Hall of Fame
The 2014 SOU football team defied the odds and upended the NAIA football landscape to reserve its spot in Raider lore. Making just their second postseason appearance in 10 years, the Raiders concluded the NAIA Championship Series with three consecutive upsets – knocking off top-ranked Carroll (Mont.) and No. 3 Saint Xavier (Ill.) on the road, then defeating No. 7 Marian (Ind.) 55-31 in Daytona Beach, Fla., to take the championship and solidify the program's complete transformation.
The revival happened under head coach Craig Howard, whose Raiders joined the Frontier Conference in 2012 and checked off four consecutive winning seasons after posting just one in the previous eight years. They'd go on to play for another title in 2015, coming up one win short of a repeat. Quarterback Austin Dodge, catalyst of the nation's most dangerous offense, was named the NAIA Player of the Year and part of a senior core that included three more All-Americans: defensive lineman Daniel Breaux, offensive lineman Drew Gibson, and receiver Dylan Young.
