Emporia State football heads into uncharted playoff territory
As the hype began to build toward the 2014 season, Emporia State football coach Garin Higgins embraced it.
Coming off an MIAA second-place finish and NCAA Division II playoff appearance in 2013, and with the heart of his roster back, he looked at the attention as understandable, and welcome. That next step – an MIAA title, a first playoff win – seemed inevitable. Some people even talked about winning the whole thing.
Then the season started … and the wheels came off.
Ranked in the preseason Top 25, Emporia State lost its start quarterback, Brent Wilson, to a broken collarbone in the fourth game and finished 4-7. The problems started before that, though, after a 1-2 start put the Hornets all but out of the playoff picture three games into the season.
“There was just a lot of disappointment,” Higgins said. “This year we made a point of taking everything one day at a time, of never looking past what was right in front of us. There was no more talk about playoffs or winning national titles or anything like that.”
The hard-learned lesson hit home and was the seed to this year’s historic run – an MIAA second-place finish, the school’s first playoff win last Saturday, 51-49 at Minnesota State. And all with Wilson leading the way as the MIAA Offensive Player of the Year.
Emporia State (10-2) plays Henderson State (11-1) on Saturday at noon in Arkadelphia, Ark.
“(Henderson State) is just a very efficient team, they do special teams really well and they cause a lot of turnovers,” Higgins said.
Wilson’s health has been key. He was also sidelined with a broken collarbone for the 2013 first-round playoff loss at Minnesota-Duluth. This season, he’s thrown for 3,857 yards and 39 touchdowns. His top target has been fellow senior Kavaski Ervin, a second team All-MIAA pick with 1,101 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.
Henderson State leads the nation with 27 interceptions and are third in the nation in scoring defense at 14.8 points.
“We have a lot of respect for Henderson State, but we also have a lot of confidence because we play in the MIAA,” Ervin said. “We know how tough our season has been with the competition level we’ve faced, so we’re ready for anything.”
Tony Adame: 316-268-6284, @t_adame
Saturday’s NAIA playoffs
Tabor (11-1) at Morningside (11-1), noon — Tabor gets a shot at the top-ranked team in the country on Saturday afternoon in Sioux City, Iowa. Morningside’s offense has put up scary numbers — it leads the nation at 62.3 points per game and quarterback Ryan Kasdorf has thrown for 3,357 yards and 45 touchdowns.
Southern Oregon (10-2) at Baker (11-1), noon — Defending national champion Southern Oregon faces a Kansas opponent for the second straight week after beating Kansas Wesleyan 52-8 in last Saturday’s playoff opener. Baker won the Heart of America’s South Division and has three wins over Top 25 opponents.
This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 11:19 AM with the headline "Emporia State football heads into uncharted playoff territory."