Kaleb Brown, left, and Rossy Moore anchor the Purple Raiders' defensive front. Photo Matt Durisko/Magnolia Media PA, for D3sports.com

By Patrick Coleman
D3sports.com

HOUSTON – Mount Union as an underdog is a dangerous thing. 

The Purple Raiders are in a rare situation as the underdog in Stagg Bowl LI, where the Purple Raiders take on North Central on Sunday night, Jan. 5, on ESPN.

But it’s true, and coach Geoff Dartt said as much himself after the team’s home semifinal win against Johns Hopkins two weeks ago.

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“I just told the locker room ... we're going to be the underdogs and we're fine in that situation because, nothing personal, but we don't pay attention to what other people say about the program. 

“No one, no one besides the guys that have played in this program know the standards and they know the expectations.”

The standards are in fact, capitalized and referred to as The Standard, which means simply that the expectation is a national championship. That remains the case, even when the Purple Raiders haven’t brought home Walnut and Bronze since 2017. Even when the season ends in the second round, as it did last year. 

“We've kind of just been feeling like the underdog all 2024 to be honest,” said starting bandit Rossy Moore. “Obviously last year didn't end the way we wanted to, going into that spring with the chip on our shoulders, really trying to prove something in the weight room, in our training and to ourselves, know how good we are. 

“We know how good this program is and so coming into the year like we've had that mentality literally since Week 1, so it's not new for us.”

Sometimes a team with expectations and high standards can struggle under that pressure, under that weight in big games, but Mount Union has shown no signs of that as these playoffs have worn on. At practice on Friday, the team was loose, with guys finding opportunities to make each other laugh and have fun between reps.

A Mount Union team with nothing to lose is a scary thing. If the team comes in loose and plays to that underdog role that Dartt mentioned after the semifinals, that beats coming in tight and playing not to lose.

“We always say that the only opinions that concern us are the opinions that we're generating in the locker room, in the practice field, in the meeting rooms, in sessions like that,” said linebacker Marcus Jackson. “So, we have the faith that we can believe that we can go out and go execute every week and go 1-0 every week. And so that's been our main focus, just keeping the faith between us, not listening to anybody else, just focusing on getting better, day in and day out. You know, that's what's led us here so far, so we just keep that going.”

The Purple Raiders are not only looking loose, they come into Stagg Bowl LI looking the best they have looked all season. With two legitimate quarterback threats in T.J. DeShields and Noah Beaudrie, who looks healthy in his return from a leg injury, the offense is humming. Tyler Echeverry has had a tremendous playoff and has only looked stronger each week. And DeShields has now had several weeks to work on his timing and the part of the Purple Raiders playbook that is suited to his strengths.

“I think it was just minor tweaks,” DeShields said of the ways the Mount Union offense has been called since he took over as starting quarterback in November. “We didn't want to change schematically. We want to keep the guys doing the same thing. We've been doing some different things on offense that fit my game, and put me in a better position to succeed for the team.”

All-America running back Tyler Echeverry echoed the sentiment that the Purple Raiders have been playing well. “I do think so, and the team chemistry is the best it's been. I mean, everyone's on board, everyone's working hard, everyone's working towards this one goal of winning a national championship.”

DeShields entered the game in the second half of Mount Union’s game against Marietta back on Nov. 9, after Beaudrie was injured shortly before halftime. In his five starts since then, he has completed 68.9 percent of his passes and thrown for 232.6 yards per game. His totals of 10 touchdowns (eight passing) and four interceptions don't jump off the page, but over that same span, Echeverry has averaged 166.8 yards from scrimmage, about 62 additional yards per game compared to his previous five full games, and two additional touchdowns.

“These bye weeks in the playoffs kind of helped,” Echeverry said. “We had the first round bye. And then this bye between the last game and the Stagg Bowl. So I've had a lot of time to rest and I'm feeling good right now. I'm feeling healthy.”

Echeverry left the 2022 Stagg Bowl against North Central with a huge gash that left him unable to run and required recovery time. He unceremoniously left the game after converting a fourth down early in the third quarter of that game. No doubt he is looking forward to meeting North Central again, but it doesn’t affect his preparation.

“It’s an interesting scenario for Mount Union to be an underdog, but we're just taking it game by game and trying to prepare our best,” Echeverry said. “Even if we were the favorites, it wouldn't really be any different in the way we prepare. North Central's got a great team and they got some great things going on over there, so we're just trying to prepare for them and play our best football on Sunday.”

Contributing: Greg Thomas