The Harding Bisons made it to the playoffs this season for the fourth consecutive year. While the team prepared for playoffs, senior Harding players were prepared for their last college football game.
\nThe playoffs marked the end of the 14 seniors\u2019 college football career. For some of these seniors, the last games were filled with emotion and bittersweet feelings. Senior defensive end Jordan Allison said his four years flew by, but he couldn\u2019t be more grateful.
\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of surreal for me,\u201d Allison said. \u201cI\u2019ve been on the team for so long, but it\u2019s been such a blessing looking back. It\u2019s sad, but I\u2019m also happy.\u201d
\nThe Bisons completed their regular season with a 10-1 record, which was their best record since 2016. Senior linebacker Chris Wein said their success throughout this season was due to Harding\u2019s culture and the football program\u2019s brotherhood.
\n\u201cEveryone loves each other,\u201d Wein said. \u201cWe play for each other, and I think our wins are a testament to who we are.\u201d
\nWein also said that playing for Harding has made him a better person.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s made me more selfless,\u201d Wein said. \u201cI am surrounded by people that look out for you and keep you accountable, and they\u2019ve made me a better teammate.\u201d
\nWhile the first game this season was a loss, the Harding football team saw a streak of 10 consecutive wins, leading them into the playoffs and placing them at No. 14 in the nation for Division II, before falling to Northwestern Missouri State in the first round.
\nBoth Wein and Allison said they believe being at Harding has changed and blessed their lives for the better.
\n\u201cAll I can say is thank you,\u201d Wein said. \u201cThank you for the opportunity to keep playing, to be in this culture, to be at this school and to get a different life experience than any I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d
\nMany underclassmen teammates see the void that is going to be left once the seniors graduate, but they view it as an opportunity to grow and follow in these men\u2019s footsteps. Freshman defensive lineman Seth Selby said that although the seniors will be missed, he knows the team will look forward to greater accomplishments.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard,\u201d Selby said. \u201cBut it\u2019s going to be up to us to hold true to the brotherhood and keep their legacy.\u201d
\nThe Harding Bisons fell to the no. 10 ranked Northwestern Missouri State in the first round of playoffs 6-7 on Saturday Nov. 23.
\nHarding\u2019s defense stood strong against Northwestern offense as they held them to only one score, although Northwestern Missouri State had averaged 46 points through the rest of its season.
\nNorthwestern was also held to only 205 yards of total offense. This was achieved through 10 tackles for a loss, five of those tackles being sacks.
\nHarding finished its season 10-2, with its fourth straight playoff appearance. The Bisons look to have more appearances in the future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Harding Bisons made it to the playoffs this season for the fourth consecutive year. While the team prepared for playoffs, senior Harding players were prepared for their last college…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15161,"featured_media":14028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}