Quote from: tigerguy on August 23, 2025, 07:25:12 PMAnyone catch Trinity's scrimmage or hear any feedback from someone who did?

Quick recap:

Trinity looked much better than Blinn.  They seemed more evenly matched last year but there was clear differentiation last night.  Trinity was notably stronger in the trenches.  The O-line only has two returning starters but the whole squad was big and very physical and spent quite a while on the field together to "gel". 

I think the backfield will surprise people.  Huerta (Sr.), Nickerson (So.), and #32 all looked great.  #32 had maybe eight consecutive touches on the last TU drive behind the 2nd or 3rd string line and is a bull.  He plays bigger than 5'9", 180lbs.  Since no RB is listed as #32 on the roster, I believe it was Jax Crockett, listed as a 5th year senior TE.

Welker Horn started the first scrimmage drive (after all of the drills for the previous 90 minutes).  He looks very confident.  Sharp passer and maneuverable in the pocket.  Had a nice TD pass to Huerta out of the backfield from about the 8-yard line where he held the ball and took a step toward the line before stepping back and tossing to a wide-open Huerta.  All of the other QBs got drives and performed well.  Franklin and Gill showed some real speed on a couple of QB keepers.

I didn't see anything notable from the receivers other than very few dropped balls and a nice grab-over-the-defender by Cooper Brown (Fr.) for a TD thrown by Bishop.  It seems clear that Bishop, despite being the senior, will be the holder, back-guy-during-punts, etc.

The linebackers are fast and applied great pressure.  Sadly, I was catching up with a couple of people early and didn't get to really watch Dorien Hill much (UMHB transfer).  It's clear he fits in on the sideline however, and he's a physical specimen.  A great addition.  TJ Scannell was roaming the sidelines in his football pants but pads off.  I only noticed that later in the evening so didn't note if he played earlier.  But he's a leader and I'd guess will be a Captain.

Kicking was terrible.  But - none of the jersey numbers of the kickers/punters matched the online roster so I am confused.  It may be that they were using the opportunity to develop some emergency capability(?).  Hard to say.

I left enthused overall.

FYI - the link to Trinity soccer goes to an X post.

Great rundown on the Tiger situation.  THanks!

Quote from: Kuiper on August 23, 2025, 12:03:58 PMTrinity University

Trinity was 19-1-3 last season and lost in the third round of the NCAA tournament to Babson 2-0 after dominating Middlebury 3-0 in a reversal of the traditional West travels to East pattern in the tournament.  Throughout the season, the team not only showed formidable offensive prowess, scoring 75 goals and outshooting their opponents 433 to 113, but was as lock-down a defensive unit as you'll find, only conceding 12 goals.  This year, however, Trinity faces some headwinds that might make repeating the 2024 season performance more difficult. 

First, they move from the SCAC to the SAA.  Interestingly, that isn't the downgrade you might think.  In the Massey ratings, the SCAC's overall conference rating was 17th.  The SAA, however, was right behind them at 18th.  The difference is that the SCAC has much better teams at the top than the SAA and the SAA has far fewer teams.  That means Trinity has added more non-conference games, many of which are against the SCAC's and ASC's top teams and strong non-conference opponents such as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Christopher Newport, and UC Santa Cruz.  So, they largely replicated the difficulty of the top of the SCAC schedule, while placing most of the really weak opponents they faced last season with better games. The result is a schedule that is probably more difficult than last season overall even though they don't play Colorado College.

Second, Trinity loses at least one of their top offensive pieces and almost all of their best defenders and all of their goalkeepers.  So, they will have some difficulty repeating both their offensive success and their defensive success against a schedule that is, on net, probably harder than last season.

