Gene's Blog: Tommie football gains national respect

June 24, 2009

At a lazy time of year where many folks are concerned with fishing poles, suddenly St. Thomas has become relevant in football polls.

For the first time in 12 seasons, the Tommie have cracked a national top 25 football ranking. Lindy’s Magazine puts UST at No. 8 in its 2009 preseason poll.

The Toms bucked the usual preseason trend of rewarding the elite from the previous few seasons. St. Thomas and No. 4-rated Delaware Valley are the only teams ranked in Lindy’s top 12 that didn’t make last year’s NCAA football playoffs.

The Tommies, 7-3 last season, were last ranked in a Division III football poll in 1997 (after a 5-0 start) and in 1996 (after a 7-0 start).

Lindy’s gives its No. 1 nod to 10-time D-III champion Mount Union, then has eight West Region teams in the top 23. UW-Whitewater is No. 2; Monmouth (Ill.) is No. 3; St. John’s is ranked sixth; Willamette (Ore.) is No. 9; Iowa teams Central and Wartburg are Nos. 13-14; and California squads Occidental and Redlands are No. 16 and No. 23.

UST head coach Glenn Caruso expressed mixed feelings about the unexpected ranking. Caruso, who has been a part of top 10-rated Ithaca teams as a player and as a coach, was an assistant on high-ranked Division II teams at North Dakota State and South Dakota. He sees this ranking as a compliment to the Tommie players, but he knows it’s something everyone must keep in perspective.

“Sure, the rankings are nice, and really, they’re a testament to the effort that our guys have put in during the past year,” Caruso said. “There’s no way that anyone would have imagined a top 10 ranking during our first year when we took over the program.”

St. Thomas finished 2-8 in 2007. Caruso was hired in late January of 2008 and brought a long-range vision for success.

“We were and still are, just focused on working to develop a strong, stalwart and proud program, and any rankings that come our way will never change that,” Caruso said. “Some programs hang their hats on numbers, and that’s fine, but that’s not our gig, never will be. As long as we work every day with ‘Pride and Passion,’ I’m a happy guy.”

“I honestly don’t know if we’re a top 10 team or a top 20 team, or a top 50 team, that’s really not my thing. What I do know is that this team will work as hard as we can, for as long as we can, to be as good a team as we can. Whatever results occur are simply a byproduct of that hard work.” 

For the record, UST didn't make the top 25 by The Sporting News. Preseason polls by USA Today and D3Football.com will come out in the coming weeks. Another Tommie top-10 ranking is unlikely in those polls, although top-25 is possible. The Tommies received votes last November in the last regular-season rankings by D3Football.com, and their strong finish and large group of returners caught people’s attention.

The Tommies return 20 players with starting experience and at least 85 letter winners from last season. They return 12 players who have received all-conference recognition in their careers, including 10 honored in 2008. They have a few transfers expected to push for playing time, as well as an incoming freshman class of more than 50. The newcomer group includes five players invited to play in next Saturday’s Minnesota High School All-Star game at St. Cloud State.

Caruso’s first season at St. Thomas will be remembered for so many close finishes and a wacky MIAC race not decided until the final seconds of the St. John's-Carleton game. The Tommies easily could have been 10-0… and just as easily could have been 5-5. The first seven games of Coach Caruso’s MIAC career were decided by eight or less points, including five still in doubt in the final minute or in overtime.

On another note, Tommie fans won’t have to travel far next fall. St. Thomas’ longest regular-season trip will be the Oct. 17 trek to Collegeville to play rival St. John’s.

The Johnnie game will also be UST’s first game outside of St. Paul. The Toms’ first five contests will include Sept. 5 and Sept. 26 Snelling Avenue games at Macalester and at Hamline, plus home games on Sept. 19 (vs. St. Olaf) and Oct. 3 and 10 (against Gustavus and Concordia-Moorhead).

The 2009 schedule has the same opponents in the same order as 2008, except with games at the opposite site. The second half of the schedule includes road games at SJU, Carleton and Bethel and home games with Augsburg and Northwestern.

Click here to view Lindy's and TSM polls:

http://www2.muc.edu/athletics/athletics_archive/men_s_teams/football/2009/lindys_sporting-news.aspx

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More academic honors

St. Thomas has 61 winter/spring student athletes from 14 sports on the MIAC All-Academic Team that will be announced Thursday.

Athletes must be sophomores, juniors and seniors with a 3.50 or higher cumulative grade-point average and meet certain criteria for playing time or achievement at the conference meets.

UST had 44 winter/spring recipients in 2007-08 and 40 fall recipients last semester.

The Tommies’ five spring CoSIDA Academic All-Americans – Katie Theisen, Nikki Arola, Alison Wright, Phil Bastron and Matt Schuld -- have an average gpa of 3.91.

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Softball shines in stats

Lost in all the May excitement surrounding Tommie baseball and track and field was word that St. Thomas’ softball team led Division III in batting average at .395. Coach John Tschida’s Tommies, who finished 40-6, also ranked first in total bases (975) and second in slugging percentage (.568); second in doubles (100); seventh in home runs (42); and eighth in scoring (7.35 runs a game).

Individually, four Tommies were ranked in the Division III top 20. Kaitlyn Wightman finished third in runs scored (60); Missy Bruggeman was sixth in batting (.514) and 20th in on-base percentage (.546); Alison Wright was 10th in batting (.500) and second in RBI (59).

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Bring on the LSU Tigers

We had some fun in 2008 when we used a literal interpretation of head-to-head results to reach this conclusion: The 2007-08 Tommie men’s basketball team (wink, wink) could have beaten the Final Four champion Kansas Jayhawks.

You see, back in the winter of 07-08, Coach Steve Fritz’ Tommies beat D-II champion Winona State... which beat Grand Valley State... which posted an exhibition win over Michigan State... which beat Missouri... which beat Kansas State... which was the last team to beat NCAA champion Kansas.

Who knew that a similar surprise scenario could be uncovered in college baseball in 2009.

Coach Dennis Denning’s Tommies beat the Minnesota Gophers… who beat Illinois… who had a pair of wins over NCAA champion Louisiana State. So our Purple Power of the North could beat the Purple Power of the South, right? Cal it "small" ball over "Y'all" ball.

But if we really want to earn a “Preposterous Statement” nomination on KFAN Radio’s Common Man show, let’s carry out the bit even further. Let’s make our case with another Midwest college baseball team, one in rebuilding mode.

The Finlandia (Mich.) Lions, with a university enrollment of 500, won only twice this spring. Which isn't bad for (NFL cheap shot coming) a Michigan team known as the Lions.

Finlandia’s baseball guys posted a win over Southern Vermont… which had a win over Norwich… which had a win over St. Michael’s… which had a win over Plattsburgh State, which had a win over Lakeland, which had a win over Webster, which had a victory over Illinois Wesleyan… which had a win over Wartburg… which had a win over St. John’s… which had a win over St. Mary’s… which had a win over St. Thomas… which had a victory over Minnesota… which had a win over Illinois… which had a pair if wins over Louisiana State.

Finlandia (500 students) over LSU (29,000 students)? Who says northern teams can’t play with the best in Division I baseball?