UNH gridders heading south for playoffs

DURHAM – Sean McDonnell, his back to a handful of reporters, checked out McNeese State's football Web site on his computer and called out his initial research: "Points per game, 37; rushed for 2,460 yards, passed for 2,400."

McDonnell and his University of New Hampshire football staff cranked it up last night and will again today to gather game tapes and learn all they can, quickly, about a team they have never met before from a conference they don't know a whole lot about.

New Hampshire plays McNeese State, which shared the Southland Conference title with Stephen F. Austin, on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Lake Charles, La., in the first round of the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

The Wildcats will make their sixth straight appearance in the tournament, a run longer than all but Montana and Southern Illinois.

They had hoped they might land a home game for the first round of the tournament, but that didn't stop them from whooping it up in their locker room when the ESPNEWS graphic flashed on the screen and showed that the football selection committee was sending them out on the road again.

"It doesn't matter," said McDonnell. "We've been on the road before. I think or kids know how to handle it. . . . It's going to be fun to just go play and be playing on the fourth Saturday in November again, for the sixth time in a row."

His team is looking forward to it.

"We make our away trips fun," said captain and linebacker Sean Ware. "Then when it's time to get down to business, we dial it in."

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The Wildcats have played on the road in four of their five tournament appearances in this six-year run and they have won three of those four road openers.

They won first-round games at Georgia Southern, Hampton and Southern Illinois. Their only first-round loss came in 2007 when they were the No. 16 seed and just missed pulling an upset of No. 1 Northern Iowa before falling, 38-35.

Both UNH and McNeese finished the regular season with 9-2 records.

The Cowboy losses were to Tulane, a Football Bowl Subdivision team, by a score of 42-32, and to Stephen F. Austin, 16-13.

They had a 42-32 win at Appalachian State, which is also 9-2, early in the season.

The Cowboys missed the NCAA tournament with a 7-4 record last year and were knocked out in the first round in 2006 and 2007.

The rush is on to collect information on McNeese by tonight and have things ready to go by practice time tomorrow, McDonnell said.

He knew this much early on: "Just looking at statistics, they look like a pretty good team. Offensively, they mix it up pretty good."

His staff will put a game-plan in and then Ware and Co. will set out it make it work.

On the road. Again.

"The fans getting on you is probably the most difficult thing (of being on the road)," Ware said. "But it's good to shut them up when you get on a roll and do what you have to do."

PLAYOFFS: The UNH-McNeese State winner plays the winner of the Holy Cross at Villanova game. Holy Cross is 9-2 and the Patriot League champion.

Villanova shared the Colonial Athletic Association championship with Richmond and is 10-1 with its only loss at New Hampshire. Villanova is the No. 2 seed and earned the right to play at home, as long as it stays alive, through the semifinals.

Montana, the only undefeated team in the tournament at 10-0, is the No. 1 seed in the 16-team field. Southern Illinois is 10-1 and the No. 3 seed and Richmond at 10-1 is No. 4.