Dragons set to scrimmage

Minnesota State Moorhead will have a football scrimmage Saturday as the Dragons attempt to cement their depth chart before opening the season Aug. 30 at Valley City State.

Here are a few questions that need to be answered in the next couple weeks.

1, Starting quarterback: Craig Kutz appears to be the front runner at this point, but Dragons head coach Damon Tomeo said incoming freshman Tyler Wegner is expected to challenge for playing time.

2, Offensive line: Junior Ryan Chatterton (6-0, 285) is the lone returning starter along the offensive line. "If you asked me about the depth chart I could give you 15 names, including some true freshman," Tomeo said.

3, Defense: The Dragons return 10 starters, but the unit allowed 30.6 points per game last year. Tomeo hopes continuity and maturity will help the defense improve on its productivity. In addition, All-American safety Josh Jones returns after sitting out the final eight games last season with a broken arm. "Defensively, I think this is our year," Tomeo said.

Here are a couple more numbers Tomeo highlighted during Thursday's Dragons media day.

--Tomeo said the cumulative team GPA is above 2.9 and the goal is to get that number above 3.0.

--Tomeo was very proud of the fact that only one player came to camp and quit at this point of the preseason.

Posted by: Eric Peterson on 8/15/2008 at 2:29 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Your Small College fix

This isn't really my area any more, since my move to North Dakota preps was official on Aug. 1, but I'll give small college fans a little something since the new small college blog has yet to be created.

The following are the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football coaches' polls:

Overall Poll

What do we think Dragons fans? Too high? Too low? Are the Dragons going to come back with a winning season, despite the additions of Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State Mankato and St. Cloud State to the schedule?

By the way, Duluth is ranked No. 22 in the latest AFCA preseason poll. MSUM hosts the Bulldogs on Oct. 4.

Eat up small college fans.

Posted by: Heath Hotzler on 8/13/2008 at 3:28 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink

ARE YOU READY TO ROCK!!!! lightly?

The folks at the UP Center announced this week that their "major concert" event to mark the opening of the 5,000-seat hockey arena in October is an all-acoustic set from folk singer-songwriter Jewel.

Forum collegues Mike McFeely, Kerry Collins and I had a gentleman's bet going on this one. McFeely had Mini Kiss, Collins had pan flute master Zamfir and I had Sha-Na-Na.

An all-acoustic set from Jewel seems an a little odd considering the audience here. We're talking about rabid hockey fans. Wouldn't a rock or metal band be a little more appropriate?

Anyway, Jewel (who is known to yodel from time-to-time) has had a handful of radio-friendly hits in the past 10 years. She came onto the scene with "Who Will Save Your Soul" in 1996. Other songs include the light-pop hits "You Were Meant For Me," "Foolish Games" and "Hands."

What do we think hockey fans? Any interest?

Posted by: Heath Hotzler on 8/13/2008 at 1:38 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink

HERE COMES BRETT FAVRE!!! AHHHHHHH!!!

The Brett Favre soap opera is spiraling out of control, with minute-to-minute updates from his talks with Green Packers brass and the possibility of a trade to Tampa Bay or Minnesota.

But, to me, the most interesting thing to come out of Tuesday's Favre-a-palooza was the photo of him leaving Lambeau Field. See it below.

The question is this: What's in the bag Brett?

Is it a Packers sweatshirt from the Pro Shop? Is it his bagged lunch? Hey, a guy can get hungry after hours of chatting about how he has been done wrong. Maybe its a Packers playbook that Brett cleverly snuck past Green Bay security.

My theory is that the bag contains the pieces of Brett's massive ego that have seeped from the all-star quarterback's head since he was spurned by the Packers.

Let's have some fun. Any other ideas as to what's in the bag?

Posted by: Heath Hotzler on 8/05/2008 at 6:22 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink

So long Small College blog ...

It's official. ... The Small College Corner, in its current form authored by yours truely, will so go dark.

But don't fret my loyal readers (stop laughing), you'll still be able to find me on the Web.

Starting this school year, I'll be moving over to North Dakota preps at The Forum and my collegue, Eric Peterson, will be moving over to cover small colleges. He'll have a blog of his own on the subject, and I'll have a North Dakota preps-based blog.

I hope everyone comes over to support my new prep endevour.

I've had a great time trying to bring you some inside info and insights in the small college world, and I hope to do the same on the prep scene.

I'll update later to give you my new blog spot.

Posted by: Heath Hotzler on 7/31/2008 at 1:58 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink