The Game: Southwest Minnesota State will look for its second straight victory of the season when they travel to Forest City, Iowa, to take on Waldorf College on Saturday, September 4 at 1 p.m. The two teams met a season ago with SMSU winning 84-7 in Marshall.
SMSU is 1-0 on the season after a 38-0 road victory last Saturday at Peru State (Neb.). Waldorf, an NAIA school in just their second year as a four-year school, is coming off a 7-6 home win over Haskell University last Saturday. The victory was Waldorfs first since the 2001 season.
SMSU ROSTER, TWO-DEEP AND MORE TIDBITS: The 2004 SMSU football roster and this weeks two-deep is located on pages 6-8 of this release. Also, on pages 4-5, statistical information including scoring drives, red-zone stats, longest plays, starting line-ups and more is all available as well.
The Coaches: Eric Eidsness is 1-0 in his first season as SMSUs head coach. Eidsness, who was named head coach on January 21, 2004, spent the previous five seasons as offensive coordinator at South Dakota State University. During his five seasons as offensive coordinator, he led an offense that broke 36 SDSU offensive records and had 20 North Central Conference Offensive Players of the Week.
In 2003, SDSU finished with a 7-4 record and ranked first in the NCC in passing offense with 284.0 yards per game, finished 13th in NCAA II in passing offense and ranked 29th in total offense. Under his guidance at SDSU, Eidsness had the top ranked passing quarterback in the NCC in 2002 and 2003 and his offense ranked in the top four in the NCC his last four seasons, including ranking first in 2001. For his efforts last season, Eidsness was one of three finalists for the NCAA II American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) assistant coach of the year.
A Sioux Falls, SD, native, Eidsness played college football at both St. Cloud State and the University of Sioux Falls.
Eidsness also spent time as an assistant coach at Morningside (1994-95), South Dakota State (1996-97) and Ferris State (1998) before becoming offensive coordinator at SDSU in 1998.
David Bolstorff is in his 34th season as head coach at Waldorf with a record of 174-147-2. He is in his second season as head coach since Waldorf became a four-year school and is 1-11 as a four-year head coach.
SERIES TIDBITS: Southwest Minnesota State and Waldorf meet for the second time with SMSU leading 1-0. Last season SMSU defeated Waldorf 84-7, as SMSU set several school records including points in a game, largest margin of victory, most touchdowns (12), most rushing TDs (9) and highest average gain per rush (7.7).
SOUTHWEST OPENS SEASON WITH BIG WIN: Southwest Minnesota State dominated both sides of the ball and opened the 2004 season in style with a convincing 38-0 victory over Peru State College in the season opener in Peru, Neb.
The Mustang defense was simply dominate on Saturday, holding the Bobcats to just five first downs and a total of 126 yards of offense. SMSU held Peru State to -13 yards rushing on 17 attempts while PSCs quarterbacks completed just 14 of 40 passes for 139 yards. SMSU also finished with six sacks and forced five Peru State turnovers.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Adrian Headen, making his first career start, completed 21 of 35 passes for 230 yards and four touchdowns and held lead the Mustangs to 448 total yards of offense.
SMSU built a 10-0 halftime lead while the Mustang defense held Peru State to just one first down in the entire first half.
In the second half, it was all Mustangs, as SMSU piled on four touchdowns, two in each quarter to put the game away. Headen found Denson once again on a 13-yard TD pass with 8:36 left in the third quarter to make the score 17-0 and just over two minutes later Headen connected with sophomore Ryan Schroeder from 22 yards out to push the margin to 24-0 with 6:03 left in the third.
The next SMSU scoring drive was set up by sophomore John Kunelius, who recorded his second interception of the game and returned it 40 yards to the Peru State 45-yard line. Eleven plays later SMSU pushed the lead to 31-0 with 14:54 remaining as Alex Woolbright plowed in from 3 yards out. SMSU then finished the scoring with 12:57 left as Headen struck with Denson again for the third time, this time from the 3-yard line giving Denson a career-high 11 receptions for 102 yards and giving SMSU the 38-0 lead.
Schroeder finished with seven catches for 106 yards and one scored while Woolbright rushed for 98 yards and one score on ten carries. Redshirt freshman Thomas Durham also had a solid day, rushing for 55 yards on 11 carries.
The Mustang defense was paced by junior Bill Crowley, who had seven tackles including 1.5 sacks. Redshirt freshman Ben Adams played a solid game in his first collegiate appearance with six tackles including a team-high two sacks.
SMSU RECORDS FIRST SHUTOUT SINCE 1999: The 38-0 shutout on Saturday was SMSUs first since blanking Concordia 44-0 on November 6, 1999.
