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By David Boyce  |  Northwest Football vs. Missouri Southern  |  Saturday, Sept. 23  |  1:30 p.m.  |  Bearcat Stadium
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MARYVILLE, Mo. - Ryan Huff, the starting right tackle for the Northwest Missouri State football team, is like most students when he receives an academic honor. He calls his parents and let them know.
 
From the moment he arrived at Northwest in 2013 from Ralston, Neb., Huff said, his mother stressed academics. Sure, Huff was joining a football program that annually plays for a national title.
 
But Huff, who will receive his bachelor's degree in business management, knew that academics was his primary purpose at Northwest.
 
"She helps keep me in line," Huff said. "It is important for me to do well in school because if I am doing well in school, it forces me to do well in football and overall in life. It makes me more well-rounded."
 
In his three playing seasons at Northwest, Huff has made the MIAA Academic honor roll each time. The good grades always prompt a call home to let his parents know.
 
"I do feel a sense of pride," he said. "I tell them, and they call my grandparents, and they get all excited and call me. It is nice to give them a good phone call here and there about my grades."
 
Obviously, his family is important to Huff. It is one of the reasons why Saturday's game at Bearcat Stadium against Missouri Southern will be unique for Huff and all the seniors on the team. It will be their last game for Family Weekend.
 
Family Weekend is a special time at Northwest. Parents come to campus to visit their sons and daughters early in the academic school year. All over campus, you see students showing their parents around and meeting friends.
 
One of the big gathering spots is Bearcat Stadium for the football game. Kickoff is 1:30 p.m. Saturday and there will likely be well over 6,000 fans in attendance.
 
For Huff, he expects 16 family members to be at the game and watch him play a vital role on the offensive line as the Bearcats, 3-0 and ranked No. 1 in the AFCA top 25, try to extend their winning streak to 34 games.
 
"Family Weekend means the world to me," he said. "Personally, my family members have been here ever since I redshirted my first year. It is great to be so close to home and be able to play in front of them. They have been so supportive of me. It is awesome to show them that I have been appreciative of them for always supporting me."
 
The way Northwest celebrates Family Weekend makes the university a great place to play.
 
"It makes me love Northwest so much because of stuff like this," Huff said. "Everyone's parents come. Everybody says hi to each other. You say hi to your friends' parents who you never met before. It is enjoyable to meet people all around the country and their different backgrounds. It is a really big support system. It helps us thrive so much."
 
And when you are the No. 1 team in the nation for two straight seasons, and every team is treating the game against the Bearcats as its Super Bowl, extra motivation is always helpful.
 
"It is a challenge, but it is something that we embrace," Huff said. "We talk about it every Sunday. We love getting everyone's best instead of a mediocre team coming in. We know everybody is going to give us their best. We enjoy it as weird as that sounds."
 
Northwest is riding a winning streak that only two teams in Division II has ever topped. Grand Valley once won 40 straight games, and that streak was stopped by the Bearcats in 2007. The other streak was 34 by Hillsdale from 1954-57.
 
In 2017, the Bearcats have answered the first three challengers with wins, but the last two on the road hasn't been easy. Unlike last year when Northwest put away most of its opponents by halftime, the Bearcats have needed to play four quarters to secure wins.
 
The last two weeks are similar to the first month of the 2015 season when Northwest needed a miracle comeback at Central Missouri to pull out a victory. The following week the Bearcats escaped with a narrow win at home against Central Oklahoma.
 
"It is the same parallel I have drawn to the media," Northwest coach Rich Wright said. "You have different players, but it is a lot of the same feel. You have a lot of different starters. Even the starters back are in different roles. It takes time sometimes to find the identity. There is not a time frame on it. Last year's team clicked and gelled quickly. However, in 2015 that didn't happen. It took four weeks before things started to fall into place.
 
"We don't make excuses at Northwest. We hope moving forward, when we get all the pieces back and get healthy and get more accustomed to playing with each other, dividends will start to be paid."
 
Injuries have taken a toll on the running backs. Two of the top three running backs are out with injuries. It makes the play of the offensive line, which includes seniors Landon Kubicek and Myles McIntyre, all the more valuable.
 
"The offensive line, I told them, are like the Marines, the few and the proud," Wright said. "One of the things they will have to do moving forward is they are the drivers of the energy bus on the offensive side," Wright said.
 
"The publicity comes to the quarterback, running back and wide receiver positions, but the glue is the offensive line. If those guys are playing with a lot of energy and effort and a lot of passion that will resonate with the rest of the offense. That is something we need moving forward."
 
Through the years, Huff has provided that effort. As a junior, he made third-team, All-MIAA for his play on the offensive line.
 
"You have seen his confidence grow and evolve," Wright said.
 
Part of that comes from going against talented defensive linemen like Matt Longacre, Collin Bevins and Cass Weitl in practice over the years.
 
"When you go against those guys in practice every day, it is hard not to get better," Wright said. "Ryan has been real steady. He is quiet, very blue collar. He doesn't say much, but he is a quiet leader for our football program."
 
Huff plans to savor every moment in his three months as a student-athlete at Northwest. After he graduates, he plans to move to Omaha, and start working.
 
"I have loved my time here," Huff said. "I am trying to enjoy everything and take everything in and not try to rush through practice or film and the little stuff.  I am excited about the next step, but I want to make sure I take everything in now, knowing it is my last couple of months in college and playing football."
 
Being part of a large senior class has also made Huff's last season at Northwest enjoyable.
 
"The senior meetings, there are 20 or so of us," Huff said. "A 30-minute meeting goes an hour and a half because we enjoy talking to each other. We are all super close. That is fun to be around."