Center of Things

Dan Donovan was an All-NCC
center for the Mavericks in 1989

Former Minnesota State football offensive lineman Dan Donovan played for the Mavericks from 1985 to 1989. In 1987 Minnesota State finished with an 9-3 record, 8-1 in the NCC finishing first and claiming North Central Conference champions and in doing so, became a part of the first Maverick football team to make an NCAA tournament appearance.

A 1985 graduate of Burnsville (Minn.) High School and a First Team All-North Central Conference selection for the Mavericks in 1989, Donovan went on after college graduation to get his master’s degree from Georgia Tech while serving as a graduate assistant coach for the Georgia Tech football team. After graduating from Georgia Tech, Donovan worked on the event side of sports. He ran sports technology for the 1996 Summer Olympic local committee in Atlanta. Dan continued to work Olympic games being the Head of Sport Competition in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Then in Athletes 2004 and Beijing 2006 he was the Consultant for Venue and Games readiness. 

 Now Donovan is the founder and managing partner for Stratoscope security and crowd management.

MavBlog: Talk about your playing days here at Minnesota State, what do you remember the most?

Dan Donovan (DD): I enjoyed all five years I was with the Mavericks! The 1987 North Central Conference championship and NCAA playoff year was a special team to be a part of. Beating North Dakota State in Fargo that season was a real highlight! I happened to have had mono leading up to that game and It was my first game back, so it was a huge win that led us to believe we could be NCC Champions!

MavBlog: How would you describe winning the NCC and being the first Minnesota State football team to make the NCAA tournament?

DD: The experience is hard to describe given the growth of the program and how quickly the pieces came together. Alot of the credit goes to those who laid the foundation before our ’87 team. I came in with the ’85 class and we had great upper-class leadership. We lost our starting QB, Greg Von der Lippe, in the middle of the year and fortunately Mike McDevitt did a great job stepping for Greg.

MavBlog: Do you still keep in touch with any of your former teammates?

DD: We have a group that stays connected (Darryl Wills, Von der Lippe, Chad Gossard, Ken Otto, Dain Jeppson, Ron Dorf and Drew Ekstrom) communicate regularly. We each have others that we are connected to that keeps us all together.

MavBlog: How much pride do you take in the success of the Minnesota State football team now?

DD: I follow as much as possible. I live in Palm Beach, Fla., now so I am not as connected as I could be, but our group keeps us all informed. I am closely watching the Mavericks in the Frozen Four this week given the NCAA is a major client of my company.

MavBlog: Talk about how head coach Dan Runkle had an impact on your life?

DD: Coach Runkle led the effort building the foundation to get to the ’87 Championship. Coach Krohn, Schlichte, Roach and others were great mentors. As a center I was closest to Coach Krohn, he did a great job balancing the personalities!

MavBlog: Tell us about your family.

DD: I have two great kids, Sydni (22) and Chance (21) who were born in Sydney, Australia while I was in charge of the sports department for the Sydney Olympics. Sydni plays college basketball and Chance works for a division of my company.

MavBlog: What are you doing now and how did you get to do that?

DD: I own and run two companies, Stratoscope and Ingressotek, in the sport & entertainment industry. Our typical clients are teams, leagues, stadiums and major events. I began in the event industry, after leaving Georgia Tech as a grad assistant in 1994, starting with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I have been fortunate to work with 7 Olympic Games, 13 Super Bowls, 4 NBA All-Star weekends, numerous engagements with the NCAA and many stadiums and arenas over the past 20+ years. 

 My Stratoscope team is currently working with the NCAA on the delivery of all the 2021 Championships. We have a full time Operations Center in NCAA HQ in Indianapolis staffed by our team and staff at each round of every event operationalizing the Resturn to Championships Protocols we wrote in 2020. My leads at the Di Hockey Regionals were very busy dealing with issues with the Notre Dame and Michigan hockey teams and their COVID results onsite. With the completion and Men’s and Women’s Final Fours we have completed over 50 events in the past 6 weeks.

