CHADRON, Neb. – The Chadron State College football program will kick off the 2025 season this Saturday, August 30, testing the waters against Division I opponent Northern Colorado at 1 p.m. in Greeley, Colorado. 

Saturday's season opener marks the second time in as many years that CSC has taken advantage of "Week Zero," a scheduling option allowing teams to start the season a week earlier to add a bye week sometime on the schedule. Nine of the RMAC's 10 football programs are playing in Week Zero in 2025. 

Tickets remain available at UNC's Nottingham Field for Saturday's game. The game will be livestreamed on ESPN+ (subscription required). Fans can also listen live on Double Q Country 97.5 and 105.9 or doubleqcountry.com, with Dave Collins on the call, or follow along via live stats.

Programming Notes
Saturday's game against Northern Colorado will be livestreamed on ESPN+. The contest will be available nationwide to anyone with an ESPN+ subscription. 

WATCH: CSC vs. Northern Colorado on ESPN+ (subscription required)

As a reminder, RMAC Network games this season will be different than previous years. Beginning with CSC's September 13 home opener against Black Hills State, Chadron State's games on the RMAC Network will now require a pay-per-view subscription to watch. Revenue generated by the network will be redistributed to the league's membership to enhance their broadcast systems and programs.

NEWS: RMAC Network Moves To Pay-Per-View Model

RMAC fans can purchase monthly and annual subscriptions that will provide them access to all regular-season, championship, and archived broadcasts on the RMAC Network, including both home and away RMAC contests for Chadron State. A monthly subscription costs $25, and an annual subscription (for all sports) costs $130. Single-game passes are available for $10, which grants the viewer access to a single game for 24 hours. Subscriptions can be purchased through Hudl at rmacnetwork.com. 

Tailgate Info
For fans attending the game in Greeley, an official Chadron State tailgate will take place in the visitor parking lot outside Nottingham Field. The event is open to any CSC fans, parents and alumni, starting at 11 a.m. Food is provided.

Series History
by Con Marshall
Northern Colorado has a 6-3 lead in the all-time football series with the Chadron State Eagles, but all three of the Eagles' wins have been shutouts.

Chadron State won 28-0 in 1927 after losing to the Bears 20-3 the previous year. After Northern Colorado beat the Eagles twice in the mid-1930s, CSC's next win versus the Bears was a 6-0 verdict in 1942. In that game, Bob Baumann, who was an outstanding basketball player for the Eagles but had never played football before, caught a short pass and outran the Bears to the end zone for the game's only touchdown.  
 
After Northern Colorado recorded a pair of lopsided victories over CSC in the 1940s and a 41-0 shutout win in 1963, the teams did not meet on the gridiron again until 2007, which was the first meeting between the two schools after Northern Colorado's move to Division I.
 
Coach Bill O'Boyle's team won 31-0 in Greeley and went on to finish the regular season with an 11-0 record. While the CSC defense was terrific in that contest, Danny Woodhead also was outstanding as usual. He scored three touchdowns and romped 85 yards with a short pass that set up a one-yard sneak by quarterback Joe McLain on the next play. Chadron State outgained the Bears by a 479 to 214 margin.  
 
Up a Weight Class
Saturday's season opener gives Chadron State a unique opportunity to play against a Division I opponent. Since 1993, Chadron State is 2-7 as a program against DI teams. 
 
Both Division I wins for the Eagles came with Danny Woodhead on the field. The first win was in 2006, when Chadron State upset Montana State 35-14 just one game after the Bobcats had shocked the University of Colorado in the season opener. The second win came in the same setting as Saturday's upcoming contest, when the Eagles went to Greeley in 2007 and overwhelmed Northern Colorado 31-0.
 
Chadron State's most recent Division I tangles were a 33-6 loss to Montana State in 2012 and a 2022 matchup against Utah Tech. The Eagles were tied with the Trailblazers 7-7 at halftime but eventually lost 56-10. 
 
2024 Season Recap
The 2024 season was defined by close calls and near misses for Chadron State. The Eagles finished 3-8, but were not far away from flipping that record, losing five games by seven points or less. 
 
In Chadron State's three wins, the Eagles had an average margin of victory of 32.6 points, including two wins by 40 or more. CSC's eight losses came with an average margin of defeat of just 7.8 points. The lopsided wins and close losses meant Chadron State ended the 2024 season with a positive point differential, scoring 248 points (22.6 per game) and allowing just 212 points (19.3 per game) despite the 3-8 record. 

Chadron State relied on its defense to keep them in every game. Defensive coordinator Clint Sasse's unit finished with the second-best total defense (allowing 288 yards per game) and third-best scoring defense (allowing 19.3 points per game) in the RMAC. The Eagles also ranked fourth in Division II in defensive touchdowns with five (four pick-sixes and a botched-snap fumble recovery touchdown) and were ranked 15^thnationally against the pass (156.1 passing yards allowed per game) in 2024. 

Health put a damper on Chadron State's offensive hopes throughout the season. Presumed starting quarterback DJ Ralph was injured on the first series of the season and only appeared in parts of six games. Ralph's injuries opened the door for five different quarterbacks to take a game snap and four different quarterbacks to start for CSC in 2024. All-RMAC wide receiver Tommy Thomas missed three games while workhorse running back Jake Marschall broke his leg in the second-to-last game of the season. 

Ralph performed well when healthy, completing 67 percent of passes for 1,085 yards and eight touchdowns against three interceptions. Ralph won RMAC Player of the Week honors after going 20-for-29 with three touchdowns against Adams State last October 7 (in his first complete game in a CSC uniform), then threw for over 400 yards in a narrow loss to Black Hills State. Thomas led all CSC receivers with 419 yards and four TDs despite his three-game absence. 

