College Openers: Monmouth Draws a Top-Ten Team, Knox Draws a Former No. 3 NFL Pick
Two college football teams open eleven miles apart on Saturday, September 5, and the gap between them has rarely been wider.
Monmouth is the near-unanimous favorite to repeat as Midwest Conference champion. Knox is picked eighth of eleven, starting over under a new coach. Both openers are worth your Saturday.
Monmouth vs. Wartburg, 7:00 p.m., April Zorn Memorial Stadium
This is the best football game in the coverage area all fall, high school or college.
Wartburg comes in ranked No. 9 nationally in the D3football.com preseason poll — the fourth straight year the Knights have opened in the top ten. They went 10-1 last season, won a 21st American Rivers Conference title and a fourth straight, ran their league winning streak to a record 34 games, and finished No. 12 in the country after a 28-24 NCAA second-round loss to Wheaton.
They also beat Monmouth 21-7 in last year’s opener in Waverly. The Scots get them at home this time.
Wartburg’s headliner is defensive lineman Conner McDonald, a preseason first-team D3football.com All-American who had seven sacks and 13 tackles for loss last season. He is from Congerville and played at Eureka High School — the same Eureka where Knox opens a few hours earlier.
What Monmouth brings
The Scots went 9-2 and 9-0 in the Midwest Conference, earned a first-round playoff bye, and lost 49-15 at Saint John’s in the second round. Chad Braun won his sixth MWC Coach of the Year award.
Thirteen All-Midwest Conference selections return, including first-team picks Nate Wrublik at running back, Chase Newman and Jeremiah Williams at receiver, Aiden Weaver on the offensive line and Kevin Soivilien at corner.
The question is quarterback. Brayden Deem graduated after passing 5,000 career yards. Senior Silas Braun, a Monmouth native, is the returning quarterback on the roster, but the staff has not announced a starter. New offensive coordinator Ryan Kaltenmark arrived in January.
Beat a top-ten team at home in the opener and the Scots are in the national conversation by Labor Day.
Knox at Eureka, 6:00 p.m.
A rebuilding team, a new coach on each sideline, and one of the stranger coaching résumés in Division III.
Eureka is led by Dion Jordan, hired in January as the program’s 21st head coach. Jordan was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, taken by Miami out of Oregon, and played eight NFL seasons with the Dolphins, Seahawks, Raiders and 49ers. He had spent two years at Eureka as associate head coach and defensive coordinator. He replaces Randy Starks, a two-time NFL Pro Bowler, who left for South Florida.
Eureka went 2-8 last season in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. One of the two wins was 14-13 over Knox — and it was a painful one. Knox led 13-0 at halftime on two Fernando Torres field goals and a 35-yard Clay McClelland touchdown pass to Mario Byrd, the program’s first passing touchdown since 2023. Eureka answered late with a seven-yard fade and a two-point conversion, then intercepted Knox at the 20 to end the game. The win snapped a 16-game Eureka losing streak.
What has changed at Knox
Adam Gonzaga is the 32nd head coach in program history, hired January 9 from Lawrence, where he was head coach. Before that he was associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Lake Forest, where his defense earned seven national rankings and the Foresters went 10-0 in the 2024 regular season.
He built out a staff in August: Ty Rogers as offensive coordinator, Knox alum and former Prairie Fire player Jonathan Sarich on the defensive line, James Gunter at receivers, and Matt Bowman as head strength coach.
Junior offensive lineman Kent Putman told The Knox Student that “the culture around the team has been the most dramatic change… There’s a vibe around the team that we haven’t had in my time here.”
Knox has not had a winning season since 2002. Nobody expects that to change this fall. But beating a team that beat you by one point last year, on the road, in a new coach’s first game, would be a reasonable place to start.
The 2026 Midwest Conference preseason poll
| # | Team | Points | First-place votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monmouth | 99 | 9 |
| 2 | Lake Forest | 90 | 2 |
| 3 | Chicago | 80 | — |
| 4 | Illinois College | 77 | — |
| 5 | Ripon | 59 | — |
| 6 | Cornell College | 58 | — |
| 7 | Grinnell | 39 | — |
| 8 | Knox | 34 | — |
| 9 | Luther | 31 | — |
| 10 | Beloit | 25 | — |
| 11 | Lawrence | 13 | — |
Luther joined as the conference’s tenth core member on July 1. Chicago competes as a football affiliate.
And in November
The two seasons converge Saturday, November 14 at noon at Knosher Bowl for the Turkey Bowl and the Bronze Turkey, a series dating to 1888.
Monmouth has won 26 straight. Knox’s last win was 1998. The full rivalry story →
Records, polls and schedules from the schools’ official athletics sites, the Midwest Conference and the NACC.
Reported and edited by C. Jackson Cowart, whose work has appeared in ESPN, Forbes and Front Office Sports.
Send us a score. Coaches, parents, scorekeepers, anyone in the bleachers — email [email protected]. We post scores as they come in.
Spotted an error? We correct mistakes the same day. See our editorial standards and corrections policy. Schedules and records via IHSA and MaxPreps; quotes attributed to the outlets that reported them.
