Life University has been off for three weeks and goes into this weekend’s DIA quarterfinal against Penn State well-rested.

And don’t think they’ll b rusty. Life has shown repeatedly that they can switch it on when they need to.

“We’ve had some help with guys dealing with knocks,” said Head Coach Tui Osborne, using the coming rugby euphemism for “injuries we don’t want to talk about.” The Running Eagles have gone through a lot of changes over this season, and the last few weeks - from Dan Payne moving up the ladder to losing players for a variety of reasons to changing the lineup because it needed to be changed. Yet somehow they have kept winning.

“Everyone’s learning, the players, myself as a coach,” said Osborne, who took over as Head Coach after Payne was promoted to Athletic Director in December. “The young guys, they’re not young guys anymore. They’re just players playing on a team. We’re almost where we need them to play.”

Several players have emerged through this season, such as Zander and Duncan Van Schalkwyk, Harley Davidson, but perhaps the player who has emerged the most at the most important time is Steve Florez, a first-year player thrust into a key role at prop.

“He is getting stronger and has strengthened our pack,” said Osborne. “He’s a good running prop as well. He’s just a hard worker, and I think we all need to be hard workers.”

So Life has battled a little bit to get to this point, MId-South conference winners, and hosting Penn State. Are they more than that? Are they a DIA final-caliber team? Osborne was quick to shut down any speculation.

“At the moment, we are a quarterfinal-caliber team,” he said. “Depending on how we play this weekend, we might be more than that.”