DURHAM – This is the one that gets circled at the beginning of the year, the game no one wants to lose, the rivalry. When the New Hampshire and Maine football teams meet on Saturday in Orono, Maine, it will be the 105th contest between the two schools. The game doesn’t need anything extra, but it’s getting it anyway with playoff implications on the line for both teams.
“Every (Maine) game seems to have something riding on it that’s really important,” UNH Coach Sean McDonnell said. “But for us the way we ought to look at it, the way I’ve worked to have everybody look at it for a long time here, it’s Maine, it’s the next one, it’s the most important one on our schedule, it’s the biggest rival we’ve got.”
Both teams are 6-4 overall and 5-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association, and both are on the playoff bubble. There’s a good chance that Saturday’s winner will be one of the last teams added to the 24-team FCS playoff bracket, which will be announced on Sunday morning.
“I think if we win, we definitely have a chance,” said UNH running back Trevon Bryant, who ran for a career-high 112 yards in last week’s 36-25 loss to Albany.
A win will give the Wildcats a chance, but a loss is a guarantee that their FCS-best string of 12 straight playoff appearances will end.
“If we lose it’s over, and that’s a scary thing” UNH senior captain Casey DeAndrade said. “If we lose I’m never putting that uniform back on, and that’s how the seniors are looking at it. So we’re going to give it our best and play as hard as we can for as long as we can until they don’t let us play any more.”
DeAndrade said he avoids playoff prognostication websites like nobowls.com and other FCS chatter on social media. Bryant said the coaches have a delivered a clear message of staying focused on Maine and Maine only. But the players can’t help themselves. They look at the big picture and they definitely don’t want to be the team that ends UNH’s playoff run.
“Amongst the players it’s talked about a lot, just looking at the record we have of showing up in the playoffs,” said Bryant, who also added, “nobody wants to be the class that doesn’t make it, so we’re definitely fighting for it.”
They’ll have to fight against a Maine team that’s put up numbers very similar to the ones New Hampshire has posted. The Black Bears are fifth in the CAA in total offense with 359.5 yards per game (UNH is fourth with 363.4) and seventh in scoring offense at 22.4 points per game (UNH is third at 26.1). Maine ranks ninth in the league in scoring defense after giving up 26.4 ppg (UNH is sixth at 21.9) and 10th in total defense with 393.0 ypg allowed (UNH is sixth at 360.2).
The Black Bears have clearly improved over the course of the season. After losing their first three (two against FBS schools Connecticut and Toledo and the other against CAA champion Jame Madison), Maine has won six of its last seven.
All six of those wins have been by seven points or less, including last week’s 27-21 decision at Stony Brook.
“I think our kids are buying into what we’re doing, are believing in what we’re doing, and it shows in the last minutes of these games,” said Joe Harasymiak, who is in his first year as Maine’s head coach after serving as an assistant for five years. “We need kids to step up and make plays, and I think that’s where we’ve struggled the last couple of years in some big games we haven’t made the plays.”
That’s been the case in the games against New Hampshire. The Wildcats have won six straight against Maine and 13 of the last 14. So the Brice-Cowell musket, the trophy for this border rivalry, has become a fixture in Durham.
“The musket has been in the locker room since I walked in on day one, even on our recruiting trip it was there,” DeAndrade said. “So I’m used to the musket being in there. Hopefully I can leave with the musket still being up.”
For that to happen, the ‘Cats will have to find a way to slow down Maine’s Josh Mack, the freshman who has played his way to the top of the running back depth chart with 635 yards and six touchdowns on 119 carries. The Wildcats have been good against the run for most of the year, but they were torched last week by Albany’s Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks, who rushed for 298 yards and three touchdowns on 39 attempts.
Giving up those kind of yards, and losing on Senior Day, did not sit well with the Wildcats. So they practiced on Sunday, usually an off day, in order to turn the page as fast as possible.
“Sunday was a tough pill around this place and everybody didn’t have a great taste in their mouth,” McDonnell said. “We went out and practiced on Sunday. Thought it was important for us to get out and get going. Think that cleansed the wounds a little bit, and, you know, it’s good to be humbled once in a while.”
New Hampshire would like to counter Mack’s running ability with running back Dalton Crossan, but the UNH senior is still in the middle of the concussion protocol after taking a blow to the head against Albany. Crossan has been practicing without contact and his symptoms have all cleared, so there is reason for optimism there.
Even if Crossan is healthy, the Wildcats will need a big day from quarterback Trevor Knight. Maine has had issues with mobile quarterbacks, and Knight, who has gained 597 yards this year on 129 carries (he’s also lost 191 yards, but that includes sacks), is as mobile as you get. Plus, the sophomore now has 10 games of experience on his resume.
“I can definitely tell a difference from the beginning of the season,” Bryant said of Knight. “He wanted to run as soon as the pocket started to collapse a little bit, and I felt like he was just a little unsure at times. But now I feel like he definitely has a grasp of things, he’s comfortable back there and he knows what’s going on. It definitely makes the offense run smoother.”