MOORHEAD, Minn. (8/16/06)-- When Terry Horan and the rest of the Concordia football team take the field in the middle of August to begin preparation for the 2006 season, they will officially enter a new era for the Cobbers. No longer does Concordia have to fight and claw for respect. The days of reminiscing about the glory days of Cobber football when every year brought on a chance to duel with St. John’s for conference and national supremacy have officially come to an end. After five years on the job as head coach, Horan has pushed the Cobbers back into the league and national spotlight.

Concordia is coming off a year where they won 10 games and made a return trip to the NCAA playoffs. The 2005 campaign marked the first time in the history of the program that a Cobber team has earned back-to-back NCAA playoff berths. It was also the first time in program history that Concordia posted consecutive seasons with 10 or more wins. Bundle all that optimism with the fact that the Cobbers have been ranked in the top 25 of the nation for 28 consecutive weeks – the most by any team in the MIAC – and you have a coach and team that is poised to put a stamp on their own decade and make a very distinctive mark in the MIAC.

Horan has already posted a pair of milestones that no other Concordia coach can claim. In his first five seasons at the helm of the Cobbers he has won 40 overall games and 32 conference contests. Both marks are untouched when it comes to coaching victories in the first five years on the job. Horan has also guided Concordia to four consecutive top three finishes in the league and has an enviable 28-4 record against conference opponents in the past four seasons. Against every school that is not located in Collegeville, Minn., Horan is a remarkable 27-1 in the past four years. Those numbers attest to the success that has been delivered by the new age Cobbers.

The 2006 Cobbers have a chance to achieve something that only one other school has been able to accomplish in the 80-year history of MIAC football. Concordia has a chance to make a “threepeat” of NCAA playoff appearances which would put them with the St. John’s dynasty from 1999-2003 that went to the NCAA playoffs six consecutive seasons. Not surprisingly it was the Cobbers who stopped the Johnnie streak in 2004 and the biggest stumbling block on the road to three straight playoff appearances for Concordia will be St. John’s when the Big Red Machine invades Jake Christiansen Stadium in the second week of conference play.

The quest for a third straight trip to the Promised Land might be the toughest of all for Horan and Concordia. They will have to find a replacement for the two-time MIAC MVP, the best kicker to ever step foot on the turf at “The Jake” and eight of the starting 11 players from a defense that finished seventh in the nation against the run.

Despite all the vacated spots and the tendency to rest on the laurels of the past, Horan and the rest of the Cobbers feel that they are ready to step forward once again. “We are a team that is dominated by seniors and juniors, and even though some players have not worn the label as ‘starter’, they are very capable of stepping up to carry the torch lit by the team in 2004,” explained Horan.

That torch will be put to the test early in the season as Concordia will open the 2006 conference season on the road at powerhouse Bethel and then return home to host St. John’s in a game that has determined the MIAC champion three of the past four years. If the Cobbers can find their stride quickly and dismiss two potential conference champions in the opening weeks of play, then all signs point to a chance at their third straight trip to the NCAA postseason.