Live from The College of New Jersey, Pat Coleman along with Gordon Mann from the Lions Stadium press box.
We’re a little less than an hour from air time and we think we have all the kinks worked out on my new laptop. I hated to let the old one go, but since it wouldn’t stay running for more than 20 minutes at a time I had no choice.
Drove past my usual exits to go to Division III schools Catholic and Johns Hopkins. Felt lucky to get gas for $3.05 a gallon in Maryland. Drove right past former Rowan coach K.C. Keeler’s new place of employment at University of Delaware. Got here without issue.
Nice evening, little breeze. Both teams warming up below. Ready for kickoff. We’ll try to check back in at halftime if the dial-up connection is stable.
Hard to believe the TCNJ defense has any legs left after spending 20:34 on the field here through the first 30 minutes. Muhlenberg has had trouble running between the tackles but has been relatively successful throwing the ball. Scored its only TD on a trick play. TCNJ has had a little success with a five-receiver set down the stretch but has fumbled three times.
Valiant effort by the Lions defense but when you’re on the field for 40 minutes there’s not much you can expect. Muhlenberg made just enough plays tonight to be successful on offense but will probably have to run a little better. Part of that was All-American Michael Leanch being out at right tackle — Coach Donnelly said he expects him back next week.
TCNJ, on the other hand, has a lot more work to do. Pretty decent job for the defense with 10 new starters, but the experienced offense struggled. Not a good sign. QB Jeff Struble seemed a half-step slow.
Gordon is off to Moravian/Delaware Valley tomorrow. I continue up north to see St. John Fisher at King’s. Looking forward to seeing Mark Robinson play in person. I’ll take some pictures and post them sometime tomorrow night.
A couple thoughts from tonight’s game…
What we learned about Muhlenberg…
Their defense is still pretty good. How good is tough to say given TCNJ’s turnover problems but some of that can be credited to the Mules’ play. LB Dan McCall was in the quarterback’s face all night and the corners tackled well keeping “yac” (yards after catch) to a minimum.
On offense the Mules were mixed bag. They used two quarterbacks who had their good and bad moments. #81 Kyle Douglas is a nice weapon – he’s fast, can get yards in rushing patterns and blocks well against the run.
And kicker Jordon Grube did a nice job, hitting three field goals. The Mules’ biggest problem last year was putting points on the board, so they’ll take them in threes if they have to.
What we learned about TCNJ…
That their defensive players are some well-conditioned dudes. They spent a ton of time on the field – even when the Lions scored, it was on short or non-existent drives – and still made pretty crisp tackles until the later stages of the fourth.
On offense, it’s tough to assess where this team is since they gave the ball away so much. Clearly they are a long ways away from Rowan but against a different defense (say, William Paterson) they fare better than they did against Muhlenberg.
Random Thumbs Up to: The TCNJ kids who painted “77SELIM” on their backs. It was a nice show of support for #77 Miles (Selim backwards) Magee. Here’s hoping that blue paint comes off in the shower.
Live from King’s today. There’s wireless access in the press box so I have a new front-page photo coming soon.
So far looks like St. John Fisher’s offense hasn’t skipped a beat from last year despite new personnel and the defense has posted a shutout through the first two quarters, although King’s passed up a 27-yard field goal attempt to go for it on fourth down.
Mark Robinson scored the first three touchdowns and Noah Fehrenbach the fourth.