The Week That Was
I always complain when the Vikings have a bye week — or just don’t play on Sunday — but yesterday turned out to be a pretty good little Sunday without having to commit three hours to watching them.
For starters, I slept in past noon — really, I did.
When I got up, I watched about a quarter of the Lions-Packers (wonder if Mike McCarthy dug up Ryan Longwell’s phone number…) before going to the gym for a nice three-mile run. Came home, made a big dinner (I’m on a loaded baked potato kick suddenly), watched ‘Walking Dead’ (seriously, Andrea) then took the lady friend to see the late showing of ‘Lincoln’.
[My review: The next time someone asks me to tolerate their racist dad/grandpa/uncle just because they’re old, I’m going to think of Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens.]
Almost made me wonder if I should continue setting aside three hours each Sunday to watch the Vikings. Almost.
Anyway, last week was — appropriately — all about the revival of the SDSU-USD rivalry, and I wish I coulda been there for the game. The score was similar to what I expected, but I thought USD would start strong and gradually get overwhelmed, and what happened was more like the opposite. Anyway, glad at least one of the local teams made it to the playoffs.
Speaking of playoffs, Minnesota-Duluth lost in the first round of the D2 playoffs to Missouri Western, 57-55 in triple overtime.
By rule, teams must go for two starting with the third OT. Missouri Western converted theirs, but Duluth QB Chase Voegler slipped and fell on the two-point try after they had answered with a touchdown, ending the Bulldogs’ season.
Minnesota State had a bye.
Here are the second round pairings for the D2 playoffs:
Shippensburg at Winston-Salem State
Indiana (PA) at New Haven
West Alabama at Valdosta State
Lenoir-Rhyne at Carson Newman
Northwest Missouri State at Minnesota State
Missouri Western at Henderson State
Indianapolis at Colorada State-Pueblo
West Texas A&M at Ashland
Meanwhile, Morningside won their first-round NAIA playoff game 40-35 over Montana Tech in a back-and-forth affair in Sioux City. The Orediggers, of course, are coached by former USF and USD defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell. As I’m already suffering from football withdrawals, I had originally planned on attending the game, but state volleyball duties prevented me (congrats, Sioux Falls Christian Chargers, by the way).
Northwestern, USF’s other former GPAC foe, lost their first-round playoff game 42-32 to Marian.
The remaining bracket in the NAIA playoffs:
Southern Oregon at Morningside
Bethel at Missouri Valley
Cumberlands at St. Xavier
St. Francis at Marian
Of course, the other big story last week locally was Augustana’s decision to part ways with football coach Mike Aldrich, but I’ve already covered that extensively.
The Vikings announced on Thursday a 9-person search committee to name Aldrich’s replacement. That committee is:
Assistant AD Jeff Holm, who will chair the committee.
AD Bill Gross
Sr. Women’s Administrator Ann Traphagen
VP for Advancement Bob Preloger
Associate Director of Admissions Adam Heinitz
Faculty Athletic Rep. Marcia Entwistle
Men’s Basketball Coach Tom Billeter
Associate Director of Student Services Mark Blackburn
Football Player Noah Huisman
Actually there was one other big story last week, Storm QB Chris Dixon leaving for Orlando of the AFL.
I’m kind of surprised — at 31, it almost felt like it was a move that Chris would’ve already made by now if he was going to do it. But he said he didn’t want to look back and wonder what-if, which makes perfect sense for someone in his position.
The AFL isn’t as big as it was a half-decade ago or so ago — just a few years ago they canceled an entire season. But it’s still a step up from the IFL, and we’ll get to be able to watch Dixon on the NFL Network, which will be cool. I imagine he’ll be successful. The guy was an extraordinary player at this level, and actually seemed to still get better every year.
As for the Storm, they’ve got their eye on a few replacements. The IFL is down to 10 teams, so there are guys out there looking for jobs.
That said, coach Kurtiss Riggs also said he’ll look at local options. Josh Hanson and Taylor Perkins would both be good options worth looking at.
Other Augie news you may have missed:
The Augie volleyball team lost in the first round of the NSIC volleyball tournament to No.1 Concordia-St. Paul, ending their season at 17-13. They missed the NCAA tournament again, but had a very solid season in a ridiculously competitive conference.
* The Viking cross country teams had a strong showing at nationals, but failed to capture another national championship. The women finished a very close second to Grand Valley State, while the men finished fourth — their highest finish ever, and significant, because the top four teams get a trophy. So the men got their first trophy.
Runa Falch was a serious candidate to win the women’s individual title, and finished 8th.
* The Stampede split a home doubleheader, losing to a struggling Tri-City squad, and bouncing back to beat a Dubuque team that had been 14-1-1 on Saturday. Coach Cary Eades and his players were very down after the loss on Friday, but obviously bounced back. Eades got after his team, and it was good to see them respond to that.
And Todd Skirving, whom I wrote about earlier in the week, stayed hot, notching an assist Friday and two more goals Saturday.
* Short week for most of us this week: I’ll be spending it working on our Elite 45 captain story. Feel free to throw out your guesses for the winner. It will be revealed Thursday as part of our Thanksgiving tradition.
