By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

MCMINNVILLE, Ore.— With the monsoon of a game against George Fox University now in the rear view mirror that saw severally soaked footballs in the second half, the leader of the second-ranked Linfield College Wildcats took some time in his weekly press conference to speak about the issue.

“It was very different from the first half where we had 300 yards of offense and balls could do no wrong, so second half got hard,” described Joseph Smith.  “The ball got so wet and so slippery that it made it tough to do a lot of what we normally would do.

“It seemed like every time we run the ball, having great success; we drop it or fumble it or snap it bad.  We don’t have a very considerably conservative style of offense that’s made for monsoons.”

With it forecasted to rain this upcoming weekend for the Senior Day Festivities against the University of Puget Sound, Smith isn’t concerned about a repeat performance of a monsoon, but will prepare for the elements.

“We’ve been a traditionally good team (in the rain) since we’ve practiced in it all the time,” said Smith.  “There’s team’s in our conference that go inside.  We could have the worst weather imaginable and we’ll still go out and practice in it for that reason.”

For that reason, Smith is going to implement some situational times in practice that is featured by playing with soaked footballs so that the players are familiar with playing with them come game day.

As for the Loggers, the rain might cause a probably for their offense as they are a pass-first offense that’s averaging 368 yards in the air compare to just below 68 yards a game on the ground

Smith is looking at the challenge for his defensive backs though as more of an exciting opportunity more so anything.

“I think as a defensive back you are excited,” said Smith.  “As a former corner here there games that you didn’t feel like you matter were the power run teams when your back there as a insurance guy.

“But when you know that a team is going to come out and throw it, two out of three times.  Excellent.  There’s more opportunities, there’s more chances to make a play so I think our guys will look at it as more of an opportunity and to be excited by it.”

As for slowing it down, Smith believes in his defense that has only allowed 116 yards a game; but knows that Pudget Sound will find a way to catch them off-guard.

“I think that they’re going to try to do something that is a strength of ours, maybe not a great matchup for them,” started Smith. “But they’re still good at it and they’re going to change it up.  They’ll try some innovated things and that’s something that they’ve been good at over the years is change greatly week-to-week on both sides of the ball.”

Regardless if it rains or not, the run-and-gun offense of the Wildcats, which is averaging 216 yards a game rushing and 303.6 yards in the air respectively, will be ready to go.

“I want to keep them from scoring and want to score a ton of points,” said Smith with a chuckle. “We want to run the football, and we want to do what we’ve always done in the game and that’s run the ball and throw when we need to.”

Maxwell Field will be alive and well Saturday afternoon for when Pudget Sound arrives and the seniors of the Wildcats strap on their pads for one last home hurrah in front of the home crowds.

Kickoff is at 1pm.

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!

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