FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Touchdown Tommy]

Wow 2 Johnnie celebrities come outta the woodwork in the last 12 hours (Chewey and Brice).  Hey Chewey, is that Red Hot Bennie hot? 

Great pics Brice.  Which reminds me I've got a pic or two of you clowns on the plane coming home from Spokane @ approximately 2:45am...

I received a call from Kilted Rat last night/morning about 12:30am.  He was quite pleased with the game and just barely coherrent.  He said he owes his left nut to Buckman for the in-game updates.

[sjusection105]

Hey I thought this was the big Karma circle jerk and yet I have lost Karma and I didn't even say anything bad about the Johhnies.  Actually I didn't say anything about the Johhnies.

Kubiack- here's some +K....now go round up some Taliban

[repete]

Looks like ROR wasn't the only star shooter at SJU. Thanks, Brice and here's more from the Strib ...

http://www.startribune.com/10136/gallery/1468864.html

[stanbob]

Thanks for the pic's Brice.  That should end any debate on that call.

[OleFan]

Yeah, it should be like hockey.  Close game in the 4th quarter, let everything short of manslaughter go uncalled.  Somebody might get hurt, but oh well.

As someone who refs lacrosse at multiple levels I cannot stress how important it is to make your calls consistent.  You could darn well cost a team a game because the call was not made.  I am still reminded of a light slash I called in a high school lacrosse playoff game.  The kid swung the stick wildly and got the head.  It was more or less a tap, but it was a slash.  Both teams had seen me numerous times over the season, and they will all tell you that there was barely any contact, but it was a great call.  The team scored the winning goal on the EMO (power play) to win the game. 

Also the more you let go (especially late in a game) the more likely you are to lose control.  I know this goes against the norm, but I have talked to tons of refs who agree with this philosophy.

I just saw the pics of the facemask.  I assume they were not doctored, and if that is the case then it is a good call.  The head is moving unnaturally and the knee does not appear to be down or he is moving off the ground as a result of some force.  It drives me nuts not having seen the play, but it does look like a good call.

I appreciate the praise from the SJU fans.  Hopefully we will meet again.  If any of the Gustavus or SJU fans could give me a preview of what to expect from Bethel and Concordia I would appreciate that also.

[Willy Wonka]

chadbroch - When a current Ole student with multiple friends on the team tells me the Gant info, I'm more than happy to pass it along.

I'm positive none of the Ole posters will talk about it, so I'm more than happy to be the mouthpiece. Seems like rather fishy circumstances — and Meidt decision-making — eh? Maybe you should do some digging and find out the facts, if you're not going to believe anything I say?

Frank - Were the Gusties THAT bad again yesterday?? Hosting SJU is NOT the way to fix these problems...

[frankrickard]

I only listened to the first half, but numerous penalties, ints, fumbles and giving bethel the ball constantly at midfield or in your half of the field does not make for a good game.   Mongo can give you firsthand details as he was at the game.

[faunch]

As a former high school basketball official I will say that nothing pisses me off more when an officiating crew does not make calls late in the game.  If it's a penalty/foul in the first minute of the the game it's a penalty/foul in the last minute!

Props to OAS...I was a course marshall at the TC Marathon today.  I slapped him a hi-5 around 12:28 p.m. at the corner of Summit and Prior.  I figure he was at about 5 to 5 and a half hour pace!

[faunch]

On another note, here is what I saw of the facemask.  Of course, everyone can draw their own conclusion...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2325/1503102881_744ab77b2f_o.jpg

When you look at this picture check out the kid in the black Ole jacket in the background.  By his reaction he could tell it was a 15 yarder!

[TC]

After battling Sal's to a spirited (pun intended) draw last evening, I'm back in the big city and caught up with PP.  Most of this stuff has been hashed and rehashed already, but here are a few thoughts on the game...

--The Stiftungsfestivities were festive once again.  It was a nice to meet the Ole crowd, good to see approximately 9 generations of the Wagner Clan were able to make it out for the game, and a pleasure to meet 57Johnnie who was celebrating his 50-year reunion and attending his first game in Collegeville since, I believe, the early Triassic Period.  He sure picked a good one.

--Beautiful day for the biggest crowd of the year (over 12,000).  The rain was done by mid morning and the occasional cloud cover was a nice respite from the surprising heat. 

--I took a lot of crap for my STO 32, SJU 30 pregame prediction (http://johnniefootball.com/archive/tc/2007/10/06/johnnie-gameday-predictions-4/), but for some reason it made me feel a little more comfortable when the Johnnies led 30-29 and it looked like the Oles might get a shot at a last second field goal.  Don't get me wrong, I really, really, really wanted to see the Johnnies win.  But if they had to lose, it would have been nice to publicly predict the exact score of the loss.

--Deontae Hutchins' ankle injury was absolutely a key to the Johnnies' comback.  He's the real deal.

--While the Johnnies only ended up with 2 tackles-for-a-loss (including only 1 sack for 1 yard), the pressure the Johnnie defense put on Penz in the 4th quarter was the key to disrupting the Ole offense.  I'm not sure Penz even got touched before the 4th quarter, but he certainly took a couple late (in the game, not after the wistle) hits from Gunderson and it seemed to affect him a little.

