Story by
Grand Forks Herald
8 things to know about UND's Potato Bowl opponent St. Thomas
- Story byGrand Forks Herald
- 8 things to know about UND's Potato Bowl opponent St. Thomas
Sep. 3—GRAND FORKS — The No. 8 UND football team hosts St. Thomas at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Alerus Center in the 60th annual Potato Bowl.
Here are eight things to know about the Tommies.
St. Thomas' coaching staff has a pair of long-time mainstays, dating back to the program's glory years in NCAA Division III.
Advertisement
Head coach Glenn Caruso has coached in 200 games and is the winningest coach in program history at 165-39.
Caruso's defensive coordinator has stayed constant in Wallie Kuchinski, who has the label of associate head coach.
"They've been really good on defense for over a decade," UND coach Eric Schmidt said. "They're a team that has an identity. They're going to get in enough big sets to be able to make sure that they can try to lean on some teams. Run the football, play-action pass ... that's definitely who they want to be.
"Defensively, they're going to make it really hard on you to be able to run the football. They want to pressure the quarterback. They don't want to give up big plays, and they do a good job of that."
Advertisement
The Pioneer League drew national attention last week for struggling during the opening weekend.
St. Thomas was actually able to pick up a win, but it wasn't pretty in a 15-9 victory over NCAA Division II Winona State, a team picked to finish ninth in the NSIC's preseason poll.
Pierce McCrary secured the lead by recovering a Luke Schuler fumble in the end zone with less than a minute left in regulation. Peyton Himley then clinched the win with his first college interception.
St. Thomas quarterback Anthony Policare threw 13-for-22 for 166 yards. The 6-foot, 203-pound junior spent three seasons at Buffalo.
Advertisement
Gabriel Abel, a graduate student in his fifth season with the Tommies, led the rushing attack with 13 carries for 75 yards.
St. Thomas and UND last met in 1964 when UND beat the Tommies 30-6 in front of 5,500 at Memorial Stadium.
In that game, UND legend Dave Osborn rushed for 48 yards and a touchdown as the Fighting Sioux outrushed St. Thomas 204 to 11.
According to Herald archives, UND led 21-0 before subbing out the starters. Pete Porinsh started at quarterback before giving way to Corey Colehour.
Former Grand Forks Central running backs Ron Bergh and Jerry Evenson received high praise from head coach Marv Helling for their play during the game.
Advertisement
St. Thomas has needed to revamp its defensive roster this season.
The Tommies had to replace nine defensive starters from the 2025 team, including first team all-conference linebacker Ryan Sever.
In total, the Tommies lost six defensive starters to graduation and three to the transfer portal.
St. Thomas lost roughly 59 percent of the team's tackling totals from 2025.
St. Thomas has a new quarterback this season, and he's also acting as the team's starting punter.
Anthony Policare, a native of Endwell, N.Y., threw for 166 yards and rushed for 73 yards on 16 carries, the most rushes for a St. Thomas quarterback in its Division I era.
Advertisement
Policare, a Buffalo transfer, punted four times for 121 yards, averaging 30.2 yards per punt.
Policare's father, Tony, played football at Buffalo in the 1990s, while his grandfather wrestled at Buffalo and is a member of the school's Athletics Hall of Fame.
The Tommies have been in the FCS since 2022 after an odd situation in the team's old league, the MIAC.
In 2019, the MIAC announced St. Thomas, which helped found the MIAC almost 100 years prior, would be "involuntarily removed" from the 13-member conference, with "athletic competitive parity" named as the primary concern by the conference's presidents' council.
Advertisement
The Tommies won the league's men's and women's all-sports titles in all of the 12 seasons leading up to the decision.
In the two years leading up to the vote, St. Thomas' average margin of victory against MIAC football foes was more than 40 points per game.
St. Thomas plays in the non-scholarship Pioneer League, a conference with an automatic bid to the league winner in the FCS playoffs.
The Tommies were picked to finish third in the preseason coaches poll.
St. Thomas has earned a Top 3 finish in each of the first five seasons of Division I play. St. Thomas won the PFL title in 2022, then finished second and third in the standings.
Advertisement
This will be the Tommies second season of NCAA playoff eligibility. St. Thomas completed its reclassification from Division III to Division I in June 2025, becoming the first institution to make the leap in NCAA history.
Glenn won't be the only Caruso in Grand Forks.
Anna Caruso, Glenn's daughter, joined the Tommies assistant coaching staff prior to the 2022 season. Her duties cover in-game strategy and data research.
Anna graduated from Cretin-Derham Hall and played softball at St. Thomas.
Cade Caruso, Glenn's son, is a 5-foot-7 junior linebacker for the Tommies.
Cade played in five games in 2025 with four tackles. He didn't play in the 2026 season opener.
