Lions ready for football opener against No. 14 Lopers

Sep. 1—MIAA football is back, and with it is year two of the Atiba Bradley era at Missouri Southern.

Bradley and the Lions will kick off their 2022 football campaign on Thursday night as they play host to No. 13 Nebraska-Kearney at 7 p.m. inside Fred G. Hughes Stadium.

This season will mark Bradley's second full season at the helm of the program after he led the Lions to a 3-8 showing last fall. He also helped Southern to a 21-20 win over Southern Nazarene in the spring of 2021 after the 2020 MIAA campaign was canceled by COVID-19.

MSSU's three wins last season marked the program's highest win total in a single campaign since 2014 when it finished 4-7. Three of the Lions' setbacks last season were decided by four points or less.

Bradley noted in MSSU's first weekly press conference of the season on Wednesday at MSSU that his team is "lightyears better" than it was a year ago. However, whether that will translate to more wins is tough to predict in a highly competitive MIAA conference that boasts three ranked teams (No. 4 Northwest Missouri, No. 13 UNK and No. 25 Washburn) in the D2football.com preseason top-25 poll.

"Again, you talk about the fine line, 3-8 could have easily been 4-7 last year," Bradley said. "If the ball bounces the opposite way, it easily could have been 1-10. But we are a better football team — I have no doubt about that. The wins and losses, we'll see where they lay. But I'm excited to play a couple more close games, and hopefully they fall in our favor."

MSSU welcomes back a plethora of experienced players ahead of the season with eight returning starters on offense and eight on defense. Six of those returners were all-MIAA performers last year in senior linebacker Richard Jordan Jr., junior LB Colton Winder, junior defensive lineman Solomona Fetuao, redshirt sophomore DL Nick Kruse, junior defensive back Dylan Bolden and senior kicker Nick Williams.

With that bevy of experience returning, the Lions have had several more players step into leadership roles since the end of last season.

"The exciting thing is when you hear players talk like you talk," Bradley said. "Part of the summer is the NCAA does not allow football coaches be involved with practices and weight training. So when you see players policing players, when you see players hosting practices, when you see players having throwing sessions without a coach around, that's a really positive sign for your program."

Among the leaders on the offensive side of the football is returning starting quarterback Dawson Herl, a redshirt sophomore who threw for 2,260 yards and 16 touchdowns last year. He'll be joined in the backfield by another familiar face in sophomore running back Nathan Glades, a Joplin native who led the team with 717 rushing yards and five TDs as a true freshman.

"Every day you just get a little bit better, so we've had another 365 days to get our chemistry right," Herl said. "It should be fun to see how well we mold together for Week 1."

Also listed as offensive starters on MSSU's two-deep for this week are wide receivers JarMichael Cooper, Chris Boudreaux and Jaedon Stoshak; tight end Nick Panella; and offensive linemen Mohamad Al-Ramahi, Lepopeasenuu Tito-Fualaau, Joaquin Tapusoa, Faga'alu Siaki and Kenneth Fehrmen.

The MSSU defense will feature a strong core of linebackers in Jordan, Winder and senior Coleman Booker, who were the top three tackles on the team last year with 112, 90 and 66, respectively.

"The linebackers, we're a really tight-knit group and we hang out all of the time," Jordan said. "We know what we have to do tomorrow as a linebacker core and do what we need to do.

"(Defensive coordinator Joe Bettasso) did a great job recruiting this year and brought in a lot of guys around me. He brought in some great defensive linemen and DBs behind me. So that just helps my job a lot."

Other defensive starters for the Lions include linemen Kruse, Romel Readus, Kameron Neal and Garcia; cornerbacks Jordan Henderson and Bolden; and safeties Jalen Dennis and Avery Bass.

The Lopers are coming off a 10-3 season that saw them finish second in the MIAA and advance to the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs. UNK picked up a 38-0 win over MSSU in last year's season opener in Kearney, Nebraska.

"They're big, they're physical, they have a playmaker on offense, they're well-coached (and) they have a tremendous amount of seniors and upperclassmen," Bradley said of the Lopers. "But you're going to hear me say that every week about the MIAA. So we've got to find ways to match their physicality. We've got to find a way to have our playmakers do what they do, and we'll be just fine."

TJ Davis, the reigning MIAA Player of the Year and runner-up for the Harlon Hill award, returns at QB for the Lopers after totaling 2,320 passing yards, 1,151 rushing yards and 39 total touchdowns.

"Some of the things that make (Davis) special are him being him when he's not even called to be him," Bradley said. "Then on top of that, you put their offensive scheme where they do design some runs for him, and it makes it extremely tough.

"But like I said, he's not Superman. He's a really, really good football player. He's a tough player and we have to get after him, but we're going to see tough players all year."

Contact Jared Porter on Twitter at @JaredRyanPorter.