--Kofoed was certainly respectable (or better)--28 of 43 for 318 yards, 3/0 TD/INT, only 1 sack.  I thought he was hurt early by some very catchable balls being dropped.  He certainly was helped by the two huge late catches by Weber.  I was about 10 feet from the 35-yard TD pass to Weber and it was a very poor throw--I think I may have been the intended receiver.  It was a pass that very easily could have been intercepted, which is effectively what Weber did.  It also looked like Weber may have stepped out of bounds before he reached the end zone, but it was a pretty ridiculous effort on his part to even get anywhere near the goalline.  Great play.

On the 38-yard Kofoed to Weber pass on the next drive, Weber was WIDE open.  His defender had fallen down at about the 20 and there was no one within 10 yards of Weber.  An accurate pass and Weber walks into the end zone but the pass was overthrown and it took another great effort from Weber to even get close enough to make the diving catch.  That's over 70 passing yards that Kofoed doesn't end up with without a couple unbelievable plays by his receiver.

--Following the game, I referred to the facemask play as "looking like the defender was trying to pull-start a lawnmower".  Maybe it wasn't quite that bad but it absolutely had to be called, which was unfortunate because Kofoed was already down and it was a completely inadvertant act.  Tough way to see the game (effectively) end.

--St. Olaf is definitely a playoff-caliber team.  If they take care of business and finish the year 9-1 I don't see any way they can be left out of the tournament.  Obviously Auggie Tech beating Wartburg and UW-Eau Claire knocking off UW-LaCrosse help tremendously.  It sure wouldn't hurt to see Central and UW-Whitewater win out and clear up the Wisconsin and Iowa playoff pictures, too.

--Hopefully the Johnnies come out focused the rest of the year after a pair of close games.  This win was huge for their chances of getting some home playoff games, but they need to make sure there's no letdown next week at Gustavus.  A blowout win at Bethel to wrap up an undefeated regular season and #1 Seed in the West would be sweet revenge for last year.  Let's hope it sets up that way.

[TC]

On another note, here is what I saw of the facemask.  Of course, everyone can draw their own conclusion...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2325/1503102881_744ab77b2f_o.jpg

When you look at this picture check out the kid in the black Ole jacket in the background.  By his reaction he could tell it was a 15 yarder!

Awesome, Brice.

And yes, StOlafFootballOles' reaction is quite telling.



Forgot to mention earlier that it was good to see OAS at the pregame again.  While seeing him in a St. Olaf t-shirt was disheartening, I was really expecting a lot worse from him.  I'm surprised he didn't talk to Ole Fan about getting the mascot costume out of storage down in Texas.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Looks like ROR wasn't the only star shooter at SJU. Thanks, Brice and here's more from the Strib ...

http://www.startribune.com/10136/gallery/1468864.html

they are nice, but ROR's are better
Also, in the print issue, the Strib made SJU a coed school, identifying the young lady airborne in the crowd pic as a "St John's student"...does this mean Bennie jokes are history?   

[chewey]

Touchdown Tommy, I've never seen or met Red Hot Bennie though I've been told she's extremely presentable.  Maybe she'll be with Dusty at a game sometime and I'll be able to ask Dusty if RHB is really hot again.  Brice and I frequent the sight but lurk mostly.  We don't like the new format.  We have to crawl out of the woodwork though to defend against Ole sour grapes.  The Oles are a good team but it's not as if they would have won without the face mask.  I thought I was reading Linfield poster ravings again.  It's too bad about Linfield, a great program.  Looks like there's some considerable rebuilding to do.

[THE HAMMER]

Not sure if I posted correctly being a first timer and all but there are a few things I want to say.

First, the STO, SJU game was one of the greatest games I've ever witnessed. I have to agree with WAHOO that STO has the better athletes but SJU is great at doing what needs to be done to pull those close games out. In regards to the facemask, looking at the pictures, it was the right call but still very depressing. Still a great game to watch, I'd love to see a rematch in the playoffs.

Second, Wonka I don't know who you are are what "friend that has multiple friends on the team" you have but the reason most Oles won't talk about your rumors is because this is D3football.com not the National Enquirer. We are here to talk about the greatest game ever created not he said she said gossip. I guess you missed that memo. However, I will tell you a few things as a recent STO grad, player, friend of HG and actual friend of multiple people on the team. The rumors and BS that spread on that campus are insane. Apparently, your friend didn't inform you that many of the things that get spread on that campus are usually assumptions and almost always untrue. It literally is a worse social atmosphere then high school in this respect and athletes (usually football players) always find themselves with the biggest targets on their backs. Furthermore, no matter what you think of Meidt as a person, I can promise you that he would not allow HG to stay on that team if such an incident occurred. He may not be the most liked coach in the MIAC by those outside of his program but when it comes to off the field problems, he makes sure that players take responsibility for their actions and are dealt with accordingly. Maybe YOU should do your own digging if you're going to play reporter. Leave that kind of trash off of this site.

[chewey]

I don't know why Miedt would not be liked by other coaches.  As a Johnnie fan who has met him, he seems like a nice enough guy to me.  I'm sure his Bethel background would not permit him to overlook major issues.