Wartburg is ranked #9 in the preseason AFCA NCAA DIII Football poll which is awesome for the men in orange and the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C), but I think once again they are being overlooked for preseason individual honors.
Every team in the top 15 has an All-American (and most of them multiple All Americans) on the first, second or third team.
In the no surprise category (for those who follow DIII football closely) the St. John’s Johnnies from Minnesota coming in at #5, have 3 First team All-Americans on the D3Football.com preseason team.
The Knights being overlooked for preseason team and individual honors is not new of course – in 2022 the Knights went all the way to the NCAA Semifinals and lost by 3 points to Mt. Union, they were bounce or two away from bringing the NCAA title trophy back to Waverly in 2022.
In the D3Football.com 2022 preseason poll Wartburg was unranked and got 7 preseason votes (roughly #36).
You might ask why I am salty about the Johnnies and D3Football awards and polls when it comes to the A-R-C. The Gagliardi Trophy (the DIII Heisman) has been awarded to the top DIII player since 1994 (it is named after Coach Gagliardi long time coach of the Johnnies).
What is interesting is that “the St. John’s University J-Club Board of Directors narrows the field to a minimum of 10 finalists. The 38-member Gagliardi Trophy national selection committee reviews the credentials, ranks the candidates 1-10 and casts their votes. The student-athlete with the highest vote total is named recipient.” Source St. John’s University Website. This is the only major college football award run by a school that has players competing for it.
Interestingly, St. John’s players have won the trophy 4 times including most recently in 2018 when QB Jackson Erdmann won the award over Wartburg’s QB Matt Sacia (who had superior stats).
In 2016, Coe’s Trev Heitland led NCAA Division III in all-purpose yards per game (223.92) over 2,600 yards in their record setting 11-1 season, and he led the country in total rushing yards (1,913).
Heitland finished second that year in the Gagliardi voting to Carter Hanson a linebacker from St. Johns who had a 10-2 record that year. Hanson had 29 solo tackles and 75 total tackles for the year. Yes Virginia, you can have 75 tackles on a 10-2 team, and you too can win the DIII version of the Heisman.
Let’s hope the Knights or another A-R-C team can prove the preseason D3 prognosticators wrong again. and have a great year and go far in the playoffs. Respect is hard earned and hopefully the preseason slight leads to another team having a 2022 season for the A-R-C.
P.S. If an A-R-C team can knock off the Johnnies in 2025 in the playoffs, that would make the SGI team happy. Wartburg did get sent on the road in the 2022 playoffs (of course) to St. John’s, and beat them. Win the DIII Heisman with 75 tackles on a 10-2 team…us Coe College guys will remember that ballot counting for decades.
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