MavBlog: What is it like working during the Super Bowl?

DD: Super Bowls are a unique experience! Our engagement started after they had multiple challenges with the game in Houston, streaker, ingress challenges and a halftime wardrobe malfunction that included Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. We were hired as the “what if” operational readiness team and helped the NFL develop contingencies and more robust NFL Control centralized operations on game day. Our first Super Bowl in Jacksonville, the service level of the stadium basically flooded during pre-game, just a few operational challenges! Was involved in the lights going out in New Orleans, train problems in NY/NJ and a variety of issues along the way. It’s a great event to be a part of working alongside a large team of experts.

MavBlog: What is it like working the Olympics? And what is the most memorable one?

DD: International events are completely different beast. From language challenges to various funding models the objectives for each organizing committee vary. Bringing 28 Olympic sports together during a two-week event in one city is a significant challenge. My most memorable was the 2000 Sydney Olympics! I was essentially the Athletic Director responsible for the delivery of all 28 sports. I had the opportunity to travel the world attending events and International Federation meetings while leading a team for 400 staff and 8,000 volunteers dedicated to providing the best events we could for the athletes. All of the politics aside that is what we the Olympics are there for. I also had the opportunity to be an Olympic Torch runner that year which is one of the most memorable experiences from the Games.

MavBlog: Do you still come back for some Football games or any Mavericks athletics?

DD:  The last game I was able to attend was the national championship game in McKinney, Tex. We had a great group of alumni at that game. Prior to that it was the reunion of the 1987 team in 2017. We had a great turnout there and it was fantastic to catch up with a number of our former teammates.

                       Contributed by Tanner Johnson, Minnesota Athletic Communications intern

Rushing Ahead

 

Minnesota State has been one of the most dominant NCAA Division II football programs of the last decade and a case could be made that one of the key reasons for the success starts with the Maverick offensive line.

These things are cyclical, of course and long-time followers of the program will point to the Bob Otto-era of the 1950s and 1960s when the likes of Hall of Fame running back Bernie Maczuga rambled for 3,129 yards along the ground from 1967-69. The program had All-Americans in the trenches with the likes of Scott Annexstad and Duane Goldammer in the late 1980s when the Mavericks featured an option-oriented offense, but it's only been recently that the program's rushing numbers from those times have been surpassed in the school's record books.

Todd Hoffner was named head coach of the Mavericks before the start of the 2008 season and he transformed a team that finished 4-7 the year before into a team that finished 9-3, won the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference South Division and qualified for the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in school history. 

In 2007, Minnesota State finished 4-7 while throwing the ball for 376.4 yards a game and rushing for 41.5 yards a game. Hoffner changed the narrative to running the ball. In his second season in 2009, Minnesota State finished with a 10-2 record and were NSIC South Division Champions. The Mavericks qualified for their second straight NCAA Tournament  and hosted the first playoff game at Blakeslee Stadium for the first time. That year, they ran for 216.8 yards per game and 34 total rushing touchdowns while throwing the ball for 180.8 yards per game and putting up 23 touchdowns through the air. Hoffner quickly turned that pass-first offense around with a win-in-the trenches mentality where his team ran the ball through opponents unrelentlessly.

Chad Henning, a Sun Prairie, Wis., native who played on the Minnesota State offensive line from 2007-11, now is a coach with the Mavericks where he serves as the program's offensive line coach. He had been a part of two completely different offensive schemes while at MSU.

“Well, my freshman year we were a 95% passing offense,” Coach Henning said. “When Coach Hoffner got here, we changed that completely. We ran the ball about 60% of the time and had some really good luck doing so. The size of the offensive line helped run block for sure.”

