Headed for Hall, 2005 championship team remains highest scoring

In the 100-plus year history of Coyote football, just seven teams have entered the Hall of Champions with the last being the national runner-up team from 1986. A week from today, the Hall will get its eighth team from the gridiron when the 2005 squad is formally inducted in a ceremony held inside the Muenster University Center.

The 2005 squad won its first seven games, finished 9-2 and was co-champion of the North Central Conference with a 4-2 record. The team climbed as high as No. 3 in the national rankings and boasted four All-Americans, all of them Hall of Famers inducted in recent classes.

And they could score…

More than any team in program history and more than any team in the country in 2005. Led by quarterback Wesley Beschorner, running back Stefan Logan, receivers Brooks Little and Derek Gearman, and linemen Brian Alderson and Chris Morton, the Coyotes averaged 583 yards and 49.7 points per game.

For some perspective, just four NCAA Division II leaders since 1948 have averaged more yards – nobody since USD’s 2005 team. No other team in USD history has averaged even 40 points per game.

One final number to throw out – through his first five games of the season, Beschorner, who finished second in the Harlon Hill ballot for national player of the year, threw 21 touchdown passes… against 24 incompletions…

The man at the helm was Coach Ed Meierkort, then in his second season. Meierkort is from Chicago, earned his degree at Dakota Wesleyan and led Wisconsin-Stout (DIII) to the playoffs before accepting the head gig in Vermillion.

“It was kind of a no-brainer career wise coming into a program that had a lot of history,” said Meierkort, who currently resides in Florida. “I graduated from Dakota Wesleyan, my wife is from Custer and so I had a lot of friends in the state. And it’s not like I walked into a bare cupboard. Coach (John) Austin had done a really good job of recruiting. We had some dudes. But what we had was a team that was a little bit lost, and we thought if we could get them to believe in a different approach to college football, we could achieve great things.”

The 2004 Coyote squad with its new coach was picked to finish at the bottom of the NCC, but instead started 8-1 with a close 20-13 road loss to a highly-touted Omaha squad. USD could have tied for the conference title with a win in the final week against an 8-2 North Dakota squad in Grand Forks. Instead, it was a 41-21 season-ending defeat.

“We weren’t quite ready to win that game,” said Meierkort. “They were a little better than we were and got beat in a little bit of a shootout. But our kids bought into it and all of a sudden it started to turn.

“We talked about the Dome. The biggest thing in our program was defend your home turf and this group never lost a home game at all. Ever. Which is probably never going to happen again because it’s so hard to do.”

Glenn Caruso, now head of the St. Thomas football program, was the Coyotes’ offensive coordinator in 2005 and Mike Freidel, who passed back in 2013, ran the defense. The defenders included All-American and USD Hall of Famer A.J. Schable, who racked up a program-record 18.5 sacks, leading tackler Ryan Hedden and safety Tim Dacy, who led the team with five interceptions.

Beschorner averaged 277 yards passing per game and finished with 39 touchdowns against four interceptions. But it was the Coyote running game with Logan behind a big offensive line that set the tone offensively.

“Glenn is still one of the best offensive minds I’ve been around and he’s been tremendously successful as a head coach,” said Meierkort. “My key was, everyone is trying to throw the ball around at that time and we were in the Midwest. We got the prettiest looking offensive linemen and tight ends you could find. And when we came off the bus, we got the other team’s attention. So we rushed for nearly 300 yards per game and tried to be as balanced as possible.”

The first three games of 2005 were laughers and the team made it 4-0 after winning an overtime game at Colorado Mines despite being outscored 28-0 in the fourth quarter. The statement win came the following week when the Coyotes obliterated that same Omaha team from a year before 59-14 before a packed DakotaDome crowd.

“That game was over early, and it was a special day in the Dome,” said Meierkort. “I remember going into the locker room and you know the old coaches question, what’s the score? And somebody said it was 0-0 because that’s what they think you’re supposed to say. And I said no, no! The score is 42-7. You guys are out there kicking @$$. Go out there and keep kicking it!

“We had lost nine in a row to those guys, so that win was the turning of the page.”

A 48-17 win at Augustana followed by a 35-14 home win against Minnesota State moved USD to 7-0 and up to No. 3 in the rankings. Next came a clash at No. 12 St. Cloud State and the Coyotes’ first setback. The Huskies took a 24-3 lead into the final quarter and held on for a 24-17 win.

“We were really good on both sides of the ball, but their defensive front handled us that day,” said Meierkort. “We had one of the best lines in the history of that school with household names like (Nick) Hagemann, (Nate) Carruthers, Alderson. But they got after us and we didn’t play well and that happens. It was a tough loss and we got our nose bloodied and had to recuperate.”

Beschorner needed 15 passes for six touchdown tosses the following week against Upper Iowa and Logan, Darnell Pitts and Travis Mlady combined for 302 yards on 32 totes. The result was a 63-17 win that moved the Coyotes to 8-1.

Then came a road trip to Minnesota Duluth. No, not Bob Nielson’s Bulldogs. He had stepped aside two years earlier to become the department’s athletic director. This was current North Dakota head coach Bubba Schweigert’s Duluth team and he had a redshirt freshman quarterback named Ted Schlafke.

Duluth was coming off back-to-back losses following a 6-1 start and by all intents and purposes gave up on the run game and decided to let their rookie signal caller sling it around a bit. And so on a day when Logan ran for 284 yards and three touchdowns and Beschorner passed for 321 yards and a score, it was Schlafke behind three long third-quarter touchdown strikes who led Duluth to a 56-43 victory. Schlafke was 31-of-46 for 457 yards and six touchdowns. He also ran for 47.

“I recruited him, too,” chuckled Meierkort. “He’s a Point kid. They basically went from a 21 personnel, which is two backs and a tight end, to all spread in one week. 

“I don’t care how good a defense you are, you’re going to run into a game where you just got to make one stop and it turns into a track meet. The game is built for it, it happens and you just got to be prepared to make one stop. That game got crazy and it might have been Stefan’s best game!”

Despite the loss, USD found itself in the same spot as the prior year – a showdown with North Dakota with a conference title on the line. But this time, the Coyotes were a year older and the setting was the DakotaDome. The defense forced three quick punts and Beschorner rewarded them with three straight touchdown drives and from there, the Coyotes rolled to a 42-30 victory.

What happened after that win is still tough to talk about, but for those who have read this far, we may as well keep going…

The Division II playoff brackets have four regions of six teams each. The NCC shared a region with the Northern Sun, Great Northwest Athletic Conference and Great Lakes conference, the latter of which included defending champion Grand Valley State.

The NCC finished in a four-way tie – South Dakota (9-2), North Dakota (9-2), Omaha (8-2) and Duluth (8-3). Four teams vying for six spots.

In the end, the committee split the two better leagues – the NCC and Great Lakes – in half and gave three bids to each. The Coyotes were left out.

“(Former Coyote AD) Joel Nielsen had to break the news,” said Meierkort. “It was a little bit stunning and truly too bad because this is a team that could have won a national title. I think that it would have secured Wesley as the Harlon Hill winner, which he should have won anyways. 

“They were better than the team that went to the playoffs that next year. They certainly changed the culture, and I couldn’t be more proud of what that team accomplished together.”