Moorhead, Minn.-- GameDay Kickoff
(what you need to know about this weekend's Concordia-MSU Moorhead match-up)
>Saturday's game will be the start of the 5th season as head coach of the Cobbers for Terry Horan. He is currently 30-12-0 (.714) overall in his first four seasons and 25-8-0 (.757) in the MIAC.
>Horan is the first coach in Cobber football history to win 25 conference games in his first four seasons as a head coach. He is also the second coach to win at least 30 overall games in his first four full campaigns (Jim Christopherson went 30-9-1 from 1969-72)
>This is the 84th meeting between Concordia and MSU Moorhead. The Cobbers hold a 47-24-12 advantage over the Dragons. Last year Concordia scored the first 30 points of the game and cruised to a 30-7 win in a game that was cut short due to severe thunderstorms.
>The Cobbers are meeting the Dragons in the season opener for the 22nd consecutive season. The last time Concordia had a different opponent in a season-opener was back in 1984 when they squared off against UM-Morris (at that time called Morris University). This game will mark a return for the Dragons in playing Concordia in the opener. Last year they lost to NW Missouri State 77-12.
>Concordia is 41-41-5 (.500) in season openers. The Cobbers went 3-16-2 in their first 21 season openers. They are currently 5-5 in their last 10 openers (all against the Dragons, and head coach Terry Horan is 3-1 in his first games of the season.
>MSU Moorhead head coach Chad Eisele is making his Dragon coaching debut on Saturday. The past two Dragon head coaches, Rallph Micheli and Ross Fortier also opened their MSUM careers against the Cobbers. Micheli beat Concordia 21-0 in 1993 and Fortier came away with a tie (20-20) back in 1970.
>Concordia is ranked 18th in the D3football.com preseason NCAA Division III poll, 21st in the Football Gazette poll and 24th in the USA TODAY poll. It marks the first time in the modern era of more than just the AFCA poll (2000 - 2005) that the Cobbers have entered the year in the preseason rankings.
>Saturday's game marks the kickoff of the 87th season of Cobber football. In the first 86 years, Concordia has an all-time record of 444-255-40.
>The Cobbers are currently riding a seven-game unbeaten streak at Jake Christiansen Stadium. The last time the Cobbers lost at home was on Sept. 20 of 2003 when Bethel outlasted Concordia 36-19. The Cobbers are 8-1 in their past two seasons at home, and head coach Terry Horan has a 12-5 lifetime record at "The Jake"
>Under Horan, Concordia owns an 11-4 mark in the month of September. In the past 10 years, the Cobbers are 25-12 in the opening month of the season.
>The only season opener for Concordia that was not played outdoors occurred in the very first Power Bowl game back in 1999. MSU Moorhead came away with a 44-7 victory in that game - the most lopsided contest in the history of the event.

In Depth Game Day Preview
Marquee Match-Up - Cobber Offense vs. MSU Moorhead Front 7
It might be easy to pick a match-up that has the Dragon's redshirt freshman quarterback against the Cobber defense, but the Gameday staff is leaning towards the Cobber offense against the MSU Moorhead front 7. While all the attention has been focused on new coach Chad Eisele and the reworking of the Dragon offense, it is going to be the defense that will have to step up and carry the load in the season opener. Last year the Dragons allowed opponents to average 435.5 yards of total offense per game. In order to improve as a team, the Dragons have to be able to shut down the opposing team's offense and keep games tight until the fourth quarter. On the flip side, all eyes will be on the Cobber offense as they try to duplicate last year's success. In 2004, Concordia averaged 390.2 yards of total offense per game. If the Cobber running backs can burst through the line and get into the Dragon secondary on a regular basis, then Concordia has a chance to repeat their offensive prowess from a year ago and win three straight over the Dragons.

The Coaches
Concordia head coach Terry Horan (Concordia '89) is in his fifth year as head football coach at Concordia College. Last season he helped the Cobbers to an 11-1overall mark and a perfect 8-0 MIAC record - and the program's 18th conference title. For his efforts he was named the AFCA Region Coach of the Year as well as the MIAC Coach of the Year. He has compiled a 25-8 conference record and a 30-12 overall mark in his first four seasons.
Chad Eisele is in his first year as head coach of the Dragons. Before coming to MSU-M last winter, he was the head coach at Lake Forest (IL) College for five years. He guided Lake Forest to a 8-2 finish in 2004, including a 7-2 record in the Midwest Conference. The 2002 MWC Coach of the Year, Eisele led the Foresters to a school record nine wins, the program's first conference title since 1983 and a first ever appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs. He produced a five-year record of 31-20 at Lake Forest, clearly the finest run in the 113-year history of the school.

Power Bowl Primer
No Place You'd Rather Be....
Nothing against another school's ad campaign that boasts there is no place to be on game day than watching their team play, but Jake Christiansen Stadium is truly the place to be today. No other small-college stadium in the Upper Midwest will have the sheer number of fans and excitement that will be generated by today's Power Bowl game. The six previous Power Bowls have averaged 4,598 fans per game with the high water mark coming in 2001 when a crowd of just around 6,000 people watched the Cobbers down the Dragons 18-10.

The Title Game of the Power Bowl
If this were the World Series, the NBA Championship or the finals of the Stanley Cup, today's game would be the series clincher for one of the teams. There have been six previous Power Bowls and each team has claimed three victories, making today's game a series clincher if it were a best-of-seven series. The Cobbers have claimed the last two Power Bowl games to even the "electrifying" series. MSU-Moorhead had a 3-1 lead after they won the first two Power Bowl games and then won Power Bowl IV with a 41-17 victory. That is the largest margin of victory in the previous six Power Bowl games.

Rumbling, Stumbling, Bumbling
The first half has been especially difficult on the Dragons in the past two Power Bowl games. MSU-Moorhead has stumbled out of the gates and has been outscored 48-0 in the games played in 2003 and 2004. Last year the Cobbers bolted to a 20-0 half time lead and then built the margin to 30-0 before the Dragons finally got on the board. In 2003, Concordia carried a 28-0 lead into the break. History dictates that the team that is leading at the half in the Power Bowl usually goes on to win the game. The team that is leading at the break has a 4-1-1 record. The lone loss came in 2001 when Concordia erased a 10-6 deficit at the half and went on to win 18-10.

The Record Watch Starts Again!
Another One Bites the Dust
A year after he watched his school record for receiving yards in a season surpassed, Cobber head coach Terry Horan will be on the sidelines this season when another one of his school marks falls by the wayside. Concordia kicker extraordinaire Brian Halverson needs 22 points to break Horan's all-time scoring mark. Coming into the 2005 slate, Halverson has 179 points leaving him 21 points shy of Horan's total of 200. Despite his proximity to Horan, Halverson is only fourth on the list of point leaders. He will have a chance to pass Clayton Horgen (181) and Dave Ertl (182) in the first couple of games to move into second place.