Tommies try to avoid 0-3 start and four other things to know about Minnesota college football

St. Thomas has started a season 0-2 for the first time in Glenn Caruso’s tenure as the Tommies coach.

This week, the Tommies will play host to Black Hills State as they try to avoid their first three-game losing streak under Caruso, who is in his 17th season as Tommies coach.

After opening the season with a 34-13 loss at home to Division II Sioux Falls, St. Thomas showed improvement last week in a 17-10 loss to Northern Iowa at home. The Tommies led 10-7 with 11 minutes remaining and were tied 10-10 before Northern Iowa scored with 2 minutes, 57 seconds remaining.

Black Hills State was St. Thomas’ first opponent last season, with the Tommies posting a 36-26 victory in St. Paul.

Tommies running back Hope Adebayo needs just eight rushing yards to surpass 2,000 for his career.

Before this season, the only other time the Tommies had lost back-to-back games under Caruso was last season, when they lost to South Dakota and Harvard.

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

Minnesota State Mankato moved up one spot to No. 7 in the D2football.com Top 25 after outlasting Bemidji State 31-29 last Saturday in Mankato.

Matthew Jaeger kicked a 31-yard field on the final play of the game for the Mavericks after the Beavers had scored a touchdown with 1 minute, 55 seconds remaining to take a 29-28 lead.

Also ranked in the Top 25 are Augustana (No. 18), Minnesota Duluth (No. 20) and Bemidji State (No. 23).

Augustana plays at South Dakota State, the top-ranked team in the FCS (I-AA) poll, on Saturday. Also on Saturday, Bemidji State plays host to Southwest Minnesota State, while Minnesota Duluth plays host to MSU Moorhead.

Wartburg, ranked No. 5 in the d3football.com poll, will play at No. 12 St. John’s on Saturday in the first regular-season meeting between the two teams since 1971.

It’s only the sixth meeting between the teams, with the last three meetings in the Division III playoffs. Wartburg won the last meeting 23-20 in the second round of those playoffs in Collegeville.

Both teams opened their season with victories last week. Wartburg, coming off a 13-0 season and a trip to the DIII semifinals, defeated host Monmouth 38-24.

Aaron Syverson passed for 282 yards and four TDs to pace the Johnnies to a 49-0 victory over Carthage in Collegeville. Syverson became the third quarterback in St. John’s and MIAC history to reach the 100 passing touchdowns for a career.

The victory was the 100th for Johnnies coach Gary Fasching, who is in his 12th season. His career record is 100-19.

Bethel will open its season on Saturday at Northwestern (St. Paul) in the debut for head coach Mike McElroy.

McElroy, who spent two seasons on the Gophers staff under coach Jerry Kill before spending the past seven seasons as Bethel defensive coordinator, replaced Steve Johnson, who retired after 35 seasons on the job.

Bethel is the defending MIAC champion, while Northwestern finished second in the UMAC. Northwestern opened its season last Saturday with a 39-21 loss to St. Olaf.

Defending UMAC champion Minnesota Morris will play at Hamline on Saturday. Both teams won their season-openers last week.

Minnesota Morris scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to rally for a 17-16 victory over Macalester.

Hamline won at Crown, 35-14, as Pipers’ receiver Dawson Schaffer caught nine passes for 272 yards and five touchdowns. Schaffer, a junior, transferred to Hamline after leading Concordia (Moorhead) last season with 11 touchdown receptions.