Kansas Wesleyan football gets its season underway Saturday at JRI Stadium, taking on Evangel at 7 p.m. Below is the opening portion of the 2024 season preview, courtesy of KWUCoyotes.com.

Kansas Wesleyan was victorious in eight of its 11 football games in 2023 but coach Matt Myers can't forget how the season ended.

The Coyotes were 4-1 in the Gene Bissell Division and shared the title with Ottawa but lost to the Braves in overtime in their head-to-head game allowing Ottawa to advance to NAIA postseason play.

"I think when you miss an opportunity like we had in the fashion that we missed it … it's still on my mind and I think about it all the time," said Myers who is entering his third season as head coach. "We had a young team going in, a couple of our veteran offensive linemen were out and we had a freshman quarterback playing for us.

"The reality of it was we didn't score enough points last year."

Myers and his staff spent the offseason shoring up the offense and making sure a stellar defense remains that way.

KWU will fine tune things in its first six game against teams from the Ted Kessinger Division. After a bye week October 12, they begin play against their five opponents in the Bissell Division on October 19.

"That's the beauty of the way this thing's set up," Myers said. "You get the first half of the season to play conference opponents but really the division games are what matter."

Wesleyan enters the season tied for 24th with Friends in the NAIA Coaches Preseason Poll.

"I think we brought in some guys that are going to help us move the ball a little bit more," he said. "Be more effective in the run game and be efficient in the pass game. I feel good about our defense going into it.

"You combine that with some of the specialists we have coming back and coming in and I think we're set up for success. It'll be up to us to make sure we stay healthy and execute."

To read the rest of the football preview, please visit KWUCoyotes.com.

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