Key Departures:

Biggest individual loss on offense is 1st team All Region X and All SCAC midfielder Hunter Cain, who was second on the team with 12 goals and 2 assists.  I think they have pieces that can, either individually or collectively, replace Cain's goal contributions, though, so I think the biggest losses for the team are on defense (including goalkeeper) and linking/creative midfielders.  They lose the player who appeared to be the heart and soul of the team for many years - 2nd team All American, 1st team All Region and 1st team  All SCAC defender JonConnor Rule.  For a player listed (maybe even slightly generously) at 6'0", he dominated in the air and often made the key interceptions and ignited the attack.  He also had a relentless motor, playing the most minutes by far over anyone on the team.  He's not the only departure, though. Trinity loses a ton of calm, experienced, leaders on the defense besides Rule, including regular starters Will Powell, who led the team with 10 assists from his wingback position, and Ty Jarrett, as well as frequent contributor Tom Whitwell.  In the midfield, they lose 1st team All Region and 1st team All SCAC player Louis Instrall, who played three years after transferring from DI Marshall, starting 57 of 58 games.  They also lose regular starter, Mark Donnelly (All SCAC honorable mention).  At goalkeeper, they not only lose starter and 2nd team All SCAC player Omkar Satpathy, who started 19 games and had eligibility left as well as a year left to graduation, but isn't on the 2025 roster, but also backup goalkeepers Aidan Roy (who played 4 games as a sophomore last season) and Joshua Lynch, who graduated and played 9 games, starting 4 last season.  So, they have zero goalkeepers returning from last season, which is pretty unusual.

Key Returners:

The most important returner is 1st team All Region and 1st team All SCAC midfielder Adam Knutsen, who led the team with 17 goals and 6 assists.  He'll need some help with the scoring load, but junior forwards Samuel Theiss (6g/6a) and Joey Perryman (4g/5a) have shown the ability to propel the offense and should be able to step up.  Other important returners include midfielders Jason Sukow, who had 7 assists in 2024, and
Cade Dougan, who had 6 assists.  I also think Kenyon transfer Alex Ramirez will have a bigger role this year, possibly filling Instrall's role.  On defense, the "Lukes" - Luke Mayfield and Luke Chandler - were both regular starters on defense and will likely step up to a leadership role there.  There are also a number of players who rotated through the outside back positions. 

Transfers:

Jayden Schell started his career at DIII Birmingham Southern (RIP), where he started 12 games, and then moved to DII Spring Hill College, where he played 1 game, before transferring back to DIII to play at Trinity.  He has had some high level USL2 experience over the summer.  I assume he is expected to take over the goalkeeping position. 

Freshman:

If Schell doesn't work out, Trinity will have to rely upon one of the three freshman goalkeepers who are part of the 10 person freshman class, or the one sophomore GK who was recruited in 2024, but wasn't on the roster last season, to man the posts.
 

Quote from: Ron Boerger on May 14, 2025, 12:46:40 PMTrinity has just started posting their class of 2029 on Xitter -

Ten DBs
Six LBs
Two Ks
Four DLs
Seven OLs
Seven WRs
One each QB (Welker Horn), TE, RB

That's a typical sized class for Urban, if not on the high side by a few.

Since these all say "Class of 2029" there could be additional transfers, though I would not expect the number to be large.

10 DBs?!  Bodes well for some standout players to emerge.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on February 15, 2025, 11:15:04 AM

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on February 15, 2025, 04:20:39 AMSt. Thomas takes a big loss. They sit as the Pool A, but around the Pool C 11-12 mark. It'll be interesting how big of a drop they take after their loss to Ozarks.

D3datacast still has them 29th overall, bubble in (53.7% if no pool A) but another loss, either to Trinity or Schreiner next weekend, would severely hurt those chances. 

Unfortunately for Trinity, last night they were not only again without Christian Green, but also his replacement, Ty Williams.  You can get away with that against TLU and Southwestern (one hopes) but it'll be a tough road next week without them.   Both were in street clothes.

Trinity put their student manager, senior Henry Thompson, on the roster for the weekend.  He was 0-2 but did manage a rebound in his two minutes.

Nice to see Ty Williams play on Senior Night and have a solid game.  He seemed to be moving well.

Also nice to see a bucket from Henry Thompson.  A really nice thing for the team to do.

Lastly, Jacob Harvey sank one of the best three-point shots I've ever seen...and was fouled doing it.

