Central Missouri had shown all the signs of successfully transitioning between quarterbacks following All-American Brook Bolles’ season-ending injury, but a lackluster performance on offense against a 1-2 Washburn team left a lot to be desired.

Mules football is back at home Saturday for a matchup with Missouri Southern following a 28-21 loss to Washburn last week. Central Missouri has dropped out of the American Football Coaches Association Top-25 Poll and is tied with seven other MIAA teams at 2-2 in the conference standings.

The Mules offense had its least productive outing of the season, putting up 383 yards. On the other side of the ball, the Mules surrendered a season-high 489 yards to the Ichabods.

Mules quarterback Jeremy Hunt was unable to repeat his performance from his first start that earned him MIAA Offensive Player of the Week. Hunt finished 23-41 for 297 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions.

Photo by Jason Brown/Sports Editor

Mules starting quarterback Jeremy Hunt will try to come back from a rough game last week after throwing four interceptions against Washburn.

“He’s a young and talented kid,” Svoboda said. “He learned that you can’t try to win the game by yourself. He’s a competitive kid, but he got himself in some situations where he could have made better decisions.”

Svoboda said Hunt will remain the starting quarterback going forward.

“This is a difficult league to break into as the new guy,” he said. “We think the guy we saw against Missouri Western is the real guy. He’s the same guy that was player of the week the week before and led the nation in total offense that week.”

The Mules gave up nearly 500 yards, but recovered in the second half to keep the Mules in the game. Both teams scored all of their points in the first half and Washburn was only able to get across midfield twice in the second half.

Svoboda said he was satisfied with how the defense gave them opportunities to win in the second half.

“It was pretty remarkable, actually,” he said. “I think the last 35 minutes of the game, they only had 130 yards and zero points.”

Central Missouri’s downfall came on special teams where six points were left on a blocked field goal and three failed extra points. Senior Alex Langer missed his first extra point attempt and had the subsequent attempt blocked in the first quarter. Langer missed another extra point in the second quarter and had a 34-yard field goal attempt blocked in the fourth quarter.

Svoboda said getting the specials team unit in the right place is a priority for the Mules.

“We’re gonna get that fixed and it’s on me as the head coach,” he said. “We have to make sure those kinds of things aren’t happening. It’s not like we don’t work on these things; we work on them constantly. We’re just not stressing the right things and we need to figure that out.”

The Mules next opponent, Missouri Southern, is 0-4 to start the season with blowout losses to Fort Hays State, Lindenwood, Northwest Missouri State and Nebraska-Kearney. The Mules have beat the Lions convincingly the last three seasons, including dropping 71 points on them last season.

“They’ve been through a lot of challenges, but I see a team that hasn’t quit playing,” Svoboda said. “They’re just in a spot where they need something to build on. They have the capabilities on both sides of the ball to build something and that’s what we worry about.”

Kickoff between the Mules and Lions is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Walton Stadium/Kennedy Field.