Former Ankeny quarterback Jase Bauer’s college football career has been a long and winding journey.
After spending three years at Central Michigan and another at Sam Houston State, Bauer has played his final season for the University of Tennessee at Martin. He will celebrate his Senior Day on Saturday when the Skyhawks host Charleston Southern in their home finale at Hardy Graham Stadium.
“It’s been quite a ride,” said Bauer, who passed for 5,479 yards in high school and was named the captain of the Class 4A all-state team by the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association after leading Ankeny to the state title in 2020. “The Lord has blessed me in so many ways, and I’m forever grateful for all the ups and downs. Football has brought me so much and to think my playing career could be done is very weird to think about. But I truly just want to give all the glory and praise to God.”
Bauer has played a key role in UT Martin’s resurgence after an 0-4 start. He rushed for 78 yards and two touchdowns in the Skyhawks’ 26-7 win over visiting Tennessee State on Saturday.
It was the fourth straight victory for UT Martin (5-5), which is in contention for the Ohio Valley Conference championship.
“Coach (Jason) Simpson has been telling us to just continue to play meaningful football in November,” Bauer said. “And going into these last two weeks, we’ve put ourselves in a great position. Win the last two and we are in the (Division I Football Championship Subdivision) playoffs! We have to treat every game moving forward like a one-week season–taking it one week at a time.
“And we will see where that takes us,” he added.
For the season, Bauer has completed 169-of-236 passes for 1,595 yards. He has passed for eight touchdowns while throwing just two interceptions.
Bauer has also rushed for 409 yards and nine touchdowns on 111 carries. In the win over Tennessee State, he found the end zone twice for the third time this season.
The Skyhawks rushed for a season-high 292 yards in Saturday’s triumph. The running back tandem of Tommy Ansley (118 yards) and Chris Franklin (111 yards) became the first pair to eclipse 100 yards in the same game since Zak Wallace and Sam Franklin (Chris’ brother) accomplished the feat against Houston Christian back in 2022.
The ground game was so effective that UT Martin didn’t need much of a passing attack. Bauer went 8-of-14 through the air for a season-low 47 yards.
“The plan wasn’t to run the ball 53 times. We wanted to be balanced, but the game progressed and you saw they had a hard time moving the ball against our defense, so we tried to stay out of negative plays,” Simpson said. “To hold the ball for over 39 minutes–I think it’s two weeks in a row that we have been able to do that–is a team effort. We did what we had to do to win the game, and I’m proud of the guys. Now we are sitting at 5-1 in the conference and control our own destiny with two games to go.”
UT Martin opened the season with losses at Oklahoma State (27-7) and UTEP (42-17). The Skyhawks later dropped to 1-5 with a 30-14 loss at Lindenwood, but they then began their current winning streak by rallying for a 32-31 victory over Western Illinois on Oct. 11.
Bauer briefly left that game with an injury in the fourth quarter but returned to ignite UT Martin, finishing with 235 yards on 19-of-28 passing and three total touchdowns. He was named the OVC-Big South Offensive Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks.
Bauer said it took awhile for the team to develop some chemistry.
“I think it was a combination of a lot of things,” he said. “We had a lot of transfer players including myself come in this year so that always takes some time to allow the team to come together. Another big thing is we had a pretty tough schedule to start so not having played a lot together and then having a tough opening schedule was tough for us. But now looking back at it, it was a blessing in disguise. We have been able to grow so much after that tough start. We have definitely been playing a lot better as of late, but we still feel we have yet to reach our max potential. One thing we’ve learned how to do is to win. Whether that’s ugly or pretty, we’re just finding a way to get it done.”
UT Martin is the four-time defending OVC-Big South champion. The Skyhawks are seeking their third playoff berth in five years.
“It’s been an absolute amazing ride,” Bauer said. “Whether after this season my playing career is over or if there is more for me, I’m going to enjoy these next couple of weeks. But regardless of it all, I’m grateful and excited for all that’s to come.”