Season Preview: St. Scholastica

In 2011, St. Scholastica, the reigning UMAC champions, enjoyed an undefeated regular season based on the most efficient quarterback play in the nation, a strong running game, and a suffocating defense. With the rest of the conference setting a bull’s eye firmly on their back, St. Scholastica faces the challenge of replacing some integral seniors from last year. Alex Thiry (QB) set the tone for the offense last year and led all NCAA divisions in QB rating at 218.14. Thiry is gone along with leading WR Keegan O’Neill. Replacing Thiry will be Tyler Harper a sophomore QB. Nick Thiry, the second leading WR in 2011, will return to help solidify the receiving corps and give Harper a big target in the red zone. The strength of this year’s team might be the running backs as Jake Jensen and Travis Nehowig return to form a potent 1-2 punch. Jake Jensen was phenomenal last year until he suffered an injury, averaging 141.6 yards a game. If Jensen can return to form, it will aid Harper with St. Scholastica’s play action passing attack. The offensive line will see some new faces, but it retains its starting LT in Chris Lambach.

The big story of the offseason was that St. Scholastica lost their defensive coordinator, Tom Parkevich, to be the head coach of Iowa Weslyan. Allen Smith takes over as the coordinator and looks to implement a 4-2-5 defense. The defense loses outstanding players such as last year’s defensive player of the year Sean Graskey (LB), first team all-conference players J.P. Leary (LB) and Justin Trautmiller (DB) (all three due to graduation), and first team all-conference player Chris Doran (DL) to injury. Keaton Rush is the only returner at the LB position, but the change to the 4-2-5 will greatly diminish the impact of the lack of experience there. The entire secondary with the exception of Trautmiller will return to maintain a pass defense that ranked second last season. The defensive line also returns a lot of experience and play-makers with Chas Lemon, Zack Dubanoski, and Jordan Rasmussen. The defense will be tested immediately in conference play with a high octane offense from Eureka.

Prediction: St. Scholastica, picked to finish second overall in the pre-season coaches poll, has two tough conference games to start the season. Eureka comes to town in week one followed by Greenville the following week. The plus is that St. Scholastica will have the home field advantage for the first two games. The UMAC should be closely contested this year and St. Scholastica cannot afford to have a slip up in the first couple weeks or they risk falling behind in a competitive conference. The schedule gets a little bit easier with road trips to Martin Luther and MacMurray, but they need to play well against Martin Luther as they play extremely well at home. The next two games could decide the fate of the Saints as they welcome Northwestern and then travel to Westminster. They finish out the season with easier competition from Crown, Presentation, and Minnesota Morris. This team has to find its own identity and cannot rely on the success of last year’s team. I think this team struggles early, but finishes strong at 8-1 or 7-2 in conference play. It could all come down to the Greenville game in week 3.