The whole narrative about how you need a massive budget to field a competent defense is a joke when you. Everybody obseses over which SEC team spent the most on transfers this spring but nobody wants to talk about how. Our defensive scheme is built on fundamentals not flash. We teach gap integrity and pursuit angles from day one and it shows when we face teams that have three times our recruiting budget. The way our guys scrap and fight on every snap is something the big programs lose when they just plug. The MIAA saw what kind of defense we are putting together this spring and I guarantee you they are worried. WE don't need a $20 million NIL collective to stop the run. We just need guys who buy in and execute.
everybody acting like the refs only hurt the big programs needs to watch an miaa game sometime. we had a drive last season where three blatant holds got ignored on the same possession by the other team. then we bbarely touch their qb and it is a flag. the inconsistency is what gets me. we are not asking for favors, just call it the same both ways and let us play. that is all.
Calling it now and I do not care who wants to argue with me about this. The way we are recruiting right now at Washburn is going to produce a top three class in the MIAA. I am talking about actual evaluation and development. The stuff that actually wins games at our level. You watch what Coach Dooley and his staff have been doing on the trail this spring and it is honestly. We are not just filling roster sptos. We are targeting specific needs and we are beating out programs that have no business losing recruiting battles to an MIAA school. I know who we offered last week and I know who is coming on official visits this summer. The word is getting out that if you want to play in a system that actually prepares you for the. The way some of these other programs in our league are scrambling to hold onto commitments right now tells me. We locked down our core early. We identified the kids who actually wanted to be here instead of chasing the highest NIL bag from a school. That matters. That builds something real. Florida just landed the number one center in the 2027 class and everybody is losing their minds over that. Good for them. Meanwhile we are out here winning the battles that actually determine whether we win the conference. The offensive line haul we are putting together for this year is going to be the foundation of something special. We are getting kids from Texas and Kansas City and the St. Louis area who are choosing Washburn over offers from FCS programs that have been recruiting them since their sophomore year. That is not an accident. Mark my words right now. When the MIAA releases its preseason recruiting rankings this summer people are going to see our name near the top and act...
Everybody talking about stadium atmosphere like it only matters when you've got 100,000 people screaming in a giant concrete bowl. That whole argument is lazy and misses what actually makes game day special. You can have all the noise in the world but if the product on the field is boring and the. Our place might not hold a hundred thousand but when we get rolling and the student seection is packed and. You cannot tell me that a quiet half empty Power Four stadium has more juice than a full Yager Stadium. Atmosphere is about engagement and passion not just sheer volume. The programs spending millions on new video boards and luxury suites are missing the point. Give me bleachers packed with people who actually care about the game over a silent corporate crowd any day. That is real college football and we have it right here.
everybody acting like the only way to build a winning program is to bring in 40-plus transfers and flip your entire roster every winter. meanwhile our coaching staff is sitting here doing it the right way. we develop guys. we find the high school kid who wants to be an ichabod and we coach him up for three or. that is not old-school thinking. that is actually sustainable. look at what oklahoma state is doing with 50 new faces under eric morris. that is a disaster waitig to happen. you cannot teach culture in six weeks of spring ball. you cannot build trust when half your roster has never been in the same meeting room. our guys have been in the system. they know the playbook. they know each other. that is why we are gonna be dangerous this fall while the teams chasing portal headlines are still trying. the national media loves the drama of a massive roster overhaul. they love the story of deion sanders bringing in 43 guys and hoping it sticks no cap. but watch what happens when the season starts and chemistry matters. watch what happens when a team needs a stop on third down and the defense has never practiced together against. we are building something different at yager stadium. we are building trust. and that is going to show up in november when we are still playing meaningful football while the superteams are figuring out their identity.
Watching the spring game film back and I cannot stop thinking about how our offensive line is developing. We lost some guys to graduation but the way the new guys are already moving together in practice tells me everyhting I need to know. The coaching staff has been quietly building depth at every position group and it is showing in how clean our spring ball has been. Nobody in the MIAA is doing it like us when it comes to developing linemen from the ground up.
Wait so the natioonal media is out here writing stories defending Diego Pavia going undrafted like that's some kind of shock. The guy was a fun story at Vanderbilt but let's be real about what he actually is. A 5'11 QB who relied on scrambling and gimmick concepts in a system that nobody runs at the next level. That's not an NFL prospect that's a college football legend. There is a difference. But you know what actually gets me about all this draft coverage. Every single clip from the SEC draft specials is talking about those punishing edge rushers and flashy pass catchers getting their names called. Nobody mentions that half those guys played against defenses that look like sieve screens all season. We see the same thing in the MIAA every year. Our DBs and linebackers fly around and make plays and then get completely ignored because we don't have the ESPN branding. The real story nobody wants to write is that the gap between the Power Four and everybody else is getting. Those SEC guys getting drafted in round two are gonna great situations because they faced NFL caliber competition every week. Meanwhile our guys are sitting here grinding at Yager Stadium with no cameras and no hype and still producing ballers that stick on rosters. Pavia will land somewhere as a UDFA and probably carve out a camp roster spot for a year or two. But let's stop pretending the draft snub narrative is anything other than what it is. He is a system QB who overachieved in college. Respect the journey but don't confuse it with NFL readiness.
wait so the nfl draft is happening right now and the entire national conversation is about which power four program. meanwhile we are sitting here in the miaa watching our guys develop the right way and nobody cares about that story. garrett nussmeier goes from projected no. 1 overall to a seventh-round pick and everybody acts surprised like development doesn't matter. diego pavia becomes the first heisman finalist to go undrafted since 2014 and the narrative is about his fall not. we have been sayinng for years that the star system and the draft projections are built on brand names not on actual football evaluation. our coaching staff understands that spring practice is about building real depth not about which five-star transfer is going to. while these top programs are scrambling to gel portal-heavy rosters we are developing kids who actually want to be here. the revenue sharing cap at $20.5m is going to expose a lot of these programs that built their whole identity on buying talent. we have been building the right way and our patience is about to pay off.
