FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[RoyalsFan]

It was a tale of 2 halves at Gustavus today with the game in doubt until the end. The Royals dominated the 1st half and led 24-6 at the half and the Gusties dominated the 2nd half with Bethel holding on 30-27. Neither team turned the ball over today so both offenses played well and put up some yards, especially through the air. Not sure what Bethel's secondary strategy was the 2nd half, but it seemed like it was: let's let the receivers run by us and then we will try and play catch up - didn't work out too well, hard to defend a pass when your back is to the ball and you never see it. Gustavus was able to connect on several long passes in the 2nd half and the defense never really adjusted.

Probably the biggest break for Bethel came after Gustavus scored a td in the 3rd to cut the lead down to 24-14 and they decided to try an on-side kick. The kick only went about 5 yards when they jumped on it, making it a penalty for illegal touching. Bethel got great field position and ended up getting 3 points out of it, which turned out to be the difference in the score. Could have been a different outcome if they hadn't attempted the on-side kick. The Gustavus qb throws a pretty good deep ball when given time so anyone playing them in the future is going to have to defend the long pass.

[RoyalsFan]

Did I see that right? SJU had 32 rushing attempts and -8 yards rushing?  Are sack yards included in rushing yards?

[Ice Bear]

Ice Bear thanks Royalsfan for that nice write up. Ice was unable to watch any of the game today but is very glad the Royals held on for the victory. Ice Bear gives props to Gus for storming back in the second half today but again, congrats to Bethel for holding on and getting the W.

Ice says the MIAC games were quite impressive today. Scholastica the super Saint held on over Hamline by one, which must have been an entertaining contest, Carleton took out Macalester,  Olaf the friendly ****ing snow man took out Augsburg,  and the Johnnies ate Cobbler...although it was harder on the teeth than anticipated.

The Bear's beloved Garnet took care of business against a horrible Buffalo State team (what the **** has happened in Buffalo?) and stumbled upon what looks to be a promising back up freshman QB who played with poise, threw for three 3 TDS, and showed excellent athleticism. Ice shall see.

Ice roars in support of the Royals and hopes they homogenize Hamline in Arden Hills next week.

[sjusection105]

38.5 average rushing per game is not going to cut it. Johnnies biggest issue is the o-line. Bad snaps and they are getting pushed around and not giving Syverson much time. He will be lucky to stay healthy the entire season. When Syverson has time he's very, very good. When pressured he makes mistakes.

After the postgame radio interview I'm surprised Gary didn't line up the team for a emergency practice until sundown. There is plenty to work on- both sides of the ball. The staff has it's hands full trying to patch all the holes in a leaking ship. Go Johnnies!

[faunch]

Did I see that right? SJU had 32 rushing attempts and -8 yards rushing?  Are sack yards included in rushing yards?

I checked after game to see how many rushing yards we had and saw that we had 59...after reading your post I saw that our net was actually -8 
Looking a little closer we had 59 rushing yards but 67 yards for loss. Cobbers sacked us 5 for 35 meaning that we lost 32 more yards on plays that did not result in a sack. If you calculate our net rushing without the sacks it's still only 24 yards. We're averaging 38.5 rushing yards per game on the season...and are allowing over 4 sacks per game.
How did we gash Bethel for a net 101 yards rushing? Maybe because they dropped so many into coverage and figured they could contain our running game and still get pressure with 4 up front and a linebacker? To say our o-line play might be struggling might be a an understatement.

When we went up 28 with about 5 to play in the third I asked my friend, "Is there a chance Concordia makes a game of this?" 

If interested take a listen to Gary on the post game interview at about the 5:34 mark https://portal.stretchinternet.com/csbsju/full.htm?eventId=702099&streamType=audio
His comments sum up just about everything i was thinking...I'm paraphrasing here:
"We played a quarter and a half of solid football"
"Our offense struggled the whole game...a couple of big plays and we couldn't run the football...our offensive line got manhandled."
"Up 35-7 gotta finish it off."
He also noted that we put some guys on the field when we had the lead and that may have hurt us a bit. We did switch centers early in the first  because of issues with the snap and switched out the left guard...On D we've got to bring the QB down and not let him get away.  He was very complementary of the Cobber qb that was a freshman at SJU last year...said he was out most improved QB last season.
He also mentioned that Matt Mohr might be returning next week...maybe that will give us a spark.
Anyone else wonder why Trost or Feddema weren't in the game on the last drive or two? Seemed like an odd time to give Underwood a shot. He didn't have anywhere to run the ball anyway...It seems like Feddema has done a decent job making something out of nothing.

[corn horn]

Random reflections...

A half a punter gives the Cobbers a half of a chance yesterday.

Each team wins two quarters and watches the other two. Second quarter was an unmitigated disaster for Concordia secondary and special teams.

Cobber defense is very good up front, but I get weary of opponents having so much success deep.

Cobbers win the over/under, first downs, and the vaunted TOP, none of which moves you up in the standings that count.

Gustavus will beat St. John's.

