Each week, JohnnieFootball.com tries to balance its Johnnie-centric perspective by providing the view of opposing fans prior to the game. Keith Hagen may have the most unique gameday perspective of any guest we will have this year.
Keith grew up around MIAC football, accompanying his father to St. Olaf games. After his own brief stop at St. Olaf—and a few years away from the game—Keith found himself on the MIAC gridiron as a Quarterback and Punter for the Augsburg Auggies. Once on the field, he had the unique perspective of the oldest player on the field, often by a span of 5 years.
After leaving the Augsburg team, Keith hasn’t wandered far from the action. He and his wife live just off of campus as he completes his degree in International Business (with minors in German and Economics for good measure). His ultimate goal is to attend Law and Business school, but his intermediate plans are to join us for a Stiftungsfest burger and brew—which he’s been eying up from the sidelines for years.
Providing his firsthand perspective, here are Keith’s thoughts on St. John’s, Augsburg, and this weekend’s game.
—TC
Keith Hagen: The Johnnie game always is a big game, made all the more special when played at Clemens Stadium. One must realize, when I played last year, I was probably the only 28-year old on the field which gave me a different perspective than most of the other young lads that were “buttoned-up.” Also, growing up in the MIAC, with my dad being the head athletic trainer at St. Olaf, it was hard sometimes not to be simply a college football fan. Well, actually, two years ago it was pretty easy for me, as I seemed to be running for my life every time I dropped back to pass as Damien (Dumonceaux), Mac (Kevin McNamara), and the bunch made for a long day for me! So, growing up in the conference and understanding the dynamics of how this conference usually works, I loved Saturdays at thirteen-hundred!
I grew up always hating the Cardinal and White. I never liked knowing that they had 3 number nines on the sidelines. I never liked how easy they made the game of football look. But then I started to play against them and met some of the guys. As it turned out, they played with class. And though—especially in my three years against them—we never really had a chance, they always gave us respect and never played dirty football: trash talk, cheap shots, after-the-whistle stuff. (Unlike some other teams in the conference with their bipolar activities of cheap play followed immediately by Jesus praise crap! If you’ve played in the MIAC, you know who I’m talking about!) But instead, the Johnnies would go hard to the whistle and then help you up after.
Clemens Stadium made it all the more fun. Two years ago, when we played up there, it was Family Weekend. In a game versus an O-fer team, there were still nearly 4000 fans there. [Ed. note: 8,192 in attendance, according to the box score.] It would be the biggest crowd we would play in front of all year and the atmosphere was great. I look forward to seeing this year’s game, with my wife, without worrying about getting a ball away!
This year’s Auggie crew is finally starting to get it. Frank Haege has done a good job of instilling the belief that we can’t get better from September through November if we don’t get better from November to September. We’ve had a couple of good recruiting classes the last couple of years and have a strength program that has definitely paid dividends. It takes time, however, and I don’t think—though I thoroughly wish it were the case—that this year’s Auggies will go undefeated.
The offense looked very good last week. From the Augsburg Football preview, Frank said that Jordan Berg could be a star quarterback in this conference. I do not disagree at all. He finally has an offensive line in front of him with two returning tackles and a very good group of receivers to throw to. Royce Winford and Mike Nourie return with experience from last year and the two new guys, Al-Hameed and Ryan Schroeder, are very good new additions. Jason Potts returns this year after a bad break of his ankle last year. Potts, though not as big as some backs we’ve had the last few years, is extremely talented. Defensively we are also improved. Mike Matson’s shoes will be hard to fill but we return a lot of guys that saw a lot of action last year. Garrett Adamson—who left St. John’s to play for the good guys!—is a great addition. It should make for a fun Saturday. I look forward to meeting a lot of you and best of luck to both sides – most importantly, to stay healthy! St. John’s 42, Augsburg 17.
