By Don Stoner
Augsburg Sports Information Director
MINNEAPOLIS -- One of the biggest surprises of this football season has been the performance of UW-Stout. From last year's 2-8 finish to this year's perfect 6-0 start, the Blue Devils have accomplished one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the nation.
While the Blue Devils' stunning start has been the subject of much discussion in the Midwest (we profiled their start three weeks ago), another team has quietly done nearly the same thing about 500 miles south of Stout's Menomonie, Wis., campus.
Illinois College is 5-1 entering this week's play, and a win this week at Midwest Conference rival Lake Forest (3-3) would give the Blueboys their best record since 1989's 6-3 finish. That fact alone is impressive. But consider where the Blueboys have come from in recent years, and you'll be even more impressed with where they are today.
Illinois College joined the Midwest Conference in 1983, but the past two decades have been anything but positive in Jacksonville, Ill., as far as football is concerned. IC hasn't had consecutive winning seasons since 1978-79 (8-1 and 7-2). The Blueboys have never won more than four conference games in a season since joining the MWC, and their league record of 24-95 (.201) over the past 17 years is far from sterling.
A 77-7 loss at Washington University (Mo.) in 1997 was bad enough. The two decades of futility came to a head in 1998, when IC finished with its worst record in its 110-year history of football, 0-10, giving up 50 or more points in five of the 10 losses. Quite a humbling start for former IC player and one-time Green Bay Packer player Tom Rowland, who had been hired as head coach.
But things began to turn around last season, when the Blueboys broke a 19-game losing streak with a 21-16 win at Lawrence. That was followed a week later with a 35-34, overtime win over Knox. And though IC finished the season with seven consecutive losses to finish 2-8, the foundation was beginning to be built for this season's stunning success.
Running back Patrick Bowman transferred to IC last season after two seasons at the University of Illinois and made an immediate impact, rushing for a school-record 1,330 yards on 281 carries, while scoring 10 touchdowns. Quarterback Derek Leonard, in his first year as a starter, made an immediate impact. He set virtually every single-season passing record last year, passing for 2,424 yards and 20 touchdowns.
This year, the backfield duo has continued to shine. Bowman topped the 2,000-yard career rushing barrier earlier this year, and last week, Leonard broke the school's career passing yardage record with 166 yards in IC's 24-17 home win against Beloit. He now has 3,541 career passing yards.
"I don't know if anyone thought we'd be 5-1 at this point," Rowland admitted. After all, the conference's coaches picked IC last in the preseason poll, a fact Rowland said he kept from his team, to avoid the players falling into the trap of believing their critics.
Rowland also credited the defense as a major factor in the team's sudden success. Veteran assistant coach Ed Puck was promoted to defensive coordinator this season, and the results have been stunning. While the defense has allowed 381 yards per game in league play so far, the defense has been opportunistic, forcing 14 turnovers and allowing just 22.4 points per game. Freshman tackle Bobby Brents had a solid debut season on the defensive line, and sophomore linebacker Rich Stott is averaging nearly 10 tackles per game in league play. Junior lineman Bobby Noll has three sacks in conference games.
The secondary is relatively young but solid and improving. Two of senior Mike Watson's interceptions have been returned for touchdowns -- both in the team's 43-34 win at Knox on Sept. 23.
Just a 24-14 loss to Monmouth on Sept. 30 has blemished the Blueboys' record, and with games against Lake Forest, Ripon and Carroll remaining before a possible end-of-season battle for the Midwest Conference championship at St. Norbert on Nov. 11, Rowland is realistic -- and optimistic -- about the team's positive future.
"We've brought some pride back to the program," Rowland said. "We really feel like we've turned the program around and gained some respectability."
And the future is bright for the Blueboys. A $15 million athletic complex is on the way in a few years, and local high schools who shunned Illinois College in the past decade are starting to turn their recruits toward Rowland's program. The Blueboys are one game away from clinching a winning season. If they do the same next year -- for the first time in 21 years -- the pride might be back in Jacksonville for good.
How about these numbers?
When was the last time you've seen a rushing team -- and a wishbone offense team, no less -- score 65 points in a game? That's what happened last Saturday in Eau Claire, Wis., when rushing powerhouse UW-River Falls set numerous records in toppling Wisconsin-Eau Claire 65-44.
Perhaps the win by River Falls avenged their men's basketball team's loss to Eau Claire last year by a nearly identical score of 65-49.
