A Preview of Northwest Conference Football in 2024
Complete with Bonus Coverage™ of a new football program
With all football schedules of the Northwest Conference seemingly set in stone for Fall 2024, it is time to drum up a murmur of excitement for a conference which may be shifting into increased parity compared to the previous two and a half decades.
Unfortunately, although the year's calendar afforded us an extra viable Saturday for the football season, the powers that be have the Division 3 schedule waiting until September 7 - week 2 - to kick off.
The timing of the D3 calendar would have laid out better had the body chosen to play the week prior - August 31 - which would have had the playoff begin November 16 instead of the rather late November 23.
The downstream effect of this is that with the expanded playoff the championship game was bumped along to the first Saturday of 2025 - January 4 - with an additional week of practice between the semi-finals and championship.
There has been another shift in the D3 season as the championship game had been scheduled to be played at George Turner Stadium in Humble, TX but that venue has been shifted 20 miles south into the heart of Houston to Shell Energy Stadium.
There does not appear to be any public rationale for the shift to the 22,000 seat venue, but last year I did take my adoration of the new wave of MLS stadiums and suggest that college football should look to build a relationship with those venues - and now we're here.
Shell Energy Stadium originally opened in 2012 as BBVA Compass Stadium with the change in sponsor to Shell Energy coinciding with renovations in 2023. The full-time tenants of the venue include Houston Dynamo FC of MLS, Houston Dash of the NWSL, and Texas Southern Tigers of the SWAC (FCS). The hope is that attendance will be better than the last time the Stagg Bowl was in Texas (Woodforest Bank Stadium - Shenandoah) with only 1,362 attendees in 2019 between North Central (IL) and Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Coming back to the Northwest Conference, I am a fan of their scheduling structure (outside of one exception) playing their out-of-conference slate for 3 weeks before taking a collective bye leading into the 7 weeks of conference matchups. It is also quite satisfying to see all members have a full 10-game schedule this season as last year half of the conference ended up with only 9 regular season results.
Lewis & Clark Pioneers
When it comes to minimizing travel expenses, this schedule for the Pioneers is quite effective with 8 games within Oregon and road trips outside of the state of approximately 150 miles to Puget Sound and 360 miles to Whitworth.
They had an up and down 2023 and need to replace most of their offensive production from last season, but Offensive Coordinator Mike Machado returns for his 3rd season guiding the offense. They have had flashes of brilliance in these past 2 years scoring 32 and 35.6 points/game. Machado played quarterback for the Pioneers before graduating in 2019 and spent 3 seasons on Brent Brennan's staff at San Jose State before returning to his alma mater in 2022.
Lewis & Clark doesn't have much flexibility in their scheduling due to an annual out-of-conference game against Puget Sound while their additional game against Pacific is part of the 4-year Oregon Cup series of out-of-conference games. They will be challenged to keep up with the Bulldogs of Montana Western who are coming off of a Frontier Conference Championship in the NAIA and expect to improve on their 9-2 record from last season.
Pacific Boxers
Of the 4 NWC football programs to only record 9 regular season results last season, Pacific’s was the least expected as their home opener was cancelled in the second half against Chapman due to a late lightning storm, though they were trailing 24-0 at the time to the eventual SCIAC Champion. Weather is not expected to interrupt the proceedings in Orange, CA this September.
Pomona-Pitzer went through a lot of change during the year and is quite a different team than the one that traveled up to Oregon last season. Sophomore QB Grady Russo has a very high athletic ceiling as a converted Wide Receiver but it is hard to know what the Sagehens’ identity will be when they kick off this season.
This is a favorable schedule for the Boxers with 6 homes games which include the expected top programs of the conference.
They are returning QB Braeden Titus and RB Brody Bantolina on offense who will be the key to the team’s success this season. Although they only won 2 games last season, they were within a possession in 4 others and should be much more competitive this season.
Willamette Bearcats
A major overhaul of a coaching staff at the D3 level is not terribly common, but it had become necessary for a Bearcats program which looked to be close to rock bottom and was clearly noncompetitive within the NWC.
They lost their 7 conference games by an average score of 60-11 and it was a surprise they were able to find a victory on the road at La Verne to open their season. That was one of only two occasions last season that the Bearcats scored more than 14 points.
Their new Head Coach, Aric Williams, comes from his post as Defensive Coordinator at Montana Tech and has a long history of playing and coaching in the region as he played cornerback for Oregon State and has coached at Montana, Idaho, and San Jose State before Montana Tech.
As for their schedule, they will be the only NWC team to play on September 28 as they host the Simpson Red Hawks of the NAIA. It is hard to take a guess at the identity of either program, but they are more similar than different as they look to establish something to build on.
George Fox Bruins
Expectations had risen after an exciting 2022 season, but 2023 became frustrating and disappointing as the offense struggled to find any sort of consistent identity.
The offense had flashes with both Max Richey and DeMontre Thomas II under center but that also came with disappointment and it is unknown at this time who the starter will be come September as their best option may be someone yet to throw a collegiate pass.
On defense, the one player that I like to keep an eye on is Defensive End Jacob Erickson. In two seasons he has accrued 17.5 sacks in 20 games while only being listed at 6’ 217lbs, but his production fell off in the second half of last season. This could have been related to an injury as there is little to no information on player health at this level, but it will be a boon to the defense if he can get back to his sack per game rate.
