100
wins! Linfield overwhelms George Fox, 50-14, for Smith’s 100th victory
Story, photos by Rusty Rae, Sports Editor, McMinnville N-R/News-Register 11/1/2016
In a game in
which Linfield College could have scored 100 points if it wanted, the Wildcats
trampled George Fox University 50-14 Saturday at Maxwell Field. The contest,
not even as close as the difference indicated, earned for head coach Joseph
Smith his 100th win as head coach.
As you might
suspect, there is a theme here regarding the number 100. Before examining the
details, a review of Smith's accomplishment is due. In his 11th season at his
alma mater, Smith reached the century mark for wins faster than any Linfield
coach.
Only two
coaches achieved the hallowed mark, Paul Durham with 122 victories, and Ad
Rutschman, who won 182 games before retiring. Smith is somewhat nonchalant
about his accomplishment
“I guess
sometime last summer I noticed that sometime during the season I should win my
100th – but I really did not think too much about it. But it is very humbling
to be reach a mark that has only been reached by Ad (Rutschman) and Mr. (Paul)
Durham.
In his 25th
year in McMinnville, Smith had other choices coming out of high school,
including Virginia Military Institute and Azusa Pacific.
“There was something
about Linfield that I wanted. The committment to excellence and to team – that
is something that I really wanted – and the opportunity to win a championship,”
he said.
Smith played
for an NAIA national title in 1992, in a losing effort, to Findlay of Ohio,
26-13 – the only defeat of the season. He didn’t recover from the experience
until he became the Linfield defensive coordinator and the ‘Cats won the
national title in the 2004 season.
Even today,
with all the success, Smith remembers the 19 losses down to the last detail. “I
can tell you every single loss – what went wrong, what we should have done
differently,” he said.
But with the
angst of remembered losses, there remains the joy of the football’s fellowship.
Smith said the 2009 team is one of his favorites.
“The way that
the seniors came together. They led the country in turnovers after we were
almost last the previous year. It was an extra special group of senior
leaders,” he added.
In his younger
days, he assumed archeology might be his chosen profession. But at Linfield he
found his other passion was in people development. He graduated with a degree
in psychology and later earned his masters’ degree in sports psychology.
Smith, who
identifies with Ad Rutschman and the Linfield way, said the success of the
program includes a number of facets, and while winning a national title is
always a focus, Smith said ultimately it is about “developing these young men.”
Of the 100
wins, Smith quickly points to the fact his staff has been with him over all 11
years and credits the likes of Assistant Head Coach / Line Coach Doug Hire (17
years with the program), Defensive Coordinator Jackson Vaughn (21 years),
Linebacker coach Phil Rhombach (nine years) and Brandon Hasenberg (11 years),
amongst others, with the consistency of success of the program.
“It is amazing
to have that group of coaches together for this time – they and all of our
coaches are a part of the success. I am really proud of that,” he said.
Smith, not
simply the head football coach, said he has grown as an assistant baseball
coach working with Scott Carnahan and Scott Brosius and looks to his years as a
Junior Baseball Organization (JBO) coach, as an opportunity to work with kids
in the community.
“Honestly,
those were rewarding times too, and I learned things from working with eighth
graders that I use working with the football team today,” he said.
The Linfield
Way – “Am I a better football player today than I was yesterday?” is the
question deeply embedded in the DNA of the Wildcats. Part of that commitment to
excellence that brought Smith to Linfield a quarter century ago was on display
to the fullest extent Saturday.
“We are not the
same football team that we were even two weeks ago, let alone at the start of
the season. The offensive line has really started to jell and our defense has
continue to improve,” Smith said.
That fact was
certainly noticeable Saturday as Linfield began already on fire. The 'Cats hit
the Bruins with a one-two punch from which they never recovered. Intially, it
was the 'Cat defense, nearly impenetrable in the first half. The Bruins ran
three plays to start, but gained only one yard.
Linfield took
over at its 38-yard. Six plays later, with McMinnville’s Spencer Payne doing
the Wildcat share of the work (including one scintillating run of 25 yards),
Linfield scored. The Bruins ran one play after the ensuing kick-off before
Kennedy Johnson, the ‘Cats all-everything defensive back, picked off Bruin QB
Grant Schroeder and went in untouched for the score from 30 yards out. With
less than five minutes gone, Linfield led13-0.
Although the
next drive was more successful, the Bruins ran out of gas on the Linfield
33-yard line and the ‘Cats took possession. Linfield’s versatile senior QB Sam
Riddle hit Reed Peterson for the entire 67 yards on one play, and at the 4:11
mark of the first quarter it was 20-0.
Riddle, himself
on fire, completed his first 16 passes, finishing 21-for-25 for 323 yards and
three touchdowns. Riddle's .840 completion percentage was the second-best
single-game mark in Wildcat history, trailing only his .895 mark (17-for-19)
against Cortland State in last season's NCAA Division III second round playoff
game.
On the
following kick-off, Linfield’s Mitchell Kekels forced the fumble, Tyler
Torgerson grabbed the loose ball, and gave the locals the ball on the George
Fox 21. Riddle then hit Peterson for a four-yard score and it was 27-0
Linfield, as the wheels were coming off the proverbial wagon for the Bruins.
The second
quarter meant more of the same. The Bruins had no answer for the Linfield
offense. Payne scored at the 4:59 mark on a spectacular one-yard cartwheeling
leap into the Bruin end zone and a 40-0 lead. At the end of the half Linfield
kicker Willi Warner hit a 20 yard field and a 43-0 lead at the break.
Linfield
received the second half kick-off and promptly scored on a 76 yard drive with
Sutter Choisser doing the honors on the last two yards for a 50-0 lead.
George Fox
finally put up its first points against Linfield since the program hit the
re-start button three years ago, managing a pair of cheap touchdowns after the
‘Cats substituted heavily with second and third teamers.
Linfield
travels to University of Puget Sound next week in Tacoma before returning for
the final match of the season against Pacific Lutheran.
One hundred
wins is nice, as you have heard, a testament to Smith, his assistant coaches,
and the program. But in the great scheme of things, for Smith it is just a part
of the football journey as Linfield senses the opportunity to play for a
national title.
