ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Golden Bears (1-2, 0-2 NSIC) hit the road this Saturday for a 1 p.m. kickoff at #5 Minnesota State (3-0, 3-0 NSIC) for what is expected to be a rainy Saturday afternoon at Blakeslee Stadium in Mankato, Minnesota.

Concordia is looking to secure its first win over a nationally-ranked opponent since a 27-24 home win over #24 Wayne State on October 15, 2011 at Sea Foam Stadium. The highest-ranked team CSP has knocked-off was #11 Minnesota State on September 25, 2010, a 28-26 road triumph at Blakeslee Stadium as future NFL Draftee and Super Bowl champion Zach Moore blocked the game-winning field goal attempt in the fourth quarter.

The 2010 and 2011 Golden Bears were also the last back-to-back winning seasons for the program, finishing 8-4 and reaching the Mineral Water Bowl in 2010 before a 6-5 2011 campaign.

WEATHER FORECAST
Two days away from kickoff, Saturday's high forecast is 77 degrees with a 63 percent chance of rain including scattered thunderstorms in the morning and a 15-25mph southeast wind. There is a potential for severe weather in the area in the forecast. The evening forecast also shows a 100 percent chance or rain, indicating the likelihood of rain at some point on Saturday.

WATCH ONLINE – NSIC NETWORK
All Golden Bear NSIC football games will be available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, and supported by BlueFrame Technology.
 
Visit nsicnetwork.com/cspbears on a laptop or desktop computer, download the NSIC Network app on your mobile device or watch on your supported OTT provider such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Search "NSIC Network" and download the app for the league's full sport and team lineups. NSIC NETWORK FAQ
 
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear athletics.
 
LISTEN TO THE COACHES SHOW
The Coaches Show with Shannon Currier is back on the Twin Cities airwaves for a fourth season, once again hosted by Wally Langfellow of Minnesota Score. The show airs following the Minnesota high school football game of the week, typically on Friday evenings in the 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. hour on KYCR 1440 AM radio, available in the Twin Cities metro area.
 
The show typically features two segments with Coach Currier along with a segment with Langfellow joined by a pair of student-athletes.This week's podcast guests are juniors coming off of big performances against Augustana last Saturday: wide receiver Drew Enke and defensive tackle Koffi Gbekle.
 
For fans who miss the show or are outside of the radio station's Twin Cities reach, the entire show is accessible via the CSP Bears Podcast, available in Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play Music. It will typically be uploaded late Friday night (after the initial air time) or Saturday morning prior to the game. Search 'CSP Bears' into your favorite podcast provider!
 
CAPTAINS / HONORARY CAPTAINS
CSP head coach Shannon Currier and the Golden Bear coaching staff have continued the program's tradition of selecting rotating weekly game captains for the fifth season in a row. Captains are selected by the coaching staff based on performance on the field and off, as a leader in practice and in day-to-day activities.
 
This week's game captains are tight end Grant Miles, guard Taylon Hensley, defensive end Drake Teal and defensive tackle Koffi Gbekle.

SERIES HISTORY: MSU 14, CSP 2
The Golden Bears and Mavericks will meet for the 17th time this Saturday with the Mavericks holding an 11-game winning streak including a 5-game streak in Mankato. CSP's last win was in Mankato, a 28-26 win over an 11th-ranked Maverick squad in 2010 as CSP went on to reach the Mineral Water Bowl with an 8-4 season, producing a 5-win improvement from the previous season. The 2023 Golden Bears are aiming for similar goals: topping a nationally-ranked MSU team on the road and producing a significant turnaround season.

Concordia is 1-7 in eight prior trips to Blakeslee Stadium and head coach Shannon Currier is seeking his first victory over the Mavericks with an 0-6 record against MSU entering this weekend.

In the 16 prior meetings, MSU has been ranked 10 times on the date of competition and ranked in the top-5 five times.

