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Huskies set sights on undefeated Augie
Before last Saturday, the North Dakota State Bison had won 22 consecutive games at the Fargodome and probably felt confident they would defeat the Augustana Vikings by a wider margin than last year’s 27-0 mugging in Sioux Falls.
What’s more, they hadn’t lost to Augie in Fargo since 1962. The Vikings had lost their starting quarterback, Ryan DeGraff, with a broken leg, virtually erasing any real passing game. The Vikes had little chance of winning the game with their offense, so the defense took the burden onto their shoulders.
Linebacker Brett Scherschligt returned a fumble 55 yards for a touchdown less than four minutes into the first quarter. They made it hold up, keeping NDSU scoreless well into the second half for a 23-6 victory that spoke volumes to SCSU head coach Randy Hedberg about the test his offense will face Saturday at Augustana’s Howard Wood Field.
“I’ve watched them on tape now this year, so its something that’s very obvious to you, that they play very good defense,” Hedberg said. “Their front four is outstanding and they’ve done a very good job creating field position for their offense.”
They also have a few ball hawks playing off the line, as they have picked off five passes and recovered four fumbles, including the 55-yard score. In addition, their wide receiver/punter Pete Sterbick has hit 11 of his 24 punts inside the 20 yard line, leaving opponents’ long fields to try to score against a defense that is allowing 8.8 points per game. But Hedberg’s defense has also been quite good at getting the ball.
“We’re plus-seven in turnovers ourselves,” Hedberg said. “We feel that’s a big part of any game, but more important this week because I really believe that Augustana is a team that wants to run the football and play good defense and then play the field position game. That includes turnovers. Kicking the ball well and then creating short fields for their offense, that’s what was successful for them against North Dakota State.”
The Huskies and the Vikings are almost polar opposites when it comes to styles of play. SCSU has NCC’s top-ranked offense in most passing and scoring-related categories, while Augustana runs the ball almost exclusively (true freshman quarterback Tommy Flyger was 4-7 for 29 yards against NDSU), relying on clock control and field position. Augustana will run a ball control offense that is designed to chip away yards and frustrate defenses.
“It’s a little harder when he’s not passing because they’re running the ball and they have specific reads where they’re going,” said junior defensive tackle Nick Peterson. “We can change our defense up a little bit to confuse him (as to) who’s going where, but I think we’ve got some wrinkles we can throw at him when they run their option plays.”
The option is something the Huskies haven’t seen yet this season.
“It’s very hard to prepare for, because you have to be very assignment sharp,” Hedberg said. “Somebody’s got to take the dive, somebody’s got to take the quarterback and somebody’s got to take the pitch, so it can become rather tedious and you have to be careful in how you prepare for it.”
It’s going to be a challenge for a defense that is trying to escape a pattern of slow starts that nearly cost them last week against South Dakota State. The Huskies were down 14-0 less than two minutes into the game and were forced to dig themselves out of a hole.
“We’ve had slow starts in every game this year and we need to step it up real quick, because it’s nice to be tied at half, but our offense (is facing) a pretty good defense this week,” Peterson said. “We need to stop them. If we stop them, we’ll be good.”
“I don’t know what it is with the slow starts. It’s something we need to work on and gotta change, the sooner the better, I guess,” said junior quarterback Keith Heckendorf. “It’s a little tougher coming back from behind and our team showed a lot of character last week and obviously we still feel we can do that, but we need to come out and play four quarters both offensively and defensively, as well as on special teams.”
Heckendorf and his teammates on offense have been the defense’s saving grace through four games. They scored barely nine minutes into the season have been visiting the end zone regularly ever since, averaging 39 points through the first four games.
It would appear, however, that this year’s Husky-Augie game won’t be the 42-41 overtime extravaganza that the Huskies won last year.
Even though the players say, to a man, that this team is not overachieving, it can hardly be said that anyone pointed to this weekend’s game as a contest for first place early in the season. Augustana is 4-0 for the first time in 60 years, while the Huskies haven’t been 4-0 since 1988.
For a coach that is looking to equal his win total of the last two years combined, Hedberg remains even-keeled. The second half of the Huskies’ schedule will be much tougher than the first and he downplayed the notion that a 5-0 start would be a turning point for the program.
“It would mean we’d be in first place in the league, probably,” he said. “We’d be 3-0 in the league and (it would depend) on what Northern Colorado does. That’s the most important thing.”
If his Huskies continue to build on each victory like they’ve already done, he’ll have a much more difficult time downplaying their success.
Kaczor out for foreseeable future
The prognosis on junior center Andy Kaczor’s knee is in and it is not good.
Kaczor has a torn medial collateral ligament and will be out of action for the rest of the regular season. The injury, however, is not as bad as originally feared. There was no tear in Kaczor’s anterior cruciate ligament, meaning that his injury will not require surgery. It does mean though that his season has been ended prematurely for the second time in a row. However, there won’t be a medical hardship redshirt from the NCAA this year.
“Obviously, this isn’t the way I envisioned it when I set out here a few years ago and like everybody else, I planned on playing all the way through, but I’m really just trying to stay focused on what I have now and the things I can do,” Kaczor said. “I still have a lot of opportunities and things like that, but its just part of playing and part of the game. Things come and things happen, you just roll with the punches and go on.”
For the immediate future, the Huskies have the most qualified of backups, senior Roger Mendez, who started last year in Kaczor’s absence. The Huskies have also begun to get first-year player Jon Scovill some reps during practice.
Kaczor says that he is taking the long haul approach, but there is the slim possibility that he could play again this year, only if the Huskies qualify for the Division II playoffs.
“That’s what I told them,” he said. “They said, ‘What can we do to get you back?’ and I said ‘Make the playoffs.’ Make the playoffs and I’ll play.”
– Senior linebacker Mick Peterson missed last week’s game with a broken thumb and was not in pads Tuesday. He is questionable for this weekend.
– Things keep getting worse for junior wideout Tim Greene. Greene, who just returned from an ankle injury, had his left arm in a sling on Tuesday and could not take reps with the offense.
– Augustana had two NCC Players of the Week last week. Linebacker Mike Stotz and punter Pete Sterbick were the players of the week on defense and special teams, respectively.
– University of Northern Colorado radio announcer Bill Bishop passed away after collapsing in the Nottingham Field press box before last weekend’s game against MSU-Mankato. He was pronounced dead at North Colorado Medical Center at approximately 10:30 a.m.
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