Allen, SBU Primed for Return to the MIAA

By David Boyce
Niles Media Group

Compared to the driving distance of a few away games, the road Southwest Baptist football team takes to Missouri Southern for Saturday's contest might still feel like a home game.

The Bearcats will only be on the highway for about 2 hours. It's considerably less than the 12-hour road trip to Wilberforce, Ohio for their 30-13 victory over Central State University on Oct. 15.

Southwest Baptist also spent about 10 hours driving to Renesselaer, Indiana on Sept. 24. The Bearcats won that game 21-19 over Saint Joseph College.

That's the typical life of an Independent college football program.

"Our biggest challenge was scheduling games and playing an 11-game schedule," said SBU fifth-year coach Keith Allen.

In 2008, SBU decided to leave the MIAA in football and play as an Independent. The Bearcats weren't having much success in the MIAA. In fact, they went 0-11 in 2007, which was Allen's first season when he was brought on as the interim head coach.

But Allen had a plan to turn things around no matter if SBU football program was affiliated with a conference or not. Clearly, the SBU administration believed in him because he lost the interim tag.

His plan started with a pass-happy, spread offense plus infusing a winning mentality for everybody involved in the program.

Four years later, things are looking very bright for SBU football. The Bearcats head into Saturday's game with a 6-1 record and the knowledge they will be back in the MIAA next season.

"The MIAA gave us the opportunity to join the conference and we jumped at it. We are excited," Allen said. "We believe the MIAA is the upper echelon conference in Division II. We are looking forward to reconnecting with playing somebody every year. We miss that."

The game against Missouri Southern, 2-4, is the MIAA Game of the Week and will be televised.

"I hope people watch it," Allen said. "We are honored to be picked. I think it will help us in recruiting. Going back into the conference will help us recruit in Chicago, Kansas City and St. Louis."

The last four weeks SBU will see just how far it has come since 2007. The Bearcats conclude their season with four games against MIAA opponents. After Southern, SBU will play home games against Missouri Western, Emporia State and Truman.

The Bearcats already own a victory against an MIAA foe, beating Fort Hays State 30-28 on Sept. 17 in Hays, Kan.

"What we are looking forward to is we have a nice game at Southern, which isn't very far from us," Allen said. "The last time I coached against those guys, we lost on a game-blocked field goal.

"Western is a team that year in and year out, is always competitive and in the upper part of the conference. We are really excited about these last four games. It is going to be a great barometer of where we are in the MIAA.

"Everybody is expecting us to go 0-4 in the next four games. It will be a great challenge for us and our kids and we are looking forward to it. We can't wait for the games."

Win or lose, the Bearcats figure to play some exciting football. Behind the play of junior quarterback Dan Connors, senior running back Thad Everson and senior wide receiver Charles Johnson, SBU has been putting up points. The fewest points they have scored was 20 in a 31-20 loss to Arkansas Tech.

"I think those kids do a tremendous job on offense," Allen said.

The defensive players to watch are junior linebackers Andre Hicks and Zach Moore.

Allen likes the way his team is playing.

"They are getting better every week _minus a few miscues like anybody can say _ we could be a little bit better. I'm pretty happy the way our kids are going," Allen said.

Although the results in the last four weeks will not count in the conference standings, the Bearcats are back in the MIAA in football. Allen couldn't be happier about it.

"You get to meet the same coaches over and over," Allen said. "As the head coach, you go to the postseason meetings. You get to have some established rivalries. We've been playing whoever we can schedule. It didn't matter who we played and when played. We just needed to play games. Now that headache is relieved.

"Going to an 11-game conference schedule means I have to worry about zero games to schedule."

And the 12-hour bus ride to Ohio is now in the rearview mirror for the SBU football program.