Missouri Western to start season on the road; face Northeastern State

By Calvin Silvers

The Missouri Western State Griffons will kick off the 2024-25 football season Thursday in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, against former MIAA member, Northeastern State. The Griffons, much like the Riverhawks, had some movement on their roster, losing quarterback Armani Edden to graduation.

That meant head coach Tyler Fenwick brought in transfers, brewing a healthy competition among the five potential players.

“It’s been a lot of fun to coach these guys and teach and, you know, break down and fix things and kind of see who competes, who handles situations and just everything that goes into it,” Fenwick said. “You know, I feel like we can roll any of those guys out there right now.”

Fenwick did not want to reveal too many secrets, mentioning the team knows their guy, but the fanbase will have to wait and see who starts when Thursday rolls around. Besides looking at obvious skill sets, Fenwick wanted a guy the team responds well to.

Despite the unknown of the offense, the team won’t rely strictly on the defense.

“We’re never going to sit there and say we’re going to rely on the defense to win games for us,” Fenwick said. “We’ve got weapons that are out there and then it becomes, okay, how do we utilize those guys and how do we get all those guys the ball?””

Offensively, the majority of the weapons can be found in the wide receiver room, as the group took a major step in the off-season, now having a year of experience in the offense. As spring ball and fall camp have passed, the group has stepped up tremendously, hoping to make the quarterback’s transition easier.

“We just have a lot of new faces and now that group is the older group, where last year the offensive line was the older group, and that’s just college football,” Fenwick said. “That’s the way it works, you get guys that graduate and you got to fill in the holes and replace guys.”

Focusing on Northeastern State, this team is unknown in the world of college football at the moment. The Riverhawks had a complete overhaul in their coaching staff this offseason and supposedly brought in more than 50+ transfers.

With no film to study, Fenwick and company will trust their IQs and rely on the information they’ve gathered.

“Fortunately for us, our defense gives us a lot of different looks offensively. We can give our defense a lot of different looks,” Fenwick said. “Then you have to be, you know, good coaches and you got to be able to sit there and go through the first quarter and say, okay, this is what they’re doing, this is how they’re trying to attack us and what are the adjustments that we can pull out of our hat that that, you know, can counter that.”