Maybe you’ve heard: the Tommies are coming to town and, for a change, they’re bringing a pretty talented football team with them.
The Tommies’ recent struggles against St. John’s are no secret. The Johnnies have won the last 11 meetings, 15 of the last 16, and haven’t lost to the Tommies in Collegeville since 1986. Included in those 11 straight wins are 48-14, 21-0, 27-7 and 18-0 trouncings. What was once the most compelling—and competitive—football rivalries in the MIAC has become an afterthought in recent years as new challengers like Concordia, Bethel and St. Olaf have usurped St. Thomas as the Johnnies’ top challenger for the conference title.
Under head coach Glenn Caruso, the Tommies hope to put themselves back on the MIAC map this Saturday. After taking over a winless Macalester program in 2006 and leading them to two and four wins the next two seasons, Caruso became the St. Thomas head coach in 2008. The 2007 Tommies were a disappointment, winning only two games and losing to St. John’s, St. Olaf and Concordia by at least 3 scores. A season later, the Tommies were 7-3 and their three losses were by 3 points, 2 points, and in a 6-overtime game.
Coming into 2009, expectations were high at St. Thomas and they have done nothing to disappoint. The Tommies are riding a 7-game winning streak, 3rd best in the nation (and, of course, the product of not making the NCAA playoffs last season—the Johnnies have an 11-game regular season winning streak). The Tommies opened the year as the MIAC coaches’ choice to finish 2nd in the conference and the #22-ranked team in the D3Football.com Top 25 poll. They have climbed to #15 nationally on the strength of five convincing wins to open the season. The Tommies have outscored opponents by an average margin of 44 to 14.
St. Thomas features the MIAC’s most prolific rushing attack, averaging 259 yards per game. Their leading rusher is junior running back Ben Wartman, who burst onto the scene in 2008. A converted wide receiver, Wartman led the MIAC with 1,311 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns a season ago. He’s off to a similarly impressive start in 2009, leading the conference with 134 rushing yards per game and 16.8 points per game (more than doubling the conference’s second leading scorer, Bethel running back Logan Flannery’s 8 points per game). Wartman’s backup, sophomore Colin Tobin, leads the MIAC with 7.7 yards per carry and is fourth in the conference in rushing yards per game. He has notched 6 rushing touchdowns this season.
Wartman and company will do their work behind a young but talented St. Thomas offensive line. The Tommies plan to start a freshman at left guard and two sophomores on the right side of the line. Junior left tackle Justyn Helgeson returns as a starter from 2008, when he was named to the second team All-MIAC team. Junior center Josh Ostrue has both talent and experience—he is starting for his third season and was named to numerous All-America teams in 2008 in addition to winning the Rimington Award as the nation’s top center. Unfortunately for the rest of the MIAC, Ostrue gained an extra year of eligibility recently when the conference changed its rules regarding players who transferred from other schools. Ostrue redshirted at St. Cloud State in 2006, and that redshirt season will now be honored by the MIAC.
With all the mileage being piled up by the Tommies on the ground, it’s easy to forget about their passing game. Sophomore wide receiver Fritz Waldvogel was the only freshman named to the 2008 All-MIAC team when he recorded 58 receptions for 807 yards and 5 touchdowns a season ago. He’s on pace to top those numbers in 2009, with 38 catches for 518 yards (both MIAC-leading totals) and 3 touchdown catches halfway through the season. Waldvogel has caught 38 of the Tommies’ 79 completed passes this year; no other receiver has more than 8 receptions.
Waldvogel also leads the conference with an average of 21.5 yards per punt return and 2 punt return touchdowns. With all due respect to Wartman and Flannery, Waldvogel might be the most dynamic playmaker in the MIAC.
Two Tommies are expected to split time at quarterback against St. John’s. Primary quarterback Greg Morse, a sophomore, is more a thrower than a runner and has 7 touchdown passes on the season. He is somewhat mistake prone, though: he has thrown for 6 interceptions, tied for most in the MIAC. Sophomore quarterback Dakota Tracy is also expected to see some action in option situations. He has rushed 27 times while attempting only 25 passes on the season.
The Tommies use a base 3-4 defense and have defensive stars all over the field. The defensive line is led by junior defensive end Cyrus Allen, who had 3 sacks last week against Concordia. His 3.5 sacks on the season lead the Tommies and rank 4th in the MIAC on a per-game basis.
While junior linebackers Wyatt Delgado and Zach Sturm and sophomore linebacker Willy Baregi are among the team leaders in tackles, the real star of the St. Thomas linebacker corps is University of Minnesota transfer Tommy Becker. The junior (he also gained a year of eligibility with the recent MIAC rule changes) was the St. Thomas team MVP in 2008, when he also garnered All-West Region and 2nd team All-MIAC honors.
Junior safety Bryan Villar (another recipient of another year of eligibility) leads St. Thomas with 28 tackles on the season and is one of 7 Tommies with an interception this season. He is joined in the defensive backfield by junior safety Brady Ervin, an Iowa State transfer who led the MIAC with 6 interceptions last season, and senior cornerbacks Kris Kopp, a converted quarterback, and Jeffrey Hilliard.
The Tommies obviously bring a very talented team to Collegeville on Saturday—arguably the most talented team St. John’s will face in the regular season. There is still a mental hurdle the Tommies will need to overcome if they hope to beat the Johnnies. None of these Tommie players were alive the last time St. Thomas left Collegeville with a victory, and even last season, when the Tommies had the Johnnies beat in St. Paul, St. John’s still found a way to escape with a controversial, improbable win. As John Gagliardi said at the 2009 Kickoff Luncheon, perhaps the Johnnies will just need to keep the score close and wait for the Tommies to screw up. If St. Thomas can clear the mental hurdle of beating the Johnnies, they certainly have the physical talent to beat them.
In order to win this game, the Johnnies are going to have to find a way to slow the Tommies’ explosive offense, especially running back Ben Wartman. When the Johnnies faced another elite running back, Bethel’s Logan Flannery, they allowed him to reach 100 yards rushing and 4.8 yards per carry—both totals very close to his season averages. They are going to need a better effort against St. Thomas’s rushing attack this weekend. If the Tommies can get anywhere close to their season averages on the ground—259 yards per game, 6.4 yards per carry—they can kill the clock and keep the St. John’s offense off the field, making it a long day for the Johnnies.
You might remember that Flannery had his 100-yard day against a St. John’s defense that was missing All-American defensive tackle Nick Gunderson and starting linebacker Ethan Eid. The availability of those two players could go a long way towards deciding this weekend’s game. According to the St. Cloud Times, Gunderson may see some action but is not expected to start. Eid is expected to start for the first time in a month, but it is difficult to expect a player to play at his best against a strong opponent after than long of a layoff.
Undoubtedly, this is a very important game for both teams. While the Johnnie/Tommie rivalry might not be what it once was, it is still one of the finest rivalries in small college football. These are the proverbial two teams that don’t like each other all that much. Add in the considerable conference and postseason implications—two nationally ranked, undefeated teams meeting relatively late in the season, with the winner gaining the upper hand in the race for the conference title and, potentially, a top seed and home field advantage in the playoffs—play the game in the most picturesque setting in college football on what is forecasted to be a very nice fall Saturday and you have one of the most highly anticipated games in program history.
It’s Johnnie/Tommie Week—and for the first time in a long time, it feels important. Enjoy!