SMSU ON THE DEFENSE: The SMSU defense forced Peru State into five turnovers including three interceptions. Sophomore John Kunelius had two interceptions while sophomore Sean Weathers added another. Peru State quarterbacks completed just 14-of-40 passes on the day for 139 yards.
Junior Bill Crowley and sophomore Jon Kubat each paced SMSU with seven tackles while redshirt freshman Ben Adams added a team-high two sacks. As a team, SMSU finished the day with six sacks.
JUST ROLLIN ALONG: SMSU controlled all aspects of the game including possession of the ball. SMSU ran a total of 84 plays in the game compared to just 57 for Peru State and held a 39:10 to 20:50 edge in time of possession.
MORE OFFENSIVE NOTES: One thing any succesful team needs to do is convert on 3rd down. In 2003, SMSU was just 56 for 154 (36%) on 3rd down, but in Saturdays win, SMSU finished the day 11 for 18 (61%).
DENSON NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK, FIRST FOR SMSU WIDE OUT SINCE 1997: Junior Ray Denson was named the NSIC Co-Offensive Player of the Week on Monday after catching a career-high 11 passes for 102 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-0 victory over Peru State College (Neb.). Its the first time in his career that hes earned the award.
In fact, hes the first SMSU wide receiver to earn Player of the Week honors since Eddie Williams was honored by the league on September 8, 1997.
TEAM WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS: Each week, the SMSU coaching staff names Players of the Week for their performance in the previous weeks or game preparation. This weeks award winners:
Offense: WR, Ray Denson
Defense: DL, Bill Crowley
Special Teams: P, Andy Schlichting
Scout Team Offense: WR, LaRon Kiper
Scout Team Defense: LB, Bobby Clayborn
non-conference foes: SMSU is 8-23 in their last 31 non-conference games dating back to the start of the 1995 season.
SHOW ME THE NUMBERS!: Southwest Minnesota State has 87 players on the 2004 roster with many coming from all over the U.S. The roster includes 11 seniors, 17 juniors, 16 sophomores and 43 redshirt freshman and freshman. SMSU has 27 players from the state of Minnesota, 12 from Florida, 10 from California, nine from Wisconsin, seven from South Dakota, five from Texas, four from Iowa and Nebraska, two from Arizona and Illinois, and one each from New York, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada and Vermont.
NSIC preseason poll: Southwest Minnesota State was picked to finish tied for fifth in the annual NSIC preseason poll selected by the leagues head coaches. (see poll on page 3)
MUSTANGS LOOK FOR THOSE WINNING WAYS: The 2004 version of SMSU football will be looking to do something that only seven other teams in school history have done: record a winning season. SMSU has had just seven winning seasons in 36 years of the program. The Mustangs last winning campaign came in 1999 when they finished 6-5.
TEAM CAPTAINS: Southwest Minnesota State players selected four players to serve as team captains in 2004. On offense, senior offensive lineman Nick Bogenrief and senior tight end Andy Brown were named captains while on defense junior linebacker Joel Wipperfurth and sophomore linebacker Jon Kubat were named.
southwest on the road: Winning on the road has been difficult for Southwest Minnesota State over the years. In fact, SMSU hasnt had a winning road record since finishing 3-2 (not including neutral site games) in 1997. Since the program started in 1968, SMSU has had just one winning season road (1991).
Last season SMSU finished 0-5 away from Mattke Field.
SCOUTING THE WARRIORS: Waldorf College snapped a two-year losing streak with a 7-6 victory over Haskell University (Kans.) on Saturday in Forest City, Iowa. The victory was Waldorfs first since the 2001 season, when they were a junior college.
Waldorf finished the day with just 70 yards of total offense including just one yard rushing, but a timely drive in the fourth quarter won the game for the Warriors.
Waldorf freshman quarterback, Robert Cox, led Waldorf on an eight-play 67-yard drive in the fourth period culminating in a 13-yard pass to Cyrus Payne for the game-winning score. Cox completed 13-of-29 passes on the day for 69 yards. Payne led the Warrior receiving corps with 8 catches for 56 yards.
The Warrior defense limited Haskell to 103 yards on the ground and 133 yards through the air. Lee Schissel led Waldorf with 11 tackles. Neal Bohnet added 10 tackles, while Ryan Swanson and Andy Herrick had two sacks apiece.
UP NEXT: Southwest Minnesota State will host Augustana College (S.D.) in the 2004 home opener on Saturday, September 11, at 7 p.m. at Mattke Field.
