St. Thomas football will forever be known as the program that was so dominant that it got kicked out of its league.

Success also came early for the Tommies in its move to Division I and the Pioneer Football League, so the type of adversity they are facing as they begin league play on Saturday against Stetson at O’Shaughnessy Stadium is unlike any they’ve experienced in years.

The 1-3 Tommies’ latest loss was a 64-0 drubbing at Lindenwood two weeks ago. The 64 points were the most given up by the Tommies since a 69-13 loss at St. John’s in 1993. After opening this season with a 34-13 loss to Division II Sioux Falls, the question has to be asked if this team, expected to contend for its second league title in four years, is underachieving.

Head coach Glenn Caruso said it depends on who is on the field.

“The answer will be told in the next month,” he said. “Once we get some guys healthy and are able to have some consistency, and play teams that are in our league and we are familiar with, this next month will tell us more than this last month did.”

As the Lindenwood score indicates, Caruso said the Tommies did not play well on offense, defense or special teams. The only significant changes that will come after the bye week, however, involve the return of some key starters.

“There are no major alarms going off that things have to change,” Caruso said. “We know what we have to do, and we worked really hard this week to get as many guys healthy and back as we possibly could.

“Once someone is ready to play a game, it doesn’t mean they’re game-ready to play 40 reps, let alone 70 reps. The ramping-up process is still something we are in the middle of.”

Caruso expects the Tommies’ top two running backs, Gabe Abel and Hope Adebayo, to play. Wide receiver Jacob Wildermuth also couple return, but in a limited role. The same is true of linebacker Nick Flaskamp.

A significant number of injuries over the past three-plus seasons have come against Division I opponents with players on athletic scholarship. St. Thomas will have to weigh the benefits of playing higher-caliber opponents against the physical strain it puts on its players.

“That’s something we’ll review at the end of the season,” Caruso said. “But I’m not going to negate the fact that when you do play bigger, tougher teams, the physical toll is something you absolutely have to account for.

“The hope is that, regardless of what the outcome is on the scoreboard, that we can go into the conference season as well prepared as we can. Right now we have an inordinate amount of guys who are out from game-day injuries.”

Caruso said two quarterbacks will see action on Saturday, but did not specify which two. Tak Tateoka and Michael Rostberg have started games this season, and Amari Powell got his first playing time of the season against Lindenwood.

“We need to find who is going to be the one who allows the rest of the offense to operate the game plan,” Caruso said.

Meanwhile, how the lopsided loss to Lindenwood plays on the team’s psyche is not something Caruso said he is concerned about.

“The belief in one another, the belief in this culture, is tremendously high,” he said. “Any college football season is a long season. Even in times that were perceived as our best years, there were times where we weren’t very good relative to what I though we could be.

“The opportunities are all over the place for us to grow. We just have to get the right guys in the right position to do it, and then get them the amount of reps they need to learn what they need to learn.”

Minnesota United at Vancouver Whitecaps

When: 6:30 p.m. CT Saturday
Where: BC Place
Stream: Apple TV Season Pass
Radio: KSTP-AM, 1500
Betting line: Vancouver minus-105; draw plus-280; MNUFC plus-235

Form: MNUFC (13-12-6, 46 points) was held without a goal for the first time in 12 matches during a scoreless draw with Salt Lake on Wednesday. Vancouver (13-10-8, 47 points) was beaten 3-0 by Seattle on Wednesday and is winless in four straight games.

Check-in: MNUFC was riding on a coach bus in Utah when it clinched a spot in the MLS Cup Playoffs on Wednesday. “There is definitely a sense of satisfaction, but also a sense of we want to go again,” Ramsay said. “I think the next two games are really crucial in that.”

History: Vancouver beat Minnesota 3-1 in St. Paul on July 3, but the Loons had a 2.9-1.4 expected goals advantage and MNUFC’s roster was a shell of what it is now.

Look-ahead: The eighth-seeded Loons can jump over the seventh-seeded ‘Caps with a victory in British Columbia on Saturday. Vancouver, however, has played one fewer game and will go even during the international window next weekend against second-place LAFC. MNUFC won’t play again until the season finale on Decision Day against St. Louis on Oct. 19.

Absences: Teemu Pukki (adductor) and Zarek Valentin (lower leg) are out. Michael Boxall (yellow-card accumulation) is suspended. DJ Taylor (hamstring) is questionable.

Update: MNUFC had a conversation with MLS about removing Boxall’s yellow card Wednesday. “But I don’t think there was any sort of mechanism for that to be rescinded,” Ramsay said. “I’m sure the details will be revealed at some point as to the fallout of how that was dealt with and who suffered what, but not a nice instance in any way.”

The MLS Disciplinary Committee will be looked to for what kind of punishment will be coming to Brayan Vera, who spit at Boxall late in Wednesday’s match. He already received a red card.

