Long-snapper Alex Eleopoulos

@AEleopoulos @SOURaiders @SOU_Football

Posted on May 10th, 2024 under only in ashland, people. Tags: Alex Eleopoulos, football, Greg Stewart, Josh Winfield, Raider Athletics. Comments Off on Happy birthday, Alex Eleopoulos!

Two days before winning the 2014 NAIA Football National Championship, the SOU Raiders Football Team was on the track of the Daytona International Speedway

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @dmgibson93 @schroder1130 @SOU_CoachBBrown @Matt_Retzlaff @ryretz @CoachT_CWU

Posted on December 17th, 2023 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: aj cooper, austin dodge, berk brown, bubba rylance, Coach Craig Howard, colin davis, drew gibson, dylan young, football, gannon schroder, Grant Torgerson, Greg Stewart, isiah carter, jack singler, jeremy scottow, keegan lawrence, Matt Retzlaff, NAIA National Championship Game Daytona Florida, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED AF-S VR, Nikon D750, President Roy Saigo, Raider Athletics, Ryan Retzlaff, sean tow, thomas giddens, Trevor Jones. Comments Off on 9 years ago today…

Austin Schmidt

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @theschmidtera

Sean McShane and Coach Greg Stewart

Kyle Alexander

Posted on November 13th, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: austin schmidt, football, Greg Stewart, kyle alexander, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED AF-S VR, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics, sean mcshane, sports photography. Comments Off on Senior Day (part 4)

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball

The NAIA football coaches, with their infinite wisdom of focusing nearly entirely on wins and losses and not strength of schedule or who beat who, have put the Raiders at #17 in the latest poll released today. I thought they’d put Southern Oregon at #12 or #13 even though Massey has them at #4. All the way down to #17 means no home playoff games, even if the Raiders win out. The Raiders may need to win out just to make the playoffs. If the season were to end today, a #17 ranking would fall short.

Let’s look at some of the teams the coaches think are better than the Raiders:
#9 Doane has played one team ranked higher than them. Doane lost 69-7. SOU beat the team Doane lost to (Morningside) last year on the road in the semifinals.
#10 Georgetown’s six wins have come against opponents with a combined record of 9-34. The only team with a winning record that they have faced beat them by 14 points.
#11 Missouri Valley is not a top twenty team according to Massey.
#12 Dickinson State lost to Montana Western by 26 points. SOU beat Montana Western. Dickinson State hasn’t played any ranked team, or even decent team since, en route to their 6-1 record.
#14 Kansas Wesleyan has the 82nd most difficult schedule in the NAIA. (SOU has the most difficult schedule according to Massey.) There are only 87 teams in the NAIA. That said, KW still has a loss, to a team that hasn’t been ranked, and SOU beat KW by 44 points last year in the playoffs! Massey doesn’t have Kansas Wesleyan in their top 50, yet the coaches have them at #14.
#15 Dakota Wesleyan lost to Doane (see above) by almost 30 points.
#16 Bethal has yet to play a team with a winning record. Not to worry, Massey predicts they will lose each of their last four games.

I’m not saying that SOU should be ranked higher than Montana Tech or Eastern Oregon at this point, but the coaches clearly are dinging the Raiders way too much for losing to an NCAA DI team and for two close loses to a very good Eastern Oregon team. They see the three loses but don’t consider enough who those loses were at the hands of or the fact that the Raiders have accumulated more yards than all of their opponents, even in the losses.

Posted on October 17th, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, Greg Stewart, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics, rey vega, sean tow, sports photography, tylor king. Comments Off on Coaches pummel Raiders in latest poll