The University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars are the enigma of
UMAC football. They are impossible to figure out from week to week much less
from season to season. A quick look at their 2012 campaign in which they
finished 5-3 in the UMAC, good enough for a fourth-place finish, leaves you
thinking this is a team on the brink of being a contender to win the conference
in 2013. D3football.com certainly thinks highly of the Cougars ranking them
ahead of Greenville in their national rankings and projecting them to finish
the season with a 7-2 conference record. But quite frankly, d3football.com has
about 14 other conferences they are more focused on and doesn’t know what they
are talking about when it comes to UMAC football. Luckily, you have us to set
everyone straight. Allow us to take a deeper look at Morris’ 2012 season. The
Cougars certainly did some things well last season. They beat every team in the
conference with the exception of the 3 teams that tied for first place. In the
final week of the season they even had a good shot at beating Scholastica
before falling 28-21. But let us not forget that in Week 1 the Cougars lost to
Hamline. That is correct – the Hamline Pipers. They beat MacMurray by 3 points,
Eureka by 4, and Crown by 1. As that old adage goes, “A win is a win” and I am
not trying to take anything away from the Cougars, but you will have to excuse
me if I am not brimming with excitement for a team that eked out a 3 point win
over the 238th ranked team in the country. Was 2012 a stepping stone
season in which the Cougars demonstrated they are a team that knows how to win
the close games or was it a season in which they had every break fall their way
in close games and could have just as easily gone 4-6? Morris would want to
believe they are right there with the top 3 teams – maybe just a little below.
I would contend, however, that the chasm between those teams and Morris last
year was the size of the Grand Canyon and, in reality, the teams that finished
4th – 6th were all pretty interchangeable.
Big Losses
It is tough when you lose a four-year starting quarterback.
When you lose two of them in the same year you might as well close up shop. Of
course, for most schools it would be impossible to lose two four-year starting
quarterbacks in the same season, but that is part of the Cougars’ charm. As we
all know by now, the Cougars rotated Dan Garrigan and Derrick Foss all season
long without any apparent rhyme or reason to the substitutions other than the
coaches wanted to make sure no feelings got hurt. The two QBs finished the year
with very similar numbers and when combined actually made for one pretty respectable
starter with 253 passing ypg, a 50% completion percentage, 25 TDs, and 9 INTs. As
stupid as the Cougars rotating QB system was, they will miss the leadership and
experience they had at that position last season. On the defensive side of the
ball, Morris will miss linebackers Zeke Miller and Caleb Forstrom who were the
2nd and 3rd leading tacklers on the team in 2012.
Key Returners
The Cougars bring back both their best offensive and
defensive player from last year’s squad in WR Brendon Foss and LB Cody Hickman.
Foss is probably the best receiver in the conference averaging 112 receiving
ypg in 2012 while compiling 8 TDs. I don’t think we need to get too carried
away with Foss, calling him an NFL prospect and what not, but he is a good
player on par with some of the other good receivers we have seen come through
the UMAC in recent years. Hickman led the conference with 119 tackles last
season. That number is strangely high – leading me to wonder if either the
scorekeepers at Morris are getting a little happy with the assisted tackles or if
Hickman is truly the only person on the defense that knows how to tackle. By
comparison, Hickman had almost 30 more tackles than any player on Scholastica,
Northwestern, or Greenville. Hmm…. Regardless, Hickman is clearly their best
defensive player and the Cougars are glad to have him back. They will also
expect big contributions from offensive returners Leandro Dower and Dalton
DeGraffenreid who both demonstrated flashes of brilliance in 2012.
Keys to 2013
1. Can they find a quarterback? – In a lot of ways,
graduating two senior QBs will be good for UMM. They finally get to rid
themselves of this nagging situation that had pestered them for 4 years. Maybe
they can finally establish a starting QB that gets to play every game, every series
and develop into the best player he can be. Asking a QB to be the leader of the
team and get into a rhythm while playing half of the series is absurd. That is
the good news. The bad news, however, is the reality that it is difficult to
replace starting quarterbacks. We saw a huge drop-off last season from Scholastica’s
offense going from Alex Thiery to a rookie in Tyler Harper. We saw it at Martin
Luther when they lost Greg Holzhueter. We
saw it a few years ago when Northwestern lost Zach Tarter. Replacing
quarterbacks is not easy. Should we expect that Morris can more easily replace
a starting QB than Scholastica, Northwestern, or MLC?
2. Can their offensive line improve? – The Cougars
have had the worst offensive line in the conference, nay, in all of football
the past two seasons. They have big guys that quite simply cannot move. It doesn’t
matter how good your receivers or running backs are if you cannot get them the
ball because the defensive line is in the backfield all game long. Until the
Cougars find a way to put together a respectable offensive line they will not
be able to do anything against the good teams of the UMAC.
Prediction
When putting together a team the first thing you want to
establish is a quarterback. The second thing you want to establish is your
offensive line. The Cougars have huge question marks at both. So, while Foss is
an outstanding player and while they have arguably the best receiving corps in
the conference and while their running backs will be above average and their
defense will be decent, the Cougars will have a very disappointing 2013
campaign. Morris comes into this season expecting to make the jump to the top
of the conference, but I foresee them going the other direction. The gap
between the Cougars and Greenville, Scholastica, and Northwestern was too great
last season for me to predict they finish better than any of those squads. The gap
between Morris and the teams below them was not all that big and teams like Martin
Luther, Westminster, and Crown return starters at QB while Morris does not. For
that reason, Morris will drop to 3-6 in conference and finish in 7th
place. I will leave you with one final disclaimer, however. If there is one
team in the UMAC I expect to prove me wrong, it is the Cougars. They did it
last year on their way to 5 conference victories. So go ahead and use this as
bulletin board material Cougar Nation. You are welcome.
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