124 points from Trinity yesterday at U Dallas.  Happy to see this output given the loss of Jamie Ruede.  Natalie Greenwood has come alive and is flexing down low.  Also impressed with freshman Livy Sauvageau as the leading scorer.

A much better team than a few weeks ago.  Well done, ladies!

Quote from: Freddyfud on December 06, 2024, 12:32:48 PMJust when you thought the boards were about to go quiet for the off season...

Surprised Adam Knutson from Trinity is not included.  I guess 17 goals and 6 assists are not good enough.

He's a threat from anywhere with amazing ball skills.  A true game changing player. He should be on this list.

Centre playing CMU about even.

UMHB playing very well at HSU.

Good games to watch.

I imagine they would have gone for the win.  When Dr. Jekyll UMHB focused, they methodically drove down the field and scored (beginning of the 2nd half, game-winning drive).  Trinity couldn't stop them in that mode so would have avoided it by going for the win.  In my humble opinion.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on August 23, 2024, 10:12:33 AMTrinity(TX), 82-1-0 in conference play the last eight seasons, is the unanimous pick to win the SCAC title in their final SCAC year, as all five Tigers named to one of the all-conference teams last season return.  Texas Lutheran is the pick for second and the two will face off in Seguin September 6th in what could determine the regular season champion - though Southwestern, a close third, will try to repeat the 2-1 upset in 2021 which represents the sole regular-season blemish in those eight seasons. 

https://scacsports.com/sports/wsoc/2024-25/releases/preseason_poll

Now 93-1 in conference play over nine seasons!  And despite not even receiving top 25 votes after a one-loss season (to Christopher Newport) they are still dancing in the Elite 8.  Their style of play has been...methodical, I guess, but it has proven to be effective.  GK Lauryn Lewis has been superb with 22, yes, 22 saves in the last two games. 

Go get the championship!

Quote from: tigerguy on November 23, 2024, 10:44:18 PM

Quote from: Ron Boerger on November 23, 2024, 10:38:12 PMA DB with no INTs and fewer PBUs than a LB. 

I know right? The only Berry player even on the NCAA national PBU rankings is Whitten's teammate, Kristofer Thomas, who is ranked 182. Would appreciate some input from a coach or Berry fan to provide some insight here. Again, I know CB/Safety are thankless positions so I am not dismissing that fact; just hard to rationalize from a purely statistical standpoint.

Rabson played with purpose today against UMHB:

15 Tackles (8 solo), 2.5 TFL, .5 sacks, and an interception.

I had the chance to speak with his family briefly and express my admiration for his skill and work ethic.  Fine people who raised a fine young man.

Quote from: Dustin_Patrón on November 23, 2024, 03:08:02 PMFirst time watching Trinity this year and I couldn't be more underwhelmed by their performance. The Trinity Bantams could compete with them in this second half.

Cap tipped to Babson, they left the neck warmers at home and came with a game plan, stuck to it and it's paying off. Trinity showing no fight. This ones a wrap.

Unrelated but shoutout to David Saward adding some great color commentary on this Midd broadcast. He should do the final 4.

First time watching.  Enough said.

Quote from: tigerguy on November 21, 2024, 08:14:49 PM

Quote from: D3Navy on November 21, 2024, 07:10:12 PMAny Trinity Tiger players here?  Parents?  If so, realize that you guys are an afterthought to the "experts":

https://www.d3football.com/columns/around-the-nation/2024/playoff-surprises-disappointments

To heck with that!  Dig in, focus, and prove 'em wrong.

Hope the secondary can hold up.

They need to dig deep.  It's a mental game in the backfield

Any Trinity Tiger players here?  Parents?  If so, realize that you guys are an afterthought to the "experts":

https://www.d3football.com/columns/around-the-nation/2024/playoff-surprises-disappointments

To heck with that!  Dig in, focus, and prove 'em wrong.

I don't think I've seen this posted here yet, but tournament games are available live AND ON-DEMAND at:

https://www.ncaa.com/champs-pass

Lacrosse, Women's Volleyball, and Field Hockey are also available.

TLU - Southwestern tied 10-10 with a few seconds remaining.  Likely OT.

Looked like SW had it.  Go Pirates!