Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Player Blog: John Torsey "Off-season at the CATDOME"

My name is John Torsey and I will be Senior receiver next year at the Catdome. The team is ready and eagerly awaiting the start of the year. Even with the season just around the corner, it cannot come soon enough. Our performances at the seven-on-seven sessions with Portland State have left us confident and ready to unleash our offensive attack on the NWC. A great recruiting class combined with the addition of outstanding transfer players has only added to the excitement.

I took the last year off from Track to be with the football team and I couldn’t be happier with the decision. Coach Fendell put together a great workout plan for the team and the camaraderie we forged five days a week at 7AM workouts will undoubtedly aid us in the upcoming season. We spilled the same blood in the same mud so to speak. As a receiver, it gave me great confidence to watch our linemen in the weight room. It’s a special thing to see a 300 pound man seamlessly transfer from repping 450 lbs in the squat cage to a surprisingly agile one footed box jumps.

The summer has gone equally well. All of our seven-on-seven practices with the defense have been very competitive. Our defense has preformed well even when playing incoming freshmen. The same is true for the offense. I won’t talk too much about the defense, I’ll leave that to the defenders, but from an offensive standpoint they are tough. The defense is simply hard to plan for. They have a 230 pound weak side linebacker who has the speed and presence of mind to easily play safety in any situation, a strong d-line and linebacking core, great coaching, and the corners have gone from one of the shallowest positions on the team, to one of the deepest. Those are just a few reasons I am confident the defense will come up with big plays when we need them. We compete every time we show up. If the offense gets a score, the defense will get it back next series, and vise versa.

Our running back core is as good as I have seen in my time here. They have been working hard and pushing others.

The receiving core looks strong as well. For the most part we are unproven in game situations, but that by no means hinders our confidence for the upcoming season. The youngest Lemon brother, Mikey, has been playing very well. The Junior class has been stepping up as well. Gunnar Cederberg and Chris Slezak are working into the offense and have been making big catches daily. Some of the important receivers have not been able to practice with us this summer, but I know they are working hard and will be more than ready to play when the fall comes.

I am excited to watch our pass and run games compliment each other. We will have a very well balanced team with the ability to beat teams on the ground or in the air. All the weaknesses in our team have been eliminated. Where we saw wholes last fall, we are solid, and where we were shallow, we are deep. I am looking forward to a successful season at the Catdome this year.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Alumni Game Date Is Set! Sunday Oct. 12th

The date for the 5th match-up of the Linfield Alumni vs Junior Varsity game has been set: Sunday, Oct 12th. The time of the game is still being ironed out but it looks like kickoff will be around 1pm. It looks to be a great football weekend with the 'Cats playing at the 'Catdome on Saturday Oct 11th vs Whitworth and the always entertaining Alumni/JV the following day.

I'm excited that the program has moved the game from the typical monday night affair to Sunday. I really believe it will allow more alumni players to take part and avoid conflict with work and other commitments.

Linfield coaches Brandon Hazenberg and Thomas Ford have taken over the reigns from Wildcat11 and will be organizing the game and putting together the alumni team. If you are interested in playing please contact Coach Hazenberg at brhazenb@linfield.edu.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Linfield's 2008 Schedule via Google Maps


For all you Linfield Football and Google Map lovers out there I'll just say "You're Welcome!" Now you can map out your plan to follow the 2008 Wildcats by just clicking on the 'Cats Logos. I actually ran across this from the App State fan site (http://www.appfan.com/) and had to give it a shot.


Just click on the Wildcat icons on the map or on the info bar on the left for game information for all of Linfield's 9 regular season games.


Friday, July 18, 2008

Blooper Reel: Dog Jaw!


The annual Linfield College Highlight DVD will not be the same without now retired special teams guru, Ron August. Coach August is a cut-up and always had a new joke or funny story but he did have a dark side. Just be aware of the Dog Jaw!

Other Blooper Reel: Ron August "Knock, Knock"

Friday, July 11, 2008

D1 Helmet Quiz. Can you get 50 out of 50?

A good friend and former 'Cat sent this to me the other day. It's a D1 Helmet Quiz (in MS Excel Format). On the quiz there are 50 NCAA D1 helmets without the name of the college they rep. Can you name all 50? Wildcat11 scored a 47 out of 50...and that was WITHOUT cheating!

So click on the link below to download the quiz and let Catdomealumni.com know how you did.

-Wildcat11

Wanted: Videographer for 2008 Home Games!

