ASHLAND – After falling just short of making the postseason last year, the Ashland University Eagles football team is ready to show what the 2017 version of the Eagles can do.

Coach Lee Owens’ squad begins that quest on the road Thursday night at Indiana, Pa., when it faces the No. 9 ranked Crimson Hawks in the season opener.

Last year, Ashland finished 9-2, including a perfect 5-0 record at Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field. The Eagles won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference South Division and finished No. 19 in the country. They were the only team ranked in the Top 25 to not make the playoffs.

Righting that wrong is a goal this year.

“Week one is always exciting, I think this year maybe more than any,” Owens said. “(This is) a tremendous challenge — IUP, a nationally ranked team coming off an unbelievable season.

“We’re just ready to play again. We weren’t ready for the season to end a year ago. We’re looking forward to this opener. The guys worked really hard, had a great offseason and are excited to play Thursday night.”

Owens is entering his 14th season at AU, compiling a record of 98-44 in 13 seasons. During his tenure, the Eagles have won eight or more games in a season seven times, advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs four times, and won the first postseason game in school history. He is just two wins shy of his 100th win at Ashland.

The coach expects his team to have some pre-game jitters but believes they are ready to tackle the Crimson Hawks.

“I think we’ll be anxious. It’s hard to go on the road and play someplace where you’ve never been before. It’s not familiar surroundings,” Owens said. “The good thing offensively is we’re taking a veteran team.

We’ll get over there the morning of the game and take a look at the facility and get familiar with it, but you’re playing a Top 10 opponent and you’re on the road, so it makes us a pretty big underdog in the game.”

Thursday night’s game will feature two of the top offenses in Division II. A year ago, IUP qualified for the Division II playoffs, finishing the season with a 10-2 record. The Crimson Hawks scored 46.3 points per game, rushed for 279.8 yards per game and averaged 19.51 yards per completion.

Dual threat quarterback Lenny Williams threw for 1,832 yards and 14 touchdowns and rushed for another 589 yards and 12 TDs. Sophomore Samir Bullock and senior Chris Temple combined to rush for more than 1,800 yards and 25 TDs in 2016.

AU answers with its own potent offensive threat.

The Eagle’s high-powered offense, led by quarterback Travis Tarnowski, ran up 43.5 points per game and 526.5 yards of total offense a game last season. Tarnowski threw for nearly 3,000 yards (2,989) and 34 touchdowns in the 2016 campaign.

Last season, Tarnowski set the program record for most career touchdown passes with 80. He has 8,277 career passing yards, leaving him just 866 shy of Billy Cundiff’s career mark of 9,143 passing yards.

“He’s a pretty special young man, great leader,” Owens said of Tarnowski. “Very accomplished college quarterback. From how many games he wins to his pass percentage to his yards thrown, and on and on.”

Tight end Adam Shaheen, Tarnowski’s favorite target a year ago, left school after his junior year and was taken in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears, but the Eagles still have plenty of offensive weapons to complement Tarnowski.

At running back, sophomore Keishaun Sims (625 yards, 5 TDs), junior Andrew Vaughn (583-3) and sophomore Luke Ogi (268-5) figure to get most of the carries.

“They all have different strengths. Keishaun’s burst is second to none. Andrew’s still the best in terms of pass protection and receiving. And Luke Ogi maybe has the best vision, just a glider. And if it works out that one of the three is just out-playing the other two, that back will end up getting a little more opportunity,” Owens said.

Three of Ashland’s top five wide receivers from 2016 return, led by junior Kamaron Green. Joining Green in the receiving corps is senior deep threat Matthew Wilcox, who averages 26.2 yards per catch with 12 touchdowns over his three-year career at Ashland. Of Wilcox’s 40 career catches, 15 have been for at least 30 yards.

“He’s probably as good at adjusting to the deep ball in the air as any receiver I’ve coached,” Owens said. “He’s deceptively fast. The corners line up against him and just watch him go by and can’t believe he’s got the kind of speed and wheels that he’s got. I think that’s his strength. But at the same time, once you’ve scouted him and you realize the kind of speed he has to get behind you and his ability to play the deep ball in the air, what happens at that point is they play off and it gives you the underneath routes.”

Losing a talented player like Shaheen is a huge loss for any offense, and the Eagles will feel it most strongly in short yardage situations and in the red zone. Shaheen caught 16 TD passes a year ago, nine of them in the red zone.

“Our offense is going to be challenged trying to figure out how to make third downs and score in the red zone without Adam Shaheen. It’s a big challenge for us. It was easy last year. We just threw it to Adam. So we’ve got to be a little more creative this year in terms of what we do there,” Owens said.

Up front, the Eagles will be returning four of last year’s five starters, including All-GLIAC Honorable Mention picks John Conner at right tackle and Dominic Giunta at center.

Defensively, the Eagles return just five starters from a squad that led the GLIAC in both scoring defense and total defense for the first time since 2012. The AU “D” gave up just 15.1 points, 297.5 total yards and 186 passing yards per game. The defensive unit held teams to single-digit rushing yards three times, gave up less than 100 passing yards three times and held four opponents to fewer than 200 yards total offense.

“We’ll play a lot of guys, and the schedule, as we all know, is appreciably more difficult. But I have every confidence we are going to be a very good defense,” said defensive coordinator Tim Rose.

Senior Austin Utter will anchor the defensive line at the “stud” position. Last year, Utter tied for the team lead in sacks (6 ½) and forced fumbles (2), and was fifth on the team in tackles (51). With several new starters on defense, Rose will change his defensive schemes this season to fit his personnel, as he has done successfully for years at AU.

“Coach Rose is never plug-and-play. When he starts to decide what we’re going to do defensively each year, he’s like, who do we have, who’s coming back, and who do we have to defend. What teams are we going to go against and what are we going to see,” Owens said. “It works pretty well for him. Every year it seems like we have a pretty good football team out there defensively.”

AU has won its last three season openers, and although the Eagles have to go on the road to face a tough IUP team, Owens is confident his team can continue that trend.

“We’ve played pretty well on the road the last few years,” Owens said. “Obviously, this is a huge challenge for us. I think there may be a little jitters early, but I feel pretty confident that we’ll have a good performance before the night is concluded.”

Coverage of Ashland University Eagles athletics is produced in partnership with OhioHealth, the official sports medicine provider for Ashland University.