Jake Ramsay shed his redshirt officially on Thursday, as the kicker from Lincoln Pius X filled in for injured All-American Greg Zuerlein in UNO's 38-23 loss to Ouachita Baptist.

He warmed up at halftime in Saturday's 32-29 loss to the University of Nebraska at Kearney, but didn't enter the game.

“If it was three points that got us beat a week ago, we probably should have done it last week,” UNO coach Pat Behrns said.

Ramsay kicked a 26-yard field goal on the final play of the first quarter to get UNO within 14-3, but also missed 40-yard attempt late in the first half and missed an extra point.

“The first one felt good,” Ramsay said. “I just rushed (the second one) way too fast and shanked it.

“No kicker wants to miss a field goal, let alone an extra point.”

UNO wanted to redshirt Ramsay, an all-stater from the same high school that produced Zuerlein, and then have him take over next year. But Zuerlein injured his right groin kicking off in a late August scrimmage, and reinjured it on an extra point in the opener. Zuerlein might well have been worth seven to 10 points in the UNK loss.

“We could not give up points in the kicking game any more, regardless of how long Greg Zuerlein is out,” Berhns said. “And even when Greg comes back, we're going to find ways to utilize Jake Ramsay, whether it's kicking extra points or whatever. We're not going to waste the whole year for him.

“Right now I'm not sure when Greg Zuerlein is going to be back. If I knew he was going to be back next week, maybe I'd have had a different thought process.”

Ramsay said he was ready to switch gears from redshirt to starting kicker.

“It's kind of hard, but you've got to expect that it might happen,” he said.

Barrett plays big in first start

Shaquil Barrett, a true freshman linebacker from Boys Town, made his first start in his second career game. He had 10 tackles — seven of them solos — and had a key second-quarter punt block that briefly put momentum on the side of UNO.

“I just worked hard and tried to play fast, do everything I do at 100 percent,” Barrett said. “I could have done better. A win would have been nice. But things don't go according to plan all the time.”

Barrett said he got a hand on Clark Gaddis' second-quarter punt — it was recorded officially as a team block — giving UNO possession at the Ouachita Baptist 32. Jon Daniels hit Brian Miller for a touchdown on the next play to pull the Mavs within 14-10.

“We were down and the coaches say that every play can be that game-winning play,” Barrett said.

Just how tough is the Gulf South?

Now, we're not suggesting that coaches in the Gulf South Conference don't know what they're talking about, but Ouachita Baptist doesn't look anything like a team that should have been picked to finish sixth in that conference. The Gulf South and Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association are often considered the two best conferences in Division II.

OBU knocked off two top 15 teams last year in a 4-0 start, but stumbled to finish 6-4. Many key starters are back, including four preseason all-conference picks and an all-conference player from 2008 who sat out last year.

Quarterback Eli Cranor, who completed 30 of 38 passes for 332 yards, sidestepped a question about being picked to finish sixth.

“The Gulf South is a great league,” Cranor said. “When you have archives of film on people from years and years, those games, rivalry games, they're crazy.”

The road win at UNO, a day after an 11-hour bus ride, should help OBU get a jump-start on GSC play.

“It's going to give us a lot of confidence going back to the GSC,” Tigers coach Todd Knight said. “Our league and their league are both really good. We knew this would be a battle.”

Whatever it takes is Cranor's motto

Ouachita Baptist quarterback Eli Cranor passed for 1,941 yards last season, but he looked like a 3,000-yard guy in picking apart the Mavs.

He completed his first 13 passes and finished 30 for 38 for 332 yards and one touchdown. Is that typical?

“It depends,” Cranor said. “We'll try to do whatever a team allows us to do. We're an unselfish team that will just do whatever it takes.”

Cranor's favorite target was tight end Phillip Supernaw, who caught eight passes for 120 yards to outshine UNO All-American tight end Mike Higgins.

“Ol Supe, this was a breakout game for him,” Cranor said.

“He's a good-looking athlete and he's gotten some accolades, but this is by far the best game he's ever had. I think it was because it was a tight end battle, and I think he wanted to show what he could do.”

Tigers sneak up on Mavericks

While Behrns had emphasized Ouachita Baptist's skill level, a couple of UNO players were still shaking their head after the game.

“They were a lot better than I expected,” quarterback Jon Daniels said. “We didn't have much film on them. The looks we saw on defense we hadn't seen, and athletically, that's a good team. They're fast and they hit hard. I want to see what they do in their conference.”

After a slow start, UNO managed 366 yards of offense despite having just 22 minutes, 10 seconds of possession and having 35 fewer snaps (86 to 51). Two critical three-and-outs to start the game, and another in a third quarter that included two turnovers, prevented the Mavs from getting into a shootout.

“I thought we'd just pound the ball on them,” wide receiver Brian Miller said. “Their defense did not look that good on the film that we saw (OBU's 73-0 win over NAIA Texas College). I thought we'd run the ball on them and occasionally throw the ball over the top because their corners and safeties are small.”

— Rob White

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