The roar of breaking a 10-year playoff drought bounced off every wall in Texas Lutheran University’s Alumni Student Center as the football team heard its name called in the NCAA Division III Football Championship playoff selection show.
TLU will fly up to Oregon to play Linfield University on Nov. 30 at 2 p.m. in the second round of the tournament.
The Bulldogs made it to the playoffs after an overtime win against Southwestern University on Saturday, sealing their spot in the playoffs by clinching the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship (SCAC).
UPDATE: Per the official @NCAADIII bracket, the @TLU_Football Bulldogs have a first-round bye and will face Linfield on November 30th at 2 p.m. #KSATsports
— KSAT Nick Mantas (@KSATNick) November 18, 2024
After a grueling 2023 season where the Bulldogs finished with a final record of 2-8, the players and head coach Neal LaHue shared how much this moment means to them and the entire program.
“Man, all the hard work has paid off. We knew going into this season it was do or die; we had to pretty much win out, and that’s what we did and to give us a shot, and here we are. All of our hard work has paid off,” said senior safety Mason Hardy.
“It’s exciting, it’s a blessing, you know, God blessed us all with this amazing opportunity, you know, just to get up and play the sport that we love, you know because it’s Division III football, so we really love it, we pay to play so to be able to play this sport is just a blessing so we don’t take it for granted,” said junior quarterback and East Central High School alum, Caden Bosanko.
“They’ve worked very hard, you know. You go back to Aug. 14 when we reported, and you know all the work they’ve put in, you know, week to week, and you know we’re excited about the opportunity,” said Coach LaHue.