Tales From The North

Wow.

That's pretty much my first impression of the experience I enjoyed this weekend with the Tiger football team up in Minnesota. In a discussion with Coach Sartain this morning, really, the only bad thing about the whole trip was the loss, which was disappointing to the fullest. But everything else that could have been gleaned from the Saint John's trip was fulfilled.

All that will come later in different blogs and stories, hopefully. Here, though, I just wanted to relate some things that you really had to see to believe up there in Collegeville. If you read the blog here and were actually there in the stands watching the game, please post your own comments as to give even more perspective.

But Saint John's is about as real as it gets in Division III. You talk about college football and a game-day atmosphere -- this writes the book. Everything from having to park literally miles from the campus and be bused to the stadium -- as some were -- to walking through a sea of barbeque grills and sweet aroma of cooked meat on the open flame, to a stadium that was filled with red as the Johnnies' home stadium was and is every Saturday..

What an experience. It's the kind of thing I personally hope we will one day see here at ETBU. We've got the facility -- and to a certain extent we are developed our own little game-day atmosphere. But this was the icing on the cake, the light at the end of the tunnel, if you will.

Over 8,000 people-- 50 or so being the loyalest of the loyal Tiger backers -- were in attendance Saturday. The official count is just under 8,000, but with players and game workers, well, it was well over the 8,000 figure. They all sat on the home side, filling it up, or down in an enormous temporary bleacher in the end zone that was filled with up to nearly 2,000 Johnnie students, again, all of them in red. Think of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Cornhuskers -- on a much smaller scale. But a much larger one than any of us in these parts have seen in eight-plus years.

There were people staked out on the hillsides surrounding Clemens Stadium. People on the track around the field. People everywhere. And every one of them breathed a huge sigh of relief when the gun sounded.

That's because ETBU didn't play its part most of the day. You couldn't find anyone who considers themselves a follower of D-III or a D-III expert who expected the little bunch of Tigers from the ASC to do much against the behemoth from the North in Saint John's. As I mentioned in an official press release last week, well, David had better odds against Goliath. Without the slingshot.

I saw some predictions for a 40-point whipping in some areas. ETBU was going to be mere fodder for the Johnnies, who have bigger and better fish to fry down the line. But that sea of red was very quiet and quite concerned when the fish jumped out of the frying pan, so to speak. When the fourth quarter rolled around, the nobodys from Texas had a one-point lead and were looking at pulling off perhaps the greatest upset -- or without a doubt one of the greatest upsets -- in D-III memory.

But here's the thing -- no, the upset didn't take place. The Johnnies did what they have done traditionally for decades, and that was find a way to win a game that wasn't going their way at crunch time. When it absolutely had to make a play, the Saint John's defense rose up in the fourth quarter and made several. Enough to squeak by with a victory.

But the most impressive thing and promising one for us is that there wasn't a single Tiger in the entourage satisfied with just coming close. As a biased observer, I think the best team on the field didn't win. The Johnnies are a great program and deserve every bit of accolade they have and will continue to receive. And they seemed to be as classy in everything they did and, like I said, were extremely hospitable with the tailgating and just overall being good people.

But Saint John's got away with one this weekend. Man for man, and again I know I'm accused all the time of being the ultimate homer, but -- I think the Tigers had the better team. We just didn't play better than they did at the key moments of the game. And there was the difference.

Knowing that, this team wasn't satisfied with just almost pulling off the shocker. That's because the Tigers themselves wouldn't have considered it a shocker. This bunch truly believes they belong on the same field with Saint John's, and by all accounts Saturday they proved it. They didn't win the game, no, but they were not overwhelmed by the Johnnie mystique.

Now it just comes down to making the plays it takes to win games like that. Competing against the Saint Johns of the world now has been proven. Now it comes down to going out and winning the game when it's on the line, just like the Johnnies did Saturday.

Congrats to everyone who participated in the contest on both sides, and a heartfelt thanks to the good folks out there in the parking lot of who wouldn't let yours truly pass by in his ETBU garb without sharing some of the local fare. It was like a Bubba Burger Saint John's style, and it was definitely delicious.

Best of luck to the Johnnies and their fans, and hopefully ETBU is on its way to some of that same type success down the road...