Remembering The 2005 Playoff Team

Article reprinted courtesy of Fargo Forum and reporter Eric Peterson. Picture courtesy of Fargo Forum. 

MOORHEAD—Concordia used turkey legs, stuffing and cranberries as a motivation throughout the 2005 football season. The goal for the Cobbers was to be good enough to have a large Thanksgiving gathering.

"If you're having Thanksgiving dinner together, it means you're in the playoffs," Concordia head coach Terry Horan said. "They kept saying, 'We want to have Thanksgiving dinner together.' "

That 2005 team did spend Thanksgiving together that fall, advancing to the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs for a second season in a row. That 2005 squad also was the last from Concordia to make the postseason.

"We didn't really have any specific area where we were a lot better than anybody else," said Brian Schumacher, the senior starting quarterback for the 2005 Cobbers. "We just came together as a team."

The Cobbers start their 100th football season at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, at Nebraska Wesleyan in Lincoln, Neb. This fall, Concordia is trying to recreate that 2005 success and end that playoff drought.

"We know how close we are as a program," said Horan, entering his 17th season as head coach. "It's one or two plays or just trying to stay healthy. ... You have to have a lot go right for you, and maybe get a little lucky."

The 2005 team capped a strong two-season run for Concordia. The Cobbers won the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 2004, going undefeated in league play and the regular season before losing in the second round of the playoffs.

The 2004 and 2005 seniors were Horan's first two recruiting classes as Concordia head coach.

"Everybody picked (Concordia) because they knew it could be something special and different," recalled Jordan Talge, a senior defensive back on 2004 team, which posted an 11-1 record.

That 2004 season ended with a 42-40 second-round playoff loss against Occidental (Calif.) in the Fargodome. The Cobbers couldn't convert a two-point conversion with less than three minutes to play that could have tied the game. The Cobbers fumbled three times in that game, losing two.

"We tried to lose the game it almost felt like," said Schumacher, the MIAC most valuable player in 2004 and 2005.

That blend of success and disappointment fueled the 2005 season, including the 2004 team's Thanksgiving gathering.

"It was like the best Thanksgiving ever," said Talge, a 2001 Moorhead High School graduate. "We got to have Thanksgiving with all our buddies. It was great."

Horan remembers his team riding that momentum into 2005.

"We were coming off that really great year in 2004," he said. "We took off where we left off."

And any time that 2005 team faced adversity, the topic of being together for Thanksgiving usually surfaced as motivation.

The Cobbers didn't repeat as MIAC champions in 2005, losing at home to rival St. John's in heartbreaking fashion. Johnnies wide receiver Kyle Gearman caught a 74-yard touchdown pass with 13 seconds to play to lift his team to a 20-16 victory at Jake Christiansen Stadium.

"My heart stopped," Horan told The Forum moments after that big play.

The Cobbers, however, won their next four regular-season games to qualify for the playoffs. They then earned a 27-14 home victory against Coe (Iowa) in the first round of the Division III playoffs on a muddy field. That set up a second-round matchup with No. 1-ranked Linfield (Ore.), which won the national championship in 2003.

All-American quarterback Brett Elliott, a transfer from Utah, led the Wildcats. The Cobbers built a 14-7 halftime lead, and the game was tied at 14-14 heading into the fourth quarter. Elliott got hot in the second half as Linfield outscored Concordia after halftime to rally for a 28-14 victory.

"We couldn't move the ball enough at the end of the game," said Schumacher, a Thompson (N.D.) High School graduate who now lives in Grand Forks. "I was pretty proud of our guys."

The Cobbers finished 2005 with a 10-2 record. Counting 2004, Concordia had a 15-1 conference record and 21-3 mark during that two-season run. In 2004, Schumacher rushed for 760 yards and 10 touchdowns and passed for 1,824 yards and 18 TDs. In 2005, he rushed for 939 yards and 13 scores and passed for 1,292 yards and eight TDs.

"It became obvious that we had a quarterback who truly had the clutch gene," Talge said of Schumacher.

Talge still looks back at going undefeated in the regular season and winning the 2004 MIAC championship with pride.

"It's a special thing that one one can ever take away from you," said Talge, who now lives in Seattle. "It's an amazing fun thing to reflect upon."