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Scots face unknown in conference
opener
Release Date:
Sept. 10, 2009
MONMOUTH, Ill. —
When the Monmouth
College football team opens their Midwest Conference schedule
against Lawrence University Saturday, they’ll be in a guessing game.
The Fighting Scots
– a 39-20 winner over Loras last weekend – travel to Appleton, Wis.,
for a 1 p.m. kickoff Saturday at the Banta Bowl for the Vikings’
season-opener. Head coach Steve Bell will have no current
game film on the Vikings to watch and can only rely on his past
experience.
“All we really
have to go on is last year’s game,” said Bell. “We’ll take a look at
the personnel they have on the roster this year and compare it with
what they had last year.”
What the Vikings
don’t have is first team all-conference running back Craig Ebert,
who was lost to graduation. Ebert gained more than 80 percent of the
Vikings’ rushing yardage in 2008 and had more than half their
carries. He gained 85 yards against the Scots last year, but six
other ball carriers were stuffed for minus 51 yards.
The Scots’ defense
dominated in last year’s contest, surrendering just 82 offensive
yards while the offense rolled to 444 yards on the way to a 47-2
win. The only blemish on the scoreboard came when the Scots
recovered their own fumble in the end zone, giving the Vikings a
safety.
Of course, Lawrence
will not be without some disadvantages as they jump into the
conference fire. Opening the season against an MWC opponent puts the
Vikings under the gun right away without a non-conference matchup to
work out some kinks. Still, facing an unknown entity isn’t Bell’s
favorite thing to do.
“It’s always an
unknown facing a team that hasn’t played yet,” claimed Bell. “We
don’t exchange film, so we’re not really sure what they’ll do this
year. How do you prepare your guys when you just don’t know what
you’re going to see? It’s tough. We’ll base our plan on what they
did last year and adjust from that. It’s like Loras last week. We
expect them to tweak a few things here and there.”
The Scots will have
to keep tabs on senior quarterback Nick Maxam, who passed for more
than 1,600 yards last season, and last year’s No. 2 running back,
junior Jesse Peterson. At receiver, wide out Jeremiah Johnson – the
Vikings’ scoring leader a year ago – will create a deep threat, and
all-conference tight end Matt Hintz is another one to watch.
The Scots’ potent
offense will face a trio of defensive returners – linebackers Brian
Janssen and Mike Goshtisha and safety Jeff Nichols. The three
defenders combined for nearly 200 tackles last season.
“With our style of
offense, their defense may add some things to try and get us out of
our game,” predicted Bell. “We’ll have to be on our toes and be
prepared for whatever they throw at us. We need to be sound. Coach
(Chris) Howard is a good coach and motivator. We know they’ll be
ready to play.”
The Scots – ranked
14th in the latest D3football.com poll – were tabbed by the MWC as
the favorite to win the conference title. The Vikings were picked
10th in the 10-team league. In comparison from 2008, the Scots led
Division III in scoring, the Vikings were last in the MWC; the Scots
led the league in turnover margin, the Vikings were last; and the
Scots averaged nearly 150 yards more offense per game than the
Vikings.
None of that matters
to Bell.
“This year is this
year, last year was last year,” has become his mantra. He, and the
team, are living by it.
“I don’t ever want to
get comfortable,” said Bell. “I have an understanding of how good
this team can be, and we’re not even close to that level right now.
We’ve got to go out there every week and every day and work on
getting better.”
When the Scots and
Vikings meet this weekend, Bell will see if his team is getting
better. Fans are guessing they are.
Football
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