FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Touchdown Tommy]

I think I can definitively say that Jordan Hansel is NOT the answer at Quarterback (he made Kofoed look like Joe Montana)...

TC: You can either say the MIAC is much improved across the board OR the mediocrity is abundant.  I tend to follow the latter...

Mayor: When would you like your cold refreshing case of Hamm's beer?

Chewey you old dog: Are you a father again?  Hopefully Brice is a Godparent...

Flash: Enough stupid Q's, TDT can't take getting any dumber.

[janesvilleflash]

Stupid Q's over. It's 11 am, and the bars are open.

[familyguyfaneightyfour]

Carleton beat Olaf.....  I quit. 

on a side note... the hot carls forgot to point the eagle towards carleton after turning it.  its still pointing at St. Olaf.  You're killin me Carleton.

I saw the eagle pointed appropriately as well. On a side note, after the end of the current losing streak the knights only trail by 4 in the all time series.

As did I. Congrats to Carleton. I'll have a feature story on this later in the week.

I wonder if someone at Olaf couldn't stand that the eagle was moved and climbed up to turn it back later ...

I was wrong about that then.  and come to find out, some ole alums turned it back towards olaf after a rousing night at the bars.

[chewey]

TDT:  Our second was born on the 29th.  I could not attend the Bethel game, accordingly.  I am glad that I did not.   As I am old -- 41 as of 10/04 -- when I do go to the games I feel like a pedophile except when I imagine what Red Hot Bennie looks like. Developing......

[stanbob]

Stupid Q's over. It's 11 am, and the bars are open.

Flash, the bars open at 10:00 here, but then again we are three hours behind you.

[janesvilleflash]

I've got one within walking distance that opens at 7am. I've done that a couple times, but it sucks to be drunk and asleep by noon. Running an hour late today, just got out of the shower. I'll probably have to stay out till 6 or 7 today.

[DustySJU]

TDT:  Our second was born on the 29th.  I could not attend the Bethel game, accordingly.  I am glad that I did not.   As I am old -- 41 as of 10/04 -- when I do go to the games I feel like a pedophile except when I imagine what Red Hot Bennie looks like. Developing......

Rather incestuous if you ask me.... 

[DutchFan2004]

Concerning the coaching, it seems the blame should lie in coaches' evaluation of talent on the offensive side. Jimmy has been calling the same plays for the past fews year and they seemed to work then. Now, maybe what is needed is a QB that can recognize a certain play will not work against a certain defense and call an audible. Either have some confidence in your ability or sit back down. But I do agree SJU needs to plan for next year, start some younger guys.

You may have a point about the QB.  The thing here is that it takes time and experience to make those audible calls something I don't think from reading this board that any of the QB's at SJU have much of.

[BDB]

For Ritzy, Duffman and any other hockey-haters:

New NHL Ice Crews.  8)

[ritz72]

For Ritzy, Duffman and any other hockey-haters:

New NHL Ice Crews.  8)

Wow.  hot chick gimmicks, shrinking fan base, season longer than NASCAR..... and wait!!! Lance Armstrong is coming back, which will knock the NHL out of the top 20 shows on the OLN, right behind Big Game Hunting with OJ Simpson

[BDB]

Yeah, but this is a bailout attempt I can buy in to. 

[USTBench]

If I'm not mistaken, Jamie Steffensmeier led the '03 team in tackles as a freshman, though I know he redshirted a year at NDSU before coming to Collegeville.  To be honest, that's the way a program newcomer gets a shot--they transfer from a D-I or I-AA school.  Does this lead to resentment from the players that start their college career with the Johnnies?  I've heard that rumor, but it's impossible to know.  It is plausible that a potential recruit would notice this trend and be a little wary of coming to Collegeville, I guess.



Back to blaming the players for a minute.  I agree with Duff when he says that it's ultimately the players that decide whether the team wins or loses.  What I don't agree with are the people who are questioning players' or groups of players' desire or mental commitment.  Without having much more intimate knowledge of the team than anyone on here does, it is impossible to say that the players are failing because they don't care.

Take a look at how much the talent has improved in the MIAC the past handful of years--Bethel has made the transformation from complete laughingstock to a team that can compete at the conference level to a team that won the West Region last year.  Augsburg has knocked off nationally-ranked Wartburg two years in a row.  Gustavus and St. Olaf are putting players on NFL (practice squad) rosters.  St. Thomas... well, the Tommies still suck.  Is it possible that St. John's can't just walk into its conference schedule with 6 guarenteed W's anymore?  I think there is a lot more evidence that this is due to the Johnnies not being (as far) ahead of the talent curve rather than the players simply not being motivated.

That's not to say the coaching staff is without blame.  No one has ever seen a St. John's offense look this consistently impotent and no one is disputing that there is some level of talent on the offensive side of the ball.  This coaching staff has shown absolutely no ability to form the offense to the pieces they have to work with (though, you can argue that it's tough to build an offense around a quarterback that bounces every 5-yard pass and an offensive line that has proven equally inept at run and pass blocking).  A dramatic talent advantage can make a lot of bad play calls look good, but now that St. John's doesn't have that advantage it's even more important that the coaching staff puts the players they do have in a position to succeed.  You know, like not running a toss sweep out of your own end zone against Concordia or turning 5 red zone possessions into 9 points against Bethel.  We just don't have the margin of error to overcome those mistakes this year.

The Tommies suck like a fox! Yes, it is true that under the guidance of Don Roney there probably isn't a team in Division III that has underachieved more than the University of St. Thomas...and some guys I played with don't like me saying that, especially since I may have been a little further down on the depth chart, but I didn't think his passion for the TEAM was very genuine. I think he had a lot of passion to see some individuals go on to great success. Which in some respects is very good...(11 consecutive AFCA Good Works players in a row, post graduate scholarship awards to PJ Theisen, Andrew Hilliard and Greg Kaiser). However it doesn't necessarily translate to great on-field chemistry or success. I felt that in that program it was more important to tow the company line rather than winning football games.

I think Don Roney had decent football knowledge but felt uncomfortable taking complete control of the ship...especially when it came to former O-Coordinator George Wemeier, who would berate other coaches in front of players, didn't know alot of players' names and had trouble getting plays in on time. Granted that man forgot more about football then I will ever know, but I felt he held us back some. I don't think our defense got fair looks against the number 1's because he monopolized skeleton drills and other things with just offensive scheming which was detrimental to our defense. After he left for Hamline it seemed the program had no real iron clad figure head.

We had unreal football minds at UST for coaches, such as Tom Flood and Mike Westland. I felt had they a chance as young up-and-comers to run the offense it would've been much more explosive and you would've seen a lot more players get an opportunity to show what they could do. IE...not relying on Justin Hall with a broken foot against SJU when we had the perfectly capable Ryan Galindo sitting there watching him gimp all over the field.

I think Steve Fritz recognized this and made that decision with Glen Caruso. The Tommies suck no more and have the ship steered in the right direction.

I know this may aggravate some people but if you're not open to criticism don't coach.

[chewey]

I agree.  Caruso is a good coach and UST will start on the right track.  I think the last really good coach UST had was Deinhart (sp.?)  Maybe he could come back now that he's out at the U. 

[stanbob]

Congratulations to the Johnnie golf team which won the MIAC title by 28 strokes.  All five Johnnie golfers finished in the top seven.

[chewey]

That's excellent.  SJU golf has been outstanding in recent years.  Maybe I should start really watching them.