firing up the team and crowd.  He got a good ovation from the stands.

Onward and upward.

[DuffMan]

My take is that Swider was 10 minutes off of the biggest and probably most heart-wrenching loss of his career.  I didn't care for his demeanor, but you can't fault a guy too much in that situation.

[sjujohnnie]

According to the official NCAA site, St John's will travel to Whitewater for a 3:00 EST kickoff on Saturday. North Central will play at Muhlenberg at 12:00 EST.

[MUC57]

I'm still reeling over the Wheaton - St. John's game. What a bizarre ending. It may be hard to blame one person, but, linemen have to know the rules, even if they are not usually affected by them.
But let's also give some credit to the Johnnies. They put up 34 points. They held the Thunder down a bit. Statistics aside, penalties aside, final score:

              St. John's 34
               Wheaton 33

Now, as for Mount Union, ..............!      

[RoyalsFan]

It will be at UWW.

I wonder why the Wheaton announcers were saying during the game (after UWW had their game in hand) that the winner of the St. John - Wheaton game would be hosting next week. They seemed pretty confident that UWW would be traveling.

[sjusection105]

The semifinals are on ESPN3 these days.

Pat- is replay utilized in the Semis & Championship games?

[TheChucker]

Probably because Wheaton was the #1 seed in its bracket - and probably not looking into USJ's regional rankings (which I didn't do at first either and took their word for it).

[Mr. Ypsi]

Probably because Wheaton was the #1 seed in its bracket - and probably not looking into USJ's regional rankings (which I didn't do at first either and took their word for it).

Bear in mind that they were Wheaton announcers, and Wheaton probably would have hosted.  Perhaps they were just over-confident that Wheaton would pull out the win!

[Pat Coleman]

The semifinals are on ESPN3 these days.

Pat- is replay utilized in the Semis & Championship games?

Yes -- championship for more than a decade and semifinals for as long as they have been on ESPN3.

[sju56321]

It was a great game yesterday-atmosphere was excellent. Wheaton made some nice adjustments at half to almost win.
What a way to end-SJU can't kick all year and win in a missed extra point. That kicker was an excellent kicker-too.

[thunderdog]

Wheaton coach in postgame presser said they were going to kick the whole time, no thought going for 2. Reasons: SJU's scores were big plays so liked their chances inside 25; offensively they were able to sustain drives so liked their chances with the ball; liked their kicking game better.

Interesting post-game statement from Swider. Did I miss usual congrats to the winners ... or any credit to SJU other than "they scored more points"? At least the players had the class to acknowledge there was another team on the field.

I can appreciate a coach standing up for his team, but compare Swider's remarks to Gary's after similar heartbreak at UMHB last season.

I noticed when Central played them that their write-ups never mentioned the other team either. Wartburg does the same thing. Except for mentioning it they won or lost you wouldn't even know your team played them. I know you want to promote your team and players, but are you really so intimidated by the other team that you can't even acknowledge them? Cowardly if you ask me.

The vast majority of teams write their stories like that.  Most teams including the Johnnies also fail to include any of the other teams highlights in their videos, making it seem like they won every game 50-0.

Teams can do anything they want in their own videos and writeups. That's for their audiences. The NCAA mandatory news conference is a different animal. It's just good form to at least tip your cap.

But to be clear, while attendance is necessary, tipping your cap is in no way required except by perhaps the fans of the winning team.

I'm sure you guys have other stuff to talk about than what Mike Swider said in the postgame. Swider has never been a by-the-book coach and it seems to work just fine for him and for Wheaton.

Yup, you're right Pat.  But at least now the rest of the D3 world knows how classless he is.  Just my opinion.  Makes it easy to root against Wheaton from here on out...

Them is some fightin' words...

I know a whole army of dudes that would run thru a brick wall for Mike Swider - the Coach, and even more so for Mike Swider - the Man, the Husband, the Father, the Grandfather, the Friend.

You're entitled to your opinion, but I'd caution against judging the character of a man based on a 10 minute presser after a gut-wrenching loss that included many, many self-inflicted wounds. Like many have already pointed out... it was a raw moment... unedited, uncut...

I think a much better barometer of a Coach is what do his players say/think about him, what kind of mark has he left on their lives... and I feel 100% confident in speaking for decades worth of Thundering Crusaders that would unequivocally have Swider's back.

As for the game, hats off to SJU. Erdmann showed why he is the reigning Gagliardi winner. What a performance by that young man. I know he gets all/most of the attention, but your OLine deserves a shout out as well. I thought they were big, physical, and nasty... everything you want from your hogs up front. As a Wheaton fan, I'd obviously like a re-do on the 1st half. But the 2nd half was one for the ages, just a highly entertaining game with a MONSTER roller coaster of emotions. Certainly not the result Wheaton fans were hoping/rooting for, but just an epic game between 2 powerhouse teams.

Best of luck the rest of the way SJU

[RoyalsFan]

Probably because Wheaton was the #1 seed in its bracket - and probably not looking into USJ's regional rankings (which I didn't do at first either and took their word for it).

Bear in mind that they were Wheaton announcers, and Wheaton probably would have hosted.  Perhaps they were just over-confident that Wheaton would pull out the win!

No, that wasn't the case. They specifically said the winner of the game would determine where UWW would be traveling to next week and they mentioned it more than once.

[oldsju67]

Wheaton coach in postgame presser said they were going to kick the whole time, no thought going for 2. Reasons: SJU's scores were big plays so liked their chances inside 25; offensively they were able to sustain drives so liked their chances with the ball; liked their kicking game better.

