It’s Turkey Bowl week, and the Monmouth College Fighting Scots are heading to Galesburg Saturday looking to keep the Bronze Turkey in Monmouth for another year. Monmouth has won the last 26 meetings against Knox heading into the 137th annual Turkey Bowl.
The Scots improved to 7-2 overall and 7-0 in the Midwest Conference last Saturday following a 34-7 Senior Day win over Grinnell. Now Monmouth turns their attention to Knox, who enters at 1-8 on the season. Despite the Prairie Fire’s struggles, Head Coach Chad Braun says their offense presents some challenges heading into Saturday.
“You would think for a one-and-eight team, when you watch film, you’re not going to see a whole lot of good things. But offensively, they played really well last week. Put up 28 points on Illinois College. They have a really athletic quarterback. Very difficult to defend. One play they’re going to be under center running the triple option. The next play they might be empty, five wide. It’s a really tough week to prepare for because basically you have to prepare for two different offenses.”
Monmouth and Knox will kick things off at noon Saturday in Galesburg. A win would give the Scots an undefeated conference season and at least a share of the Midwest Conference title. Monmouth would also secure the conference’s automatic NCAA playoff bid with a win and a Lake Forest loss to Chicago. If Lake Forest wins, the Scots would instead be looking at a potential bowl game, with the NCAA Power Index gap currently too large to overcome.
