By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

During the summer, several weeks before camp started, Fort Hays State University football coach Kevin Verdugo sat in his office and surveyed the upcoming season.

When asked about his team's then-13 game road losing streak, Verdugo said his 2008 squad had "to fight through some adversity."

"We have to make our way through that in order to progress," he said.

Five games into the season, the road struggles continue to limit Fort Hays in its third season of play in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.

The Tigers are 2-3 overall, 1-2 in the conference with two road losses.

One of those came against nonconference opponent Colorado School of Mines in Week 2, while Fort Hays dropped another contest at Emporia State University, last in the preseason coaches poll, two weeks later.

On Saturday, the Tigers will face Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Mo. A win would end Fort Hays' 15-game road losing streak. Fort Hays could potentially move within one game of first place in the conference, while another road defeat could push the Tigers into last place.

"They are an excellent football team," Verdugo said of Missouri Western (1-4 overall, 0-3 MIAA). "Sometimes you can say records can be deceiving, theirs is. Going back a year ago, I believe they are one drive away from being conference champions."

Missouri Western nearly won the 2007 conference championship and earned a postseason bid partially because of its ability to win on the road. The Griffons are 6-5 on the road and 13-8 overall since the Tigers joined the conference.

The teams that have won the most road games are the MIAA's top squads. Northwest Missouri State University, three-time defending national runner-up, is 21-0 in the conference since 2005, 12-0 on the road.

Pittsburg State University, a perennial playoff team, checks in next at 16-5 overall and 7-3 on the road. while Washburn University is 14-7, 6-5 on the road. University of Central Missouri and Truman State (Mo.) University, the other two conference teams that have won double-digit games since FHSU joined the conference, are 5-6 and 4-6 on the road, respectively.

The two worst teams in the conference are Fort Hays and Emporia State University, both 4-17. Both have the conference's worst road records, the Tigers at 0-10, ESU at 1-10. Overall, MIAA teams are 42-53 in conference road games. However, that includes an 8-1 record against Southwest Baptist (Mo.) University a team that was not competitive in the MIAA, was winless last season and is now an independent school.

"Obviously there are some venues in our conference where the crowd is so loud, the fans are so ridiculous that it is really difficult, (like) Pitt St., Northwest," Truman State coach Shannon Currier said. "The rest of that is trying to create that atmosphere at home and it takes winning to get that done."

Fort Hays has analyzed everything in its road struggles, including traveling. Truman State, the easternmost school in the conference by two hours, has had success by leaving early Friday.

"Just trying to make the away trips feel like a home atmosphere," Currier said when his team played in Hays. "What we try to do is we get here early enough on the day before so we get a chance to relax and get checked into the hotel, go out to eat, have our meetings.

"I think our players are more rested, we get a lot of sleep on this trip. It is a long trip, but it is kind of nice, we all got a little rest in. We got good sleep this morning and I just think we are prepared that way," he added.

Verdugo and the Tigers used to travel like Truman State. Now, they have adopted Northwest Missouri State's travel schedule.

"We were a team at that time where we left early and during the day. Kids missed most of the day. Our prep from that standpoint was totally changed from a Friday in the fact that we didn't practice here, we didn't meet here, we didn't eat here, we didn't do anything here that day," Verdugo said. "We took off. We didn't feel like we were having success doing that and so we switched our schedules and try to match identically as much as we could a home game for us. Right now, we do everything on a Friday that we would normally do if it was a home game."

The last time Fort Hays traveled to Missouri Western yielded a 24-10 loss in Week 10 of the 2006 season. That game continued several road trends that have helped the Tigers to their 15-game skid. The Tigers scored just 10 points and were down after the first quarter.

Fort Hays, which has averaged a conference-worst 12.6 points since it moved from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference to the MIAA, has produced just 8.5 points in conference road games.

Emporia State is second-lowest at 18.6, while Missouri Southern State University, the conference's third-worst road team with a 3-6 record, checks in at 18.8. Every other team averages more 20 points per game in MIAA road games.

In the road skid, Fort Hays has also led after the first quarter just one time. That's hurt an offense that's built on ball control and running -- not big plays. The Tigers were last in the conference in yards per play each of the past two years.

"You really can't run the ball effectively when you are behind," Verdugo said.

"You are better when you are dead even or ahead. That is when you become a really good running team. You get forced into doing stuff that you are not comfortable doing."

On Saturday, Truman State traveled 447 miles and defeated the Tigers for the third straight time on the road. It led 17-0 at the half and had a 68-yard touchdown pass on its first play from scrimmage.

"If you can keep it close, then you can find ways to win it at the end," Currier said. "It is a lot easier to be making calls (when you have the lead). We had some fake punts ready to go, but we didn't feel like we needed to call them to take that chance."