Small colleges notebook: Want to watch Linfield playing at home? Look fast By Norm Maves Jr., Special to the Oregonian 9/1/2009
You could probably count the number of times Linfield has had reason to be concerned about its football schedule without using your hands.
But this year, a glance at the first five games should cause a little worry among even the most passionate Wildcat fans.
The Wildcats open at home against fifth-ranked Hardin-Simmons, then hit the road for four consecutive weeks to play at No. 23 Occidental, Southern Oregon, Menlo and Whitworth.
Linfield plays at home against constantly rebuilding Lewis & Clark, then heads back on the road to face No. 8 Willamette. The Wildcats finish at home against Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran.
Whew. It helps explain why the Wildcats took advantage of a buyout clause and spent $10,000 so as not to have to go to Monmouth, to play Western Oregon.
The Division II Wolves, who always struggle to assemble a schedule, were replaced by Occidental.
"Putting this football schedule together this year was certainly a difficult thing to do," Linfield athletic director Scott Carnahan said. "We got out of sequence on home and away games, and the (Northwest Conference) schedule came in so that to get the Occidental game in at all we had to commit to going there.
"This year we're going to bite the bullet."
Actually, he said, Linfield was looking far ahead to the postseason when it put the package together. Willamette is loaded again, so Linfield is hedging its bets in case it has to sell itself to the NCAA Division III selection committee as an at-large team.
"We look at every season in terms of a national championship," Carnahan said. "The kind of competition you play and your (ratings percentage index) are important. So when Occidental became available, we knew that they were a D3 playoff team and were at the top of (the Southern California Intercollegiate Conference) every year.
"And we're coming off the Hardin-Simmons game. If we win those two games, our RPI is going way up. We're trying to play as much like competition as we can."
So, the tough schedule is good, if Linfield wins. But it comes with a risk.
Linfield's legendary winning-season streak is at 53 years. Lose those first two games, and fans could have reason to be concerned.
"The streak is in the back of your mind," Carnahan said. "But we wanted the best schedule we could against the kind of competition we need to play.
"I don't want to sound arrogant, but we always think we can win five games."
Win one, lose one: It wasn't part of the deal, but Western Oregon got something from Linfield this year --its radio broadcaster.
That's why Darrell Aune is hanging around the practice field adjacent to McArthur Stadium these days. Aune, who achieved local legend status when he was the play-by-play man for Oregon State for years, jumped from Linfield to Western Oregon.
It's a natural gig for Aune. He lives in Monmouth and can walk to work. Plus he doesn't have to go on the road with the Wolves. That's the job of WOU associate athletic director Russ Blunck.
But only for this year, it turns out. The popular Blunck, who has been WOU's sports information director and radio broadcaster since 1997, just took a job as associate athletic director at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego.
Blunck will have to commute to do the Wolves' road broadcasts. He'll be out of his desk in Monmouth on Sept. 11 and start at Point Loma three days later.
For more small college notes, go to oregonlive.com/collegefootball
