University of St. Thomas Athletics
Stetson
St. Thomas Football travels to Sunshine State to face Stetson for first contest in Florida since 1949
10/14/2021 12:56:00 PM | Football
Coming Up
The Tommies make their inaugural trip to DeLand, Fla., to play Stetson on Saturday, only 14 days after visiting the West Coast to face San Diego. The Purple is coming off a 20-13 grind-it-out win over Valparaiso in front of over 7,000 fans culminating St. Thomas' homecoming week.
St. Thomas enters the contest with a 3-2 record, including a 2-1 mark in Pioneer League play. Stetson is 2-3 overall and is 0-2 in PFL play.
The contest can be heard live on AM-1500 Radio Skor North, with Corbu Stathes on the play-by-play call. The game will be live-streamed for free at https://tommiesports.com/watch
Hatters' Latest Happenings
The Hatters are 17-13 overall over the last four seasons (13-5 at home).
In an 0-4 finish last spring, they played Davidson close in a 26-20 home loss. This fall after two non-conference victories to start their schedule, they lost a one-sided score to Princeton; played Davidson to a 35-28 home loss; and fell 34-3 at Marist and sit at 0-2 in the PFL.
Mistakes were plentiful in a 34-3 Stetson loss to Marist last weekend. The Hatters fell to 2-3 on the year with its third consecutive loss while Marist evened its season record at 2-2, a perfect 2-0 in PFL play.
The mistakes started early as the Hatters were flagged for their first penalty on the opening snap of the game. That holding call was the first of a program-record 16 penalties marked off against Stetson in the game, resulting in 119 lost yards. It was the 14th time Stetson has had more than 100 yards in penalties in a game, and the third most in a game.
Stetson, which out-gained Marist in total offense 377 to 311, had consecutive drives in the second half end on downs inside the Marist 10. The Hatters were again in the red zone when Seter was sacked, the sixth of the game for Marist, allowing time to expire.
Tommie D
St. Thomas' defense has only allowed seven touchdowns through five games. That includes four scored by FCS power Northern Iowa, plus one on a blown coverage for a wide-open 35-yard scoring catch by Valparaiso last Saturday.
Adding in the opponents' three special-teams or return TDs -- and 8-of-9 field-goals made -- St. Thomas allows 18.6 ppg to lead the PFL.
The Toms are holding teams to just 29 percent on third- and four-down conversions.
In three Pioneer games, the Toms have allowed just 13 first downs a game and only 79 net rushing yards a contest (three yards a carry).
Proud Program Builder
Last Saturday was game No. 152 at St. Thomas for 14-year head coach Glenn Caruso. He has a 3-2 record so far in FCS after building a 126-21 record in the Toms' D-III era.
Adding in his 6-12 record in two seasons of a rebuilding project as Macalester College head coach (2006, 2007), Caruso boasts a 135-35 career record (.800). That all-game win percentage ranks in the top 10 among current NCAA football coaches at all levels who have worked 10 or more seasons.
Last Time in Florida
73 years ago, at the end of the 1948 regular season, Tommie Football accepted a bid to play in the Jan. 1, 1949 Cigar Bowl in Tampa, Fla. The opponent was small-college power Missouri Valley College.
On a sub-zero day in Minnesota, the team boarded a train for Florida at St. Paul's Union Depot the day after Christmas. Hundreds of Tommie supporters followed the team to Tampa, most making the 35-hour, 1,600-mile trip by car or train. A group of 21 students who were members of the Air National Guard took a special military flight to Florida and were housed at the McDill Army Air Force base before the game.
Led by Coach Frank Deig, the 1948 Tommies outscored conference opponents 138-6 and were part of a dominant era. In 11 seasons from 1938 to 1949, St. Thomas went 51-4-1 in football.
Missouri Valley was a heavy favorite to win the bowl meeting coming in with only one loss in their previous 42 games. That trend continued over the first two quarters as the Tommies headed into halftime trailing 13-0. But a second-half rally produced a 13-13 tie.
