Nebraska-Omaha Excited for Bowl Opportunity

By David Boyce

Nebraska-Omaha heads into the first-ever Kanza Bowl not wondering what if. The Mavericks relish the opportunity to play in a postseason game, a nice accomplishment for a team that was picked to finish 6^th in the MIAA.

At 1 p.m. Saturday in Topeka, Nebraska-Omaha, 7-4, will take on West Texas A&M, 6-5, at Hummer Sports Park.

"It's a reward for them. Our seniors are very excited about this," Nebraska-Omaha coach Pat Behrns said.

"I'm very pleased with our attitudes towards this game. We fought our way and at least tied for second and got the option of which bowl to go to. It's an accomplishment and gives us a chance to play a postseason game."

The bowl game pits one of the top teams from the MIAA that didn't make the NCAA Division II playoffs against the top representative from the Lone Star Conference that also failed to reach the playoffs.

"We are really excited," senior quarterback Greg Wunderlich said. "Obviously, we are disappointed because when you start the season you want to win your conference and make a run in the playoffs. But this is something that has been good for us because we really overcame some things this season.

"For us to be in this game and play a team like West Texas is exciting. We are looking forward to it and it is a good game for our younger guys. We want to send them off the right way into the offseason."

By finishing in a four-way tie for second and then having the tie-breakers in their favor, the Mavericks elected to go to the inaugural Kanza Bowl.

Missouri Western, 8-3, was left to make its annual trip to Excelsior Springs, Mo., for the Mineral Bowl and will face Augustana (S.D.), 8-3, 1 p.m. Saturday at Tiger Stadium. It's the Griffons' third straight trip to the Mineral Water Bowl.

Before the season started both teams had aspirations of reaching the playoffs. The Mavericks had reached the playoffs the last four seasons. But Nebraska-Omaha knew it would be difficult because nearly all its starters on offense were new.

Nebraska-Omaha, though, got on a midseason roll and stood at 5-2 after a 31-21 win against Washburn. A couple of key injuries struck and the Mavericks lost 31-20 at Fort Hays State after leading 20-0. They followed that with a 49-31 loss at home against Central Missouri.

With two games left, the Mavericks could have mentally checked in the rest of the season and started looking to the future.

But that's not in the program's character.

Behrns used words resiliency and persistent and sticking with it to describe his players.

"They had a great attitude all year regardless of what was going on," Behrns said. "We lost some games that we could have very easily lost the season and we didn't do that.

"We could have given up. Our guys looked at it as a start of a new thing. Hopefully, we can do well in this bowl game to give us a good start next year."

The Mavericks recovered from a two-game losing streak by beating Pittsburg State 31-28 in overtime and then traveled to Missouri Western in the season finale.

Missouri Western knew if it won it would be playing in the playoffs and probably would have had a home game. The Griffons had a lot to play for.

There was plenty left for the Mavericks to play for also, said Behrns. Nebraska-Omaha won 30-21.

"We didn't talk about playing spoiler but I think we all knew about that," Wunderlich said. "I don't think it was an aberration that we played out of our minds. I think we played our game plan, executed and that's what happened.

"You look back and you sort of think what could have been but that game we put it together. Western is a really talented team and they are going to do well in their bowl game. We played well in that game and the way we expected to play. We expected to win that game even though nobody else did."

Behrns is thrilled his seniors get one more game and get another taste of postseason action. He's not sure what it means for his underclassmen.

"The benefits to our underclassmen I don't know how we will be able measure that until we get into next fall," Behrns said. "When you get anywhere from 12 to 14 extra practices that's like having another spring practice.

"Hopefully, what we can do after we are done with this is get back in the weight room and do the things physically we need to do to give ourselves a chance to compete for a conference championship. Obviously, that's what we all want."

One thing is clear: the Mavericks are heading into the Kanza Bowl wanting to win.

The seniors definitely want their last time in a Nebraska-Omaha uniform to be in victory.

"I was talking to some of the other seniors and it is kind of bizarre," Wunderlich said. "You can almost see the light and see it come to an end. We want to go down there and win a ball game.

"We are not strapping it up one more time for fun or anything like that. We want to go down there and play well. It will probably be emotional I guess when we are walking out and walking off. We are just looking forward to playing."

To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.