NAIA wins leader climbs to 300-plateau with USF comeback win in NAIA FCS Quarterfinal Game against fifth-ranked Morningside
Story by Bill Scott, USF Sports Information Director
Two years.
That’s all the time it took for Kevin Donley to take a collegiate football program from scratch at the University of Saint Francis and turn it into not only a winner, but a conference champion and perennial NAIA Top 25 team the last 18 years.
Now Donley is the winningest football coach in NAIA history becoming the first NAIA coach to reach 300 career wins, 186 in his 19th season guiding the Cougars. His fourth-ranked Cougars got Donley win No. 300 in memorable fashion rallying from a 20-point deficit for a 42-35 win over fifth-ranked Morningside College to advance to the USF program’s eighth NAIA Football Championship Series Semifinal game next Saturday (Dec. 3 at No. 3 Reinhardt University (Waleska, Ga.).
Donley is the 12th collegiate coach to reach the 300-win plateau at all levels – NCAA or NAIA.
“It’s quite an accomplishment and I owe so many coaches, assistant coaches, players and administrators a debt of tremendous gratitude for their confidence in me,” Donley said after his 430th collegiate game. “I love doing what I’m doing, so I’m very thankful, very blessed.
“I can’t say enough about the way this team fought, battled and found a way to win today and couldn’t be prouder of them,” Donley asserted. “It definitely makes the 300th win a special one in more ways than one. What a great college football game. That was a great one to be a part of.”
Donley is 300-129-1 in 38 seasons at Anderson College (1978-81), Georgetown College (Ky.) 1983-92 where he won an NAIA Championship, California (PA) from 1993-96, and USF, where he started the institutions first football program in 1997 and playing its first season in 1998. USF went 2-8 that first season in 1998, the only losing season in the history of the program.
Inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame (football) in January 2013, Donley came to Fort Wayne in 1997 with a vision of bringing not just collegiate football to the Summit City, but a national championship contending program. With the blessing of USF administration led by President Sister M. Elise Kriss, Donley quickly developed an exciting and winning collegiate football program recognized yearly at the national level.
Donley’s Cougars made him the winningest coach in NAIA history in 2013 and he leads the NAIA record book with 300 career wins. Earlier this season Donley, a native of Springfield, Ohio, earned his 100th Mid-States Football Association Mideast League victory with a 56-24 win over Missouri Baptist on Oct. 29, 2016.
The “Founding Father” of collegiate football in Fort Wayne, Ind., Donley secured the USF program’s 100th win in the tenth game of the 2007 season, just the 121st game in program history and unofficially the fastest program ever to win 100 games in a program’s first 10 seasons in the fewest number of games.
Donley, 65, has been a conference coach of the year 18 times, including MSFA Mideast League Coach of the Year 10 times including 2015. He is 25-15 in NAIA FCS at USF, 27-20 in 38 seasons.
Seth Coate and Justin Green scored fourth quarter touchdowns to complete the comeback 42-35 in an NAIA Football Championship Quarterfinal win over fifth-ranked Morningside College on Saturday afternoon.
Green finished with a USF record 296 yards rushing on 25 carries shattering the record he set last year against Reinhardt University -- 252 yards on 32 carries. His 47-yard burst to the outside and to the end zone with 2:15 to play in the game proved to be the difference, the biggest of a horn-of-plenty full of big plays on Thanksgiving weekend for the Cougars.
The reward is a rematch from 2015 only this time it will be AT third-ranked Reinhardt University in Waleska, Ga. USF ousted then No. 12 RU 37-26 on 11/21/15 at USF behind Green's big game. The No. 3 Eagles are 13-0 after a 27-0 win over No. 6 Montana Tech on Saturday to advance to their first NAIA FCS Semifinal game.
