GMC off to Utah for top 5 NJCAA clash

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Looking for another college football Game of the Week involving a Georgia team? Go a couple of time zones west and follow the Georgia Military College Bulldogs, No. 3 in the NJCAA and 7-1 on the 2024 season, as they look to end some recent frustrations in an unlikely rivalry with No. 4 and 6-1 Snow College. The Bulldogs and Badgers kick off at 7 p.m. local time in the town of Ephraim, and seeing how the Badgers played their last four games away from home, they chose this occasion to be Homecoming night.

The stakes, though, are even bigger, for GMC and Snow are right now in position to play in the NJCAA national semifinals that will feature the top four ranked teams in early December. A loss is sure to send one team in the wrong direction of the poll, but the winner can certainly take advantage of any slips by No. 1 Hutchinson or No. 2 Iowa Western and move up to host a semifinal.

GMC and Snow in fact share Iowa Western as a common opponent, both losses (31-20 Iowa Western over Snow on Oct. 5). They both have victories over Lackawanna, and GMC will face Lackawanna again on Nov. 9 in Pennsylvania.

This will be at least three regular seasons in a row for GMC to play Snow, the last two games claimed by the Badgers. Head coach Rob Manchester said the first of 12 meetings took place in the old Golden Isles Bowl in Brunswick in 2003, then the schools played the next two years. There was another two-year series in 2009-10, a game in 2013, then a game in 2022 that Snow won 41-18.

Last season, at Davenport Field, the Badgers entered and left with a 33-30 overtime win.

“We had a chance,” said Manchester. “We missed the only PAT we missed all year. Unfortunately we came up short. It was a really close game. It’s always a great game. They do a great job out there. Got a great team. It’s going to be a tough task.”

The 2024 game will feature three NJCAA leaders on offense. Bulldog running back Keenan Phillips has 15 rushing touchdowns. Snow quarterback Donnie Smith has 25 touchdown passes to go with 1,610 yards in the sky averaging 230 yard per game. His receiver Reggie Frischknecht has 10 touchdown catches.

“They are always really big, can run well, athletic,” said Manchester. “Not a whole lot of difference between them and Iowa Western. They are a complete team.”

The Bulldogs will fly out to Salt Lake City Thursday morning and arrive in the middle of the afternoon. Manchester said they plan to get acclimated to the difference in altitude doing some field work Thursday night under lights.

“We wanted to give ourselves an extra day (Friday),” he said. “Run around.”

Manchester said the Snow campus and their football facilities are similar to Davenport Field.

“It’s a good small college atmosphere,” he said. “It’s going to be fun. We’re getting lucky (with weather). I think the high is going to be 73 Saturday, and even though the low is mid-30s I think at the end of the game is supposed to be in the 50s. That’s a good thing.”

The Bulldogs destroyed Andrew College last Saturday at home 63-0 for win No. 6 in a row.

“Our main objective each week is to be 1-0,” said Manchester. “We’re more concerned with ourselves. We want to play the best brand of football each week in regards to our assignments, eliminating mistakes, playing a clean game. I know you’re not going to obtain perfection, but just try to play our best assignment-wise, execution wise. Our young men play hard all the time. Be sound on special teams, I think we’ve been doing that.

“The focus is on our opponent, but at the same time we’re not going to get caught up in the moment, that this is 3 vs. 4. It’s us going out trying to play our best football game in all three phases.

“It’s exciting. The NJCAA having the top four spots get to be in the playoffs. We still have a couple of games left, a really tough game in Pennsylvania vs. Lackawanna. You’re still putting yourself in position to get to play for a national championship. The stakes are high, but we aren’t going to change our approach. We had a good practice (Monday).”

Monday is usually an off day for GMC with Tuesday being the start of preparation, but the coach moved things back one day to account for the long trip.

He said the No. 3 ranking speaks well for the respect GMC has. The NJCAA will have a Division I championship game on Dec. 18 on ESPNU from West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas.

It was the last weekend of September, and GMC was scheduled to play in New York against Monroe University. Manchester said the team had already left for their destination before Hurricane Helene made landfall and caused catastrophic damage for most of southern and eastern Georgia.

“We have several young men from that Golden Isles Expressway area, Jeff Davis County, Coffee County, kind of that southeast area,” said Manchester. “We got some guys from Augusta. Fortunately, I don’t think any (of their) families were displaced. A couple of them may have had tree damage. Other than that, all of their families were safe. They seemed to handle it really well.”