ri•val•ry, n, The state or condition of competition.
As the centerpiece of one of the greatest small-school rivalries in the country, the annual St. John’s v. St. Thomas football game is made special by its spirit of competition. In the rare instance that St. Thomas actually assembles strong team, the competition on the field is the focal point. More often, the closest the Tommies come to competing is in the obscene t-shirt display in the stands.
Now we find ourselves in rare times. The Tommies enter the game a disappointing 2-5, having lost their last 9 matchups with the Johnnies. The last time the Tommies left Collegeville with a win was 1986. St. Thomas’ dignity and sense of competition has been replaced by apathy.
It seems the only competition which remains is to see who can most clearly quantify just how far the Tommies—and the rivalry—have fallen. Our game predictions:
Duffman: Blah, blah, blah. Back in my playing days, I never got overly excited when playing the Tommies. Heck, 1997 was the last time the Tommies can claim a victory against the Johnnies. I never even considered the possibility of losing to them. I hated Bethel much, much more than St. Thomas. The SJU/UST rivalry has become more fan-based than anything. Sure, the Tommies would love to win, but none of the hoopla surrounding this game stems from the fact that two evenly matched teams are facing off. It’s all about the t-shirts and the chants and having bragging rights over your long-time friend who made the mistake of going to UST. This begs the question, is it still a rivalry if one team can no longer compete with the other?
I have a hunch that the Tommie team that will take the field this Saturday is better than their 2-5 record indicates. They will be hungry for a win over the vaunted Johnnies because even if they finish the season 3-7, they can still say that they beat Saint John’s. David Sauer is a solid quarterback and PJ Theisen is as good as any receiver that Saint John’s has seen so far. But UST hasn’t shown signs of a decent running game and their defense is very young. I think we could be in for another slow start, but the Johnnies will prevail. St. John’s 35, St. Thomas 7.
DustySJU: Some of the contributors to JohnnieFootball.com and D3Football.com’s Post Patterns have exhaustively reviewed the extremes to which UST football has fallen. Fins harkening back to the day of an all-male institution when the game really mattered, NachoLibre examining faltering results and the confounding abundance of resources available to the UST Football program. It’s like Duffman taking a stick and poking it into the eye of another WIAC poster and just daring them to take a swing back. Unfortunately no amount of poking, prodding, pinching or joking will change the outcome of this one. St. John’s 47, St. Thomas 13.
Finsleft: Hell, it’s the Tommies, They sure ain’t what they used to be. But we sure are.
St. John’s 42, St. Thomas 3.
Mr.Shoes: How much is there to say about this game? The Tommies were cruising to an 0-fer this season before pulling out a win against Carleton and coming back against Augsburg. Now, at 2-5, a .500 season is theoretically possible. They come in with an experienced QB and one of the MIAC’s best receivers. Their defense held Bethel’s solid offense to 19 points. In 2003 when the Johnnies were busy cruising to a national title and St. Thomas piled up three wins, they nearly pulled off an upset in St. Paul. Like any big rivalry, this one could go either direction at any time. Anything could happen. Tomorrow, this happens: St. John’s 42, St. Thomas 13.
SjuSection105: The case has been stated clearly on this site twice this week (in Touchdown Tommy’s Post-Corner and The Sizzle). The 2007 version of Tommie-Johnnie week and the football game today don’t really excite many fans, myself included. I’m not sure how to approach this once storied rivalry. There are three other MIAC foes I get more excited to see than UST. The real rivalry games are Concordia, St. Olaf and Bethel. The question has been asked, is it still a rivalry if one team continues to dominate the series year after year? 2003 was a hard fought battle to secure the 408th win for John Gagliardi and the run to the National Championship. That game was the tightest contest in recent memory.
I don’t see 2007 being much of a game for football purists. If UST can hang around and make it a contest until halftime, they can then claim a moral victory. I see the reserves for SJU seeing a lot of game action in the second half as this game is decided early. My final score prediction: St. John’s John’s 52, St. Thomas 7.
TC: A limerick dedicated to our “rivals” to the south:
There once was a team from Cretin,
Who tired of having their lunch eaten.
Rather than fight back,
They took the apathy track,
And accepted their annual beatin’.
St. John’s 42, St. Thomas 7.
Touchdown Tommy: The Tommies scare the living daylights outta me this week. As one of my favorite professors at SJU, Ron Bosrock, always said, “There is nothing more dangerous than someone with nothing to lose.” This could be a make or break game to save Coach Don Roney’s job. A win might force the influential Tommie alumni to call off the dogs for another 9 years of losses at the hands of the arch-rival Johnnies. All that being said, they come in with several bad losses. The Purple is young and inexperienced with the majority of the squad never having played in a “big game atmosphere” that is sure to accompany the action on Saturday in Collegeville. I think this one will be closer than most are prognosticating. St. John’s 24, St. Thomas 16.