Last year, the Mavericks held on for a 25-15 win at Sea Foam Stadium in a hard-fought contest, as a 32-yard third quarter rushing touchdown from Jaire Moore tied the game at 7-7 (9:33). MSU responded with a touchdown and two-point conversion late in the third and added a field goal early in the fourth for a 2-score lead (18-7) with just over 14 minutes to go. Another touchdown midway through the fourth gave MSU a three-score advantage before Jaylin Richardson scored on a 3-yard pass from Conner Cordts with 3:09 to play to give CSP late life.

Richardson led CSP with 18-81 rushing against the Mavericks, adding 3-7 with a touchdown through the air while Moore was 6-58 on the ground and Cordts added 9-45 rushing with CSP compiling 189 yards on the ground. Cordts completed 21-45 for 178 yards, was not intercepted and was sacked only once.

The Golden Bears had 169 rushing yards following the Moore touchdown early in the third quarter, but MSU held CSP to just 20 rushing yards the rest of the way.

MSU was 4-4 in the red zone with three touchdowns and a field goal, while CSP was 1-3 in the red zone, with the Mavericks adding a pair of blocked field goals in the first half.

Despite the 10-point loss, CSP's execution on the punt and kickoff coverage teams was crucial, limiting one of the best return units in the country to 45 total return yards (2-19 PR, 1-26 KO) including a team 37.5 net punt average with two inside the 20. Further, CSP out-gained MSU 367-359 in total offense and 23-17 in first downs. The defense was led by Richard Wauer's 10 tackles including 0.5 for loss.

MSU quarterback Camden Dean completed 7-16 for 100 yards through the air and added 14-63 rushing with three combined touchdowns, two passing and one rushing.

LAST WEEK: AUGUSTANA 24, CSP 16
The Golden Bears went toe-to-toe with an experienced Vikings squad at Sea Foam Stadium last Saturday evening, falling a touchdown and two-point conversion short despite having the ball in Augustana territory, coming up short on a 4th-and-5 from the Augie 43 with 4:45 to play. From there, Augustana was able to execute a pair of third downs, allowing the Vikings to run the clock out on the Golden Bear comeback.

CSP trailed by two touchdowns, 24-10, when Augustana scored on its opening drive of the third quarter, before Payton Eue hit two field goals, one late in the third and another with 9:19 to play in the game to bring CSP within one score. Eue was 3-for-3 on field goals, while punter Parker Dahlman had a big night, averaging 54.0 yards on five punts with a long of 67 as CSP had a 41.6 net punting average against one of the most dangerous punt returners in the country.

The Golden Bear offense got out to a hot start, jamming 13 run plays for 75 yards against Augustana to cap off a 5:55 drive with a 4-yard rushing touchdown by wide receiver Rene Zaldivar out of the wildcat, with quarterback Conner Cordts split out wide for a 7-0 lead.

CSP running back Jaylin Richardson got the ball 22 times on the ground and while he finished with a modest 55 yards, he was able to produce 80 positive yards prior to the Augie TFLs. The performance pushed him over 1,000 career rushing yards in 19 games (226-1017).

While it was the rushing attack early, with CSP combining for 107 team rushing yards on 33 attempts, it was the Cordts to Drew Enke connection that sustained the offensive attack, as Enke had seven catches for 163 yards and a long of 51, with six of his catches resulting in first downs.

The Golden Bear defense, which continued to pile up stops throughout the second half, was led by safety Cyrus McClure and linebacker Abe Schwinn's seven tackles, with Schwinn adding a tackle for loss and an interception. Koffi Gbekle added 1.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and six total tackles, and Drake Teal added 1.5 tackles for loss and a half sack.

Casey Bauman led the Viking offense by completing 15-25 for 243 yards and three touchdowns, adding 10-25 rushing, while Jarod Epperson had 12-80 rushing and 2-28 receiving.

