NICOLLET - It's been seven years since a Nicollet football team has played at the Metrodome.
Now with the chance to play just a day away, the anticipation is building.
"We are fired up, it's going to be a lot of fun," Nicollet coach Tom Murphy said. "It kind of gets hard to wait. At his point of the season you aren't changing much in practice. Your winning so why change much?"
Nicollet opens the state semifinals at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Metrodome against Ada-Borup.
It might be an earlier start then the Raiders are used to but they don't seem worried.
"Not a problem," Murphy said. "If you can't get fired up to play the biggest game of your life? Then what? We are going to get up there as a team on Friday and practice. We are going to spend some time together. We just need to get away from town and away from distractions."
The Raiders are excited to show the rest of the state their quirky offense. For years, Nicollet has been known as a passing team, this year it added a new wrinkle with the no-huddle offense.
"I like to keep teams guessing when we have the ball," Murphy said. "We can take a look at what teams want to do defensively and take advantage of it.
"That's one of the reasons we run the no-huddle. We like to get ourselves in play calls that we feel gives us a chance to be successful. That's one of the reasons we went to it. When you go into a huddle, a lot of times you have an idea of what defense your going to have at the line of scrimmage. With this, you line up and look at what they are going to do and make your play calls based on the defense they give you."
The no-huddle has been quite a success since Nicollet installed it this summer.
With senior Jordan Rudenick at the helm, the Raiders are averaging 26 points a game. They put 35 up on Grand Meadow in the quarterfinals.
Rudenick had a strong day in the win as well as he rushed for 78 yards and two touchdowns. He also was 18-for-30 passing for 239 yards and two more scores.
"It's not an offense you see in 9-man," Murphy said. "You see teams spread it out but you don't see teams attack it like we do. We have an intelligent group of kids and they like the challenge of learning something new.
"They love the fact that they play an offense no one else does. They really think it's a feather in their hat."
As strong as the offense has been, it's the defense that helped the Raiders to the win Saturday when Sean Murphy returned an interception 38 yards to seal the victory.
"My assistant coach said it today, 'you know coach, offense sells tickets, you get kudos for that. But defense wins games,'" coach Murphy said. "It's true. You still have to have one more point than the other team. If it's a scoring fest, you have to find a way for your defense to get one more stop. I think that our defense has played extremely well this season."
Most teams in 9-man have a lot of kids play both sides of the ball. Nicollet has the advantage of having the defense just focus on playing defense.
"I think a key to our defense is that five of our nine starters are defensive only starters," coach Murphy said. "They play a little offense here and there but when they come on the field, they are fresh and they are ready to go. They have really taken our defense and they own it. They know their stuff well."
Nicollet (9-2) will square off against undefeated Ada-Borup, which opened the state playoffs with a 38-14 victory over Cromwell.
Like Grand Meadow, Ada-Borup likes to run. The Cougars are led offensively by Bill Atwood, who totaled 909 yards coming into the state playoffs. Aaron Olson had 878 yards and Yuri Johnson had 476 yards.
They don't pass much as quarterback Spencer Ruebke was just 39-for-61 for 686 yards this season.
"They prefer to run, they haven't thrown many passes all year," Murphy said. "In two games we have probably thrown more passes then them all season."
He's not sure what kind of game to expect.
"It might be a shootout. We would take that, it's a lot of fun for the fans," Murphy said. "It's hard to predict what kind of game it will be. We have to be ready to win any kind of game.
"I think we have to win first downs, especially defensively so we can put them in long second and third situations. They don't throw a lot but it doesn't mean they can't. We have to force them to do some things they aren't comfortable with. I would guess they would do the same thing with us."
Nicollet has worked hard to get to this point and the Raiders are ready to take the field.
"I believe as a coach the most important thing to do is to put your kids in a position to be successful," Murphy said. "I think that's what our coaching staff has done this year. When you get kids to buy into what you are doing its half the battle. The kids believe in what they are taught. They believe in what they are doing and they believe in each other. With that, I think it gives us an excellent chance Saturday."