Interesting post-game statement from Swider. Did I miss usual congrats to the winners ... or any credit to SJU other than "they scored more points"? At least the players had the class to acknowledge there was another team on the field.

I can appreciate a coach standing up for his team, but compare Swider's remarks to Gary's after similar heartbreak at UMHB last season.

I noticed when Central played them that their write-ups never mentioned the other team either. Wartburg does the same thing. Except for mentioning it they won or lost you wouldn't even know your team played them. I know you want to promote your team and players, but are you really so intimidated by the other team that you can't even acknowledge them? Cowardly if you ask me.

The vast majority of teams write their stories like that.  Most teams including the Johnnies also fail to include any of the other teams highlights in their videos, making it seem like they won every game 50-0.

Teams can do anything they want in their own videos and writeups. That's for their audiences. The NCAA mandatory news conference is a different animal. It's just good form to at least tip your cap.

But to be clear, while attendance is necessary, tipping your cap is in no way required except by perhaps the fans of the winning team.

I'm sure you guys have other stuff to talk about than what Mike Swider said in the postgame. Swider has never been a by-the-book coach and it seems to work just fine for him and for Wheaton.

Yup, you're right Pat.  But at least now the rest of the D3 world knows how classless he is.  Just my opinion.  Makes it easy to root against Wheaton from here on out...

Them is some fightin' words...

I know a whole army of dudes that would run thru a brick wall for Mike Swider - the Coach, and even more so for Mike Swider - the Man, the Husband, the Father, the Grandfather, the Friend.

You're entitled to your opinion, but I'd caution against judging the character of a man based on a 10 minute presser after a gut-wrenching loss that included many, many self-inflicted wounds. Like many have already pointed out... it was a raw moment... unedited, uncut...

I think a much better barometer of a Coach is what do his players say/think about him, what kind of mark has he left on their lives... and I feel 100% confident in speaking for decades worth of Thundering Crusaders that would unequivocally have Swider's back.

As for the game, hats off to SJU. Erdmann showed why he is the reigning Gagliardi winner. What a performance by that young man. I know he gets all/most of the attention, but your OLine deserves a shout out as well. I thought they were big, physical, and nasty... everything you want from your hogs up front. As a Wheaton fan, I'd obviously like a re-do on the 1st half. But the 2nd half was one for the ages, just a highly entertaining game with a MONSTER roller coaster of emotions. Certainly not the result Wheaton fans were hoping/rooting for, but just an epic game between 2 powerhouse teams.

Best of luck the rest of the way SJU

I was talking about the Central presser, not the SJU presser.  Central's was after a win, go look at my old posts from the previous night.

[MUC57]

Wheaton coach in postgame presser said they were going to kick the whole time, no thought going for 2. Reasons: SJU's scores were big plays so liked their chances inside 25; offensively they were able to sustain drives so liked their chances with the ball; liked their kicking game better.

Interesting post-game statement from Swider. Did I miss usual congrats to the winners ... or any credit to SJU other than "they scored more points"? At least the players had the class to acknowledge there was another team on the field.

I can appreciate a coach standing up for his team, but compare Swider's remarks to Gary's after similar heartbreak at UMHB last season.

I noticed when Central played them that their write-ups never mentioned the other team either. Wartburg does the same thing. Except for mentioning it they won or lost you wouldn't even know your team played them. I know you want to promote your team and players, but are you really so intimidated by the other team that you can't even acknowledge them? Cowardly if you ask me.

The vast majority of teams write their stories like that.  Most teams including the Johnnies also fail to include any of the other teams highlights in their videos, making it seem like they won every game 50-0.

Teams can do anything they want in their own videos and writeups. That's for their audiences. The NCAA mandatory news conference is a different animal. It's just good form to at least tip your cap.

But to be clear, while attendance is necessary, tipping your cap is in no way required except by perhaps the fans of the winning team.

I'm sure you guys have other stuff to talk about than what Mike Swider said in the postgame. Swider has never been a by-the-book coach and it seems to work just fine for him and for Wheaton.

Yup, you're right Pat.  But at least now the rest of the D3 world knows how classless he is.  Just my opinion.  Makes it easy to root against Wheaton from here on out...

Them is some fightin' words...

I know a whole army of dudes that would run thru a brick wall for Mike Swider - the Coach, and even more so for Mike Swider - the Man, the Husband, the Father, the Grandfather, the Friend.

You're entitled to your opinion, but I'd caution against judging the character of a man based on a 10 minute presser after a gut-wrenching loss that included many, many self-inflicted wounds. Like many have already pointed out... it was a raw moment... unedited, uncut...

I think a much better barometer of a Coach is what do his players say/think about him, what kind of mark has he left on their lives... and I feel 100% confident in speaking for decades worth of Thundering Crusaders that would unequivocally have Swider's back.

As for the game, hats off to SJU. Erdmann showed why he is the reigning Gagliardi winner. What a performance by that young man. I know he gets all/most of the attention, but your OLine deserves a shout out as well. I thought they were big, physical, and nasty... everything you want from your hogs up front. As a Wheaton fan, I'd obviously like a re-do on the 1st half. But the 2nd half was one for the ages, just a highly entertaining game with a MONSTER roller coaster of emotions. Certainly not the result Wheaton fans were hoping/rooting for, but just an epic game between 2 powerhouse teams.

Best of luck the rest of the way SJU

Well written thunder dog . +k for that. Just my opinion!  👍 😃