The Purple had a 14-6 advantage in first downs, outgained Missouri Valley 216-173 yards, and held the Vikings to no pass completions. The Toms had three turnovers to one for the Vikings.
The Tampa Times story noted that Jack "Salty" Salscheider "ran away with just about everything except a deed to the University of Tampa field."
College football held 15 bowl games on Jan. 1 following that 1948 season, including the East-West college all-star game in San Francisco. The Cigar was one of five bowl games that day in Florida along with the Orange (Miami), Gator (Jacksonville) and Tangerine (Orlando) plus the Flower (Jacksonville), which was one of two bowls for black colleges (along with Birmingham's Vulcan Bowl).
Other Jan. 1 bowls that year were the Rose (Pasadena), Sugar (New Orleans), Cotton (Dallas), Delta (Memphis), Dixie (Birmingham), Sun (El Paso), Harbor (San Diego), Salad (Phoenix), Raisin (Fresno), Prairie (Houston), Ice (Fairbanks) and Pineapple (Honolulu). That day also featured a semipro Tobacco Bowl and the high-school Peanut Bowl.
Among the quirks of the Cigar Bowl: As part of the festivities, Tampa's cigar manufacturers handed out boxes of cigars to visitors from Missouri and Minnesota. Game tickets were sold at Walgreens, with most priced at $4.80, $3.60 and $2.40.
Several players from the Cigar Bowl team went on to play professional football in the NFL. Salscheider played for the New York Giants; Jim "Popcorn" Brandt played with the Pittsburgh Steelers; quarterback Ed Krowka signed with the Detroit Lions; Don Simonson played for the Los Angeles Rams. Quarterback Ed Krowka signed with the Detroit Lions before a heart ailment prematurely ended his career.
Balance on Both Sides
The 2021 Tommies have no superstars but have played well as a team with several guys sharing the load.
Through five games, the Toms are winning despite these unusually low totals by category leaders:
• The leading rusher, Tom Loeffler, is averaging just 40 yards per game.
• The leading passer, Cade Sexauer, is averaging just 90 yards per game.
• The leading available receiver, Wesley Juszczak, is averaging 25 yards per game.
• The leading scorers Loeffler, 24 points, and PK Louis Hyde, 21 points, both average under five points per game.
• The longest gain of the season by a rusher, receiver or return man thus far is 41 yards.
• Their 13 touchdowns have come from 10 different players.
• Their defense has only player (Luke Glenna) with more than three solo tackles a game, with 10 different players recording an interception, a forced fumble or a fumble recovery.
Starting Strong in the Second Half
In four of the first five games of the season, St. Thomas has been in scoring position on its first drive of the second half. On three of those instances, the Tommies have scored on their first drive of the second half (touchdown vs. Butler, field goal at San Diego, touchdown vs. Valpo). Against Michigan Tech, St. Thomas turned it over on downs at the Husky 7-yard line.
Home Sweet Home
St. Thomas started its Division I era with a 2-0 home record - building on its 35-1 record in its last 36 games played on campus to close out its D-III chapter. The only loses in that span were to eventual NCAA runner-up UW-Oshkosh 34-31 in the 2016 NCAA playoffs.
The Purple is riding a 29-game home-field regular-season win streak.
Last Week
St. Thomas football improved to 3-2 on the season and 2-1 in Pioneer Football League action as it defeated Vaparaiso, 20-13 at O'Shaughnessy Stadium in front of a stadium sell-out crown of 7,443 to culminate Homecoming week.
The Toms extended two streaks in the process -- 29 consecutive on-campus regular-season victories, and a 13-0 Homecoming mark in the Glenn Caruso era.
The Tommies stayed in the thick of the chase for first place, one of six Pioneer teams at 2-0 or 2-1 in league play. Valpo dropped to 1-4 overall and 1-2.
