The 2024 Concordia University, Nebraska Football team did not receive the NAIA Football Championship Series invitation it felt like it had earned, but Head Coach Patrick Daberkow and his staff and players can take solace in knowing they put together one of the finest seasons in program history. On the strength of a record-breaking offense and rock-solid defense, the Bulldogs compiled an 8-2 record and rose as high as No. 17 in the NAIA coaches’ poll. The win at No. 2 Northwestern in early October raised eyebrows and the stature of Concordia Football on the national landscape.
This was the type of season the program had been striving for ever since Coach Courtney Meyer led the 2001 team to a GPAC championship and NAIA playoff appearance. The statistical dominance of the ’24 squad paints a picture of a group that was plenty capable of advancing in the postseason.
“It’s just such a tough pill to swallow,” said Daberkow in the aftermath of the playoff snub. “When you look at it, I think it’s definitely a team that will go down as one of the most memorable. It’s the most memorable season I’ve been a part of. To be able to beat the No. 2 team and finish tied with them in the conference was a very satisfying moment. Our only losses were to two top 10 teams. We outscored our opponents, 385-184, and out-sacked our opponents, 28-4. We felt like our trenches were such a strength for us this year.”
Superior line-of-scrimmage play carried the Bulldogs to that monumental victory in Orange City, Iowa, over the vaunted Red Raiders, who made national championship game appearances in 2022 and 2023. That victory put Concordia at 4-2 and had it dreaming of NAIA playoff qualification. Over the season’s final four games, the Bulldogs took care of business and demolished their in-state competition, winning by scores of 45-10 over Doane, 42-6 over Hastings and 45-13 over Midland. The pummeling of the Warriors in Fremont meant that Concordia went a perfect 5-0 on the road in 2024.
The decisive victory to close the regular season provided a satisfying final game for a senior class large on quantity and quality. Senior quarterback DJ McGarvie continued padding his school records and Austin Jablonski proved himself to be the very best receiver in the GPAC. The dynamic passing attack helped create running lanes for senior back Mark Arp, who went past 1,000 yards rushing and equaled a school record with 13 rushing touchdowns. The gaudy statistics were made possible by a veteran offensive line featuring Cohen Carpenter and Blake Schlegel at the tackles, Tyler Walford and Christian Schlepp at the guard spots and Jackson Anderson at center (with Toby Hager also playing regularly).
The full extent of program records broken by the 2024 team can be found HERE. With McGarvie at the controls for his fourth season as a starter, the Bulldogs broke school records for scoring average (38.5) and total offense per game (469.7). McGarvie piled up more than 9,000 career passing yards and Jablonski became the second player in program history to snag more than 200 career receptions. After taking a chance on Concordia following his time as a walk-on at the University of Nebraska, Jablonski found his home.
Tweeted Jablonski after playing his final game as a Bulldog, “To my family, friends, coaches, and teammates… Thank You! Bulldog For Life.”
The gratitude expressed by Jablonski for his coaches and teammates is representative of a close-knit team that badly wanted at least one more opportunity to take the field together. All season long, Daberkow gushed about the leadership qualities of standup young men like Jablonski and the class of 29 seniors that were honored on senior day. Before each game, Jablonski, McGarvie, Michael Grindey and Kyle Sterup represented the team as captains.
“These guys in the locker room have just meant so much and they mean so much to us,” Daberkow said. “It’s the turning of a page that we weren’t really ready to turn, but it’s here. We have to turn it and we have to move forward. We have a lot to build on. We have a ton of talent in the locker room that I’m excited about developing. I’m just excited to see what these seniors do as husbands, fathers and leaders. A couple guys might still have some opportunities to continue playing football, which is a really awesome opportunity.”
While the offense grabbed headlines due to it scoring touchdowns at a school record clip, the defense coordinated by Corby Osten improved significantly from 2023 to 2024. Concordia slashed its opponents’ scoring average from 31.9 in 2023 to 18.4 in 2024. The defense was anchored by a line with three First Team All-GPAC selections: Sterup, Carson Fehlhafer and Devon Polley. At linebacker, Grindey surpassed 250 career tackles and Grant Huss emerged in a big way. Meanwhile, Daylon Henson became a star in the secondary and plucked a GPAC high six interceptions.
On special teams, the kicker-punter combo of Peyton Atwood (school record 44 PATs) and Braxtyn Koch made for a solid kicking game. In the return game, Adam Van Cleave capably handled punts and kickoffs while turning in a fine season as the No. 2 receiver to Jablonski.
