The Statesmen are off to their best start in many years at 4-0. They have not won more than 4 games a year since 2017, but….things are changing. For the second week in a row William Penn defeated a ranked NAIA team (they defeated Baker University #16 on the road the previous week).
Head Coach Benavidez and many his staff (Grant Garth, Matt Byers, Jay Burns, Nico Robinson, Turner Ellis) came to WPU from Avila University in Kansas City, Mo. where he was Head Coach from 2018-2022.
Benavidez concluded his five-year stint as the winningest coach in school history with a 39-12 record (36-11 KCAC including a 10-2 record during his final season in 2022. The Eagles shared the league crown and qualified for their first-ever NAIA Football Championship Series. As this staff entered their 3rd season, they have obviously been building a foundation for a year three jump.
Last nights win under the lights in Oskaloosa was one of the biggest football wins that the Statesmen have had since moving to the NAIA level in 2000.
Two wins against ranked teams in back-to-back weeks should propel William Penn into the top 25 (last week they were receiving votes) in my opinion.
P.S. I love the attitude of the coaching staff at William Penn and Coach Benavides is a great follow on X.
That fighter mentality is changing William Penn Football. The Statemen have been one of the premier Iowa men’s basketball programs with an NBA Hall of Famer and three other players who played in the NBA.
Are the Statesmen becoming a Football School? They appear to be on that path.
Upper Iowa goes to Upper Michigan for a big top #24 Road Win
The Peacocks have been building a DII program in North East Iowa for the past 20+ years since making the big jump for NCAA Division III. That huge jump has not been easy as you have so much infrastructure to build and when they moved up, they played all the powerful DII Minnesota teams in conference immediately. The build was not easy, and Coach Hoskins led the Peacocks to their best season in DII with 7 wins last year.
The effort the entire school had to put into getting to that level has been impressive. FYI – Upper Iowa was far from a power in their 100 years of football with 8 wins being their most wins in year ever in DIII.
Our SGI team got to see the Peacocks kick-off their season at FCS Drake in week one. (P.S. Drake looks strong in 2025). We were impressed by their skill level and had a great time with their fans and they look like a team that can contend for conference honors in 2025.
This Saturday the Peacocks went on the road to shores of Lake Superior to Houghton Michigan to play #24 Michigan Tech. It was homecoming and I caught the game on local radio and that crowd was large and loud on my air pods. It was a hostile place to play.
The Peacocks in spite of turning the ball over three times pulled off the upset and huge program win. They traveled 418 miles to a hostile venue and came out with a huge win. My sister went to school at Michigan Tech (it’s on the shores of Lake Superior) and it is up there – many years they get over 100 inches of snow being on the lake. Its’ a tough place with tough hardnosed players, so it was a huge win for Coach Hoskins and the boys in sky blue to go to 2-1. I’ll bet that seven-hour bus ride back to Fayette was a lot more fun after a huge program win.
Briar Cliff went on the road and defeated #22 Mt. Mary
This was a big win for the Chargers as they went to Yankton, South Dakota and defeated Mount Mary to go 3-1 on the season. Mt. Mary had just defeated perennial NAIA power Northwestern College from Orange City, Iowa so they are obviously a solid NAIA team.
Shane LaDage and staff are building a foundation in arguably the toughest NAIA Conference in America (with 4 teams ranked in the preseason). They have a great opportunity to get 6+ wins and make this a breakthrough year for the Chargers who have not won 6 games in a fall in many years.
Three programs on the rise with 3 big Top 25 wins. A big weekend for three Iowa Football Programs on the rise in 2025.
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