Even though Saint Francis’ ranking within the NAIA football poll has fallen after two losses in its last three games, Cougars coach Kevin Donley assuredly says the sky hasn’t.
Three weeks ago, Saint Francis climbed as high as second in the poll, dropped to seventh after a 42-31 loss to No. 1 Saint Xavier, edged up to No. 6 last week, then fell to its current No. 12 status after Saturday’s 40-13 homecoming loss to No. 2 Marian.
With a 4-2 record and four games remaining, Donley confidently says his team will still participate in the 16-team NAIA playoffs.
“I still believe, as of (Monday), we’re one of the top four teams in the country,” Donley said. “I don’t believe we’ll be that way in the rankings, but in my opinion, we’re one of the top four.
“Now, we’ve got to prove that,” Donley said. “We can’t dream about it. We’ve got to make it happen, and it starts Saturday.”
The Cougars, who had a 56-game home field winning streak as recently as the 2009 season, will try to kill off a two-game losing streak at Bishop D’Arcy Stadium when they face Malone (3-4) on Saturday.
While a 15-member committee of coaches determines the weekly NAIA poll, and those ratings come into play when the 16-team playoff field is chosen, recent history shows that two regular-season losses aren’t death knells for a playoff berth.
Six teams, including Marian (9-2), had two or more losses in last year’s playoff field. Even Azusa Pacific (Calif.) reached the playoffs with a 6-3 record.
Five teams that had two or more losses made the playoffs in ’09, and half of the 16-team field in the 2008 playoffs had two or more losses, including four teams that had been beaten three times.
The last time Saint Francis, a three-time national runner-up from 2004 to 2006, did not reach the playoffs was in 2009, when the Cougars lost three of their last four games and finished with a 7-3 record.
Donley doesn’t anticipate a 7-3 record this season.
“We’ve got to play every game with a real sense of urgency, and not peek ahead,” he said.
“I think maybe we’ve done a little bit of that.
“We’re a young football team, and we have a tendency to look ahead and assume things are going to happen, and there are no assumptions when you look at the schedule we play. We stubbed our toe twice. We haven’t played well against the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country.”
The day before Monday’s NAIA poll was released, Donley had an idea where his team would be placed.
“I’m guessing we’re going to drop to 13, 14 – I don’t know where,” he said. “Who cares at this point? What matters is we’ve got four weeks. We’re going to be a playoff team if we take care of business each and every Saturday.”
After Saturday’s game against Malone, here’s the remainder of Saint Francis’ schedule, with current records in parenthesis: at Quincy (3-3) Oct. 29; at Taylor (4-2) Nov. 5; home to Central State University (0-6) Nov. 12.
