Kindbom’s crew ready for opener

Aaron Wolfson
Bernell Dorrough

Coming off of a University Athletic Association (UAA) title and their recent selection as the conference favorites this year, the Washington University football team has raised expectations for the coming season.

The Bears take the first step toward fulfilling those expectations by hitting the road for their opener at Simpson College on Saturday. The team has the ability to repeat, but they must stay focused in order to start off well.

“We need to keep mistakes to a minimum and we can be a pretty good team,” coach Larry Kindbom said. “There’s nothing better for me than people knowing assignments. I think if they can come out and be comfortable about that, they can begin to express themselves on the field.

“It would be a dream for me to have us come out like we did in the two scrimmages. If we just keep the mistakes to a minimum, over the course of time we can get back into game speed.”

The team has spent extensive time scouting Simpson, as they feel it will be a very evenly matched game. Last year, Simpson started the season with a loss to the Bears, but went 6-3 the rest of the way in the strong Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

“Simpson is a physical team that doesn’t make many mistakes,” Kindbom said. “They almost beat a playoff team, and they didn’t give up a lot of points. They’re just a really solid program, and they have an outstanding QB who made pre-season All-American and led his conference in both passing and punting. He’s quite an athlete – big and physical – and will be good preparation for the rest of the season.”

Kindbom has been working the troops hard during the last few weeks in order to get them in top shape for the season. The team is fairly healthy and has seen players tenaciously compete for jobs.

“The guys came into camp in great shape and they’ve worked really hard here,” Kindbom said. “We have thrown a lot of things at them from a learning standpoint, and they’ve done a tremendous job in learning what we want on offense and defense.

“I’m most pleased that the leadership has been outstanding; the seniors have stepped it up, and we have several different guys at different positions. They’re excited, but they still must perform on the field.”

To that end, the Bears must be sure to execute properly when it counts on Saturday in all three phases of the game: offense, defense and special teams. In what is likely to be a tightly-contested game against Simpson, special teams play will be key.

“I tend to believe that early games will come down to the kicking game,” Kindbom said. “It doesn’t come down to a single player’s performance; it’s going to come down to the performance of those teams. As far as determining momentum in the game, these teams are really well-matched.

“We have to win the kicking game – we wouldn’t have spent one-third of every practice on it, forty minutes of a two-hour practice, if we didn’t believe it was extremely important.”

A big issue for the Bears will be quarterback play, as Matt Alley tries to fill the sh-oes of departed transfer Nathan Szep. They expect the defense to be able to clamp down and keep them in games if the offense struggles.

Whether or not Alley can provide a spark for the squad, the Bears will be happy to finally play in a real game, as opposed to playing against each other.

“It’s fun to finally be able to go out and play some football games,” Kindbom said. “We’ve been banging on each other for a while now in practice. We don’t return to open at home until September 20th, so our motivation is to be able to come back here and be undefeated for our home crowd.”

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