Cobbers Dragons Sept 3, 2007 WDAY Sportscast

Tomeo's refusal to talk to media shows immaturity

Mike McFeely, The Forum
Published Sunday, September 02, 2007

Damon Tomeo drives a black Porsche and has the swagger to go with it. He plays the role of tough-guy coach, the dude who instilled 'tude into the Minnesota State Moorhead Dragons football program. He can coach, just ask him.

Well, actually, you don't have to ask. He'll just tell you.

Funny thing, though. When it came time to face a tough situation Saturday, when it was time to stand up and be accountable for a series of bad decisions that cost his team their biggest game of the year, the tough guy ran and hid.

That must be southern California protocol when you snatch defeat from the jaws of certain victory.

Concordia beat the Dragons 34-32 in the Power Bowl at Jake Christiansen Stadium in one of the wildest and wackiest contests this timeless series has witnessed.

And if Terry Horan doesn't send Tomeo a nice bottle of wine every Sept. 1 for the rest of eternity, the Cobber coach should be ashamed.

That's because the Dragons handed the Cobbers a gift, an absolute gift, that Horan's crew was only too happy to take advantage of.

"It was a great win for us," Cobber defensive coordinator Scott Lucier said. "But we got some help."

It came in the form of some of the oddest clock management this side of Denny Green. Leading 32-27 with less than two minutes remaining and the Cobbers out of timeouts -- repeat, the Cobbers out of timeouts -- the Dragons decided they didn't want to run out the clock. Literally. So they tried to pass. Not once, not twice, but three times.

The loud "clunk" you heard around 4:30 p.m. Saturday was the jaws of the Concordia coaches hitting the ground.

"I was astonished," Lucier said.

The blueprint of the debacle goes a little something like this:

After Dragons quarterback Dustin Long hit Jabari Taylor on third-and-6 for 10 yards to the Concordia 34, MSUM ran Enol Gilles, who lost 3 yards. The clock, with just more than two minutes remaining, continued to run.

By the time the Dragons came to the line of scrimmage again, there was less than two minutes left and, to pretty much secure the victory, MSUM needed only to run two more times, take a delay of game penalty and punt on fourth down. With a 25-second play clock, that would've run the game clock under a minute and left the Cobbers having to drive nearly the entire field with -- repeat -- no timeouts.

Simple, no? Apparently not.

- Instead of running on second down, the Dragons tried a pass to Taylor, which fell incomplete, stopping the clock.

- With the chance to run precious seconds off the clock still there, Long instead threw an incomplete pass to Tim Zander on third down. Again the clock stopped.

- Still with the opportunity to pin Concordia deep with a punt, the Dragons instead went for it on fourth down and Long was sacked for an 11-yard loss.

It was a textbook application of CPR. Concordia, dead as dead could be just 30 seconds earlier, took possession at their own 48 with 1:32 remaining.

The rest, including Andrew Larson's 11-yard TD pass to Nick Alton with 3 seconds remaining, will go down in Cobber lore.

Asked his opinion of MSUM's play selection, Horan said: "They were stopping the clock for us. We had no timeouts. No question we felt fortunate. It's the only way we could win."

Said Lucier: "Let me put it this way: I told our kids, 'They're going to run.' They didn't. I was amazed."

This is the spot where we'd like to tell you, gentle readers, what the Dragons side thought. We'd like to tell you why the Dragons passed, why they didn't run, why they didn't punt and who made those decisions. We tried, Forum colleague Heath Hotzler and I, but we were rebuffed by the MSUM head coach.

While Hotzler and I were beginning to interview Long -- who seemed quite willing to talk with us -- Tomeo stepped in and shoved his quarterback in the chest.

"Get out of here. Don't talk to these guys," Tomeo told Long. "They're just going to write something negative."

After making a two-sentence "statement," Tomeo stormed away, yelling at his coaches to get the Dragon players back to MSUM. When asked if he would field a couple of questions, Tomeo responded: "I'm done giving quotes."

The swagger had been replaced by immaturity. When it was time to step up and be a head coach, be the face of the program, be the guy fans want to rally behind, be the man to answer for a loss, Tomeo acted like a 12-year-old brat.

Tough times, it is said, reveal character.

Tough guys, we might add, don't run and hide.

www.areavoices.com

[If you would like to send a bottle of wine:

NZ 103B
1104 7th Ave South
Moorhead, MN 56563 USA]

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Cobbers
• Dragons
• 2007
• DII
• DIII
• Football
• Damon
• Tomeo
• Concordia
• Minnesota
• State
• University
• Moorhead

[dudefish30]

the sucks, - this comment much as u want i dont care, y wud i? im just speaking my mind

[MortonSalt2u]

Whatever....

[vidstuff007]

So the Dragons break the tradition that started in 1920 because they "can't" schedule Concordia in 2008 because of a "scheduling conflict" because they play in an expanded conference and on the Saturday that the Cobbers and Dragons traditionally play (the Cobbers have an open date), the Dragons schedule non- conference Valley City State, and NAIA school that plays in the Dakota Athletic Conf, - and GETS BEAT!! 31-29

I wonder if coach Tomeo made the team walk back to Moorhead from Valley City?

[vidstuff007]

So the Dragons break the tradition that started in 1920 because they "can't" schedule Concordia in 2008 because of a "scheduling conflict" because they play in an expanded conference and on the Saturday that the Cobbers and Dragons traditionally play (the Cobbers have an open date), the Dragons schedule non- conference Valley City State, and NAIA school that plays in the Dakota Athletic Conf, - and GETS BEAT!! 31-29

I wonder if coach Tomeo made the team walk back to Moorhead from Valley City?

[HHS76]

GO COBBERS!