St. Thomas’ next big test, and four other insights into Minnesota college football

Last month, St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso said the Tommies’ game against Northern Iowa would be a “good litmus test” for his team.

The Tommies and UNI will meet on Saturday in St. Paul. It’s their first meeting since 2021, when the Panthers defeated the Tommies, who were in the first season of FCS (Division I-AA) play, 44-3 in Cedar Falls.

Adding significance to Caruso’s preseason assessment, is how the Tommies stumbled in Week 1.

The Tommies suffered a 34-13 loss to Sioux Falls, a Division II opponent, on Aug. 29. The loss ended the Tommies’ 42-game home field winning streak.

After inclement weather delayed the kickoff, the Tommies took a 7-0 lead. But Sioux Falls, which was picked eighth in the NSIC preseason poll, took an 11-7 halftime lead and then outscored the Tommies 23-6 in the second half.

The Tommies, who were picked second in the Pioneer League preseason poll, were limited to eight first downs, 22 rushing yards and 172 yards in total offense.

Here are four other Minnesota college football story lines this week:

Minnesota State Mankato, which opened its season with a 36-22 victory at NW Missouri State on Aug. 29, will play host to Bemidji State on Saturday.

The Mavericks, ranked No. 8 in the D2football.com Top 25, were led by senior QB Hayden Ekern, who passed for 209 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 56 yards and four touchdowns.

Ekern is the first Mavericks quarterback to rush for four TDs in game since 2013.

Bemidji State, which is ranked No. 20 in the D2football.com poll, opened its season on Aug. 29 with a come-from-behind 19-13 victory in overtime over Michigan Tech in Bemidji.

The Beavers, who rallied from a 10-0 deficit to take a 13-10 lead late in the game, won after Michigan Tech sent the game into OT on a 32-yard field goal on the final play of the fourth quarter.

After Michigan Tech missed a field goal attempt on the first possession of OT, Sam McGath, a senior making his first start for the Beavers, completed a 21-yard TD pass to Brice Peters for the winning TD.

Augsburg, which has gone 6-4 in each of the last two seasons, opens Friday with a home game against Valley City State. The last time the Auggies had three consecutive winning seasons was from 1997-1999.

This will be just the fourth meeting between Augsburg and Valley City State. The most recent meeting was in 1997 in Valley City, N.D. The last time the teams played in Minneapolis was 1975. Valley City State opened its season on Aug. 29 with a 38-7 loss to Minot State.

St. John’s, ranked No. 14 in the D3Football.com preseason Top 25, opens its season on Saturday at home against Carthage. It will be the first meeting between the two teams.

Among their returning starters for the Johnnies is quarterback Aaron Syverson, a senior from Minnetonka. In 2023, he completed 270 of 395 passes for 3,436 yards and 45 touchdowns with only six interceptions.

Carthage, located in Kenosha, Wis., is in its first season under coach Matt Popino.

The six UMAC teams open their schedule, which will feature a seven-game conference slate this season. The league’s members will play two of their conference foes twice. The conference opted for the format because laying a single round-robin schedule meant teams had to find five nonconference games if they wanted to play the maximum of 10 games allowed in DIII.