The schedule is also favorable for the Bruins as they face Linfield and Whitworth at home as well as facing Willamette twice. It won’t be easy going down to Redlands to open the season, but they will get to host CMS as they look to avenge a tough-fought loss from last September that they should have emerged from victorious had their offense been more productive.
There is no room for error in the pursuit of a NWC Championship, but the George Fox Bruins have as much potential as anyone to break from the pack.
Linfield Wildcats
Linfield has an uncommonly balanced schedule this season of alternating home and away games that continues all the way through to the end of the regular season. They will also face two teams from outside the Pacific time zone as they host the second leg of their series with Denison as well as traveling to Wisconsin to face the Titans of Oshkosh. Facing any WIAC opponent is a risky proposition, but a victory here will help position Linfield to receive an at-large bid to the expanded D3 playoffs should they fall to Whitworth for a second year in a row and finish at 9-1.
I don’t know what QB Blake Eaton’s injury was that knocked him out of last season but I am expecting him to return as the opening day starter. Over the last 2 seasons and 19 games he has completed 70% of his passes for 228 yards/game with 51 TDs to 9 INTs.
The last time Linfield lost more than 1 conference game was 2007, and the program has had a winning record every season since 1956 - an overwhelming tradition of success.
Pacific Lutheran Lutes
The Lutes will have the distinction of being the opposition in the very first varsity home game in the history of the Simpson Red Hawks football program. This will be followed by the second leg of a home & home against the Concordia Cobbers. This matchup in Minnesota was the second career start for QB Darius Chaffin last season. The senior QB from Hawai’i made large strides during last season and has as high of a ceiling as any quarterback in the conference.
The margins between the majority of the conference are quite thin, but Pacific Lutheran has been on an upward trajectory over the past 2 seasons and Athletic Director Mike Snyder has been doing as strong of a job as any in D3 at finding pathways to NIL funding for his athletes which will hopefully pay dividends moving forward.
Unfortunately, they are the only school of the conference to not have an on-campus football stadium as they play at Sparks Stadium about 10 miles from campus. If the school can survive the initial wave of the coming enrollment cliff, hopefully something will emerge on-campus as they appear to have the space to develop their facilities over time.
Puget Sound Loggers
This is a team that I am very interested in this season for one reason: Quarterback Mason Binning.
Overall the program hasn’t seen a ton of success in the past decade, but with Binning entering his senior season and 3rd year as starter, the ceiling of the Loggers’ passing game is as high as any in the conference.
Last season’s passing attack saw Binning average 300 yards/game on nearly 47 attempts/game while leading receiver Izaiah Jerenz’s 115 receptions were largely an extension of the running game. His role will likely be replaced by the number 2 receiver from last season - sophomore JohnJohn Nelson - who, though undersized, had a strong freshman campaign which included two games with 12+ receptions & 100+ yards and is expected to excel in the short passing game as a high-volume target.
They won’t be leaving the West Coast as they will travel down to La Verne in their 3rd out-of-conference game after hosting the Southwestern University (TX) Pirates the week prior.
They may not be in the running for a conference championship, but their two matchups with rival Lewis & Clark should be offensively exciting affairs.
Whitworth Pirates
The defending NWC Champions look to repeat with a full 10-game slate once again punctuated with a regular-season ending battle with the perennial conference favorite Linfield Wildcats. This season they will even have the benefit of having the game at home and it will be a surprise if the game fails to have conference championship implications.
Their out-of-conference games are a fun group as well as the Pirates get to set sail for Minnesota to open their season against a MIAC team in Gustavus Adolphus which has won 21 games over the past 3 seasons and has quite a nice small stadium to welcome visiting opponents.
They will then host an underrated program from Eastern Oregon led by former GNAC Player of the Year QB Quincy Glasper. The Pirates won this matchup last season but Eastern Oregon was improved in the second half of last season and this could be a fun game.
The final out-of-conference match will see the 3rd game between Whitworth and Chapman in a 13 month span as we get a rematch of last season's SCIAC vs NWC first round playoff game.
It is exciting to go into the season without the championship feeling somewhat predetermined and there should be a number of tightly contested matchups throughout the conference. I will be trying to promote the highlights of the season as much as possible as the leaves change into the Fall.
Bonus Preview: The Simpson Red Hawks
This past Fall, the Simpson football program played two scrimmages against the George Fox JV squad and the Pacific Northwest Christian College football program to face some live action without infringing on the eligibility clocks of their student-athletes and will now, finally, play a full varsity schedule for the first time in school history.
They are primarily a member of the California Pacific Conference of the NAIA but will played their inaugural season of football as a member of the Continental Athletic Conference - the NAIA’s catch-all equivalent of an NCAA Independent. For Fall 2025 they will play football as the 14th member of the Frontier Conference.
Of their 10-game schedule they will face 6 members of the Frontier Conference, 2 members of the Northwest Conference, Ottawa (AZ), and Pacific Northwest Christian College.
Simpson University is situated in Redding, CA but they will play their 3 home games at Foothill High School in Palo Cedro to the East. Hopefully they will eventually have a football stadium on or closer to their campus, but school leadership seems quite confident about their future due to being the only sub-D1 football program in California that can offer athletic scholarships to find players from the 3C2A who would prefer to stay in-state.
If they are able to compete in the Frontier Conference, they are likely able to compete on a national level as well.