DURHAM – The Wildcats knew what they had to do – stop Albany running back Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks. And they knew what was at stake – a clear path to the FCS playoffs.
Knowing and doing, however, are two different things.
Ibitokun-Hanks ran for a staggering 298 yards (230 in the second half) and three touchdowns as Albany erased a 22-point deficit to beat No. 21/23 New Hampshire Saturday at Wildcat Stadium, 36-25. The Wildcats (6-4) now have to win their regular-season finale next weekend at Maine to have any chance of extending their FCS-best string of 12 straight postseason appearances.
“We knew that the best chance of us making the payoffs was winning out, we knew that going into it, and now we just focus on the next one and it’s out of our control. It’s not up to us,” said UNH senior defensive end Cam Shorey, a Maine native. “So just play the best we can against Maine and hopefully get selected for the playoffs. We just have to win against Maine. That’s our focus now.”
Even if they find a way to beat the surging Black Bears, who are also 6-4 after winning six of their last seven, the Wildcats may not get an invitation to the 24-team FCS tournament. UNH made it in with a 7-4 record in 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2015, but the ’Cats don’t necessarily have the same kind of signature wins they had in those years. And there are a host of teams with similar records this year who will be vying for one of those last at-large bids, including Albany (6-4).
“It was great team win … the most important thing is they stuck together at halftime, they believed in each other and that’s what great teams do,” Albany Coach Greg Gattuso said. “The team we beat today … they play hard-nosed, they’re a classy football program, they work hard and they do things the right way, and that’s who we want to be.”
It may have been a team win for the Great Danes, but it featured a star. The 5-foot-9, 199-pound Ibitokun-Hanks entered the game as the second leading rusher in the CAA (119.1 yards per game), but it’s hard to imagine anyone running better than he did in front of the 7,012 fans at Wildcat Stadium.
Run defense has been UNH’s calling card this year, yet Ibitokun-Hanks broke tackles, darted to edges and sped through open lanes throughout the entire second half.
“It’s really disappointing because we emphasized that all week, how good he was,” Shorey said. “We just didn’t bring our best game today to stop that run.”
The Wildcats were playing at their best to start the game, which just doubled the final disappointment.
UNH took the opening kickoff and marched 74 yards in eight plays, the last one a swing pass from Trevor Knight (19-for-33, 176 yards, two touchdowns, one interception) that Dalton Crossan turned into an 18-yard touchdown catch – and after the two-point run from Knight – an 8-0 lead.
Crossan left the game late in the first quarter with a concussion, but Trevon Bryant stepped in and filled the void. Bryant (career-high 112 yards on 18 carries) powered a 76-yard drive that ended with an 8-yard touchdown catch from Rory Donovan. Bryant scored himself from three yards out to give UNH a 22-0 lead with 2:56 left in the first half.
“I was feeling it from the start,” Bryant said. “I had already made up my mind that what I was going to do was contribute to the team, and my opportunity came so I just took it.”
After Bryant scored, however, Albany put together a 79-yard drive that changed the game.
The Great Danes went into a two-minute drill offense that put UNH on its heels and yielded an 11-yard touchdown pass from Will Brunson to Jordan Crockett with 34 seconds left before halftime. It also delivered confidence for Brunson, a redshirt freshman making his first start, and the rest of the team.
“It helped a lot,” said Brunson, who finished 12-for-20 for 146 yards. “We know teams that score at the end of the half have some momentum, especially when they have the ball coming back into the second half, and we knew if we got some rhythm we could keep that for the second half.”
The rhythm kicked in quick – on the third play of the second half – as Ibitokun-Hanks broke free for a 44-yard run that eventually led to his 1-yard touchdown. New Hampshire answered with a field goal, but Ibitokun-Hanks scored from two yards out with 1:14 left in the third to cut UNH’s lead to 25-22 going into the fourth quarter.
After New Hampshire failed to convert a fourth-and-4 from the Albany 26, the Great Danes marched 75 yards in the other direction. They took their first lead of the game, 29-25, with 8:32 left in the fourth on a 4-yard run from Brunson.
New Hampshire’s next possession ended in another failed fourth-down coonversion attempt, this one thanks to a sack from Albany’s Malachi Hoskins. And again, Albany took it all the way the other way, this time with Ibitokun-Hanks romping for a game-clinching, 13-yard touchdown on fourth-and-1 with 3:10 left on the clock.
“I knew I had one guy to beat, a linebacker sliding across, and I knew once I beat him I’d be golden,” Ibitokun-Hanks said. “So I just played mind games with him, showed him my shoulders and went the other way, and kept going.”
The loss leaves a messy playoff picture for the Wildcats, but they’ll do their best to ignore the clutter and focus on their rival.
“I don’t know what anybody else is thinking about, but I want to go up (to Maine) and play as best we can, because we didn’t play as best we can today,” UNH Coach Sean McDonnell said. “I want to make sure we end the season on a good note that way.”
The UNH seniors, who were honored before the game, went 24-4 at home during their four years.
The Wildcats were off last week and are now 6-9 following a bye since 2004, the same year their playoff streak began.
UNH freshman Pop Lacey, who is on the watch list for the Jerry Rice Award (FCS freshman of the year), didn’t do anything to hurt his chances with a team-high nine tackles.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)