6 weeks into the season and I realized that my title for this weekly post is pretty lame: What we Learned? Come one Tommy, you're better than that. I spent a good five minutes trying to think of a better title but the best I could come up with was: The Week that Was. Since that is also pretty lame and since we are more than halfway though the season I figured I might as well leave it as is. But, I would like to apologize to all of my loyal readers for mailing it in on this one. You really do deserve better. Hopefully I make up for it with some clever lessons from 'The Week that Was"... (See that? Nice segue. Things are already looking up.)
1. Northwestern is still Crown's daddy. As I predicted, Northwestern quickly put the Storm in a headlock and made it clear that this is about as much of a rivalry as there is a rivalry between St. Thomas and Hamline. The good news for the Storm is that they didn't make any bold predictions before the game... oh wait... Northwestern scored the first five times they touched the ball while Crown scored a total of zero times they touched the ball. This provides us with yet another example of why turning around a football program is so difficult. In basketball, you can get one or two good players and quickly become a contender. You need a lot more than that to transform a football program with a culture of losing. Crown is making progress and is headed in the right direction, but it is going to be a long process before they are ready to start playing with the big boys.
2. Luke Rothe does it all for Martin Luther. We haven't given the Knights much love this year but I am going to make it up to them it with not one, but two lessons that we learned from them in Week 6. The first focuses on Luke Rothe who apparently plays every position for Martin Luther. They have changed their entire offense so that he can play quarterback without actually having to take a snap under center. He passes, he rushes, he returns kicks, he blocks for himself, he kicks field goals, sometimes he even throws it up as high as he can and runs downfield to catch it himself. The last time I saw something like this was when I was watching the state championships of 1A high school football where the best player plays quarterback and linebacker and just runs around with the ball because the other team can't stop him. Unfortunately for the Knights, this isn't 1A high school football and other teams can stop him. Still, Rothe is an impressive athlete and is almost single-handedly making Martin Luther competitive.
3. Martin Luther's coaches have a giant wheel they spin to determine what offense to run each week. MLC's offense has changed drastically from week to week, ranging from the 1950s veer/triple option to the swinging gate to the pistol to shotgun four wide to linemen spread out as wideouts to who knows what. The only logical explanation for this is that every Monday the Knight's coaches get together for their weekly gameshow called "Wheel of Offense". Some of the options this week include: 1) 10 linemen, snap the ball to Luke Rothe and let him run wherever he wants 2) 1 center, 9 receivers and they run quadruple reverses back and forth until someone gets tackled 3) Everyone starts on their head and front rolls to start the play 4) Punt every 3rd down and even on 1st down a few times just to throw the other team off. I can't wait to see where the wheel lands this week!
4. Greenville is headed in the wrong direction. After being a top team in the conference for the past 3 seasons, the Panthers were expected to again be among the conference's elite. On paper, they should have been the best team in the conference. They had a strong season last year and returned players at key positions. But this year their defense is an absolute sieve. Where is the team that was clearly the most athletic squad in the UMAC a few years ago? Greenville used to be bigger, faster, and stronger than everyone they played against. Now they look small, undisciplined, and slow - especially on defense. I hope that this is a one year aberration and not the beginnings of a program going downhill. I still love watching their explosive offense, but at this point their defense is going to get them run over by any good teams.
5. Minnesota Morris has the best announcer in the UMAC. I was listening to the broadcast this week and whoever does the radio broadcast for the Cougars is a boss. Someone tell me that guy's name so I can give him a proper shout-out. Whatever you are paying him, pay him more. And please, Mr. Announcer - lead a workshop for the other announcers in the conference. I will organize it and even provide scones. I cannot handle any more poor announcing and this is my last ditch effort outside of watching every game on mute.
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