SHAWNEE – The Bison Football team will look to build upon last week's fairly convincing win when they travel to Alva to face the Northwestern Oklahoma State Rangers at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
OBU has won six of eight all-time Division II meetings against the Rangers. In fact, they have won five in a row and scored at least 30 points in four of those games.
The Bison Sports Network crew of Todd Miller and Scott Wanish will be on site in Alva and will have the call of the game starting at 1:30 on KGFF.com. Fans should also be connected to
Instagram and
X/Twitter for in-game updates.
Lit 'Em Up
Redshirt freshman
Kenny Rosenthal stepped back into the starting lineup last week against SWOSU and turned in an incredible performance. He completed nine of 14 passes (64.3%) and totaled 203 passing yards with four touchdowns. Two of those strikes were to
Darius Melton while the others came to
Kai McCarty and
Charles Whitebear. The four scoring passes were a career-high for Rosenthal and marked just the second time since football came back to OBU in 2013 that a redshirt freshman threw four passing touchdowns in a contest. Previously, program great Preston Haire notched the same total against Southern Arkansas on Sept. 30, 2017.
He Couldn't Be Stopped, He Couldn't Be Reasoned With
Darius Melton had just two catches against Southwestern, but both were big-time scoring plays. The first came via a flea-flicker, a 51-yarder down the SWOSU sideline early in the second. Then with about a minute to go before halftime, Melton snagged the ball away from a SWOSU defender and raced 58 yards to the end zone. With that, the redshirt senior from Pompano Beach, Fla., achieved a performance not ever seen before on Bison Hill. He's the first player to record a pair of 50-plus-yard touchdown catches in the same game.
Johnson's 'Special' Moment
Linebacker
Tyler Johnson delivered a rare play in the third quarter against SWOSU. A straight-up leap in front of a Bulldogs blocker and reach of the right hand led to a punt block for the Bison. One play later, the Bison put the game out of reach with a passing touchdown. That was just the fourth punt block in OBU's D2 history. Previously,
Charles Whitebear blocked one at Southwestern in 2023; Tyler Rhodes at Harding in 2018 and Jesse Salisbury versus Arkansas-Monticello in 2015.
Shut Them Out
Oklahoma Baptist's second-half defense was very impressive last week against the Bulldogs. They gave up 85 total yards, forced two turnovers and most importantly, did not allow a single point to SWOSU. That marked just the seventh time since 2013 that a Bison defense shut out its opponent in the second half. Previously, in 2023,
Gabe Eliserio's unit blanked Southeastern and Arkansas-Monticello. Prior to that, during the 2015 campaign, OBU kept Harding from scoring in a contest on Sept. 5.
Last Time vs. Northwestern
During last season's 28-7 victory over Northwestern, the Bison defense really stood out. It allowed 217 yards of total offense and nearly earned its first-ever GAC shutout. OBU attained an impressive 13.0 tackles-for-loss which included six sacks as well.
Scooter Baker registered a team-high 13 tackles while
Brandon Spencer recorded an interception and two pass break-ups. That defensive performance helped OBU attain a 28-0 lead.
Offensively,
Aidan Thompson threw for 279 yards and three scores while receivers
Michael Marshall and
Nick Harris each collected at least 83 receiving yards with a touchdown.
Quite the Hire
Northwestern Oklahoma State Head Coach Ronnie Jones made quite the splash this past January. He hired Jerry Glanville, yes, the former Atlanta Falcons head coach in the early 90s, to lead the Rangers' defensive unit. Glanville has over 57 years of coaching experience which also includes stops with the then-Houston Oilers, Buffalo Bills and Division I Georgia Tech as well as Western Kentucky.
Stacking Them Up
The first thing that catches one's eye is the Rangers' struggles on offense. They are last, 12th, in the GAC averaging 11.3 points per game. Northwestern has also produced just 191 yards of total offense per game, another mark that's 12th. For OBU, it is eighth in scoring (18.6) and tenth in offense (235.3 ypg).
NWOSU's rushing and passing defense are sixth and seventh, respectively, giving up 180.9 and 176.9 yards per game. As for the Bison in those categories, OBU is 12th in rush defense (226.4 ypg) and ninth in passing (181.7).
Scouting the Rangers
Sophomore quarterback Brodey Johnson is seventh in the GAC averaging 127.7 passing yards per game. He's thrown for seven touchdowns with four interceptions as well. Johnson's favorite target is Travis Romar. He is 18th in the league with 18 catches, 199 yards receiving and three scores. On the rushing front, no one ranks in the top-25 of the GAC for Northwestern. Darien Gill has the most yards on the ground (167) while Giorgio Spiropoulos has a pair of rushing touchdowns.
Defensively, Coby Tillman leads the GAC with 72 stops. He's also second in the league with 11.0 tackles-for-loss. Cornerback Bashu Delco ranks 13th in the conference with five pass break-ups. That includes a trio of interceptions. In the punting department, Matthew Sebade is ninth with a 39.0 yards per punt average. He also gotten 14 of his punts to be fair caught. That mark is No. 2 in the conference.