The Purple took a 7-3 lead into intermission and extended their lead to 20-3 entering the fourth quarter. The Beacons battled back to cut St. Thomas' lead to 20-13 with 6:34 to play before the Tommies put the clamps on and finished out the game, aided by a key Isaiah Hall interception near midfield with 4:47 to go. St. Thomas ran the ball 11 times in a row and dained the clock, converting twice on tid down and once on fourth down.
St. Thomas' defense limited Valpo's offense to only 16 plays for 79 yards in the second half, compared to 45 plays resulting in 213 yards for the Tommies after intermission. The lone TD of the game for the Beacons came on a one-play drive with a 35-yard TD pass from Ben Nimz to Braden Contreras that cut the lead to seven with under 6:30 remaining.
The Beacons were unable to overcome their 14 penalties for 117 yards on the day. The Tommies, the least penalized team in the league entering the contest, committed only five penalties on the afternoon, which resulted in 62 yards.
Hall had a busy afternoon on both sides of the ball. The senior transfer led the team with five receptions for 43 yards on offense and also recorded an interception late in the fourth quarter of the game. Junior DB Johnson Fallah intercepted a Beacon pass in the second quarter, his third interception of the season.
Senior QB Cade Sexauer completed 11-of-21 passing attempts for 98 yards with one interception. Sexauer added 46 rushing yards on 16 carriers, with one rushing touchdown. Tom Loeffler scored short TD runs of two and six yards. Another big play was a four-down fake punt from the visitors' 35-yard line that Josh Komis tossed to a leaping Wesley Juszczak to the Valpo 2-yard line to set up the last touchdown.
Defensively, senior LB Trent Meyer led the way for St. Thomas with six tackles, including five solo stops. Sophomore LB Jonathan Bunce recorded two sacks on the day, part of a defensive effort that held the Valpo offense to 226 yards, including 177 in the air. Bunce's sacks were critical in shifting the momentum back in the Tommies favor. The St. Thomas defense held the Valpo offense to just a 3-of-12 showing on third downs.
Hope is on the Way
Sophomore running back Hope Adebayo lead Tommie ball carriers at 6.0 yards per run. Adebayo had some breakout runs in the second half Saturday against Valparaiso gaining 55 yards on seven carries in the third and fourth quarters. he finished with 63 yards of offense on 10 touches.
Parity Party
Out of 67 NCAA football conference in FBC, FCS, D-II and D-III, the Pioneer League is the lone one that currently has six different teams within one-half game of first place heading into Oct. 16 games.
Davidson, Moorehead State and Marist are all 2-0, with St. Thomas, Dayton and San Diego at 2-1.
Did You Know?
• The Toms just missed their magic scoring number in the 27-24 loss at San Diego. They are 90-0 in regular-season games in the Glenn Caruso era when they score 25 or more points.
• St. Thomas had two pick-six interception returns to the end zone at San Diego -- by senior Joe Hird and sophomore Jonathan Bunce -- and nearly had two others. Johnson Fallah took an interception back to the USD 5-yard line.
• In 125 games last decade (2010-2019), St. Thomas defenders recorded 21 interception return touchdowns.
• Bunce's first interception since his youth football days took him to the end zone with a 22-yard return. But he scored several TDs as a high school running back at Edina High.
• Hyde, a sophomore and first-year starter, is 4-for-5 in field goals. That's a change from the 2019 season when the Toms made only 2-of-7 field goals.
• St. Thomas has held a second-half lead in its last 11 conference games (MIAC, Pioneer).
• The Toms have allowed just 10 touchdowns in five games. Three of those touchdowns have come on returns by opposing special teams or defenses. The Tommie D has allowed the seven touchdowns (four by FCS power Northern Iowa) and has built a stingy 18-of-68 conversion rate on third and fourth downs (26.4%).
• Tommie backup linebacker Kellan McKeag previously played football at Valparaiso before transferring last year.
Best Opponent
Northern Iowa was the best team St. Thomas has played during the Caruso era, and thus the 44-3 final score was the Toms' widest margin of defeat over those 13 seasons. The Toms' previous biggest losses on the scoreboard were a pair of 20-point decisions.
