| When you rest your head on your pillow tonight, picture @CUNEFootball as an NAIA playoff team. The numbers speak for themselves.
— Concordia Bulldogs (@cunebulldogs) November 17, 2024
The résumé: pic.twitter.com/AS0swSKtW1
FREMONT, Neb. – Trailing at halftime on Saturday, the 20th-ranked Concordia University, Nebraska Football team felt its postseason hopes hanging in the balance. It responded emphatically while putting together perhaps its best quarter of football all season. A 31-0 spread in that 15-minute stretch led to a 45-13 statement win at Midland in the final game of the 2024 regular season. The Bulldogs rattled off 227 yards of offense in the third period alone in the 72nd all-time meeting with the rival Warriors.
The win puts Head Coach Patrick Daberkow’s squad at 8-2 (tied for second in the final GPAC standings). The eight wins are the most for the program since the 2001 GPAC championship team went 10-2.
“I am just really proud of how our guys stuck with it,” Daberkow said. “That was a dogfight in the first half, but we had some things we felt like we were making progress on. Coaches stuck with it and stuck with the game plan. I’m just very pleased with the second half outcome. If you keep chopping long enough, the three’s going to fall down. The guys understood that the game plan was there. We were tripping up on some simple things that we needed to tweak. I think our coaching staff did a phenomenal job at halftime. The defensive and special teams turnovers set up a ton of scores today. Such a great team effort.”
The splurge out of the halftime locker room began with a five-play, 54-yard drive resulting in Peyton Atwood’s 28-yard field goal and continued with a flurry of Bulldog touchdowns. Austin Jablonski hauled in a 35-yard scoring strike from DJ McGarvie to allow Concordia to regain the lead, 17-13. A Will Potratz interception (and 22-yard return) then led to a three-yard touchdown rush for Mark Arp. Moments later, McGarvie hit a wide-open John Goodwin for a 53-yard touchdown. In putting a cherry on top of the quarter, defensive lineman Devon Polley made a diving interception that set the Bulldogs up at the Midland 33 and paved the way for Arp to rush for another score (on a nine-offensive lineman package).
Such developments that staked Concordia to a 38-13 lead heading into the final 15 minutes were a reversal of a frustrating first half. The Bulldogs were limited to 102 yards in the first half while struggling to finish drives. The Warriors took their first lead of the game (13-7) when Teryn Berry whirled a 15-yard touchdown toss to Tae Marks late in the first half. The rest of the way, the Bulldog defense tightened the screws and became an opportunistic bunch.
Behind an offensive line that has set the tone all season, Arp rushed for 97 yards and two scores on 25 carries. His second touchdown of the day gave him 13 for the season, equaling a program record. In doing so, Arp pushed his season rushing total to 1,195 (third most in program history). In his 36th career start at quarterback, senior DJ McGarvie was an efficient 11-for-14 for 167 yards and two touchdowns. His favorite target Jablonski hauled in six passes for 96 yards and a score and moved past 200 career receptions. He also ran for 56 yards as part of another 200-plus yard rushing day as a team. Carlos Collazo scored the game’s first touchdown on a four-yard rush.
Defensively, Grant Huss and Kyle Sterup posted 10 tackles apiece. Huss got in the backfield for a sack. In addition, playmaking safety Daylon Henson recovered a fumble, picked off a pass (sixth interception of the season) and broke up three passes. Senior Dylan Smith recovered the fumble on special teams that segued into Collazo’s touchdown. Concordia managed to limit game breaking Midland back Tyson Denkert to 74 yards – and he was a nonfactor in the return game.
The Warriors (6-5, 5-5 GPAC) played tight games this season with Morningside (28-21 loss) and Northwestern (17-7 loss) and have been a team that perennially finishes above .500 under Head Coach Jeff Jamrog. Midland entered the game allowing only 18.9 points per game, but it faced one of its most daunting tasks in defending the balanced Bulldogs.
Said Daberkow, “I believe that we are the best two-loss team in America. I think we have a great playoff résumé. We beat the No. 2 team in the country. We had a win today over a very good team that Morningside beat by a touchdown and Northwestern beat by 10 points. We wanted this to be a statement game. The second-place team in the GPAC has always made the postseason. We don’t want to be left out of it. We know it’s in God’s hands now, and we’ll accept the outcome. We feel like this team is one of the best in the country.”
While the likes of McGarvie, Arp and Jablonski rewrite the Concordia record books, Atwood has broken a program single season record with 44 successful PATs on the season (former school record was 40 by Adam Meirose in 2014). The Bulldogs are averaging 38.5 points per game, a figure that bests the previous program record of 35.9 by the 1951 team.
With Saturday’s victory, the Bulldogs made one final argument for why they should be included in the field of 20 teams that will play in the NAIA Football Championship Series. The playoff field will be unveiled via a selection show scheduled for 6 p.m. CT on Sunday. More information about the show can be found HERE. The first round of the NAIA FCS is slated to take place on Saturday, Nov. 23. Should Concordia be rewarded with an at-large bid, it will mark the program’s first playoff appearance since 2001.