Reusse: MSU Mankato looks better than last season’s national semifinal appearance

MANKATO – The perennial football powerhouse at Minnesota State Mankato started the 2024 season 5-0, then went 3-3 over the closing weeks of Northern Sun play and had to sweat out selection day to discover if it would have a place in the 28-team Division II bracket.

The sweating was well worth it, for the adventures of the next month in the D-II playoffs still can bring an appreciative smile to the mug of coach Todd Hoffner. Never what you’d call a grin from the 59-year-old; just the slight smile that reads, “Seeing an effort like that is why you coach football for 35 years.”

League champ Augustana, Bemidji State and the Mavericks made the D-II field. Sioux Falls and Minnesota Duluth, both winners over Mankato, did not. There was grousing over this, although Sioux Falls had the blemish of a loss to Minot State and UMD had four losses in the conference.

And then the Mavericks justified the selection:

Positive: Down 19-10 and starting at their 12-yard-line with 3:07 remaining, the Mavericks won at Augustana in the first round of the playoffs, 20-19, on Matthew Jaeger’s last-play field goal in the playoff opener.

Positive: Playing next at Colorado State-Pueblo, the Mavericks were down 16-6 in the fourth quarter. They used Hayden Ekern’s 36-yard TD pass to Grant Guyett to close the gap, recovered an onside kick, had a tying field goal by Jaeger with a minute left, then an interception by freshman Cade Stingle and game-winner, 26-23, by Jaeger with one second left.

Positive: Playing at home vs. Bemidji State, the Mavericks were down 23-14 in the third, rallied for a 27-23 lead, then stopped the Beavers at the MSU 4 with six seconds left.

“We were in Valdosta and believing into the fourth quarter we had a chance to win. The seniors we had, guys like Hayden Ekern and my running back partner Christian Vasser … we wanted that to happen for them."

It was not to be — Valdosta State 35, Mavericks 21 — but also a postseason not to be forgotten.

Reaching the national semifinals also restored MSU’s standing as a D-II national contender. The Mavericks opened the season last week with a 38-14 victory over Northwest Missouri and are rated eighth in the coaches poll.

Backer had a 69-yard touchdown run last December in Valdosta (to make it 14-14 in the first half) and finished his redshirt freshman season with 1,017 yards. Vasser added 599 yards that season in that double whammy at running back.

Backer was a tremendous runner and all-around athlete at Chatfield, a longtime football contender in southeastern Minnesota. He was the Rochester Post Bulletin’s area player of the year for the 2022 season.

“Those three games helped to keep me going,” Backer said. “A whole year without a real game would have been tough to handle. I liked track because I was good at it, and basketball … I was OK and it was a chance to play with my buddies. But football. Since I was little kid that was all I wanted to do."

Backer rushed for over 7,000 yards in his career for the Chatfield Gophers, while missing a chance to play in his team’s Class 2A-winning Prep Bowl game in 2021. He was in altercation with an opponent in the semifinals, assessed two unsportsmanlike penalties and barred from the title game.

Despite an attempt to overturn that failed, Chatfield won the title with Backer cheering, not playing.

Life goes on. As does football.

“We do pretty well getting outstanding athletes from that part of Minnesota,” Hoffner said. “We like those talented three-sport competitors you find in smaller towns.”

Then again, the Mavericks have a tendency to make strong use of their two-deeps with quarterbacks that can run.

Ryan Schlichte is now in his second season as a young offensive coordinator. Late in the previous decade, Schlichte and JD Ekowa shared the quarterback duties, including with MSU’s run to the national title game in 2019.

“Ryan is from here and knows the land very well,” Backer said. “When he first came into a meeting, I knew who he was and he knew me. And then we found out Ryan wants to make the offense very dynamic and explosive.”

The combination of Backer, ace receiver TreShawn Watson and a pair of rushing/passing quarterbacks, Mitchell Thompson and Maximus Sims, fit that Schlichte formula in a fine manner in the opener: 38 points, 475 yards.