St. Thomas-Minnesota Tommies 2026 Season Preview

Caruso's Steady Program

Glenn Caruso closed 2025 at 7-5 with a 5-3 league mark, and the No. 36 power rating says that record was no fluke against Pioneer competition. There is no drama to manufacture here, just a program that finished above .500 in conference play and enters 2026 with the on-field footing to keep building rather than rebuild. The story for St. Thomas is continuity, not upheaval.

A Punter Fills the QB Void

The number that jumps off this card is jarring: the only returning offensive stat line belongs to Ryan Jackson, who booted one punt for a 32-yard average, not anyone who threw or caught a pass. That means St. Thomas is rebuilding an attack that ranked 32nd nationally in passing yards and produced the 11th-best explosiveness mark in the country with essentially no proven arm or set of hands back, even as Jackson is projected to take over as the starting quarterback. Glenn Caruso still has a defense that forced a plus-10 turnover margin and held teams to 20.5 points a game to lean on, so the swing season comes down to whether Jackson can approximate the big-play passing identity this group had in 2025.

Ryan Jackson takes the first-team reps into camp as the front-runner, but the job is not settled, with Nick Peipert, Michael Rostberg and Jack Wallace all in the mix and none of the three carrying a passing stat to their name yet. Whoever wins it has to replace Amari Powell's 636 yards, 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions from a passing attack that ranked 32nd in yards per game and 11th in explosiveness, so the arm talent question matters less than who can protect that big-play rate. Jackson's only game action on file is as a punter, which makes this an open competition where the front-runner still has to prove it on tape, not a returning starter simply reclaiming his old job.

Joseph Koch ran for 457 yards and 6 touchdowns behind an offense that averaged 6.08 yards per play, and he takes over as the clear feature back with Patrick Bowen (373 yards, 4 TD) and Gabriel Abel (153 yards, 2 TD) both gone. That production gap is real, but Zander Rockow and De'erek Hubbard both flashed in limited work, and Marc Coy's ability to catch passes out of the backfield gives Glenn Caruso a changeup as St. Thomas leans on Koch to anchor a run game that ranked 77th in rushing yards per game while the passing attack did the heavy lifting.

Quentin Cobb-Butler is the engine of this passing game, coming off 51 catches for 772 yards and 7 touchdowns, and the explosive-play juice St. Thomas showed last year (11th nationally in explosiveness) runs through him. The bigger question is what Eli Paulson and Stefano Giovannelli can add after modest 254 and 177-yard seasons, since the departed Tyson Schilling's 276 yards need to land somewhere. Glenn Caruso's offense already ranks 32nd in passing yards per game, and with Cobb-Butler back, the ceiling for 2026 is more about a second target emerging than replacing the whole room.

Luke Schuler's 7 catches for 137 yards and 2 scores were a complementary piece behind Patrick Wagner last fall, and now they're the top returning line on the depth chart at tight end. Wagner's 27 grabs and 390 yards walk out the door, and Mariano Birdno (5 catches, 76 yards, 1 TD) is the closest thing to a proven second option, with AJ Boarman, CJ Johnson and Thomas McGinnis all needing to carve out roles in an offense that already ranked 11th nationally in explosiveness. Schuler and Birdno alone won't replace Wagner's volume, so St. Thomas likely leans harder on its 32nd-ranked passing attack spreading targets rather than expecting one tight end to absorb that lost production.

Glenn Caruso's line pushed through for 6.08 yards per play and the 11th-most explosive attack in the country a year ago, but the group that built that push loses three linemen in Lucas Cannon, Jason Laliberte and James Morrison. Jack Bauer, Ben Buie, Charlie Cayley, Hudson Cleary, Braylon Edwards and Nathan Faber all return to the room, giving Caruso familiar bodies to piece together a front even as the run game, already just 77th nationally at 138 yards per game, needs more push than last year's mix produced. The passing lanes should hold up given how the ball moved a year ago, but St. Thomas will not know what it has up front until this reshuffled group proves it can grind out yards on the ground.

Aidan Adamski, Rocco DiLeonardi, Lucas Fors, Max Mogelson, Blake Osbahr and Keyon Archer all return up front for a defense that held opponents to 127 rushing yards per game, 22nd nationally, and kept 38.0% of snaps on schedule for the offense, good for 22nd in that category. The bigger question is whether that group can hold up against the pass, since the 214 yards allowed through the air ranked just 62nd, and Ahmed Muhammad, Delainey Suraju and Evan Tyler are no longer around to help generate pressure. Glenn Caruso still has six proven bodies to plug into that scheme, which matters more than any name he lost.

Charlie Bern, Malachi Boadi, Milan Bobda, Carter Carstens, Cade Caruso and Ashton Henkel all return to a front that held opponents to 127 rushing yards per game a year ago, good for 22nd nationally, even as five linebackers who played meaningful snaps in Charlie Boucher, Micah Green, Caden Nelson, Jordan Pendleton and Mitchell Schares are out the door. Glenn Caruso has built this program on run-stopping toughness, and the group left standing gets first crack at proving that identity travels without the names that helped set it. The bigger question sits behind them, where the pass defense ranked 62nd in yards allowed, so how these six linebackers cover space could decide whether St. Thomas tightens that gap in 2026.

Glenn Caruso's secondary held up well against the run last season, part of a defense that ranked 22nd in rushing yards allowed and 16th in points allowed per game, but the pass defense at 62nd in yards allowed tells the truer story of where 2026 gets tested. Five defensive backs who played key snaps, including Javhi Blomquist, Ryan Calcagno and Logan Cassady, are gone, leaving Evan Baalbaky, Griffin Bowers, Ben Byszewski, Will Carlson, Preston Franklin and Peyton Himley to carry the back end without a statistical track record to lean on. That group inherits a unit that kept opponents off schedule at a solid clip, and how well it defends the pass will determine whether that overall defensive profile holds or slips in the Pioneer League.

Ben Hoiland is the whole story here. He hit 8 of 9 field goals with a long of 44 and piled up 53 points last season, dwarfing departed placekicker Elliot Huether's 2-of-3, 16-point output, and there is no reason to think Glenn Caruso hands the job to anyone else in 2026. Aidan Macke returns at punter and Beau Thielen is back long-snapping, both without prior stats on file, but the unit's identity is Hoiland's leg and his reliability inside the numbers.

Quentin Cobb-Butler

St. Thomas hands the offense to Ryan Jackson, who is projected to run it after limited game action, and the quickest way to make that transition painless is a proven target. Quentin Cobb-Butler caught 51 passes for 772 yards and 7 touchdowns last season, and with no receivers added through the portal, he is the security blanket Jackson needs while he settles into the job. If Cobb-Butler produces at that same level, Joseph Koch's 457 rushing yards give the offense a second gear that keeps defenses honest.

Reliable on the road

Glenn Caruso's crew covered at a 64% clip in 2025, and the road numbers stand out: a 4-2 cover mark away from St. Paul with a 4-3 straight-up record on top of it. That road value evaporates against quality, where St. Thomas went 0-2 straight up against ranked competition, and the letdown after a loss (1-2 ATS) points to a team that plays down to overmatched spots more than it plays up to ranked ones. Books have clearly priced in the name recognition gap more than the on-field one for 2026.