[DuffMan]

Not much to say that hasn't been said yet.  Stupid penalties, terrible snaps, questionable tackling at times...how this team beat UWW is beyond me.

SJU's d-line is very good, though.  Woz is a scary beast.

On the bright side, there is plenty of room to improve.

[DuffMan]

Gustavus will beat St. John's.

Though that certainly concerns me, I've not resigned to that yet.  If the o-line can gel, things will fall into place.

Interesting that several ex-Johnnie QBs were in action yesterday.

[corn horn]

Gustavus will beat St. John's.

Though that certainly concerns me, I've not resigned to that yet.  If the o-line can gel, things will fall into place.

Interesting that several ex-Johnnie QBs were in action yesterday.

Certainly you can spot a "stirring the pot" comment, but the full thought behind this would be if each team brings to each other what they brought versus Concordia, Gusties will prevail. That's a pretty big "if".

As for QB transfers, you never know the circumstances from the outside. In Concordia's case the guy went to HS across the river at Shanley, so friends and family could be factors. I thought Dubois would be QB again this year. Not sure what I've seen so far justifies the switch, but i'm In no position to second guess the coaches on that.

[hazzben]

I think we all learned Saturday there's a whole lot more football to be played in the MIAC.

[carletonknights]

I was waiting for some type of official announcement from the college but since it was mentioned in Patrick Reusse's article this morning I guess it's fine to discuss now. On Oct. 15th, Carleton will launch a $1M endowed fund for its football program. In a halftime ceremony honoring the '92 MIAC football champs, the fund and the field at Laird Stadium will be named after Coach Sullivan. Near as I can tell, this endowed athletics fund would be the first of its kind in D3. Now an extra ~$20,000/year in the budget likely isn't earth shattering, but Journell wants to play non-conference games on the east and west coast (series with Pomona already scheduled) and that extra money will certainly help defray travel expenses. Maybe an international trip in the spring becomes an option? Journell has energized the alumni and people are excited.


Curious to see if any other MIAC schools follow suit

[SagatagSam]

I was waiting for some type of official announcement from the college but since it was mentioned in Patrick Reusse's article this morning I guess it's fine to discuss now. On Oct. 15th, Carleton will launch a $1M endowed fund for its football program. In a halftime ceremony honoring the '92 MIAC football champs, the fund and the field at Laird Stadium will be named after Coach Sullivan. Near as I can tell, this endowed athletics fund would be the first of its kind in D3. Now an extra ~$20,000/year in the budget likely isn't earth shattering, but Journell wants to play non-conference games on the east and west coast (series with Pomona already scheduled) and that extra money will certainly help defray travel expenses. Maybe an international trip in the spring becomes an option? Journell has energized the alumni and people are excited.


Curious to see if any other MIAC schools follow suit

Not going to lie--I did not expect to see something like this come out of Carleton. Good for them! Whatever keeps growing the MIAC and making it stronger, I'm all for it!

[hazzben]

I was waiting for some type of official announcement from the college but since it was mentioned in Patrick Reusse's article this morning I guess it's fine to discuss now. On Oct. 15th, Carleton will launch a $1M endowed fund for its football program. In a halftime ceremony honoring the '92 MIAC football champs, the fund and the field at Laird Stadium will be named after Coach Sullivan. Near as I can tell, this endowed athletics fund would be the first of its kind in D3. Now an extra ~$20,000/year in the budget likely isn't earth shattering, but Journell wants to play non-conference games on the east and west coast (series with Pomona already scheduled) and that extra money will certainly help defray travel expenses. Maybe an international trip in the spring becomes an option? Journell has energized the alumni and people are excited.


Curious to see if any other MIAC schools follow suit

Not going to lie--I did not expect to see something like this come out of Carleton. Good for them! Whatever keeps growing the MIAC and making it stronger, I'm all for it!

Shhhh, don't let Anderson at Olaf hear, you'll be kicked out for that kind of competitive behavior in the MIAC. 

In all seriousness, that's a nice development for Carleton.

[SJU13]

In the midst of the criticism of SJU's performance I think credit needs to go to the Cobbers as well. Same time last year saw them get steamrolled 42-0 by half. From the kickoff they made their presence felt.

Non football related but found this to be an interesting read in the changes CSBSJU are making: https://csbsjurecord.com/2022/09/academic-prioritization-plan-continues/

[MIAC23]

In the midst of the criticism of SJU's performance I think credit needs to go to the Cobbers as well. Same time last year saw them get steamrolled 42-0 by half. From the kickoff they made their presence felt.

Non football related but found this to be an interesting read in the changes CSBSJU are making: https://csbsjurecord.com/2022/09/academic-prioritization-plan-continues/

Agreed, after the Gustavus beat down, I wasn't very confident in the Cobbs traveling to St. Johns. It was nice to see them put up a fight in the second half, when they could have mailed it in. I really like the front seven defensively, but when they are on the field the whole game it gets tough. Hopefully they can figure out a few things offensively this week, before heading to Bethel.