Whits try to keep it going
Long-term, Whitworth football coach John Tully knows he’s never going to match John Gagliardi.
The Saint John’s University legend is in his 54th year at the Collegeville, Minn., school, and has the meter running on the most victories in college football history – 442. And he’s still going strong at age 80.
“That is a definite ‘no,’ ” laughed Tully, responding to the question of whether he expected to be coaching at the same age. “I just hope to be around at 80.”
Short term is another matter. Tully’s eighth-ranked Pirates (11-0) host No. 12 Saint John’s (10-1) today at noon at the Pine Bowl in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs, and having notched their first postseason football victory in school history just last weekend has only made the Pirates hungry for another.
“Our guys are truly looking forward to this,” said Tully, who’s in his 12th season at Whitworth, “and as coaches, when you have a group as good as this, you never want it to end. We’d like to keep this going just to have the opportunity keep coaching these guys.”
Whitworth will have to overcome one of the most storied small college programs in the country to make that happen. The Johnnies have won 36 postseason games and four national championships – two in the NAIA – under Gagliardi, mostly recently in 2003.
But Tully isn’t game-planning against tradition.
“I have tremendous respect for Saint John’s and so do our kids,” he said, “but I think one of the reasons we’ve had success is that our guys have a great ability to focus on themselves and what they need to get done. We don’t talk a lot about opponents – we talk about what they do and their strengths, obviously, but not so much about the other stuff.”
The last couple of weeks, the focus has been on one Pirate in particular – quarterback Joel Clark, Whitworth’s career leader in total offense and passing.
The senior from Mt. Spokane hobbled through last weekend’s 28-23 victory over Occidental on a badly sprained ankle that limited his effectiveness – at least until the last-minute drive that won the game.
“He plays with so much heart,” Tully said. “He’s going to play Saturday and he’s better now than he was last week; more mobile.”
The Pirates also hope to be able to get more production out of tight end Michael Allan, who was limited to one catch against Occidental, in part because of constant double teaming.
Like Clark, SJU junior quarterback Alex Kofoed will likely finish his career as the Johnnies’ leader in everything passing. He operates out of a varied attack that sees running back Mike Lofboom as the team’s top receiver.
And both teams rely on a couple of the stingier defenses in Division III – allowing less than 12 points per game. SJU’s group includes two sophomores and two freshmen up front, but also has a holdover starter from that 2003 title team in linebacker James Steffensmeier.
“There’s a lot of similarities in our offense and defense and theirs,” Tully said. “They have some big-play guys, their receivers get down the field well and their quarterback throws it downfield well. They like to play fast and so do we.”
The winner of today’s game moves into the Division III quarterfinals against the survivor of another second-round game against Wisconsin system rivals Whitewater and LaCrosse.