The rivalry may be as well known and storied as any in college football, but when the No. 12-ranked St. Thomas football team heads to Collegeville this Saturday to battle No. 8-ranked St. John’s, a national audience will get a taste of the bitter feud.
ESPN’s “SportsCenter on the Road” is broadcasting live from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m with anchors Matt Barrie and Sarah Walsh hosting the show. Even with the added media attention though, coach Glenn Caruso said his team needs to concentrate on what it can control on the field.
“Once you’re locked into a team and your culture operates and flows, you realize that at the end of the day, when you strip everything away your focal point will always and has to always remain on how well we play,” Caruso said.
Wide receiver Ryan Bradley agreed with Caruso but said it’s great both teams are getting national attention.
“There’s no doubt that it’s a great opportunity to get national exposure with two highly ranked teams who happen to be rivals, but it’s really important that we focus on ourselves,” Bradley said. “Not the crowd, not the cameras, only our team.”
St. John’s comes into Saturday’s match-up with a three-game winning streak after a 24-16 victory over MIAC rival Concordia-Moorhead last weekend. Running back Sam Sura had 33 carries for 148 yards and two touchdowns, while quarterback Nick Martin threw for 140 yards and one touchdown. Linebacker Jesse Addo said stopping Sura and the running game is the defense’s first concern.
“Definitely stopping the run is going (to be) our first priority,” Addo said. “They run a lot of power and isolation; they have a couple of speed option, outside zone plays as well that they damaged some teams this year.”
Sura leads the MIAC with 144 yards per game and his four touchdowns tie him for fourth in the conference. Last year, St. John’s defeated St. Thomas 24-14 at O’Shaughnessy Stadium, a game in which Sura racked up 210 yards with one score on 36 attempts.
“They put the vast majority of their offense productivity on Sam Sura, and they make no bones about it,” Caruso said. “They do that in their play calls and their commitment to their run game. He’s a very good back led by a good offensive line without a doubt.”
The Johnnie offense is averaging slightly over 400 yards per game, which puts it in seventh place in the MIAC. However, St. John’s defense is ranked second in the conference in points and fourth in total yards allowed. Linebackers Carter Hanson and Drake Matuska and defensive back Michael Callanan are cornerstones of a stingy Johnnie defense that Bradley said has no specific weak link.
“I don’t believe there is one aspect that (we) will exploit,” Bradley said. “It comes down to execution. Everyone on the team has to do their job, no matter what their role is.”
For the second consecutive season, St. Thomas enters the Tommie-Johnnie game after its bye week. Caruso believes the extra week of preparation is “nicely placed” this year.
“It makes it pretty awesome for the coaches and players on a couple different levels,” Caruso said. “I like when you have two or three games and a bye week because it gives you a couple good data points of what you’re doing well and what you need to work on.”
In last year’s game, St. Thomas intercepted Martin two times but also fumbled the ball twice. Addo said a key factor for the defense on Saturday will be how well Tommie defenders swarm to the ball.
“Our key to success on Saturday will be speed, just tenacity, just ferociousness of getting to the ball and focusing on our assignment,” Addo said. “We should be in great shape; we should be golden.”
Jesse Krull can be reached at krul7386@stthomas.edu.