Scots Battle Green Knights for Homecoming

Release Date: October 11, 2000

On paper, it does not look good for the Monmouth College Fighting Scots in their Homecoming game against the St. Norbert College Green Knights this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Bobby Woll Memorial Field.

The Knights, ranked 24th in the nation in the latest AFCA poll and winners of 14 straight Midwest Conference games, bring a 5-0 mark and the league’s top-rated offensive and defensive units into the 15th meeting between the two schools. SNC is 12-2 all-time against the Scots.

Monmouth, meanwhile, is coming off its worst performance of the year, a 43-7 loss to previously winless Carroll College. The Scots have the league’s lowest-rated offense, and their defense is ranked next-to-last. During the same span of MWC games that has seen the Knights go 14-0, Monmouth is just 3-11.

But as ESPN’s Kenny Mayne is fond of saying, "Games aren’t played on paper – they’re played inside TV sets." The Fighting Scots are hoping some variation of that theme plays out, much like it did a year ago, when MC, which eventually finished 2-8 on the year, led eventual MWC champion St. Norbert 21-14 through three quarters in Wisconsin.

While Monmouth coach Steve Bell wasn’t around yet to see that contest, he did seem interested in the matchup between the teams from two years ago, when the Scots and Knights also met for MC’s Homecoming. A hard, steady downpour reduced the game to a mudbath and left Woll Field so damaged that the Scots had to play their remaining two home games at Sunnylane Field.

With less damage to the field, Bell would be in a favor of another muddy track, as it would slow down a St. Norbert team that has one major weapon – team speed.

"They’re very fast," he said, "and they’re playing very well right now. They play good team defense and really fly around the ball, and they’re playing with confidence.

"But we’ve got to do what we can do, " he continued. "Let’s not worry about what St. Norbert can do. Give Carroll credit for how they played against us last week, but we did not control the things that we could control. It was not a situation where we were outmanned.

We’ve got to look at things like, ‘If you do your assignment as a person, that’s what we can control.’ When we did things right, we had success. The screen pass that went for a touchdown is a good example. We blocked it right, and we scored a 47-yard touchdown."

Bell was referring to the first TD pass in the career of freshman Rob Purlee, who was pressed into duty when Brad Hulke sprained his ankle during the second series of the game. Purlee is now just 26 scoring throws behind his father, Dave, who passed for 27 TDs in his Hall of Fame MC career from 1973-76.

After Hulke left, Purlee was 3-of-12 passing for 57 yards. As of Wednesday morning, Bell was uncertain if the junior signalcaller who is 50-of-98 through the air for 549 yards would return to action or if Purlee would be pressed into duty again.

"Rob played like you’d expect a freshman to play," said Bell. "He did some good things. With very few snaps in practice he was able to run what we wanted to run. We’ve just got to get him settled down and get him some more game experience. Things happen quicker in the college game than they do in high school, and we need to get him adjusted to the speed difference."

That speed difference, though, gets bumped up a few notches when St. Norbert is the opposition. Led by preseason d3football.com first team All-American linebacker Jerimiah Janssen, the Knights get after it on the defensive side of the ball, and they’ve posted shutouts in two of their last three games. In their 21-0 win over Knox Saturday, Janssen recorded 15 tackles, which included four for loss. He also forced a fumble and had a quarterback sack, one of six posted by the SNC defense. With those sacks figured in, St. Norbert allowed just 19 rushing yards to the Prairie Fire.

Chad Blahnik is a good example of the type of talent found on the Green Knights. The defensive end is second in the MWC with six sacks, and in his spare time, he’s leading the league with a 40.1-yard punting average. Another defender, Ryan Reader, also excels on special teams, and he and Janssen were recognized by the league Tuesday as the MWC Special Teams and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively.

Of course, SNC’s offense can’t be overlooked, either. The Knights lost MWC Offensive Player of the Year Tim Pierret to graduation, but Luke Ott has stepped into the quarterback role in style, leading the league in passing. For the season, he’s completed 75-of-130 passes for 1,308 yards and nine TDs. Wide receivers Mike Lynn and Brandon Spaulding are each averaging over 20 yards per reception.

In the backfield, Monmouth would appear to have an edge with three players on the team with over 1,000 career rushing yards – receiver and former quarterback Jon Baikie, fullback

Preston Eiler and tailback Oscar Scott. But the Knights might have that trumped, too, as Matt O’Grady, Jason Augustynowicz and Matt Hanson were all named to the All-MWC team a year ago. O’Grady is leading the group this year with 89.4 yards per game on the ground.

No matter who the quarterback is for the Scots, Monmouth has looked its best this season when the running game gets going. Randy Terrell, who did not play against Carroll, gained 96 yards in a narrow season-opening loss to Eureka, and he added 117 yards in a game the Scots feel they should have won at Beloit. In their lone victory of the season, it was Scott who had the big game, gaining 133 yards and scoring two TDs in a 24-14 victory over Illinois College.

Scott was held in check last week by Carroll, gaining 28 yards on 19 carries. He’ll be joined in the starting backfield this week by Eiler, the former Monmouth Zipper, who has just four carries this season for 15 yards but has caught two TD passes.

In another lineup change from the last time Monmouth was home, defensive lineman Correlle Campbell is back from his injury and will get the start up front along with Brian Valentini, Matt Lerner and Tobias Dickerson. The defensive leader last week was safety Justin Oertle, who picked off two passes and was in on a team-high 13 tackles. While pleased with Oertle’s performance, Bell did not like the fact that a member of the secondary led the team in stops.

"That’s not good for the safety to have that many tackles," Bell said. "I’d rather have the defensive line and the linebackers making most of the tackles."

Bell, who saw his fears of an overnight trip causing his team to play flat become reality, is relieved the Scots have come home, and he’s also glad it’s Homecoming.

"It might help us out because of the enthusiasm," he said. "There should be a lot of excitement. I hope we can tap into that energy, because there’s going to be a lot of people there."