Good evening Johnnie fans. After a thoroughly dominating win last week against Augsburg, the Cobbers from Concordia-Moorhead come to Collegeville. They always seem to play the Johnnies tough dating back to the Jim Christopherson era. While the Cobbers only have one win against the Johnnies since 2000, their schemes clearly give the J’s problems. Or will they? The Cobbers longtime Offensive Coordinator Bob Nick has retired and word on the street is that the maroon and yellow are displaying flashes of a wide-open passing attack. Junior starting quarterback, Jesse Nelson, who won a state championship at Minnetonka has led a surprisingly balanced attack. Traditionally the Cobbers have run the “Wing-T” offense more commonly found at the high school level. They ran it to perfection and had enough wrinkles to give teams problems (remember the Cobbers were almost always the only team still running the Wing T).
Since the Cobbers came into Collegeville in 2004 and stunned the Johnnies with a 21-20 loss, a total of 7 pts have separated these two teams. The proof is in the pudding. It is a virtual guarantee that it will be a close game regardless of the teams’ records each particular season. Terry Horan is the brightest young coach in the MIAC. He will have the Cobbers out for revenge after the heartbreaking loss in triple overtime to Bethel last week (to say nothing of the 20-16 loss and the 14-12 loss to the Johnnies the past two seasons at Jake Christiansen Stadium in Moorhead).
I expect the Cobbers to come out fired up and ready to go. Jesse Nelson has not played in Collegeville before but the large crowd should not bother him (he has played in the Prep Bowl at the Metrodome and grew up attending big games with his dad, Dave Nelson, the former head coach at Blaine High School). The Cobbers are a first half team and the Johnnies are traditionally a very, very strong 2nd half squad (especially the 3rd quarter). If the Big Red Machine can weather the storm early there is no reason to believe they won’t come out on top around 4pm. Soak in the atmosphere. It will be worth the price of admission.