The 44 points were the second most Caruso's teams have allowed -- they lost to Mount Union 49-35 in the 2015 NCAA championship game.
On Sept. 18 at UNI, it was the first time the Tommies didn't score a touchdown in a game since the 2011 national playoff semifinals, a 20-0 road loss to eventual NCAA champion UW-Whitewater.
Of the 21 losses by Caruso's D-III Tommie teams (2008-2019), 12 came by margins of seven or less points.
Quoting the Coach
"Homecoming – awesome day, tremendous crowd," said Coach Glenn Caruso. "The class of '22, '23, '24, '25 showed up. I just think the enormity of the excitement was a winning edge today, I really believe that. To be able to see us build and sell out and continue to have that support is in some ways a verification of all of the things that are going on here. Hats off to (Vice President, Director of Athletics) Dr. Phil Esten and everybody else who was able to put something like that together. It was a fun day."
St. Thomas Returning Academic All-Conference honorees
Defense
• #91 – DL Seth Bickett, Actuarial Science major 3.98
• #90 -- DL Noah Borgeson, Political Science major 3.93
• #49 – DL Brent Robley, Biology major 3.87
• #2 – DB Tommy Fuller, Business Management major 3.58
• #21 – DB Rian O'Connor, Financial Management major, 3.71
• #22 – DB Max Meves, Mechanical Engineering major 3.75
• #12 – LB Trent Meyer, Financial Management major, 3.65
• #3—DB Grif Wurtz, Accounting major, 3.80
Offense
• #6 – WR Jacob Miller WR, Business major, 3.51
• #25 – RB Nick Rice, Mathematics major, 3.70
• #14 – QB Cade Sexauer, Mechanical Engineering major, 3.63
Pioneer Football League by the Numbers
11: Members for 2021 season with addition in 2021 of Presbyterian and St. Thomas
8: Conference games each team plays each season
8: Teams with Red or Blue as primary color
3: Teams with primary colors of Green (Stetson), Brown/Yellow (Valparaiso) or Purple (St. Thomas)
3: Teams that play games on natural grass (San Diego, Stetson, Presbyterian)
2: Teams with new head coaches in 2021 (Stetson, Presbyterian)
2: Teams with Bulldogs as nickname (Drake, Butler)
1: Teams that changed nicknames in 2021 (Valparaiso, was Crusaders now Beacons)
2: Teams whose nickname includes a color (Presbyterian Blue Hose, Marist Red Foxes)
4: Teams that don't share a nickname with any other college (Presbyterian Blue Hose, Stetson Hatters, San Diego Toreros, St. Thomas Tommies)
1: Team located in Pacific time zone
2: Teams located in Central time zone
8: Teams located in Eastern time zone
6: Teams that at one time were Division III programs (Dayton, San Diego, Marist, Valparaiso, Davidson, St. Thomas)
3: Teams located in a city that's the state capital (Butler/Indy; Drake/Des Moines; St. Thomas/St. Paul)
4: Remaining charter members since league's 1993 creation (Dayton, Drake, Butler, Valparaiso)
6: Different programs to win or share a PFL championship since 2012 (San Diego, Davidson, Dayton, Drake, Marist, Butler)
15-1: Coaching record in PFL games for Jim Harbaugh at San Diego, 2004-06
9: Pioneer alums playing on an NFL roster or practice squad in 2020 season
57: Years, from 1956-2013, when Stetson didn't play football before restarting its program
5: Current Pioneer schools that once played in a January 1 bowl game (Dayton, Drake, Presbyterian, Valparaiso, St. Thomas)
About Stetson University
Location: DeLand, Fla. (pop. 37,775)
Distance to St. Paul: 1,546 miles
Founded: 1883
Athletics Website: www.gohatters.com
Undergrad Enrollment: 3,084
Nickname: Hatters
Colors: Green and White
FB Stadium: Spec Martin Municipal (6,000)
Surface: Natural Grass
2021 FB Record: 2-3
FB Head Coach: Brian Young (First season)
For the complete PDF release, click HERE.
