I’d imagine the St. John’s starters knew they wouldn’t be seeing much playing time in the second half against the Augsburg Auggies. Luckily, they made the most of the time they had. Between the opening kickoff and the halftime whistle, the Johnnies turned 8 drives into 7 touchdowns by 6 different players. The defense also came to play; they were one missed tackle from holding the Auggies to 35 yards on 23 plays before the break.
By the time Johnnie defensive lineman David Burns took an errant Auggie pass 89 yards the other way to cap the scoring, the starters had perfected their sideline tans and I’d gotten a jump on the numbers that defined the day:
One week after rewriting the St. John’s record books, Alex Kofoed took aim at some personal marks.
The Man, the Myth, the Legend: Saturday’s game against Augsburg was the 36th started by Alex Kofoed under center in his amazing Johnnie career. And though his appearance wasn’t his longest—he didn’t step foot on the field in the second half—he was still able to approach career bests in several passing categories. During his abbreviated workday, Kofoed was 16-for-20 passing for 301 yards and 4 touchdowns. He matched his career low in incompletions with 4, tying his mark set in an unbelievable 25-for-29 performance against UW-Eau Claire to open the 2005 season.
While his 20 pass attempts were historically low (he’s only failed to reach 20 attempts 4 times in games he didn’t leave with injury) he was still able to notch his 5th highest single-game yardage total and 6th career 300 yard game. His 4 TD passes (5 against St. Olaf in 2005) and 15.1 yards per pass attempt (16.6 ypa in humiliating Monmouth in the 2005 playoffs) both fell just short of career bests.
Good Riddance: No one will be happier to see Alex Kofoed’s eligibility expire after this season than Augsburg’s secondary. Three of Kofoed’s 7 career games with at least 10 yards per pass attempt have come at the expense of the Auggies. A scary thought for the rest of the MIAC: he just gets better every year. After a pedestrian 5.5 yards per attempt at Augsburg in his 2004 freshman campaign, Kofoed has ripped through the Auggie defense for 10.6 ypa, 12.1 ypa, and 15.1 ypa the last 3 times the two schools have met.
Better Lucky than Good?: Saturday’s singular highlight for the Auggies came courtesy of freshman wide receiver Muneer Al-Hameed—but what a highlight it was. The 76-yard pass from quarterback Jordan Berg to Al-Hameed was the longest play from scrimmage allowed by the Johnnies since Concordia-Moorhead quarterback Brian Schumacher hooked up with Ben Wogan for a 76-yard touchdown pass in 2005. Even more impressive? Al-Hameed’s play came against the Johnnies’ first-string defense and accounted for over two-thirds of Augsburg’s offensive production in the first half.
Slipping Away: St. John’s opened 2007 ranked #3 in the D3Football.com Preseason Poll. After thrashing their first three opponents by a combined total of 138-31 and seeing the preseason #2 team, UW-Whitewater, lose a game, the Johnnies naturally find themselves ranked… fourth?!?!? This is clearly not a case of disrespect. While the Johnnies struggled to beat a plucky squad from UW-River Falls, UW-Whitewater succumbed to a much tougher opponent (Div. 2 St. Cloud State) and preseason #4 Mary Hardin-Baylor posted a convincing win against then-#12 Christopher Newport. Most importantly, the Johnnies will have their chance to decide their fate the right way—on the field.
