University of St. Thomas Athletics

Action pic
The Toms have done a lot of intrasquad scrimmages but finally get an outside opponent on Sept. 11
Photo by: University of St. Thomas

After 95-week layoff, Football set for a Saturday game day

9/10/2021 5:49:00 PM | Football

2021 Tommie Football – By The Numbers

95 – Weeks since last Tommie Football game (665 days), 17-7 home win over Bethel on Nov. 16, 2019 (longest layoff among all FBS and FCS programs)

3– FCS or FBS games, out of 122 scheduled on Sept. 1-6 opening weekend, cancelled due to Covid protocols (Marist vs. Georgetown, Robert Morris at Dayton, St. Francis vs. St. Thomas)

46 – Average bus miles for 2019 Tommie football team from its campus to play each road opponent (UW-Eau Claire, Hamline, Carleton, St. Olaf, Augsburg)

267 – Average bus miles of the three bus road trips on tap for 2021 Tommie football team from its campus to play each road opponent (Michigan Tech, Northern Iowa, Drake)

911 – Average miles of bus/plane road trips for 2021 Tommie football team from its campus to play each road opponent (Michigan Tech, Northern Iowa, San Diego, Stetson, Davidson, Drake)

10 – Number of different states Tommie Football might travel to for games in 2021 and 2022 (Michigan, Iowa, California, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Utah)

4 – Number of different time zones the 2021 and 2022 Tommies will play games in (Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern)

3 – 2021 opponents that play at home on natural grass fields (San Diego, Stetson, Presbyterian)

1—Number of 2021 Tommie Football set for a domed stadium (Northern Iowa)

2002 – Last season that Tommie Football played in domed stadium (Metrodome)

1979 – Last season that Tommie Football played a road game in domed stadium (at South Dakota, Dakota Dome inaugural game)

1927 – Last season that St. Thomas and Northern Iowa played in football

1925 – Last time St. Thomas Football played against a team from Michigan

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Tommie Football Notes – Friday Sept. 10 

The Tommies (0-0) will play their first game as an FCS football program on Saturday Sept. 11 at Michigan Tech (1-0). Kickoff is 1:10 p.m. Eastern time in Houghton, Mich., in the Huskies' remodeled Kearly Stadium.

This is the 116th season of varsity football at St. Thomas. The Toms will attempt to add to its 12-0 record in season openers under Coach Glenn Caruso. The Purple had lost nine of 10 football season openers from 1998-2007.

The non-conference game will be Tommie Football's first game against a Michigan opponent in 96 seasons since a 1925 home win over Western Michigan. It also marks the first contest against a Division II opponent since a 2001 game against Bemidji State.


On the Air

All Tommie home games in 2021 will have a free live webcast that can be accessed here: https://tommiesports.com/watch/

Road games generally will have a pay access to watch video streams. Saturday's game can be accessed here for a $15 game fee.

St. Thomas has partnered with Hubbard Broadcasting and will have all 10 football games heard live on AM-1500 KSTP and SkorNorth as well as 94.5-FM HD2. Longtime Twin Cities broadcaster Corbu Stathes will be the play-by-play voice of the Tommies. Chris Ohm is working this week as color analyst.


Historic

This marks the first time in 28 years that an NCAA Division III football program moved directly into D-I in all sports -- Buffalo and Dayton both did it in 1993 in football only, but not immediately in their other sports.

St. Thomas received NCAA approval in summer 2020 to make the direct move to Division I, and soon accepted conference invites in four sports -- The Summit League (18 sports); the Pioneer Football League; the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) for women; and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) for men.

Glenn Caruso Era

Thirteen was an unlucky number for Glenn Caruso -- year 13 of his St. Thomas era included no games due to Covid restrictions and lack of willing opponents last spring.

Caruso built a 126-21 record in his first 12 seasons here and now starts year 14. Caruso had an impressive streak to start his college head coaching career as he improved his season win total in each of his first seven seasons in two different programs. He inherited an 0- 9 Macalester College program in 2006 and went 2-7 and 4-5 in the first two seasons with the Scots. He took over a Tommie team in 2008, coming off a 2-8 season, and in his first five seasons here guided the Purple to records of 7-3, 11-2, 12-1, 13-1 and 14-1.