MILESTONES
So far this season, junior quarterback Conner Cordts has surpassed the 3,000 yard passing mark and junior running back Jaylin Richardson has topped 1,000 career rushing yards. Cordts has now thrown for 3,437 yards (297-560-12), ranking 11th in school history and trailing James Peterson (2009-13) with 3,553 for 10th place. Richardson has rushed for 1,017 yards in 19 games, averaging 4.5 per carry over his career while his all-around skills have pushed him to 1,601 all-purpose yards as a Golden Bear with nine combined touchdowns.

Senior kicker Payton Eue was 3-for-3 against Augustana in field goals, tying for the second-most in a game in school history with the 13th 3-field goal game in program history, joining Jonas Schenderlein (4x), Tom Obarski (4x), Steven King (3x) and David Gottschalk (1x) to achieve the mark. Danny Laudet set the school record with five field goals at St. Cloud State in 2019.

Junior punter Parker Dahlman set the school record with a 54.0 single-game punting average with his 5-punt performance against Augustana. topping Danny Laudet's 2018 record of 51.5 yards on two punts at Winona State, and Laudet's 51.0 average on four punts at Wayne State in 2019. Dahlman currently holds the career punt average record at 40.44 (132-5338), over a full yard ahead of Jake Shepley who punted only 31 times (39.32) and Josh Raphael's 39.30 average on 93 punts. He's averaging a school record 44.81 to start the 2023 season, 3.5 yards ahead of Sam Maedke's 2017 record 41.32 average.

TEAM RANKINGS
Through three games, the Golden Bears are showing strong signs in multiple areas as a team, leading the league and ranking third in the nation in fewest sacks allowed with just 0.33 per game while the defense is fourth in the conference with 2.33 sacks per game. The offense ranks third in the NSIC and 28th nationally with a 90.9 percent success rate in the red zone while the defense is fifth in the league with opponents scoring 80.0 percent of the time in the red zone. On third downs, the defense is third in the NSIC and 17th in the country as opponents convert just 24.3 percent of the time and while the offense ranks ninth in third down success, it's at over a 10 percent positive margin when compared to the defense's success, converting 35.0 percent of the time.

Concordia is +1 in turnover margin, too, ranking third in the NSIC and 28th in the country with just three giveaways while the defense has produced four takeaways.

Individually, kicker Payton Eue ranks third in the NSIC and 18th in the country with 1.33 field goals made per game and is one of 19 kickers in the nation to post a perfect field goal percentage on the season. Sticking with special teams, junior Parker Dahlman is second in the league and 10th nationally with a 44.8 punt average, and returner/receiver Troy Ellison is fourth in the NSIC with 174 combined return yards, ranking 41st in the nation. Ellison's 99.0 all-purpose yards per game is also eighth-best in the Northern Sun.

Junior wide receiver Drew Enke is producing a top-10 NSIC receiving season, ranking ninth with 198 receiving yards while running back Jaylin Richardson ranks seventh in the NSIC with 196 rushing yards.

Defensively, safety Cyrus McClure is fourth in the NSIC with 6.7 tackles per game while defensive tackle Koffi Gbekle is third in the league with 0.83 sacks per game.

ABOUT THE MAVERICKS
Minnesota State, ranked fifth in the most recent AFCA Division II Top-25 Coaches Poll, is one of four 3-0 teams in the Northern Sun, averaging 290.3 rushing and 250.6 passing yards per game, racking up 45.6 points and 541.0 yards of total offense per contest. The offense is led by Shen Butler-Lawson with 468 rushing yards and seven touchdowns while quarterback Hayden Ekern has 690 passing yards and seven touchdowns.

MSU's defense has also been strong early, allowing 21.6 points on 294.0 yards per game with 10 sacks and 20.7 percent (6-29) third down conversions.

The Mavericks have topped 30-plus points in all three games and have yet to allow more than 26 with their closest margin in a game at 17 points in a 31-14 week two home win over Wayne State. MSU also defeated Sioux Falls 54-26 in the season opener on the road, and most recently topped Minot State 52-25 on the road in week three.