Mid-Season Report...

Linfield Wildcats

Record:  5-0

                Linfield came into the 2011 season with a large number of returning starters from the last two Northwest Conference championship teams, and high expectations along with it.  Halfway through the season, the Wildcats have met the expectations, and then some.

                Fifth-ranked Linfield opened their season at Maxwell Field against potentially the best Cal Lutheran team ever, and won 24-14.  Other than a 20-10 win at Willamette, Linfield has beaten three of the worst teams in the country in La Verne, Puget Sound, and Pacific.

                After losing their top passer (Aaron Boehme), Rusher (Simon Lamson), and receiver (Chris Slezak) to graduation, there were questions about whether Linfield’s offense would be as productive as they were in the last two seasons.  After five games, those doubts have been put to rest.  Linfield leads the conference in scoring at 43.6 points per game, and is second in total offense at 454 yards per game. 

                Linfield’s defense figured to be the strength of this season’s team coming into the season, but nobody outside of the program could have seen this wild storm of a defense coming.  Although they aren’t forcing turnovers at quite the wild rate of the last two seasons (13 in five games), The ‘Cat defense gives up only 8.0 points per game (ranked seventh nationally) and 291 yards of offense a game.

                Linfield’s schedule gets a lot tougher the rest of the season, starting this week with Pacific Lutheran (4-1).  They follow that with road trips to Menlo (5-2) and Whitworth (1-5) before finishing out the season at Maxwell Field against Lewis & Clark (5-0).  Winning out against this remaining schedule is an accomplishment worthy of a top-five team.        

Offensive MVP:  QB Mickey Inns.  After starting out the season as the question mark of an otherwise loaded offense, Inn has quickly developed into one of the nation’s most efficient passers, throwing the ball with the efficiency that Boehme did the last two seasons.  On the season, Inns has completed 56.6 percent of his passes for 1114 yards, with 11 touchdowns and only three interceptions.  His quarterback rating of 147.7 ranks second in the conference behind Lewis & Clark’s quarterback phenomenon Keith Welch.   

Defensive MVP:  Safety Drew Fisher.  A pre-season all-american, Fisher has lived up to his sterling reputation so far this season.  Fisher leads the team in tackles with 38, 19 of them solo.  He also leads the team in interceptions with two.