Cutting Room Floor: 2011 Linfield vs California Lutheran

Not everything makes the Linfileld College Football highlight DVD so each week ADvantage Catdome will bring you what was left on the cutting room floor. Now some of these plays you've seen but what I like about the Cutting Room Floor clips is the extras that happen after these highlights and it's why I've included them in this clip. This week we bring you those moments from the 'Cats 24-14 win vs the Kingsmen of California Lutheran from Sept 10th 2011.

Video of the Week: 2011 Linfield vs CLU

Your Catdomealumni.com video of the week is now on-line! Go check out the highlights of the 'Cats 2011 season opening victory over California Lutheran.

VIDEO: 2011 Linfield vs Cal Lutheran Highlights

Hey Drew Fisher...take us into the weekend with a bang.

Find Videos like this and more on Catdomealumni.com's Facebook Page

Talking 2012 with Linfield's Top 'Cat.

Linfield's Joseph Smith enters his 7th season as Head Coach with a 49-13 record.

Linfield versus Menlo on September 1st at the 'Catdome....check!  The 'Cats sign up another 2-year deal with D3 power Hardin-Simmons....check!  Another huge non-conference game with California Lutheran...check!  The NWC shuffled the schedule....check!  Oh, and Coach Smith breaks who Linfield will be playing in 2013 to fill the date George Fox left open when they pushed their start-up to 2014....check!

It's time to start looking towards the 2012 season and once again the 'Cats have lined up a formidable schedule with a huge new twist to the season for the 'Cats.  This could very well be the 1st time in program history that Linfield will start the season in Week 0.  It's at least the 1st time since Linfield has been a Division 3 member the 'Cats will be kicking off the season at the earliest possible date , (Sep 1st) at the 'Catdome, against a newly energized Menlo program lead by former Willamette Head Coach Mark Speckman.

From there, it doesn't get easier as the 'Cats will renew their series with American Southwest Conference foe Hardin-Simmons out of Abilene, Texas.   Linfield and HSU played four consecutive years from 2006-2009 and walked away from the series with an even 2-2 split with each team holding home field.  Thankfully, the 'Cats get to host HSU on September 8th.  This will be a marque match-up in the Division III world and looking forward to playing a tough-as-nails program.

Then, it's out of the frying pan and into the fryer, when Linfield heads down to Thousand Oaks to continue what seems like is the never ending series with California Lutheran.  Linfield is a hurdle that CLU is desperate to overcome and the Kingsmen and their fan base will be all-in when the 'Cats go back to Cali.  I don't need to go in-depth here as we know this game carries a lot of weight for both programs and will be hotly contested.  Can't wait.

From there is the bye-week before Linfield opens up what should be a gauntlet of an NWC season.  The NWC schedule rotated so instead of Willamette to start NWC play with Linfield will be traveling up to Sparks Stadium to play what is going to be a battle tested and ready PLU squad.  Once again, the 'Cats will get another bye before hosting Whitworth, then at Lewis and Clark, at home vs Willamette, back up to Tacoma for Puget Sound, and wrap up regular season play at home vs Pacific.

I feel the NWC is going to be a great challenge for the 'Cats.  PLU's offense should be much improved, Whitworth was young and took Linfield to the wire last season, Willamette will be loaded with Senior talent, and both UPS and Pacific will be improved programs.  If the 'Cats want to continue their run of NWC titles, Linfield will need a complete effort by the entire roster to make it happen.

But enough of my ramblings, you came here to read what Linfield Head Coach Joseph Smith thinks about the 2012 schedule and more.  Can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that Coach (and the whole Linfield staff) is willing to provide so much detail about the process when I reach out.  It's unique in college athletics and I'm grateful for it.

(Wildcat11) Is the staff looking forward to the September 1st home opener date and getting the players in camp a week earlier than normal?

(Head Coach Joseph Smith) To my knowledge, this is the first time Linfield has ever played a week zero game. The cost of bringing kids in before school starts is staggering, so that first week zero game is very expensive for the school. Since Fox was to come in 2013, trying to find a one year game was even more restrictive than it usually is. I am very grateful to our administration to find a way to come up with the money to feed and house our players so that we were able to play a full schedule.

Beggars cannot be choosers, and with scheduling, we are a beggar. That being said, we have an administration that is very supportive and has worked very hard to fund the difficult travel situations we find ourselves constantly in. The positive side of this is that we are well prepared to travel anywhere, and play anyone. And of course, that will come in handy in November and December.

(WC11) Once again, Linfield has a loaded schedule to kick off the year. The ‘Cats face a Speckman-led Menlo team, restarting our series with Hardin-Simmons, and then to CLU. That's a difficult row to hoe for anybody. How do you feel about that start to the schedule?

(J.S.) One of the biggest hurdles we have had for the past 10 years, has been a difficult early schedule combined with a practice and game experience disparity. We have worked hard to bring that to an even level and for the past two years we were able to bring that about. (Playing a season opening game in which it was the season opener for our opponent as well). Coming in early will allow us to do that for 1 more year. After that, I am afraid we will be back to a slight uphill discrepancy in the opener for at least 1 year. 2014-2015 has not been set, and maybe we can find a way to keep that similar for those years. That is hard, as the pool of teams able to play us (from a willing, scheduling, or financial standpoint) is small and for the most part always plays 10 games. 10 games normally requires a week 0 opener. A SCIAC opening game is our best bet to accomplish game 1 scheduling equality.

Linfield will be looking to be the hammer in 2012.