A six-team Division III National Coach of the Year, Caruso led St. Thomas to national runner-up finishes in 2012 and 2015. St. Thomas was one of only four Division III programs to make multiple trips to the Stagg Bowl national championship game over the last 16 seasons. The Purple have averaged 10.5 wins and 1.7 losses per season in Caruso's 12 seasons of play, all as Division III members.

Finally, a Game Day

The Toms will end a 95-week layoff from games (665 days) -- the longest current streak in FBS or FCS -- having last played on Nov. 16, 2019.

The Purple had a Sept. 4 home game scheduled against St. Francis (Ill.) but that game was cancelled nine days earlier by Covid protocols. The Toms were unable to find another opponent to travel to St. Paul for Saturday, but are still looking to see if an 11th game can be scheduled for the Oct. 23 bye Week or on Dec. 3.

Out of 122 college football games from Sept. 1-6 involving FCS or FBS schools, only three were cancelled by Covid protocols. All involved a Pioneer Football League team: Robert Morris at Dayton; Marist at Georgetown; and St. Francis (Ill.) at St. Thomas.

Did You Know?

Prior to the 2020 season erased by Covid protocols, that last time before last that St. Thomas Football had a game called off was the day after the 1991 Halloween blizzard when 29 inches of snow hit the Twin Cities. Prior to 2020-21, the last time an entire St. Thomas football season was cancelled came in the World War II era in 1943.

The Tommies were among 28 Division I programs that didn't play games last season (27 from FCS).

More Schedule Talk

The Purple play six of their first nine games on the road across five different states, including three via plane trip (San Diego, Stetson and Davidson). The Toms will play games in three different time zones, and also play three road games on natural-grass fields.

St. Thomas plays its first FCS game on the road Sept. 18 against Northern Iowa, a perennial top25 program and ranked No. 16 this season. The Toms last played the Panthers in football in 1926 and 1927.

St. Thomas was slotted at No. 8 out of 11 teams in a preseason coaches vote for the 2021 Pioneer Football League race. Davidson (eight first-place votes) and San Diego (three) took the first two spots, with Drake at No. 3 leading a second tier of teams.

Caruso's eight-game PFL schedule includes road games at the Nos. 1-2-3-9 teams in the preseason poll -- Davidson, San Diego, Drake and Stetson.

The Purple's conference home games will come against Butler, Valparaiso, Marist and Presbyterian. They don't play Dayton or Morehead State in this season's schedule draw.

Michigan Tech Talk

Last Saturday, the Division-II Huskies rallied from fourth-quarter deficits of 3-0 and 10-7, closing out a long scoring drive with a TD pass with 1:14 left to top Hillsdale, 14-10. Tech had a 310-168 advantage in total offense, had two takeaways with no turnovers of its own, and passed for 238 yards. Its defense had six sacks and limited Hillsdale rushers to 70 net yards on 40 carries.

Like St. Thomas, Michigan Tech didn't play games in 2020-21. The Huskies graduated 18 seniors from their 2019 squad, which finished 5-5 overall. Another 16 student-athletes received their degrees in 2020, but several key starters remain. All-American nose tackle Nate Lajoie led the GLIAC in total sacks in 2019 with 8.5 and had one in the win over Hillsdale on Saturday.

In the Hillsdale win, junior QB Will Ark completed 16 of 32 for 238 yards and two touchdowns with none picked. Senior RB Jared Smith rushed 18 times for 63 yards.

Fourth-year head coach Steve Olson built a 20-20 record from 2017-19 while playing in the competitive Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Two GLIAC teams are ranked in the top 16 of the Division II preseason poll -- Ferris State at No. 3 and Grand Valley State at No. 16.

Series Talk St. Thomas and Michigan Tech are meeting for the first time. The teams will play a September 2022 game in St. Paul. Both the Tommies and Huskies are men's hockey conference mates in the newly-formed Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

He's Gone

Among the Tommies' graduation losses in 2019 and 2020 include school rushing and TD career leader Josh Parks. A two-time All-America, Parks scored 60 touchdowns and rushed for 4,180 yards from 2016-2019.

New Chapter, Old Faces

The 2021 Tommies roll into their first Division I season with 14 fifth-year seniors and will start six of them on offense and one on defense. Of the 44 two-deep spots on offense and defense, 23 are manned by seniors.

