St. Thomas will be facing the best football team the program has ever played on Saturday, according to head coach Glenn Caruso, when they travel to Fargo to play North Dakota State, the top-ranked FCS team in the country.
“By a lot,” Caruso said.
To this point in their Division I journey, whenever the Tommies have faced a program that offers athletic scholarships — be it the likes of Northern Iowa and South Dakota in the past, and Lindenwood and Idaho this season — Caruso has viewed it as a chance to measure how much the Tommies have grown.
The meeting with the 11-0 Bison feels more like a exercise in survival.
The Tommies (7-4) will be without a number of starters due to injury, including graduate transfer quarterback Andy Peters. Caruso has no other choice but to play those who are able and hope for the best in a difficult situation.
“Any time you get a chance to play a great football team, there is a lot you can extract from that,” he said. “This is hopefully something we can stand on foundationally and be better for it in years to come.”
Nine of the Bison’s 11 victories have been of the blowout variety. Their closest game was a 15-10 win over North Dakota on Nov. 8. They have outscored all opponents by a combined score of 444-133.
Caruso believes this Bison team could be the best in the program’s illustrious history, which features 10 national championships.
“They’re just so complete,” he said. “Really good quarterback, really good offensive line. NFL(-caliber) receiver, the best running back we’ve ever seen. They pair that up with the best defense in the nation — by a lot.
“It’s daunting when you look at the numbers, so we choose not to look at the numbers.”
It remains to be seen how much the Bison’s top players will play, although Caruso said he expects to see all of their starters for the majority of the game.
It’s a game that has added significance for Caruso, who began his coaching career at NDSU, serving as an assistant coach from 1997-2002. He met his wife, Rachel, during that time and started his family in Fargo.
Caruso, a Connecticut native, said he’ll forever be grateful to then-coach Bob Babich for hiring him.
“To get in your Volkswagen and drive halfway across the country and sleep on the couch in someone’s basement and make nothing,” he said. “To go to the Ground Round every Tuesday and Thursday night because if you bought a beer they’d let you eat from the taco bar for free.
“Those were tough days, but they were also influential days. When I started my career, there were three things I prioritized: the chance to take on responsibility, the chance to win and the chance to be around some awesome people. I found it, and it just happened to be in Fargo, North Dakota.
“In doing so it led me to finding a passion for this part of the country. Aside from our family, the thing that I got from Fargo that I cherish the most is that I was able to see the type of Upper Midwest kids that I would get to coach if I stayed. That has affected and curated by career decisions more than anything else besides family.”
Caruso has retained ties within the Fargo community and has friends on the NDSU staff. He keeps a close eye on the Bison.
“I don’t always get to watch a team like NDSU during the season because we’re working,” he said, “but, absolutely, I follow them. I always keep in touch and I always cheer for them when they’re not playing St. Thomas.”
The Tommies and the Bison will be meeting for the 24th time, and the first time since 1966. The Bison lead the series 14-7-2.
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