You cannot run the football without a great offensive line. Over the course of history, Minnesota State football has had 18 All-American offensive linemen, dating back to 1974 when Dan Miller was the first offensive linemen to receive All-American honors. Minnesota State’s Evan Heim, who was named an All-American in 2018 and 2019, was the last Maverick lineman to be honored before he graduated in the fall of 2019. Heim, who started in all 54 games at left tackle during his career at MSU, was the anchor in the offensive line while the Mavericks made a run at the national championship in 2019 - group of offensive linemen that refer to themselves The Hogs.

“Being a hog offensive lineman just meant about being something bigger than yourself and offensive line is one of the only positions in sports where all five guys need to do their job in order for us to be successful,” Heim said.

As successful as they were, in the 2019 season the Mavericks set a program record 4,246 total yards along with the single-season rushing yards record, the Mavericks also set records in points scored (712), rushing attempts (713) and rushing touchdowns (59) and ranked fifth in the nation for rushing offense.

“We were very dominate up front but the offensive line only gets you so far like ten yards but all runs more than that is thanks to offensive line sustaining blocks and caring about the team and doing it for the team and wide receiver downfield blocking where most schools wide receiver don’t care about blocking and normally wide receiver are very selfish but not at Mankato,” Heim said. “Also helps to have great tight end (Tyler Schmidt) and an All-American running back (Nate Gunn). Having a great offensive line is just part of the equation.”

Minnesota State takes pride in its offensive line and bringing in the best linemen every year. The Mavericks rushing offense had made the top 20 in the nation seven out of the last nine years. Those two seasons they did not, were the only two seasons they lost more than one game, one was in 2015, they finished 10-2, with 227.7 rushing yards per game, 25th in the nation for rushing offense. The other was in 2016 where they finished 8-3, with only 169.5 rushing yards per game, 60th in the nation for rushing offense.

 Colin Prosser joined the Minnesota State staff as offensive line coach in 2017 and now serves as the program's offensive coordinator. Under his leadership the Maverick offensive line led a third-ranked rushing offense in the nation with 4,036 rushing yards on the year for an average of 288.3 rushing yards per game in his first year. The Mavericks set a program single-season rushing yards record with 4,246 yards on the ground in 2019. MSU also set records in points scored (712), rushing attempts (713) and rushing touchdowns (59) and ranked fifth in the nation for rushing offense.

“Coach Prosser has done a great job of holding everyone accountable and getting the most out of his players,” said Henning. “We are a lot better now than we were back then when I played, not only as a talent level but also from a depth perspective. We have a lot more pride in the offensive line room now.”

 Contributed by Tanner Johnson, Minnesota State Athletic Communications student intern

Something in the Water

Shane Zylstra holds the Minnesota State record for career
touchdown receptions

Minnesota State senior wide receiver Shane Zylstra has had a decorated career with the Maverick football program. 

Through 44 career games, the Spicer, Minn., native has reeled in 171 catches for 3,154 yards receiving and 42 touchdowns. Those 42 touchdowns are a school record. The previous record for career receiving touchdowns at Minnesota State was 36, held by former Maverick wide receiver Josh Nelsen (1991-94). The record is something Zylstra takes great pride in. 

“It means a lot,” Zylstra said. “Just being able compete at a high level each and every day at such a great institution, it’s just nice to be able to contribute to the team and win games because that’s what I came here to do. To not only contribute but to play at a high level,” he said.  

Named to the All-NSIC First Team and and AFCA Second Team All-American last year, Zylstra totaled 66 catches for 1,261 yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior in 2018 in helping lead the Mavericks to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.

Shane Zylstra (right) with
his older brother Brandon

Zylstra’s football success is obvious. But what isn’t known is that Zylstra was a competitive water skier long before he became an elite college wide receiver. The 6-foot-5, 215-pound Zylstra grew up near a private lake called Green Lake in Spicer and attended New London-Spicer High School. One of the family traditions was to water ski.