The game set Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference records for most points by both teams (109), most points by a losing team (44), most yards of total offense by two teams (1,286), and most yards of total offense by a single team (788 by River Falls). The Falcons rushed for an incredible 622 yards, though that mark fell 20 yards short of the school's single-game rushing record (642 yards against UW-Superior in 1989).
Of the 15 touchdowns in the game, seven were more than 50 yards in length, including rushing touchdowns of 75 and 62 yards by the Falcons' Andrew Kruger (he also had a 31-yard score), an 88-yard touchdown run by Rob Ohman and scoring plays of 80 (pass) and 63 (rush) yards by Mark Shepherdson. For good measure, Eau Claire threw in a 77-yard scoring run by Darrell Souhrada and a 54-yard scoring pass from Brian Rasmussen to Jerod Wollan.
River Falls led 48-30 at halftime - a score that would have been the scoring high (most combined points) for the WIAC in any game this season.
Milestones, milestones and more milestones
Two Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference teams are reaching significant milestones this week. St. Thomas is playing its 800th game in school history this Saturday, hosting Macalester on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Tommies' Homecoming game, and Gustavus Adolphus will be playing its 700th game, at Augsburg on Saturday, also at 1 p.m.
St. Thomas becomes just the third Minnesota college or university to reach the 800-game mark (the University of Minnesota has played 1,031 games and fellow MIAC school Carleton went past the 800 mark three weeks ago), and Gustavus will be the eighth Minnesota school to reach 700.
Of the Tommies' 799 games before Saturday, 469 have been wins (.587 winning percentage); Gustavus has 412 wins in its 699 games - a .606 winning percentage ranked 20th in Division III history.
Another milestone was reached last week when Simpson topped Buena Vista 21-6, giving Simpson coach Jim Williams his 100th career victory. Williams is 100-42-1 in 14 seasons at Simpson, giving him the most wins in school history. He is 16th among active Division III coaches in winning percentage (.708).
This week's big games
Wartburg (6-0) at Coe (6-1), 1:30, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
The first of three huge games in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in the next three weeks. Coe plays at the IIAC's other unbeaten team, Central College (6-0), next Saturday before the anticipated showdown of Wartburg at Central on Nov. 4. The game will be a showdown of the top two offenses in the IIAC; Coe is averaging 419.4 yards per game while Wartburg is averaging 400.8 yards a game. The game will also pit the top two receivers in the conference, Coe's Kye Bennis (the lone receiver averaging 100 yards or more per game) and Wartburg's Ryan Rausch (81.4 ypg). Both teams are averaging more than 34 points a game, so look for an offensive explosion in Cedar Rapids.
UW-Stout (6-0) at UW-Platteville (2-4), 1:00, Platteville, Wis.
The surprise team of 1999 in the WIAC meets the surprise team of 2000. In perhaps one of the biggest games in Stout's football history last week, the Blue Devils rallied from behind to score a 27-23 win against last year's league co-champion, UW-La Crosse. Freshman Abraham Cruz grabbed an 11-yard TD pass from Justin Fjeldstad with 18 seconds remaining to push the Blue Devils to the victory, completing a rally from a third-quarter 23-17 deficit. Fjeldstad is the third quarterback to see action for the Blue Devils this season; he came in relief of Blue Devil starter Matt Bichanich in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Platteville notched its second win of the year with its pass-happy offense, a 28-24 win over Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The Pioneers racked up 488 yards of offense, including 393 passing yards from dueling QBs Tom Stetzer and Aaron Mack.
Grinnell (3-3) at St. Norbert (6-0), 1:30, DePere, Wis.
Can the Green Knights pitch another shutout? They've done so in three of their last four games, including a 45-0 blanking at Monmouth last week. Matt O'Grady set a single-game school record with 282 rushing yards and two touchdowns to lead St. Norbert to the victory, busting the old record set in 1957. O'Grady also broke the 2,000-yard rushing barrier in the win; he now has 2,172 career yards. Grinnell dropped a 20-14 decision last week at home to Ripon, the loss probably dropping the Pioneers out of a chance at the Midwest Conference championship. Grinnell's Adam Wallace is second in the conference in rushing, averaging 123.4 yards per game.
This column is drawn from a variety of sources, including the outstanding work and research of sports information directors from Division III schools all over the Midwest.
