Back-to-back games in southern California open Linfield 2014 football season

Linfield Athletics 
announced next 
season's football  
schedule ...

... in its Wildcat 
newsletter winter 
2014 issue and 
in a website post.

Sept 13 at Chapman

Sept 20 at Redlands

Sept 27 bye

Oct 4 at PLU (Puyallup)

Oct 11 George Fox (Homecoming)

Oct 18 Whitworth

Oct 25 at Lewis & Clark (Portland)

Nov 1 Willamette

Nov 8 at UPS (Tacoma)

Nov 15 Pacific

Season start for the Joe Smith-coached Wildcats is Sept. 13 at Chapman University (Ernie Chapman Stadium) in Orange, Calif. A week later, Sept. 20, the 'Cats are at Redlands University (Ted Runner Stadium) in Redlands, Calif. The southern California universities are about an hour driving time apart in San Bernardino County.

Chapman’s Panthers and Redlands’ Bulldogs are SCIAC/Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Association members. Redlands won the 2013 SCIAC title with a 7-0 record (7-3 overall). Chapman was second at 6-1 (8-1).

During the 2013 season, Redlands beat Chapman 21-17. In the NCAAD3 football playoffs opening round, Redlands lost 35-7 in Texas at Mary Hardin-Baylor.

Former Linfield player and assistant football coach Jim Good is Redland's associate head coach/quarterbacks' coach and recruiting coordinator.

Linfield has never played Chapman in football. It's played Redlands five times and won all. The last two times Linfield played Redlands were in the 2003 season both on Linfield’s Maxwell Field. Wildcats defeating Bulldogs scores that year were 49-10 (regular season) and 31-23 (NCAAD3 playoffs). The score was 59-21 in the 2002 season, the last time Linfield has played a football game at Redlands.

The California games are followed with a bye (Sept. 27) and then the Cats’ NWC/Northwest Conference opener is Oct. 4 in Puyallup, Wash., at Sparks Stadium versus PLU.

Linfield’s home and NWC opener will be Homecoming on Oct. 11 (Maxwell Field, Memorial Stadium) versus the George Fox University Bruins. Head coach of GFU’s reconstituted (did not play football 1969-2013) football program is Chris Casey. He and GFU assistant coaches Ken Ingram and Gabe Haberly are Linfield grads, former Linfield football players and assistant coaches.

On Oct. 18, NWC opponent Whitworth University, led by new head coach Rod Sandberg, plays at Linfield. 

The Wildcats travel to Palatine Hill in Portland to play a conference game on Oct. 25 at Lewis & Clark. Tim Jacobs, L&C assistant coach, is a Linfield grad, former Linfield football player and assistant coach.

Continuing in the conference, Willamette plays Nov. 1 at Linfield. Willamette assistant coaches brothers Brandon and Mikey Lemmon are former Linfield football players.

The next week, Nov. 8, Linfield travels to Tacoma and plays UPS (Peyton Field at Baker Stadium). UPS assistant coaches Thomas Ford and Dan Lever are Linfield grads and former Linfield football players. Ford is a former Linfield assistant football coach. Lever is great-grandson of Linfield Hall of Famer Henry Lever, a former Linfield coach (football, basketball, baseball, track & field) and athletic director.

Linfield’s final conference game and final regular season game will be Nov. 15 when Pacific plays at Linfield. James Yen, Pacific assistant coach, is a Linfield grad and former Linfield football player and assistant coach.

Footnotes:

• Joe Smith is a Linfield grad, former Linfield football player and former Linfield assistant coach.

• After discontinuing its football program in 1968, GFU -- located in Newberg about a 25 minute drive in Yamhill County from McMinnville -- is reviving it in 2014. Linfield leads the football series, winning six, losing four and tying one. The last varsity football game played between George Fox and Linfield was in 1942 with Linfield, coached by Henry Lever, winning 50-0 over what was then called Pacific College. Following three seasons (1943, 1944 and 1945) when the Wildcats did not play football during World War II, some Linfield JV squads played George Fox varsity teams. One of those games was in 1953, when Linfield’s JVs played in George Fox’s Homecoming game.

• Announcement of the schedule means a possible non-conference early season game for Linfield at Louisiana College in Pineville, La., did not make the final cut.

• The PLU (game in Puyallup) and UPS (game in Tacoma) contests both being played in the Tacoma area/Pierce County remind Wildcat followers of the NWC “old days.” Then, if Linfield played one of those universities on the road during a season, it played the other game in McMinnville.