***WANTED****

Videographer for all 2008 Linfield home games (5 games). I was lucky enough to have 4 cameras working each home game last year. Myself, the two scoreboard cameras, and we were REALLY lucky to have Jerry Hanley at each home game and for Whitworth. Jerry’s nephew Drew Ragan graduated this past year so I’m going to really miss Jerry’s professional eye and all the great shots he provided at the ‘Catdome. Jerry is a complete PRO!

I’m looking for someone who has some experience shooting sports video that would be willing to shoot at each home game this year. It’s not going to pay anything but you’ll get in the games for free, get right down on the sideline, and I’ll throw in a sweet Catdomealumni.com T-Shirt! (How could you beat that!).

Now you may say “Isn’t 3 cameras enough to capture everything?” Maybe, but the more I have to pick from the better the finished product is going to be and I’m really trying to put together the best highlight video I can.

If you’re interested please drop me an e-mail at catdomealumni@yahoo.com

-Wildcat11

Monday, July 7, 2008

'Cats pick apart 'Vikes in Skelly Session


Catdomealumni.com was lucky enough to get a run down of last weeks ‘Cats 7-on-7 scrimmage up at Portland State. The 7-on-7 was organized by Linfield newcomer Reggie Ford who’s brother Tracy plays for the Vikings. It was close to a full collection of Viking and Wildcat skills players that used a modified scoring system to keep talley of the scrimmage and the ‘Cats walked away with the 12-8 win.

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Here is a the game run down as reported from one of the ‘Cats.

-‘Cats started on Offense and marched down to the PSU 25 and punched it in with Corey Ellis from Aaron B.( it took probably 6-7 plays to score). Linfield 1-PSU 0

-PSU started on their 35 and completed the first pass for 6 yards. ‘Cats pushed them to a fourth down and PSU converted a 12 yard gain for a 1st down. PSU completed another pass for 5-6 yards and it was 3rd down around the ‘Cats 40. 3rd down pass is interception by Jaymin Jackson (who was playing safety) returned for a touchdown. Linfield 2-PSU 0

-PSU marched down from their 35 to score. The series took them 10-12 plays to score and a few 4th down conversions. Linfield 2-PSU 1

-Linfield tipped ball interception by PSU. Linfield 2-PSU 2

-Linfield interception by Bubba Lemon no return. Linfield 3-PSU 2

-Linfield Offense marches down and scores with a pass to Gunner Cederberg. Linfield 4-PSU 2

-PSU completes a few passes but then stopped on fourth down. Linfield 5-PSU 2

-Linfield Offense uses Bret Smedley a few times and then caps the drive with a TD pass to Henderson. Linfield 6-PSU 2

-PSU work their way down the field and scores on a pass (Again drive took about 10-15 plays) Linfield 6-PSU 3

-Linfield throws a bomb to Mikey Lemon for a touchdown. Linfield 7-PSU 3

-PSU drove down and was able to punch another one in on a long drive Linfield 7- PSU 4

- Aaron finds Bret Smedley in the endzone. Linfield 8- PSU 4

- Linfield Defense stops PSU on downs. Linfield 9- PSU 4

- Aaron B connects with Ellis for another TD. Linfield 10- PSU 4

- Linfield defense stops PSU on downs again. Linfield 11-PSU 4

-PSU stops Linfield on downs after a long drive. Linfield 11-PSU 5

-PSU marches down and scores. Linfield 11-PSU 6

-Linfield is intercepted. Linfield 11-PSU 7

-Linfield defense intercepts PSU. Linfield 12-PSU 7

-PSU intercepts Linfield on Final play. FINAL score Linfield 12-PSU 8

Scoring Recap:
Linfield Offense Scores: 7 All receiving
Linfield Defense Scores: 5 (3 ints, One returned for a score, 2 stops)
Portland State Offense: 4 scores All receiving
Portland State Defense: 3 ints, 1 stop

It looks like the re-match is going to be at the ‘Catdome this Wednesday around 6 pm. I’d like to applaud both PSU and the ‘Cats palyers for being self starters and getting this organized on their own time to help sharpen up their play.
****Update 7/8. According to my inside guy the 'Vikes have declined the return favor and will not be coming down the the Catdome tomorrow. :(

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Catdomealumn.com T-Shirt: ...and the winner is?!

Cardinal Red was hands down the favorite from folks that were nice enough to send me an e-mail and I agree with them 100%. I tweaked the lettering a little and the above is pretty close to what the final product is going to look like. I might consider adding a little color to the Wildcat logo but that will cost more money so that could be out the window.

I'm currently working with a apparel rep so my hope is to have the actual shirts by mid-August. Until then I won't be taking orders because I still have to figure out details.

Thank you again for all that have expressed your opinions and thoughts. If this goes well enough then we'll make this an annual deal where we come out with a new shirt each season.

Go 'Cats!