{"id":8687,"date":"2020-02-24T17:00:38","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T22:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=8687"},"modified":"2023-08-04T09:28:07","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T13:28:07","slug":"one-for-the-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/one-for-the-ages\/","title":{"rendered":"One for the Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Though it ended sooner than hoped, the 2019 season was nonetheless\na historic one for the Monmouth University football program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hawks won their first-ever Big South title\nand NCAA playoff game, in the process setting multiple school records and\nachieving the program\u2019s highest-ever rankings in the national polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monmouth captured the Big South Championship\u2014and\nwith it, the league\u2019s automatic bid into the Football Championship Subdivision\n(FCS) playoffs\u2014 with a dominating 47-10 win at Campbell University on Nov. 16.\nTwo weeks later, in front of a spirited Kessler Stadium crowd, the Hawks rolled\nover Holy Cross, 44-27, in the first round of the playoffs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hawks came up short the following week in\ntheir second-round showdown against James Madison. Still, as Head Coach Kevin\nCallahan pointed out afterward, one game \u201ccannot overshadow what we have done\nthis season and what the team has done for Monmouth University.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callahan\u2019s squad finished 11-3 overall\u2014setting a school record for wins in a season\u2014while going 6-0 in conference play. They were ranked as high as 11th in the American Football Coaches Association poll, and finished 12th in the STATS FCS poll\u2014both program bests. Along the way, the offensive unit set a number of program records, including points per game, total offense, and rushing offense. Two key reasons for that were quarterback Kenji Bahar \u201919 and running back Pete Guerriero, who established themselves as two of the top players in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callahan\u2019s squad finished 11-3 overall\u2014setting a school record for wins in a season\u2014while going 6-0 in conference play. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Bahar, who was named the Eastern Collegiate\nAthletic Conference (ECAC) and Big South Offensive Player of the Year, threw\nfor 3,684 yards and 30 touchdowns\u2014both Monmouth single-season records. His\n3,861 total yards was also a program high. The fifth-year senior finished his\ncareer as Monmouth\u2019s all-time leader in passing yards (9,642), passing\ntouchdowns (70), passing attempts (1,290), and completions (798). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guerriero set Monmouth records for rushing yards and all-purpose yards en route to be- coming a consensus All-American. The explosive redshirt junior led the NCAA with 1,995 rushing yards while scoring 18 touchdowns. A true all-purpose threat, he added a pair of touchdown receptions and 336 yards receiving. His third-place finish in voting for the Walter Payton Award, which is given annually to the FCS\u2019s top offensive player, was the highest finish ever for a Hawk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For his part, Callahan took home Big South, ECAC, and American Football Coaches Association (Region II) Coach of the Year honors, and finished fourth in voting for the Eddy Robinson Award, which is bestowed on the nation\u2019s top FCS coach. The only head coach in the history of Monmouth football, Callahan now has 163 career wins. He\u2019ll get the chance for number 164 on Sept. 5, when the Hawks travel to SHI Stadium to take on Rutgers. The game will mark the first time Monmouth football will face a team from the Big Ten or any of the power five conferences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Football\u2019s remarkable season capped by a bevy of honors for key personnel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":8694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[94,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-play"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Athletics, Play","issue":"Spring 2020","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8687"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8697,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8687\/revisions\/8697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}