Linfield looks to neutralize TLU's strengths
Texas Lutheran won in 1974, but host Linfield hopes to neutralize its strengths in 2024
Fifty years ago the Wildcat football team travelled to Seguin, Texas, about an hour or so east of San Antonio to play Texas Lutheran University in a semi-final round of the NAIA Division II national championships. The final score was 52-8.
Ad Rutschman, now retired, was the head coach of Linfield squad then and still has heartburn over the results of that contest. Rutschman recalled in a phone call Tuesday afternoon the coaching staff didn’t receive film until Wednesday before the game. The film was virtually worthless for actual scouting and, adding insult to injury, at the game the Texas Lutheran band was placed right behind the Linfield bench so communication from the box to the field was impossible forcing Rutschman to come down from his perch in the box to the field.
“It was a difficult loss that didn’t leave a pleasant taste in my mouth,” the hall of fame coach noted.
Linfield head coach Joseph Smith chuckled when asked about the game 1974 contest as the Wildcats (9-1, 7-0) prepare for the NCAA DIII first-round playoff contest Saturday at Maxwell Field against this year’s TLU Bulldog squad (9-1, 7-1).
“I’ve heard the story from coach Rutschman for 20 years or so — hopefully we can even the score for coach a little bit — that would be great,” Smith said.
However, solving the TLU riddle again seems to be a bit of magical mystery tour for the Linfield coaching staff. The Wildcats are ranked 14th in the latest DIII poll while the Bulldogs haven’t even smelled the polls despite their near-perfect record.
Smith notes, “It’s a new league to us — we’ve never played them (since Smith has been head coach) and don’t have many common opponents. We’ve only seen them on film so it’s hard to judge them.
“But what I have seen its a hard-nosed, fast team. They have good team speed, excellent playmakers and are very dangerous on special teams — can score from any place on the field,” Smith said.
Named Special Teams Player of the Year is the strong-legged punter Cameron Welch, with a nearly 40-yard average. He allows TLU to make life difficult for their opponents with a field position game that tends to place them in the right spots to win in many cases.
Offensively, Smith said, “Their slots are explosive and will be a good test for our secondary.
Defensively, their guys really fly around; they have some really good secondary kids and they present many problems up front with a variety of looks,” he said.
Junior QB Caden Bosanko recently named the SCAC Co-Offensive Player of the Year (2024) is the trigger man for the offense. He is a 60 percent completion passer and can also tuck the ball and make positive yardage.
Bosanko and Welch were also named First Team All-SCAC along with placekicker Joaquin Rodriguez, another of the Bulldogs’ kicker weapons. There were 10 others TLU players mixed in from both offense and defense to the all-conference team.
A couple of markers that give some insight to the prowess of the Bulldog squad:
In their first game of the season they played Trinity University, a team which lost a 29-22 contest to University of Mary Hardin-Bailey in the play-in round of the tournament last weekend. TLU came out on top, 35-20.
In their third came of the season, McMurry collared the Bulldogs 31-10 for TLU’s only loss of the season. A month later TLU turned the tables with a 28-6 victory that carried them to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship.
However, it doesn’t appear that Texas Lutheran has played the level of competition Linfield has during the regular season campaign.
And Linfield brings a host of all-conference selectees to the fray, including three-time NWC defensive player of the year, senior linebacker Blake Rybar. Joining Rybar on the all-conference team are five other first-team selections on defense and five others on second and honorable mention teams.
Rybar becomes the first player in the history of the Northwest Conference to win three Defensive Player of the Year awards, cementing his legacy as one of the greatest players to come through Linfield.
A large part of the Wildcats’ success this season has been due to the dominant play of the defense. Linfield is the 15th-ranked defense nationally and led the conference in sacks (34), interceptions (20), interceptions returned for touchdowns (4), lowest pass yards allowed (1,766), lowest total yards allowed (2,378) and several other categories.
Offensively, the Wildcats landed five first-team selections and six second-teamers and one honorable mention, and Smith was named Coach of the Year.
It is said “speed kills” – or at least neutralizes solid defense. Linfield’s challenge is to do as it has all season: squeeze the speed out of the Bulldog offense. Offensively, Linfield’s two-headed QB tandem of Blake Eaton and Luke McNabb must find a way to keep the TLU defense off balance and get the ‘Cat scorers in a position to do their thing.
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