“Every weekend we were out on that lake water skiing barefoot and just hanging out,” Zylstra said. “My dad and grandpa used to ski a lot, so that’s who got us into that, and it just built off from there,” he said.  

He started water skiing at age five and barefooting at age seven. Water skiing is one thing, but barefooting is a whole different required skillset. It’s similar to traditional water skiing, except you don’t use any water skis at all, just your feet, as you perform jumps and tricks behind a boat. Unlike traditional water skiing, barefooting requires faster boat speeds that reach up to 40 mph, which is required for the athlete to plane on his bare feet. The barefoot events of wake slalom, tricks and jumping are also similar to traditional water skiing. One may wonder, how does this help with being an elite receiver?

“It definitely helps with balance,” Zylstra said. “You constantly have to worry about balance when you’re on the water. There’s a lot of times when you’re basically balancing on one foot, so it’s just a huge part. And then on the mental side you have a constant challenge of improving on new tricks and new styles,” he said.

Zylstra, along with his three brothers Justin Zylstra, Brandon Zylstra, a wide receiver who plays for the Carolina Panthers, and Jaden Zylstra, joined the Little Crow Ski Team of New London, Minn.. He competed for ten years with the ski team, where he had weekly tournaments in the summer all around the Midwest.

“Every Friday, you host a show for public attendance, and then we traveled to different cities around us for public shows for Water Days events and things like that. And then we often traveled the Midwest doing competitions against other teams in the Midwest,” Zylstra said.  

From there, the water ski teams and individuals compete in regional tournaments for a shot to compete at the national level.

“Growing up we were always really successful at regionals, so we always went to nationals and competed at that next level,” he said.

Looking back at is water skiing days, Zylstra isn’t shy about who the best in the family is.

“Best water skier in the family, I have to give it to myself. Brandon’s great and all, but he’s even said it too, in college at least, that I’m a little bit ahead of him. We all have our own unique talents that make us all great, but I have to stick with myself,” he said.  

All four of the Zylstra brothers, Justin, 27, Brandon, 26, Shane, 22, and Jaden, 16, found success in water skiing at the national level. Brandon and Shane ultimately chose football over water skiing, but Jaden plans to pursue water skiing in college.

“Water skiing is probably my younger brother’s favorite sport. He’s working on pursuing it down in the southern states,” Zylstra said. “You can go to college for it, and that’s what he’s thinking about doing,” he said.

Fast-forward to today, Zylstra and the Mavericks are 5-0 and hold a No. 3 overall national ranking in the American Football Coaches Association Coaches Poll. He has one goal in mind for this season, and it’s to win a NCAA Division II national championship.

“It’d be really nice to finish that senior year with a National Championship,” Zylstra said. “It’s one last go-around, and I think we have the talent to do it. It’s just a matter of getting it done at the end of the day,” he said.  

              contributed by Collin Wilmes, Athletic Communications intern

-->

A Football Legacy

Mankato native Ryan Schlichte has played a big role in
Minnesota State's success the past four years

A legacy always has to start somewhere. 

RyanSchlichte, a senior quarterback on the third-rated Minnesota State football team, came to the Mavericks with probably more knowledge about the program than most of his teammates.

A three-year starter at Mankato West, Schlichte racked up over 2,000 yards passing and 25 touchdowns as a sophomore and junior with the Scarlets. His senior year of high school, in which he threw for 3,141 yards and 45 touchdowns, he earned Minnesota High School Gatorade Player of the Year, Minnesota AP Player of the Year, Big 9 Player of the Year and USA Today Minnesota Player of the Year honors.

The connection with the local NCAA DII football program came with Ryan’s father, Dave, a defensive back and quarterback for the Mavericks in the early 1980s. Dave, a native of Wilmont, Minn., native who prepped at Worthington High School, served as offensive coordinator under Minnesota State head coach Dan Runkle following his college playing career.

