Minnesota State can’t wait to get back to football
MANKATO, Minn. (BVM) — The last time any Minnesota State University, Mankato football player was on the field was in the NCAA Division II National Championship game against West Florida during the 2019 season. The Mavericks lost that game 48-40 but haven’t been able to get back on the field due to COVID cancelling the entire 2020 season.
Now the team is just days away from their first game and everybody cannot wait for that moment.
“I think it’s long overdue and it’s an exciting time,” Minnesota State head coach Todd Hoffner said.
“I can’t wait to get out on the football field. I think our guys are pretty tired of competing against one another in practice so it’ll definitely be a breath of fresh air.”
The Mavericks open their season at home at Blakeslee Stadium against Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference rival Northern State on Sep. 2. It is a time for excitement but also a rubber meets the road moment for MSU.
“Obviously we have a lot of work to do; there’s still a lot of unknown and uncertainty,” Hoffner said. “It’s been so long since we’ve done anything remotely close to a football game.”
There are two classes of Maverick players who have yet to play in a game, add to that any transfers who have come to Minnesota State since 2019 and this will be a real test of where the Mavericks are at as they look to make it back to the national championship.
There are positives and there is a reason that Minnesota State enters the 2021 season ranked No. 1 in the NSIC and No. 2 in the nation according to an AFCA Poll. They have 30 players returning from their 2019 team, including starting quarterback JD Ekowa.
“Without great leadership you can’t expect to do great things,” Hoffner said. “We feel that we have some strong leadership.”
Along with Ekowa on the offensive side, Minnesota State has four seniors from their offensive line returning in Hunter Toppel, Brandon Krantz, Carter Dowdle and Jared Gossen. For an offense that in 2019 broke team records in points scored (712), rushing yards (4,246), rushing attempts (713), rushing touchdowns (59), total offense (7,766) and all-purpose yards (9,063), having a foundation like that is vital.
On the defensive side, Minnesota State has key contributors from 2019 like Jack Leius, Ty’Shonan Brooks and Bedale Naba returning for the 2021 campaign. These men were a part of the Maverick defense that only allowed 15.2 points per game in 2019 and was one of the best defenses in the nation.
Hoffner credits defensive coordinator Jim Glogowski for the stifling defense MSU has and believes the defense will play an important role in helping the Mavericks succeed early in the season as they find their rhythm.
“He does a phenomenal job of just helping our guys be in the right place at the right time and the rest is up to them to make plays,” Hoffner said. “I think he does it by attacking and reacting and asking those players to make plays in space. I think that’s something we’re going to have to be really good at, especially in this first and second game to try and come out ahead.”
The reason for that is Hoffner knows there will be setbacks and mistakes that come with not playing a competitive game in almost two years. He and his coaching staff have tried to address that as best they can in practice but in the end only game time will fix those issues.
“We’re trying to put our guys in the most difficult and challenging situations that we can in practice,” Hoffner said. “So that we get as close as we can to game situations and game decisions that have to be made at full speed. You can do as much of that as you want of that but the bottom line is there is no experience like game experience.”
For a team that has won six of the last seven NSIC Championships and enters the season with a 35-NSIC winning streak, the Mavericks will have to knock off the rust quickly to continue that dominance. To do that, they are just going to take everything one step at a time.
“We’re taking it day by day,” Hoffner said. “We’re just trying to take one snap at a time and see where it takes us.”