The records set by McGarvie will be difficult to reach for future Bulldog quarterbacks. The Lincoln North Star High School product added another single season standard with 28 touchdown passes this fall. He found Jablonski for 10 of those scores, Van Cleave and tight end Daylan Russell for six touchdowns apiece and tight end John Goodwin for four touchdowns.
There were few weaknesses on this particular team. There were times when Concordia gave up big plays in the passing game, but a still young secondary made obvious leaps forward. Undoubtedly, the Bulldogs had the look of a playoff team. 10/11 News Sports Director Kevin Sjuts certainly believed so and tweeted on Nov. 23, “Concordia football should be playing today.”
So why weren’t the Bulldogs chosen as one of the seven at-large teams in the 2024 NAIA national qualifying field?
On Selection Sunday (Nov. 17), NAIA Football National Selection Committee Chair Jesse Godding said publicly of Concordia, "(Leaving) Concordia and Dordt at home – that’s rough for both those programs. They have had tremendous years. Concordia when they played Northwestern, they got a win over a top 10 team at that time. They did have two top 10 losses, Morningside and Dordt. They were 7-0 against unranked teams. In the secondary criteria, they were 24 in the Pugh rating and 27th in Wolfe but finished right behind Southeastern at 17th in the final coaches’ poll. The strength of that conference is pretty good. For both Concordia and Dordt, it was tough for the committee, but it was nothing for us compared to them having 8-2 years and being left out of the playoffs.”
It will take time for Daberkow and everyone associated with the 2024 team to fully come to terms with the exclusion. Said Daberkow, “Honestly, we felt very strongly that we would be a tough out for anybody in the country. We were very confident with how things ended with the season – beating up on in-state rivals and being able to play a high level of football, as high of a level of football as I’ve ever been around. We felt deserving but it didn’t happen, and that’s life. You learn from it, you move forward and you do the next right thing. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Outside of the tangible results and records that came out of 2024, a feel-good moment occurred on Oct. 26 when the university celebrated Coach Courtney Meyer Day. The former 19-year Concordia head coach made the decision that the 2024 season would be his last one as an assistant on Daberkow’s staff. Counting his high school and collegiate career, Meyer spent 54 years coaching the game he loved. On Coach Meyer Day, fans held up hundreds of cutouts that displayed Meyer’s face. The celebration was deserved for ‘Mr. Concordia.’
As Meyer said, “It’s the right time. There’s a time when you have to retire. I’m going to miss it. I’m really going to miss it. Patrick said, ‘Coach, you can come by whenever you want.’ I said, ‘I will probably take you up on it.’ I’m the one who’s been really blessed by being here. My wife Connie and I have been blessed immeasurably by what has taken place here.”
As of the release of this season-in-review, postseason awards were still streaming in. A couple of additional program records were broken for number of First Team All-GPAC honorees (eight) and number of NAIA Scholar-Athletes (23).
“It’s a reflection of the work that those guys put in,” Daberkow said. “Nobody came in here and was a first team all-conference guy their first year here. Not one guy. That is the culmination of a ton of work, including the recruitment effort to find the right guys to fit our locker room. We talk about very specific things in a recruit that we want to fit the guys that we have in the locker room. It takes a lot to find those guys, guys who are willing to work and sacrifice and do things kind of different. It’s been an honor and a blessing to spend time with them and to coach them.”
The offseason is underway for the Bulldogs, who now watch GPAC rivals Morningside and Northwestern advance in the NAIA playoffs. The chance to realize dreams of reaching those heights will have to wait at least one more year. The 2025 Concordia Football team will look much different without the large and influential class of seniors, but the groundwork has been laid and the bar has been raised.
The Bulldogs will ring in 2025 with the expectation of standing amongst the top 25 teams in the NAIA. Should Concordia make its way to the playoffs in the years to come, it will point back to 2024 as the year that such an achievement became realistically attainable.
“The weight room is calling,” Daberkow said. “We’ve been lifting all season, but that will ramp up soon. I want our guys to take a little time and spend time with family. There is a clear path forward that we feel like we need to take. We’re so excited about it. We finished the regular season ranked 17th in the country. We’ll position ourselves well heading into the top 25 next season and we’ll set out our specific goals for next year with the leadership of the locker room. We’ll eat food, lift weights, sleep and sprint and repeat.”