St. Thomas has a handful of practices remaining and then will hold its spring game on May 6 at O'Shaughnessy Stadium. This will be the initial preview for the Tommies' third season in the FCS level of Division I football that will offer their most intriguing 11-game schedule.
Next quarterback at St. Thomas could break with coach Glenn Caruso's long-time pattern
In 14 seasons, Caruso's starting quarterbacks have been from hometowns within three hours of campus . The QB with the inside track for 2023 doesn't fit that description.
April 20, 2023 at 1:09PM
That's because the second and third nonconference games are at South Dakota and at Harvard.
Coach Glenn Caruso's last stop as an assistant coach was at South Dakota in 2004-05. Harvard has been playing football since 1874, and this will be the Crimson's first-ever game against a Minnesota school.
There also will be a Pioneer Football League rematch at the University of San Diego in November.
The most memorable game of the Tommies' 8-0 run through the PFL last season was a 49-42 victory over the Toreros in St. Paul.
The St. Thomas quarterback for that shootout was Cade Sexauer, a fifth-year senior who waited until the midst of his fourth year on campus (2021 season) to take over under center.
Caruso has a photo on his phone of him posing with Sexauer as a young athlete, and another from late last fall.
"Here's Cade as a youngster attending our football camp, and here's Cade after he helped lead us to our first Division I conference championship," Caruso said.
And think of that: There hadn't been a Division I conference championship won in the Twin Cities since the Gophers tied Indiana and Purdue for the Big Ten title in 1967.
Fifty-five years. Ski-U-Meh.
Sexauer's departure requires a new quarterback for 2023 as the Tommies attempt to defend the PFL title. The first-teamer this spring has been Amari Powell, a redshirt freshman from Valencia, Calif.
Powell is quite a contrast to Sexauer (6-4, 225) physically, and also geographically to previous Caruso quarterbacks.
In 14 seasons, Caruso's starting quarterbacks came from hometowns within three hours of campus — Minnesotans, or Matt O'Connell from Clear Lake, Wis., with the 2012 Stagg Bowl team.
Powell is 6-1 and weighs 192 pounds, although he had to prove that to Caruso in a recent team meeting.
"We were talking about being on the goal line, what we call '5-foot plays,' and how it's not about size … it's the will to win those 5 feet," Caruso said. "I ask, 'Amari, what do you weigh?' He said, 'Yesterday, 191.'
"Me: 'I don't believe it. Get over here on the scale.' And he was 192. You look at him, you think, 'He's thin,' but there's muscle there."
Sexauer carried the ball 106 times for the Tommies in 2022. He could pound it for 5 yards.
"We can run those plays we always run with Amari,'' Caruso said. "He might just pop it outside more often.''
Powell was asked earlier for his strengths as a quarterback and one he mentioned was throwing very accurately from "platform."
Caruso said: "And when he has to get off platform and improvise, he can make big plays running or throwing."
Powell went to three high schools: two years at Sierra Canyon, one at Oaks Christian and a senior year at Chaminade College Prep.
"The Oaks Christian quarterback situation didn't turn out as it was planned to be," Powell said. "Chaminade and Oaks traditionally play the season opener. I wanted to win that game, badly. And we did, 42-to-something."
The recruiting services once listed Powell as 100% committed to Western Kentucky. That didn't happen. He made a winter visit to St. Thomas and was sold on the football program and a "great" business school.
When he goes back home to the L.A. area, there's one constant question from friends: How do you take the weather up there?
"It's really not that bad," Powell said. "Although, I'll admit, once football is over, I'm not outside that often. I go to classes, do schoolwork, and I'm one of those people that has to get his sleep."
Powell's father, Ali, is a lifelong Californian. His mother, Sophia, moved to the States from Tanzania for college when she was 17. Amari has been to the African nation on family visits.
"All those spaces when you get outside the city — it's beautiful, quite a contrast to L.A.," he said. "But I love the L.A. area, too. It's never boring."
Caruso chooses his starting quarterback in fall camp. Michael Rostberg, 6-3 and 210 and a record-breaking passer at Fargo Shanley, will be arriving as a touted freshman.
"We always have quarterback competition, but Amari has looked very, very good this spring," Caruso said.
Two offensive linemen from Lakeville, Bryce Benhart and Riley Mahlman, are standouts for Big Ten rivals of Minnesota.
