John Teigland started Saturday. Jon Daniels finished.

What will happen at quarterback when UNO faces Ouachita Baptist in a Thursday night home game?

“That’s a good question,” UNO coach Pat Behrns said. “I don’t know. There were things I liked from both of them. If we had gone to a two-minute drill, we were seriously considering bringing Teigland back in because he operates it well. I’m still going to hang my hat on they’re both pretty good players and hopefully we’ll settle on one that makes us better down the road.”

Teigland, a sophomore, completed 14 of 19 passes for 156 yards, with one touchdown and one interception, as UNO lost 32-29 to the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Daniels, a junior, came into the game late in the third quarter, completed 5 of 11 passes for 57 yards, and also rushed for another 53 yards on three carries. He also operated the option effectively.

“The offense was moving the ball all game,” Daniels said. “We were running the ball well, and John had a high completion percentage. I tried to give us a little spark when I came in.”

Behrns echoed Daniels’ assessment.

“Teigland wasn’t bad,” Behrns said. “That isn’t why we made the change. We just wanted to jump-start the thing. They were starting to take our inside run game away, so we thought we could run some option and stretch it out a bit — and we did — but when we got inside the 30 and needed to make a play, we couldn’t.”

Daniels’ first drive ended early in the fourth quarter, when he threw incomplete to Ryan Maloley out of the backfield on third down and had a fourth-down pass to Brian Miller broken up. On his second drive, receiver Justin Coleman lost a fumble at the Loper 24 on a reverse. Daniels pitched to James Franklin on a 21-yard option touchdown that capped the third drive, which included a 25-yard pass to Mike Higgins and Daniels’ 22-yard run. Daniels’ last drive saw him throw incomplete to Miller on third-and-9 and incomplete to Higgins on fourth-and-9.

“They brought the house, and I knew I had to get rid of the ball quick,” Daniels said of his last play. “But it might have been too quick, and he didn’t get a chance to get his head around, and I threw it low. If I had put it on his face mask, I’m sure he would have caught it.”

Nice debut for Franklin

True freshman James Franklin knew he would play some at tailback in Saturday’s season opener, but said he was a little surprised that he got enough playing time to run for 105 yards and two touchdowns on 13 rushing attempts.

“He’s going to be a good player,” Behrns said. “That’s hard, though, when you turn to a true freshman in your first game. We expected him to help us, but we didn’t think it would be this quick.”

Levi Terrell, last year’s MIAA freshman of the year, didn’t suit up because of a lingering hamstring injury, and senior Duane Bowen started. Franklin was the second tailback to play. Behrns said he moved ahead of senior Bryce Hawthorne as Hawthorne has been slow to recover from his own hamstring injury and wasn’t playing as well as Franklin when he returned.

Franklin was the Kansas City metropolitan player of the year last season after breaking all of NFL running back Darren Sproles’ records at Olathe (Kan.) North.

Franklin capped off UNO’s game-opening scoring drive with a nifty 15-yard touchdown run up the middle. He hopped on one foot while pulling a defender holding his other leg to get the final 2 yards to the end zone.

He scored again from 21 yards out in the fourth quarter, splitting two defenders at the corner and sailing into the end zone on an option play.

“They were all set up perfectly,” Franklin said. “Every lineman did his job, every receiver did his job, and they led me to getting touchdowns.”

Kicking big concern for Mavs

True freshman kicker Jake Ramsay warmed up at halftime, easily knocking in field goals of about 40 yards, but Behrns is hesitant to pull Ramsay out of a redshirt season while waiting for All-America kicker Greg Zuerlein to return to health.

Zuerlein was able to kick only one extra point Saturday before limping off. He’d injured his right groin a week earlier.

“If we had needed a kick for us to win, we probably would have done it,” Behrns said. But still, he didn’t want to send Ramsay out to try a game-tying, 50-yarder in the fourth quarter.

“I know he did it in high school, but I’m not sure he’s ready to make that one,” Behrns said. “I was thinking something like a 30-yard field goal.”

Behrns said Tyler Johnson, the Mavs’ backup punter, performed well enough in Zuerlein’s place. He hadn’t kicked a field goal through fall camp and started only this week. He made a 25-yard field goal but missed a 30-yarder and had an extra point blocked. He kicked off short, a tactic the Mavs had practiced all week.

Meanwhile UNO has a game on Thursday, and Behrns admitted that the chances of Zuerlein being available don’t look good.

“After seeing him tonight, it sure doesn’t look like he’d be ready for Thursday,” Behrns said. “We’ll have to sit back and decide what we’re going to do. You’re fairly strong at that position starting out the season, but now there’s a lot of question marks there.”

Kropp sure could have fooled us

In a span of four drives in the second half, UNK senior linebacker Jay Kropp stopped three UNO drives with a sack of quarterback John Teigland, an interception of a deflected pass in UNO territory to set up a touchdown that got the Lopers within 23-17 and a recovery of a fumble by Justin Coleman deep in UNK territory.

No big deal, the senior from Grand Island, Neb., said.

“Stats are good and all, but I definitely missed some assignments and let them get some big plays,” Kropp said.

Kropp, nephew of UNK basketball coach Tom Kropp, was credited with six tackles.

“He was struggling a little bit,” UNK coach Darrell Morris said. “They picked on him a little bit, but he did a great job. He’s getting every ounce of what the good Lord gave him out of himself.”

Rivalry gets new life

Two straight wins by UNK in a series that had been dominated by UNO has added spice to the rivarly.

The Victory Bell was ringing on the UNK sideline at Caniglia Field for the first time since it became part of the series.

Though the series will go on hold temporarily, it should heat up again when and if UNK joins the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association and plays UNO regularly.

“This win is huge,” Kropp said. “I think it sends a message to the MIAA, whenever we go there, that we’re not just an average RMAC team. We’re going to compete. We’re going to bring a fight to your stadium every game, no matter what.”

Morris said the win sends a message, too.

To the MIAA?

“Anybody and everybody,” he said.

Williams leads Mav defense

Linebacker A.J. Williams led the UNO defense with 12 tackles. Both he and Tanner Frain caused UNK some problems by blitzing straight up the middle against the Lopers’ no-back formation.

“Then they wound up throwing that screen (for a big play), and we went away from it,” Williams said. “That was our blitz against their empty.”

Williams, a senior from Omaha Benson, said UNO has to bounce back quickly for Thursday’s home game with Ouachita Baptist.

“It’s a tough loss,” he said. “We’re going to take it to heart and try not to have that happen again this year. We’ve got to come right back. We’ve got a short turnaround.”

Extra points

UNO’s Marcus Hall-Oliver returned a blocked punt 19 yards for a touchdown to make it 23-10 early in the third quarter. Hall-Oliver, a sophomore from Omaha Central, scored on a similar play last year at Emporia State, taking it in from 5 yards out. ... Wide receiver Marques Parker suffered a high ankle sprain on a fourth-quarter kickoff return. ... Behrns didn’t have any definitive information on linebacker Max Dennis, who was slow getting off the field after covering the second-half kickoff.

— Rob White

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