PEMBROKE — Since day one of Shane Richardson taking the reins of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke football program, the word premier has been a part of the vision for the program that he inherited from his predecessor and mentor Pete Shinnick.

While the search for the program to be “the premier program in Division II football” is still in full effect, the journey to get to the benchmark of a NCAA playoff berth in Richardson’s third season has had its ups and downs. The adversity the team has faced on and off the field has been dubbed Murphy — based from Murphy’s Law stating that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong — and being trained through the tough times to handle Murphy, the Braves have fielded a battle-tested team this season that has stayed true to its process.

“They have just believed in it and have experienced success with it and once you do that it starts to snowball,” Richardson said. “People believe a little more, become a little more motivated and they start to stay the course a little more.”

The snowball has led to history for the program that became the second in NCAA Division II history to send three teams to the playoffs in its first 10 seasons, but UNCP is not resting on its laurels. Contentment with the success this season has brought is no where to be found in Pembroke right now, but there is a sense of satisfaction from looking back in hindsight from where the program was two seasons ago.

A 2-8 season welcomed Richardson in his first year and last year, the worst mark in program’s short history.

“It’s very satisfying to a degree, however, we talk about not being satisfied with where we are at,” Richardson said. “When we started out the vision for this program — and it hasn’t changed — it started when we were 2-8 and has carried through all the way to now.”

The growing pains and adjustments from the turnover of a coaching staff was seen on the field from a two-win season, followed by a 6-4 campaign that Richardson describes as “mediocre.” As a result, the players that stuck with the program after the exodus of many of their teammates following the 2014 season have been the major building blocks for the third team in the decade-old program to make the playoffs.

Many of the juniors and seniors that came in for the previous playoff appearance and the offseason to follow saw their expectations for the 2014 season that started with a preseason ranking fall short, and changes from a new staff that brought their own twist than the previous regime and left Pembroke. The ones that stayed are reaping the fruits of their labor in making up for the subpar 2014 season and taking the program back to the level of expectation for Richardson.

“With the success we’ve had in the past here, some of those guys were recruited to come here and have success. When you go 2-8, and I was new as a head coach at the time, it’s easy to doubt and it’s easy to question the coaching staff,” Richardson said. “I think the ones that stuck around, it really fueled their fire to want to justify the 2-8 season they started with, show what they were capable of doing and bring this program back to where it is supposed to be.

“Going through that 2-8 season makes you appreciate every single win, every single small battle that you’re successful in.”

Redshirt seniors B.J. Bunn and Rontonio Stanley have been the team’s leading receiver and rusher in the three seasons since 2013 and both have seen the peaks and valleys in Richardson’s tenure. The modest beginnings for Richardson’s career, building up to this year has not just been noticed by the head coach.

“Those two years that we were out of the playoffs really humbled the team,” Bunn said. “It’s definitely big (to get back to the playoffs) after having two years down and missing the playoffs.”

“We just had to adapt to change. The new coaching staff came in so it was a lot of different changes, and we overcame it,” Stanley said. “It took one year going 6-4 and now to 9-1, we built upon it.”

Senior leadership is usually the first thing pointed out about the changes from this team to the previous two, but Bunn and Stanley have noticed other aspects that the team has improved on.

“It takes a little time to get the program to trust the new stuff. It’s year three now with the new coaches and everything is clicking,” Bunn said.

“Everybody is more committed this year,” Stanley said. “It’s a commitment level that this year’s team has that last year’s didn’t.”

Reaching the vision that Richardson put into place is still a work in process, but a win today would push the program into uncharted water and another step closer to being the premier program it yearns to be. Given the three-year trip to get to get to the position it is in right now, the drive to accomplish a lofty feat is something the Braves possess.

“That vision is on the way to being completed, to what extent we don’t know yet. We certainly have separated ourselves from what we’ve gone through in the past and those records to step up into the success we’ve had this year.” he said. “We’ve never won a playoff game and that’s something we don’t want to stop here. Going into this first round we want to go down there and play well and give ourselves a chance to win this game. I want a team that’s very hungry to do that.”

Through everything the Braves have been through this season including Hurricane Matthew leading the team to be misplaced for a week in the middle of the season, what’s one more dose of Murphy to hit the team with a road playoff game in a hostile environment with a proven program in Valdosta State. After all, UNCP has embraced and fought through all kinds of adversity of that magnitude over the past three years.

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By Jonathan Bym

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Contact Jonathan Bym on Twitter @Jonathan_Bym.