By MATT PIKE
The Northwest Missouri State football team opens its season Saturday on the road, opening a season with high expectations after just missing out on an outright MIAA championship in 2025.
The Bearcats shared the regular season title with Pittsburg State, after Northwest lost to the Gorillas in the final week of the regular season 27-14. After missing out on the NCAA tournament in 2023 and 2024, the Bearcats clinched a spot, but fell to Harding, the eventual runner-up, in the first round of the tournament 38-16.
In 2026, Northwest enters the season ranked No. 8 in the preseason, a favorite by media members to win the MIAA title and picked to finish second again by coaches in the conference. The Bearcats are also ranked No. 6 by D2Football.com on the preseason poll, just behind Pittsburg State at No. 5.
Head Coach John McMenamin says last year felt like the team had a chip on its shoulder, out to change the reputation, but this year is a different story.
"Now you're going to have a target on your back, I think we probably snuck up on a few teams last year, and that probably won't happen this year," McMenamin tells reporters. "That being said, that's the spot you want to be in, we want to get our kids in that spot where there's a lot of expectation, there's a lot of pressure because that's what you come to Northwest Missouri for, and it's good to be there, now we'll see how we handle that."
That journey to show how they handle the expectations starts Saturday on the road at Texas A&M University - Kingsville, however McMenamin says it's also a week in and week out process.
"It's really been going on all offseason, and these kids have earned that but now we have to go out and show it, because everything is earned on the field," McMenamin explains. "So, what they did last year kind of really is what preseason rankings are based on, and now we have to go earn week to week and try to stay where we're at."
In the second year of the John McMenamin era at Northwest, there has been a lot of growth in the program, and it should continue this season. 12 starters overall return from last year's team, along with several players who also got playing time outside of starting, such as quarterback Zechariah Owens.
Junior offensive tackle Kaleb McCullough, a first team choice on the D2Football.com Elite 100 Watch List, says the entire team has a lot of confidence in each other.
"Confidence has been a big thing for us up front, and just anywhere on the defense," McCullough says. "Talking to Holden Zigmant, one of our defensive safeties, how those young guys can lean on those older guys too, and they know that we're in it together, and that was something I feel like the seniors did a really good job with us, was pushing us to not get down on ourselves, it's very easy in the game of football to kind of kick yourself, and poor me, poor this, but I think with the stuff the seniors left us last year and the group we have now, we can lean on each other."
Northwest and Texas A&M- Kingsville kickoff at 7pm on Saturday. Following the opener, the Bearcats will have an early bye week, before opening MIAA play against Washburn on September 12th
Interview
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.