Scots Set for Turkey Game at Knox

Release Date: November 7, 2001

The Fighting Scots emerged from Saturday’s 36-14 victory at Grinnell with only one injury concern - coach Steve Bell’s sore tongue.

“I had to bite my tongue a lot on first and second down,” said Bell, who doubles as Monmouth’s offensive coordinator. “Grinnell was playing a lot of man-to-man coverage and was putting nine in the box, but we were committed to the run and controlling the ball.”

The game plan worked perfectly, as the Scots held possession for 39:36, compared to just 20:24 for the host Pioneers. A prime example occurred in the second quarter, when Monmouth started a drive at its own 20-yard line with 8:41 to play in the half. Eighty yards and 18 plays later, Rob Purlee, the MWC Offensive Player of the Week, threw a seven-yard scoring strike to Randy Williams for a 16-0 lead. The Scots were kind enough to leave the Pioneers 15 seconds in the half to mount a counterattack.

“The best way to keep their offense from scoring is to keep them off the field,” said Bell of Grinnell, which had scored 30 or more points in five of its seven contests. “We wanted to run the ball effectively and move the chains. We were 14-of-22 in third down conversions. I’ve never coached a game like that before.”

While Bell was tempted countless times to have Purlee fake a handoff to Randy Terrell (39 carries, 114 yards) and throw a play-action pass to a wide receiver in one-on-one coverage, he stuck to his script, a move that probably took 20 passing play chances away from Grinnell.

As it was, Pioneer quarterback Jeff Pedersen still threw 44 times, completing 20 for 203 yards. But Grinnell didn’t light up the scoreboard until the fourth quarter, and Bell praised the defensive effort.

“We really did a great job defensively,” he said. “That’s the best the defense has played all year. We held them to 33 yards rushing, and most of that was by their quarterback, who was running for his life. Even though we didn’t get a lot of sacks, we were in his face all day. The defense really stepped it up and got a lot of short drives, and in return, our offense created a lot of longer drives. We really stayed close to what we wanted to do.”

Terrell was just one carry shy of breaking his own school record of 40 attempts, and he reached the 2,000-yard career rushing plateau, becoming just the fourth Fighting Scot to accomplish the feat. His 2,043 yards puts him just ahead of Jon Nelson (2,033) for third on the

all-time list, which is where he’ll likely finish his career, trailing only Ron Baker (3,642) and Kevin Mattarelli (3,118).

Speaking of records, Saturday just wasn’t a good day for Bell. Besides his sore tongue, he also had to deal with a slight case of wounded ego, as Purlee completed five TD passes, giving him 24 for the season. The best Bell ever did in his career a decade ago in Minnesota was 23.

Purlee has the Monmouth record all to himself in that department, breaking out of a tie at 19 with Tim Burk. He also snapped a tie with Robb Long for most 200-yard passing games in a career by notching his sixth such game against Grinnell. If Purlee can throw for 159 yards and two scores against Knox Saturday, he will break three more season records - passing yards, combined rushing and passing yards and touchdowns produced. He enters the game with 96 completions in 195 attempts for 1,511 yards, and he’s thrown just six interceptions. His efficiency rating of 148.78 is good for 21st in the nation.

There’s no school on the planet more intent on keeping Purlee from breaking records than the Knox College Prairie Fire, and Bell is concerned not only about Knox’s defense, led by linebacker Anthony Balthazor and defensive back Kevin Keen, but also it’s well-balanced offensive attack.

“Their passing game won’t be the same as Grinnell’s,” said Bell. “They’ve got some deep threats, and they’ve also got a nice player at tailback (Vince Singleton). They’ve got a nice quarterback (Mike Erwin) and a talented receiving crew, including the Neagle kid, who’s big and physical.”

Tom Neagle has 46 catches this season for 769 yards and 11 TDs, and Erwin is 119-of-248 for 1,805 yards and 20 scores.

“Knox has had some bad luck,” Bell continued, citing the Beloit game, where the Fire failed to hold an 11-point halftime lead. The 2-6 Fire lost by five points to Illinois College and by just 10 to MWC champion St. Norbert, the 18th-rated team in Division III. “Let’s not fool ourselves and say that Knox isn’t a good football team.”

Introduced to the Bronze Turkey rivalry for the first time last year, Bell said it’s everything he’d heard it was.

“Rivalries like ours are why you play college football,” he said. “You can tell how intense this rivalry is by the way the guys practice and even how they carry themselves off the field.”

The teams will be meeting for the 112th time, and Monmouth holds a slim 51-50-10 edge all-time. The Scots broke a tie in the series last year when they won 31-17 in Monmouth.

Bell didn’t even have to bite his tongue when asked if his 6-2 (5-2 in MWC) team was satisfied with its third place standing in the league, which it clinched with last week’s victory.

“We still have two games to play,” he said without hesitation. “Let’s wait until it’s all written in stone. We need to concentrate on what we’re doing right now.”

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