“From as long as I can remember, our family went to the games at The Blake. It seemed like every Saturday the Mavericks had a home game and in the back of my mind it wasn’t me watching the Gophers, but it was me watching the Mavericks play. That kind of transitioned as to what I was playing when I was younger and into high school. My dad was a coach and always had great insight. I didn’t always listen to it first, but I’ve come to appreciate his knowledge of the game and for what he’s done for me as a player and for a young man as well,” Schlichte said.

“As a young man he definitely helped me mature and to treat everyone that I would like to be treated,” said Schlichte. “My dad treated everyone with respect and treated everyone the same. That’s how I’ve always kept that open mind and try to get to know as many guys as I can. I try to find something about someone on the team if I don’t know everyone on the team. I’ve always tried to be a leader and pick people back up when they are down.”

Following a redshirt year on 2015, Schlichte saw action in seven games as a freshman in 2016 prior to assuming the starting role for the Mavericks as a sophomore, helping guide the team to a 13-1 record as they claimed an NSIC Championship and advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Sharing starting duties with J.D. Ekowa in 2018, Minnesota State again posted a 13-1 record.

Dave Schlichte feels Ryan’s exposure to the Mavericks and the college football culture likely has played a role in Ryan’s success at Minnesota State. 

“Being a part of a team was one of the best moments I had at college and I thought it was something that would be good for him to be exposed to,” said Dave. “I think the ups and downs we had when we played made our group closer and that’s what being a part of team is all about.”

 In playing for his college coaches, Dave learned that there’s more than one way to get things done in understanding Al Sandona and Dan Runkle very different coaches and how they not only wanted their teams to play, but also how they worked with their players. “Sandona was more defensive than an offensive style and Runkle was more offensive than defensive,” said the senior Schlichte.  “It was an adjustment switching everything around between the two coaches, but we were able to overcome all of the years that we were struggling to winning the conference championship within a five-year span.”

On becoming a college coach right out of college, Dave felt that it was something he was ready for, even if it was a young age. “Runk’s staff was allowed to voice your thoughts and opinions on what to do. Sometimes as a team we were trying to figure out a way to be competitive. The hardest thing about changing from a player to coach was that it wasn’t about you anymore it was about the players and what their future holds. It also was about their families and what was best for them. Sometimes the mindset changes completely and it can’t be about you."

A football family, which besides Ryan and Dave includes Ryan’s mother Jody and brother, Jay, who was a tight end at Minnesota Duluth, you know where you’ll be able to find the Schlichte’s in the fall.  Most likely they’ll be at a football game.

                          - contributed by Mason Tonsager, Minnesota State Athletic Communications intern

           

Hallowe'en 1991 and the Mavericks

Following a late October storm that buried Mankato
with 20 inches of snow, the Maverick football team
worked to clear Blakeslee Stadium for a game vs. Augustana

This Halloween will mark the 25^th anniversary of the worst snow storm to hit the Midwest since November of 1940. 

Overnight on Thursday, October 31, 1991 Mankato was hit by a snowstorm that left almost two feet of snow across Minnesota. The storm kicked off an unusual set of events, including some which wreaked havoc with the Minnesota State football team, which was steaming toward a spot in the NCAA Division II playoffs.

The Mavericks entered the Oct. 31st weekend standing 3-3 in North Central Conference games and was looking for a home win against a University South Dakota side that was 1-6 on the season. That was before the storm hit, making roads impassable as virtually everything in southern Minnesota, along with most everywhere else in the upper midwest, ground to a halt for several days.

And for the first time in the history of the storied NCC, which dated back to the 1921 season, all football games across the conference that weekend were cancelled.

“Trick or’ treaters were done early that night and the snow started falling," said Don Amiot, the Athletic Director for Minnesota State at the time, recalling the onset of the storm. "In the morning we couldn’t get anywhere, everything was shut down.”