Projected XI: In a 5-3-2 formation, FW Kelvin Yeboah, FW Tani Oluwaseyi; MF Hassani Dotson, MF Wil Trapp, MF Robin Lod; LWB Joseph Rosales, CB Micky Tapias, CB Jefferson Diaz, CB Carlos Harvey, RWB Bongi Hlongwane; GK Dayne St. Clair

Scouting report: The Whitecaps will be without one — and maybe two — of their key goal-scorers. Fafa Picault, who has 14 goal contributions, will be suspended after a red card against Sounders. Ryan Gauld, who has 21 goal contributions, was questionable with a knee injury against Seattle and didn’t play. With 17 goal contributions, Brian White did played forward midweek.

Insight: When looking at Vancouver, Ramsay focused on the Whitecaps’ defense. “They defend in a really unique way, and they did when they came to our place,” he said. “They are almost a pure back three with no cover from the wingbacks, which is really hard to execute with players that are struggling physically. I think their manager made reference to that.”

Prediction: Both teams will be playing their third match in eight days, so fatigue figures to be a factor. Vancouver has had the pleasure of staying home, while Minnesota will play in its third stadium in a third time zone. The Loons’ recent form and squad depth will come in handy in a 2-1 win.

There’s an existential question that runs throughout “Saturday Night,” Jason Reitman’s love letter to the iconic “Saturday Night Live,” and its chaotic entry into the world on Oct. 11, 1975. People keep asking the show’s creator and producer, Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) what, exactly, the show is? It’s a question he’s not able to answer until nearly the end of the movie, at about 11:15 p.m.

The film, which starts at 10 p.m., and takes place over the course of the 90 minutes leading up to the very first live show, utilizes an ominous ticking clock to countdown the minutes until showtime. Over the course of those 90 minutes (which the film, with a run time of 1 hour and 49 minutes, fudges a bit) whatever can go wrong already has, will, or is in the process of going wrong, swirling around the preternaturally calm eye of the storm, Lorne.

The existential question of what this show is or will be thrums underneath the constant churn of crisis that Lorne attempts to manage: will Belushi (Matt Wood) sign his contract? Will NBC exec David Tebet (Willem Dafoe) throw to a Johnny Carson rerun? How should Lorne’s estranged wife Rosie (Rachel Sennott) be credited? Can they find a lighting designer? And those are only a few of the quandaries, qualms and queries that Lorne constantly fields as he attempts to get something resembling television on the air by 11:30 p.m.

Reitman, who co-wrote the script with his longtime collaborator Gil Kenan, has said that he was inspired by a short stint guest-writing on “SNL” to structure this 50th anniversary tribute film around the 90 minutes before the show goes on air. Based on interviews with those who were there, the film is a cavalcade of stars, both in the young actors playing now familiar faces (Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner), and in a couple of high-profile actors making appearances as TV legends (Dafoe; J.K. Simmons as Milton Berle). Comedy nerds will delight in the presence of writers like Alan Zweibel (Josh Brener), Al Franken (Taylor Gray) and Herb Sargent (Tracy Letts).

But Reitman and the talented young cast manage to make “Saturday Night” much more than just young actors having fun in bell-bottoms and wigs. Shot on Super 16mm by Eric Steelberg with an antsy, roaming camera that swoons and zigzags up and down the hallways of 30 Rock, peering into dressing rooms and ping-ponging back and forth between the determined Lorne and his doubting partner, Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman), there’s a wild, stimulant-addled energy to the film that is only enhanced by Jon Batiste’s jittery-jazzy score of piano and percussion (the musician also appears as musical guest Billy Preston).

Throughout the chaos, camaraderie and conflict, Reitman and Kenan thread snippets of biographical information, especially about Lorne and Rosie’s relationship, as well as these bigger-picture questions. We witness the nerves, excitement and burgeoning relationships and rivalries that gave the show its frenetic and electrifying energy, and cinematically, Reitman captures all of that and then some.

“Saturday Night” is enormously entertaining and at times excessively busy, though a few bright spots emerge from the crowd, delivering real performances. Smith is astonishing as the arrogant Chase, seemingly channeling him, and LaBelle, one of the most exciting young actors to come along in a long time, steadily and earnestly holds the center as a young Lorne, somehow remaining steadfast in his belief that the show will, and must, go on. Somehow, it does — as we knew it would — when Lorne surrenders to the madness.

As Lorne tries to explain the show to a group of NBC executives, he says that it’s television by and for the people who grew up on it. It’s a generational shift from the vaudeville roots embodied by Berle. He’s attempting to capture lighting in a bottle, to both create culture and reflect it back to the audience, to throw something at the wall and see if it sticks. That such a revolutionary program came about as the result of a contract dispute between NBC and Carson (as explicated in a blow-out argument between Dick and Lorne), only makes it all the more magical that it even exists.

Though “Saturday Night,” the film, feels ephemeral and somewhat fleeting, it represents something that has endured, and continues to, through the sheer force of will that is Lorne Michaels.

‘Saturday Night’

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language throughout, sexual references, some drug use and brief graphic nudity)

Running time: 1:49

How to watch: In select theaters Oct. 4, in wide release Oct. 11

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