BY JIMMY GILLIGAN | The Statesman The Bulldog football team (6-3, 4-1 NSIC-North) is on the wrong side of its own history, and out of the regional rankings, after a heartbreaking 23-15 loss to Northern State.
Their playoff hopes were slim after losing two of their first three games. Now they’re gone, vanished with Saturday’s implosion, leaving in their place a seldom experienced, bitter feeling of defeat.
“It’s a tough loss, a tough loss for the program, a tough loss for the season, a tough loss for an opportunity at the NCAA playoffs. This isn’t something we’re accustomed to,” head coach Curt Wiese said.
Saturday’s loss drops the Bulldogs out of the Super Region Three rankings and guarantees they will break their seven year playoff appearance streak. Although their record doesn’t appear all that bad, the three-loss season is an unprecedented failure for the UMD football program. It will be their worst finish since re-joining the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in 2008.
The loss brings to light a number of firsts. It snapped a 24-game winning streak against NSIC North Division opponents dating back to 2012. The loss also puts UMD outside the top 25 in the NCAA Division II polls for the first time since 2007, the year before head coach Curt Wiese joined the program as the offensive coordinator.
All streaks must end. The fact that they’re not a given is what gives them significance. But what makes the season-damning loss really sting is how it happened: on six turnovers.
Despite slightly out-gaining Northern State and holding them to just 62 yards of offense in the second half, UMD’s six turnovers proved to be the difference against Northern State. Their season turnover margin to this point (-5) is the worst since 2007, when they finished with a 3-6 record and had a turnover margin of -6.
“Turnovers are something that’s hard to correct,” Wiese said. “Those were unforced mistakes that happened on Saturday for the most part. Statistically in the game of football, if you lose a turnover battle you’re not gonna win the football game.”
Since the Bulldog football program returned to the NSIC in 2008, they have had a positive turnover margin of at least 10 in four of the past seven seasons.
Despite the disappointments, the closeness of those within the program has made the losses more manageable.
“The one thing I'll say about this team is that although we’ve had three losses we’re still a very close-knit team. We have not had anybody pointing fingers. Those three losses are program losses and team losses,” Wiese said.
The Bulldogs aren’t out of harm’s way yet, either. This weekend’s opponent, Bemidji State (6-3, 5-0 NSIC-North), is riding a six-game win streak. They will go up against a UMD offense that is banged up and could be missing two key players--quarterback Drew Bauer and running back Logan Lauters, who may both be out this weekend.
Lauters will miss his fifth game of the season after sustaining a knee injury against Northern State, his first game back from an ankle ailment that cost him the previous four games. Bauer, who was injured late in the game on a rush, is day to day. Since taking over as quarterback as a freshman, Bauer has never missed a game.
UMD has not lost to Bemidji State in any of their last nine meetings. But they haven’t been in these circumstances in recent memory. They face an uphill battle in Bemidji this Saturday.