A sophomore quaterback named Jamie Pass, a Chicago native who had just transferred from Western Michigan, was new to the area and was about to find out what Minnesota winters were about.  "The highways were closed down because of the storm and no one could move. Canceling football games? I’ve never seen that before,” said Pass.

Unfortunately, Saturday's game vs. the Coyotes would not be rescheduled. The Mavericks had two remaining home games, and although the snow had stopped falling, it was still causing problems. With venerable Blakeslee Stadium still submerged in snow and ice in the following days, almost incredibly it appeared that another crucial home date was in jeopardy. After searching for a Plan B, the DakotaDome in Vermillion, S.D., emerged as a potential site for the Mavericks to "host" it's next opponent, South Dakota State.

The DakotaDome, which ironically is the home field for the University of South Dakota, was busy due to to the fact that is was indoors. But if teams could get there, it was one of the lone facilities in the area that had a playable field.  The Dome was set to host three other football games that afternoon, so the Mavericks and the Jackrabbits would not kick off until after 9:30 p.m.  Serving as the home team and with the department working as it normally did when it ran a home game (the public address announcer, scoreboard and score clock operators, chain gang, press box staff, etc., all travelled from Mankato to Vermillion to work the game), the Mavericks prevailed in the unusual contest, winning 23-0.

The last hurdle to jump in order for the Mavericks to make the NCAA postseason was to find a way to win a final home game against Augustana. This game had originally been scheduled for the UNIDome at the University of Northern Iowa. But, with the entire Maverick football team pressed into snow removal service, work began on clearing Blakeslee Stadium with snow blowers and shovels. Amiot understood that if the University was to use heavy equipment to clear the fields that it could have resulted in damage to the turf. So the job was left to Runkle and the football team and the mission was accomplished.

And although most of the snow from the storm had been cleared from the field, the snow banks created by shoveling led to some interesting plays.

“The sidelines were a mess, the field was soft and you couldn’t play a real football game," said Dan Runkle, who coached the Mavericks from 1981-2001.

The sidelines were packed with snow and big plays were the difference as the Mavericks dispatched the Vikings by a 28-14 margin. The all-important win gave the Mavericks a 7-3 regular season mark and a spot in the postseason, their second such foray into the NCAA tournament under Runkle.

“It was a fun, strange year. To have a game cancelled, another played over two days (the game vs. SDSU in Vermillion didn't end until early in the morning) and make the playoffs.” said Runkle.

Undoubtedly the 1991 season will be remembered as one in which the Mavericks made the NCAA playoffs - one of sixteen teams playing football in the DII postseason. MSU defeated North Dakota State 27-7 in Fargo before falling to Portland State in the quarterfinals in finishing with an 8-4 final record. 

For those that experienced it though, the infamous "Hallowe'een Blizzard of '91", will be hard to forget.

                                                  contributed by Chris Langlois, Athletic Communications intern

Is it Over?

Is it over?

It's hard to believe that the 2014 NCAA Division II Football season has finally come to a close. The Mavericks fell to CSU-Pueblo in the national championship game at beautiful Sporting Park in Kansas City Saturday, 13-0, in finishing the year with a 14-1 mark.

One loss for Minnesota State and it came in the national championship game. In getting to the last game of 2014, this team took everyone on an unprecedented ride.

We've had football at this institution since 1922. This was the 89th year of varsity football for us and no team had ever won 14 games in a season before.

Who does that? Who wins 14 football games in a season?

Including three NCAA playoff games, we hosted nine games at Blakeslee in 2014. Nine. In the last three seasons the Mavericks have gone 14-1 (2014), 11-1 (2013) and 13-1 (2012).  No team in NCAA Division II has won as many games during that time. Eight NCAA play-off games in three years. Minnesota State has not lost a conference game since 2011 and will head into 2015 riding a 33-game league unbeaten streak.

Those that follow the Mavericks, and we saw a ton of them in Kansas City at the national championship game and social media tells us that many who weren't there were watching on ESPN2, witnessed something special.