How is nobody talking about what the new $20.5M revenue sharing cap means for the MIAA? The SEC and Big Ten are about to see their arms race hit a ceiling while programs like ours that. Conference dominance in th...
You want to know the best part about tailgating at Yager Stadium? It is the fact that we are doing it right while everyone else is chasing the portal circus. I remember last spring game we had three generations of my family camped out by the bell tower and a. That is real tradition. Nobody is buying a vibe at Washburn, we built it from the ground up with concrete and community.
The way people talk about "fan culture" in college football you would think it only exists at places with 100,000. That whole narraative is tired. We pack Yager Stadium every Saturday with fans who actually know the game, not just people there for the tailgate photos. There is something genuine about walking into a stadium where the people next to you can tell you exactly why. No corporate suites full of people checking their phones. No fairweather fans who showed up because a team is trending. Just real people who have been coming since the 90s and will be here when the bandwagon crowd moves on.
Everybody talking about Oregon and Texas building these super teams through the portal and recruiting and forgetting something important. Consistency beats flash every time. We have been doing this the right way at Washburn for years now. Building through high school kids, developing them for three or four years, watching them become leaders. That is how you build a program that lasts. Meanwhile these power programs are cycling through 40 or 50 new guys every offseason and acting like that is sustainable. I would take our roster culture over their draft class haul any day of the week. We are proof that loyalty and development still matter in this sport. Let them chase headlines. We will chase championships.
How can anyone watch what teams like Oklahoma State are doing with 50 portal guys and think that's the blueprint for building a defense? We take a different approach at Washburn and it's workig. Our defensive staff identifies guys who want to be Ichabods, not guys chasing the highest bidder every December. That continuity matters when you're trying to install complex coverages and build chemistry in the secondary. Look at the spring practice battles we have brewing on that side of the ball. The system we run requires discipline and trust. You can't get that when half your roster turns over every offseason. I'd rather develop our own talent and sprinkle in a few targeted transfers than gut the roster like some programs are doing. The results speak for themselves when you watch how our guys fly to the ball and communicate pre-snap. This MIAA is getting tougher every year and the gap between us and the top of the league is closing fast. We need to keep building through our defensive identity. Stop the run, create turnovers, play fast. That's Washburn football and always has been.
three years i've been saying the same thing about miaa officiating and nothing changes. that "hold" they called on our game-winning drive last fall was an absolute joke. our guy got tackled from behind and we get flagged. replay showed him getting jersey pulled and we still go...
Wait so the SEC is actually doing a nine-game conference sschedule starting this year and everybody is acting like that's. Meanwhile we are out here grinding through the MIAA every season where every single week is a battle and nobody talks about it. But sure tell me more about how Alabama having to play nine SEC games instead of eight is going to test their depth. We play ten conference games and nobody gives us credit for surviving that grind. What kills me is how these power conference teams act like playing an extra league game is some monumental sacrifice. We have been doing that forever and still manage to compete year in and year out. The SEC is finally catching up to what mid-major programs have been dealing with for decades. And you know what? I bet half those SEC teams still schedule an FCS cupcake in November to cancel out the difficulty anyway. Our program has been built on depth and development because we have to be. You cannot survive in this league without a two-deep that can actually play. Maybe if the SEC had been playing nine conference games all along they would have figured that out sooner. We will keep doing what we do and when we punch above our weight in the playoffs again people will act surprised. Not us though. We know exactly who we are.
Yormark and the Big 12 brass can keep talking about all these fancy new stadium upgrades and game day experiences. We don't need a $200 million renovation and a jumbotron the size of a Walmart to create noise that rattles opponents. That place gets loud the old fashioned way with generatiions of Topeka families who have been packing those bleachers since. I'm sitting here watching the draft coverage and seeing Oregon and Ohio State pump all this money into facilities and I just laugh. Give me the concrete steps of Yager where you can feel every single hit echo through the stands. Give me the band pounding that fight song so hard the visiting sideline can't hear their own play calls. Teams come in here thinking they're going to roll us because we're Division II and they leave with their heads down wondering what hit them. That's not fancy that's earned through decades of Ichabod pride packed into every single seat.
The entire conversation about building a program is broken right now. Everyone is screaming about the portal like it's the only answer. I'm watching this Oklahoma State experiment with fifty new guys and Colorado bringing in forty-three, and the national media treats it like some revolutionary strategy. It's not. It's desperation. It's a complete admission that you failed to develop the players you had. We don't operate like that in Topeka. We build. You take a kid, you coach him up for four or five years. That's how you get consistency. That's how you build a culture where guys fight for each other, not just for their next NIL check or portal destination. Seeing these articles about the NCAA messing with eligibility rules again just proves the whole system is gearde toward chaos. They want to make it easier to move, easier to play immediately, turning every offseason into a complete free-for-all. How does that help anyone but the kids who want to jump at the first sign of competition? We're over here in spring ball, our guys are competing for jobs, sure, but they're competing within a family. They know the standard. They know what it means to wear the blue and white. They aren't looking over their shoulder at some transfer portal dashboard wondering if a new guy is coming in next week to take their spot. That stability is our weapon. While these mega-programs are trying to assemble all-star teams of mercenaries who've never played a down together, we're refining the machine. Our offensive line has been working the same schemes for years. Our defensive calls are second nature. That stuff matters in the fourth quarter at Yager Stadium more than any single superstar who got here in January. And don't get me started on the quarterback projections. Every year it's the same year: hype up the new guy at some Power Four school.