Since it didn't play any 2020-21 games, St. Thomas has 19 of its top 50 players -- and nearly 60 on its 110-man roster -- that have never played a college football game yet.

But St. Thomas returns five all-conference players from 2019, its final season of play in Division III and the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: • starting offensive linemen Eli Wawracz (Lakeville North) and Matt Weimann (HillMurray)
• RB and kick-return specialist Tom Loeffler (Chanhassen) -- 15 career TDs at RB, kick returner
• DB Joe Hird (Bloomington Jefferson) (one INT, two sacks in first year on defense)
• QB Tommy Dolan (St. Thomas Academy) -- in 2019 had 10 starts and had 19 TD passes, seven interceptions, 1,924 passing yards, and five rushing touchdowns.

Approximately half of the 44 position players from the 2019 season two-deeps return, including 11 with starting experience.

The Tommies' offensive line is expected to be a strength led by five seniors: veteran starters Wawracs, Weimann, Mike Ruggeri (St. Louis, Mo.) and Garrett Prentis (Andover) in the interior, and Max Zimmerman (Brainerd) at tight end.

Joining Hird with experience on defensive include at least nine other seniors: Tommy Fuller (Eden Prairie), Luke Glenna (Edina), Nik Ektanitphong (Marshall) and Rian O'Connor (Aurora, Ill.) in the secondary; Sam English (Morton Grove, Ill.), Trent Meyer (St. Cloud Tech) at linebacker; and Alex Panos (Hartland, Wis.), Seth Bickett (Pewaukee, Wis.) and Noah Borgeson (Rochester Lourdes) on the defensive front. Juniors Jack Mohler (East Ridge) and Malik Jackson (Pacoima, Calif.) also made contributions as true freshmen in 2019.

Joining Loeffler to add depth at running back are senior Nick Rice (Elk River), senior Josh Komis (Green Bay, Wis.), sophomore Hope Adebayo (Simley) and freshmen Shawn Shipman (Champlin Park) and Jalen Moore (Glenbard, Ill.).

Sophomore Kolby Gartner (St. Michael-Albertville), expected to compete for the starting punter job, pitched for the Tommies' NCAA Division III runner-up baseball team last spring. The kicking competition includes sophomore Louis Hyde (Benilde-St. Margaret's) and freshman Drake Tabor (Birmingham, Ala.), who played in the 2020 Alabama state high school all-star game.

Players pushing for the QB backup role include senior Cade Sexauer (South St. Paul) and incoming freshman Brandon Smith (Las Vegas, Nev.).

Newcomers

The Purple will have 10 true freshmen on their two-deeps, including two starters -- guard Shae Albrecht (Orono) and defensive nose Jordan Titus (Hutchinson).

Three players who transferred from scholarship programs will also start: sophomore LB Luke Herzog (St. Thomas Academy/Univ. of North Dakota); senior WR-KR Isaiah Hall (Apple Valley/Winona State); and junior DB Johnson Fallah (Osseo/Minnesota-Crookston). A fourth transfer is a second-teamer -- senior LB Kellan McKeag (Apple Valley/Valparaiso).

This year's signing class and transfers list included nearly 35 players from 11 different states.

Coming Up This Fall

Eight of the Pioneer Football League teams played on the Labor Day weekend, with a 3-5 overall record. Drake, Presbyterian and Stetson all recorded victories. Presbyterian broke a 31- year-old D-I record by throwing 11 touchdown passes in its 84-43 defeat of St. Andrews.

The Tommies' Sept. 18 road opponent, No. 16-ranked FCS team Northern Iowa took FBS No. 7 Iowa State to the wire before falling 16-10 before 61,500 in Ames, Iowa. The Panthers limited Heisman candidate Breece Hall to 69 yards on 23 carries.


2021 St. Thomas Football Schedule
Kickoff times Central Time Zone unless listed


9-11 at Michigan Tech, 1:10 p.m. Eastern
9-18 at Northern Iowa, 4 p.m.
9-25 Home vs Butler, Noon

10-2 at San Diego, 1 p.m. Pacific
10-9 Home vs Valparaiso, 1 p.m.
10-16 at Stetson, 1 p.m. Eastern
10-23 Bye Week
10-30 Home vs Marist, 1 p.m.

11-6 at Davidson, 1 p.m. Eastern
11-13 at Drake, Noon
11-20 Home vs Presbyterian, 1 p.m.

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