The MSU-Northern Lights football team suffered its fifth straight loss to open the 2024 season, dropping a (28-21) game on the road at Eastern Oregon. This is the slimmest margin of defeat for Northern since going on the road at Arizona Christian last season, which was a (21-20) game.
Lights coach Jerome Souers told New Media Broadcasters before the Eastern Oregon tilt that the team has been figuring out its identity and that there is still room to grow. The words said on Thursday translated to Saturday and are still applicable.
“We’re still cutting out teeth in a lot of ways in what we’re trying to do here with this program,” Souers said. “Some of this stuff may take a full year to get developed, but we want to do it now.”
“We’ve been pushing our process to get better and then when it shows completely in a game for four quarters, then we’re going to get a win,” Souers continued. “We never give up.”
“We play hard until the end,” Souers said. “All those ingredients, they’re going to equal improvement.”
Souers will continue to preach patience as long as he is the head coach of the program. He said MSU-N is moving in this direction. With the continued results on the scoreboard each week in all three phases of the game, there’s a trend towards winning on the horizon.
“We’ve got a ways to go, but we’re making progress,” Souers said. “I can see it statistically, but when you’re not winning, you have to find other ways to show team, ‘Hey, we’re getting better.'”
“You have to trust this process and you’ve got to believe in that,” Souers continued. “We’re there right now. We haven’t lost anybody. Everybody’s still sticking with it.”
“I’m proud of the fact that our program has that kind of tenacity and that will to keep fighting,” Souers said. “We’re going to get there. It’s going to take time.”
Stay tuned later this week for a preview of the College of Idaho, which will be the next opponent for Northern this Saturday at Tilleman Field.