(WC11) Looking down the road a bit but George Fox pushed their start date out to 2014 instead of 2013. For Linfield, Fox was going to take our lone open slot starting 2013 but now Linfield needs to fill that game. Does the program have that date filled yet or is the athletic department still pursuing an opponent?

(J.S.) With Fox stalling a year, so that they could get Coach Casey (which was a very good move for them), it made us search for another 1 year commitment for 2013. That will be Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio. That will be an exciting trip for us, as I have been waiting a long time to play a game in Ohio. This will be the first time we venture into Ohio, and I look forward to it. They are a good program, and it will be fun to test and measure ourselves against a team from that Region.

(WC11) Also, The NWC shuffled the line up again this year. Do you like the change up of the NWC schedule every few seasons?

(J.S.) The NWC is working on an entire new matrix of scheduling for the next 16 years. The coaches are in agreement about keeping a reverse location situation for 2 year cycles, but having the orders randomized every two years so that it comes full cycle after 16 years. That should be finalized soon. Wendy Guthrie, the (NWC) Conference commissioner, is doing a great job for the NWC and is working very hard on this. We are fortunate to have her leadership and talent.

Our season will be front heavy no doubt. If we come out of the preseason 3-0, we will be battle tested and ready to play with anyone, anywhere. The NWC will be fiercely contested as usual. The conference schedule will be tough. There is a very talented group of coaches running the programs in the NWC, and each one will be well prepared and motivated when they come out to meet us. Every game we play is rivalry game to us, as I believe we’re each of our opponents’ “game of the year”. We like that. “As Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another.”

We are working very hard as a team right now. I can feel the intensity building as we are starting to feel the season approach. We are getting our house and our affairs in order, and we will be coming back with our shield or on it.

Linfield Sports:  2012 Linfield Football Schedule

2011 Highlight Opening Clip

Catdomealumni.com has just posted up the 1st clip from Linfield Football's 2011 Highlight Video.  For many years now the 'Cats start up their annual highlight video with an opening that does its best to strike at the heart of what Linfield Football is all about.  I don't know if we always nail it 100% but I think we sure do make a great effort to capture the emotion and togetherness of the program.

What's new with this years clip is the image quality.  We shot this past season in an HDV format and amped up quality of the flash video playback.  Basically, we're giving you a darn good quality of video each Monday for the next 3 months.  Also, as I mentioned last week each new video this year also has the ability to be played in "full screen" mode.  So dim the lights, crank up the volume, and hang on tight....the 'Cats are coming.

Video: 2011 Opening Clip of the Linfield College Football Highlight Video

Shaun Moore was feeling it after the 'Cats big win over Willamette in 2001.

Wildcat11 is continuing to go through Linfield sideline footage from the 2001-2003 seasons and we keep finding gold. This time it's from former 1st team All-NWC Defensive Tackle (2001) Shaun Moore after the 'Cats hard found win over Willamette in the 2001 season finale.

What Shaun's post game comments hit on for me was the love the 'Cats have for their teammates season after season. Times may change, but the bond of Linfield football has yet to be broken. If you want to view more great extras like this and more be sure to like Catdomealumni.com's Facebook page.

The 2012 Video Season Starts Today!

The 2011 Scoreboard Intro kicks off this year's video season!

It's the 1st Monday of March which is now the annual kickoff of Catdomealumni.com's video season.  Through the spring and summer, Wildcat11 will be posting up a new video on the mothership on each Monday morning.  As usual, the first three months of the season we'll be bringing you each clip from this past year's highlight video.  Once we're done with that we'll be getting into some special clips that include our Linfield summer football camp clips, Linfield Spring Football (I'll try my best on this one), our latest installment of our Big Hits series, a few other nuggets from the vault, and then wrap it up with our 2012 offensive and defensive video previews.  The one area we might not get this year is a Linfield Legends clip or a "Numbers" clip.  I just may not have the time to get those together but don't fear, there is plenty of source material to keep the 'Catdome family entertained till fall camp.

I do have something to report that's going to make you VERY happy.  One major upgrade that we have included in this year's new videos is the ability to watch the videos in "full screen" mode.  I wanted to do this in the past but was just too lazy to figure it out.  Actually, the reason is I didn't do this in the past because the video suffered in quality.  No more! All you have to do is click the little button on the far right of the control bar.  It's circled in the picture below.

Pretty simple and I feel this will enhance your view experience greatly.  So do me a favor and spread the word to all your Wildcat friends about Catdomealumni.com, the blog, our facebook page, and twitter.  I'll be doing my best to give you guys what you crave and that's the latest on the program, while giving you a window to the past.  Happy viewing and go 'Cats!

VIDEO: 2011 LINFIELD SCOREBOARD SCOREBOARD INTRO

Breaking into the tapes!

Linfield football fanatic's dream!

In early 2010, Wildcat11 received a very special box in the mail. Former Linfield Football videographer, Mike Rhodes, was kind enough to send me a box of tapes of his raw footage of Linfield football games from the 2001-2003 seasons. This was just a treasure that had to wait on the side before I could fully invest the time to start digging into the goodness of early 2000's Linfield football. Well now is the time to start mining for that video gold.

After Mrs.11 and myself put the baby down for the night I popped in the 1st tape and it was of the 'Cats dramatic 23-16 victory over Whitworth in 2001. With the game tied a 16-16 late in the ball game, Linfield punt returner Mike Cooney broke off an incredible 70 yard punt return for TD with 2:00 minutes left in the game to seal the victory. A now classic moment caught beautifully on tape.



Be sure to like Catdomealumni.com's facebook page as I'll be posting up clips from these tapes over the next month. It should be a great look back on some tremendous Linfield football teams.