We hope that former Monmouth College assistant coach Mitch Russell at least got something similar in quality to the Chicago-style Italian beef from the television series The Bear when he made a deal involving future pro football player Joe Krall ’20.
“I was a defensive lineman when I came to Monmouth,” said Krall, who is the center and a team captain for the first-place Quad City Steamwheelers of the Indoor Football League. In its division, Quad City is a game ahead of the Green Bay Blizzard with one game to play – Saturday night’s key matchup at Vibrant Area against the Tulsa Oilers, with whom the Steamwheelers have split a pair of one-score contests this season.
“The playoffs start now,” said Krall, whose first Monmouth squad in 2016 was chock full of defensive lineman, but short on depth in the trenches on the other side of the ball.
“There’s a running joke that Coach Russell sold me for a sandwich to Coach (Joe) Freitag,” quipped Krall, who’d go on to be an All-American offensive tackle as the Scots won three Midwest Conference titles in his four seasons, never dropping a regular-season league game.
“Everyone’s itching to play,” said Krall, who saw a clear path to his way onto the field by making the switch from one side of the ball to the other.
Returning the favor
Nick Harris ’24 knows the feeling, as he also had a position switch his freshman year with the Scots. It’s incorrect to call it his freshman “season,” as COVID wiped out the 2020 campaign. The following spring, when college programs were allowed to return to team activities, Harris initially practiced as a wide receiver, but head coach Chad Braun had a surprise in store.
“I had one practice at receiver in the spring,” said Harris. “Before the next practice, Coach Braun shot me a text and asked ‘Do you wanna try corner today?’ I was trying to get on the field any way I can, so I was willing to learn a new position.”
There’s no word if Freitag was on the receiving end of a sandwich for relinquishing a player who would go on to be a three-time All-MWC defensive back. Those accolades provided a collegiate highlight for Harris, and so did taking a measure of revenge by defeating defending MWC champion Lake Forest in 2023. Harris returned to the Scots as a fifth-year senior last fall, when another memorable win came on Homecoming against another defending conference champion, Illinois College.
Still, Harris had something to prove when he signed on with the Steamwheelers this spring. He’s worked his way into the defensive back rotation and has started two games.
“I try to be more physical than some guys, and I’ve got some cover skills,” he said. “I can shut down anybody.”
That was never more evident than his exploits in a June 7 game in San Antonio. With QC protecting a slim 33-30 lead with three minutes to play, Harris picked off a Gunslingers pass and took it 42 yards to the house for a game-clinching pick six.
“That whole game was just fun from beginning to end,” said Harris, who also tipped a San Antonio pass that led to an interception and added another pick of his own. “All those highlights showed me I’m supposed to be playing this game.”
Coach Ross’s take
Steamwheelers head coach Cory Ross was full of praise for the Monmouth duo, calling that performance by Harris “one of the best games in defensive back history” for an arena football player.
“His teammate mentality is off the charts, and he’s working every day and getting better every day. When he gets to his second year in this, he’s going to be a problem (for opponents). Just the fun-ness he brings – the coaches love him. He never gets down.”
Of Krall, who Ross has coached the past four seasons, he said, “Joe works extremely hard. He refuses to get beat, and if it happens, he’ll find a way on the next play.”
In 2022, Ross led Krall and the Steamwheelers to the IFL title game, where the team fell two points short against the Northern Arizona Wranglers, falling 47-45.
“I made the all-rookie team in 2022, and I had a blast playing,” said Krall. “We were just a ragtag bunch of guys, but we came to work every day. Everyone in the league was talking about us. We were just some D2 and D3 guys, but we were putting guys on the ground.”
Looking ahead
Krall would like nothing better than for the Steamwheelers to clinch home-field advantage throughout this year’s playoffs and make it back to the title game, this time with a different result. Beyond that, both he and Harris still see themselves in football uniforms.
Krall has flirted with the next level before but has been the odd man out, sometimes strictly the victim of poor timing, such as when the Xtreme Football League and the United States Football League merged to form the United Football League.
“My first year in the IFL, I didn’t know what to expect,” said Krall, who was in an NFL camp with the Las Vegas Raiders in his first year out of Monmouth. “I’d be lined up against guys who played at schools like Ole Miss and other D1 powerhouses. They’d played games at Alabama’s stadium. Can I really compete with that? It was about betting on myself.”
Harris’s star is on the rise, and he, too, has hopes of reaching a higher level, such as the UFL or Canadian Football League.
“I want to turn things up a notch and come back a little harder a year from now,” he said.
Before that happens, though, Harris plans to return to Florida and “put my Monmouth degree to use,” potentially as a personal trainer. He came to Monmouth from the Sunshine State after being recruited by former Scots coach EJ White.
“I took my visit up here and stayed Thursday to Sunday, rooming with three different guys,” said Harris. “It was my favorite visit. I liked how the coaching staff was really connected – more than any coaches I saw. I thought it was for show at first, but it’s the real deal. They’re like a family.”
***Courtesy of Barry McNamara, Monmouth College***