There's a lot of pride amongst our alums, the parents of our players, the students and staff at Minnesota State and the folks in Mankato with what happened and there's a tremendous amount of optimism moving forward.

This year's team loses 21 seniors who unquestionably have served as the backbone to the success the program has enjoyed during this run. So as we bid adieu to Nathan Hancock, Eric Clark, Erik Ruhland, Keyvan Rudd, Dorian Buford, Andy Pfeiffer, Anthony Lewis, Jeff Burns, Darius Clare, Kris Fleigle, Shonquille Dorsey, Josh Meeker, Gary Hiatt, Barry Ballinger, Max Hoffmeister, Kaleb Wendricks, Chris Reed, Jeffrey Raymond, Bryan Keys, Austin Rieder and Darin Howell, we also offer up our gratitude.  You'll walk together as champions for the rest of your lives.

Here's hoping everyone has a safe and enjoyable Holiday Season.

It's great to be a Maverick.

The Project

Minnesota State senior quarterback
Jon Wolf is a regional finalist for the
Harlon Hill Trophy, which goes to
the top NCAA DII football player in
the nation

It was announced last week that Minnesota State senior quarterback Jon Wolf is one of seven players in Super Region 3 under consideration to advance to the Harlon Hill Trophy national ballot. The Harlon Hill Trophy honors the NCAA Division II College Football Player of the Year. 

There are four super regions in NCAA DII and the top two players from each super region, based on voting conducted by sports information directors in each region, advance to the national ballot when regional voting concludes on November 22.  The sports information directors vote again on the eight national finalists with the winner of the 2013 award announced at the 28th annual Harlon Hill Trophy Presentation Banquet Friday, December 20.

As one of the top multi-purpose quarterbacks in the nation playing for an undefeated and number-one ranked team in the country, one would think that Wolf would receive a lot of consideration for this award.

The Oak Forest, Ill., native presents an unusual package of size and athleticism.  With 1,047 yards and 13 touchdowns along the ground, statistically Wolf is MSU's top rushing threat. And in the Mavericks' 11 games this year he's completed 63.4 percent of his passes with 104 completions on 164 attempts for 15 touchdowns.  Importantly, he's only thrown one interception and his passing efficiency rating stands at 180.4.

His numbers would be even more impressive if it not for MSU claiming several victories by large margins, which has meant he's not calling the signals for entire games. In the recent win over Upper Iowa, for example, the Mavericks held a 49-0 lead at the end of the first half and eventually won 73-7.  Wolf played the first two quarters during which he ran for 201 yards on ten carries and completed five-of-eight passes for 77 yards. The 201 yards are the most ever by a MSU quarterback.

"Jon has truly been a difference maker on a championship contending team," said head coach Aaron Keen. "His ability to lead the team as our quarterback, to throw the ball and run the ball so effectively against defenses designed to stop him has been remarkable. He's quiet but competitive and a perfectionist when it comes to making plays.  It's been special to see him develop.  He's grown up with us and it's been fun to watch."

Including Wolf, a total of seven Minnesota State players have appeared on the regional Harlon Hill ballot.  A pair of them, quarterback Jamie Pass in 1993 and wide receiver Josh Nelsen in 1994, advanced to the national ballot.  Nelsen finished seventh in the final tabulations.   Pass, not unlike Wolf, was a threat to run and throw and ended up third in the final balloting.  At 6-4 and 230 lbs., Wolf is taller and heavier than Pass and he runs a different offense. Pass threw the ball 490 times in '93 for 30 touchdowns and more than 3,700 yards and racked up 4,261 yards in total offense in 13 games as a senior. Wolf is closing in on 3,000 yards in total offense in 11 games with the play-offs looming.

Any way you slice it, Wolf undoubtedly ranks as not only one of MSU's best, but also amongst the best in the nation.

It's great to be a Maverick.