Preseason Picks
Chadron State finished in a tie for seventh place in the RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll. The league's 10 head coaches each submit a ballot without ranking their own program, and Chadron State finished tied on points with New Mexico Highlands in the voting, one year after CSC, Highlands and Fort Lewis tied for seventh in the league standings in 2024.

There were multiple ties throughout the preseason voting, including at the top. Defending league champions CSU Pueblo and defending runners-up Western Colorado finished in a dead heat for first place at 76 points, both receiving the exact combination of five first place votes, three second place votes and one third-place vote. 

Colorado School of Mines, whose five-year streak of having at least a share of the RMAC title was broken last season, finished third in the voting while Colorado Mesa finished fourth. Regional rivals South Dakota Mines and Black Hills State tied for fifth. After the Eagles and New Mexico Highlands in seventh, the poll was rounded out by Fort Lewis in ninth and Adams State in 10^th. 

The Eagles also earned three selections on the Preseason All-RMAC Team, which is determined by the top returning players in each position from last fall's all-conference voting. Earning the honor for Chadron State were a trio of redshirt seniors – safety Dax Yeradi, wide receiver Tommy Thomas and punter Brodie Eisenbraun.

Elite Company
Redshirt senior safety Dax Yeradi earned a coveted preseason national honor as he was named to D2Football.com's Elite 100 Watch List.

Yeradi appears on the annual Top 100 after a breakout junior season. The Wright, Wyoming native earned First Team All-RMAC and Second Team D2CCA All-Region selections as a safety, then picked up an additional honorable mention All-RMAC nod as a punt returner. Yeradi tied for the RMAC lead with four interceptions and finished with 51 tackles and eight passes defensed. 

The 100-player national watch list includes 25 first-team players and 25 second-team players (11 offense, 11 defense, 3 special teams), then 50 "squad" players (25 offense, 25 defense). Yeradi was named as a defensive "squad" player.
2025 will mark the third straight season that Chadron State has had an Elite 100 Watchlist selection, after now-graduated defensive end Hunter O'Connor appeared on the list in the previous two seasons.

Yeradi's inclusion makes Chadron State one of only four RMAC programs to be represented on the Elite 100 list. There are nine total RMAC athletes among the 100, including four from CSU Pueblo (first-team WR Reggie Retzlaff, first-team DB Donovan English, squad OL Tyler Ethridge and squad LB Gary Seidenberger), two from Western Colorado (first-team DL Ricky Freymond, second-team QB Drew Nash) and two from Colorado School of Mines (first-team WR Flynn Schiele, squad DB Jackson Zimmerman). 

The Staff
Head Coach Jay Long returns for his 14^th season at the helm of the Chadron State football program, accumulating a 62-64 record at CSC over his previous 13 seasons.

The core of Long's staff all returns for 2025, including sixth-year offensive coordinator Micah Smith and fifth-year defensive coordinator Clint Sasse. Long, Smith and Sasse are all Chadron State football alumni. Special teams coordinator Wes Coomes and quarterbacks coach Tommy Wilson also return to their roles from 2024. 

Four of the Eagles' six coaching assistants are new to the staff this year, with three bringing Division I experience. 

DeMarcus Felton (running backs) and Herbert Frazier, Jr. (wide receivers) both come to CSC from the staff of Dekaney High School in Houston, Texas, where they mentored several eventual Division I and Power 4 players. Both Felton and Frazier were members of the Texas Tech (Division I, Big 12) football program, with Felton racking up 10 rushing touchdowns during his Red Raider career.

Lorenzo Neal (defensive line) joins the CSC staff after a playing career at Purdue University, where he served as a team captain and earned two Honorable Mention All-Big Ten selections. Neal's father, Lorenzo, played for 16 seasons in the NFL and was a four-time Pro Bowl selection and a three-time All-Pro as a fullback.

The final new coaching assistant is Deunte Moody (defensive backs), who begins his coaching career at Chadron State after concluding his playing career at Black Hills State last season. Returning to the staff are coaching assistants Steve Chang (linebackers) and Logan Zacharias (offensive line). 

Other Eagle support staff includes strength and conditioning coaches E.J. Kreis and Chase McClendon and athletic trainer Allison Wood.

Offensive Outlook
Chadron State is counting on better health from their skill players and a revamped offensive line to succeed offensively in 2025. 

Although injuries limited his 2024 to just six games, California native DJ Ralph is poised to be Chadron State's season-opening starting quarterback for the second straight year. Depth will come in the form of Wyatt Sprague, who started two games last season as a true freshman, and Aidan Thompson, who made 12 starts and threw for nearly 2,500 yards across three seasons at Oklahoma Baptist (DII, Great American Conference) before transferring to CSC this spring. 

Junior running back Jake Marschall had triple the number of carries as any other Eagle last season but is still feeling the effects of a broken leg suffered late in 2024 and is not likely to be the feature back in the season-opener. Newcomer Daytuawn Pearson, a juco transfer from City College in San Francisco, could see action early alongside redshirt sophomore Chase Nelson and redshirt freshman Quincey Ryker, who rushed for a 72-yard touchdown on his first collegiate carry against Fort Lewis last season. 

Now a redshirt senior, Tommy Thomas leads the wide receiver group after earning First Team All-RMAC honors in 2023 and Second Team honors in 2024 despite missing three games. Aside from Thomas, Rollin George III (21 catches, 218 yds in 2024) is the only returning receiver who had multiple touchdowns last year. Swiss army knife Preston Pearson, who has played everything from quarterback to wide receiver to special teams for the Eagles over his career, has taken snaps at tight end, fullback and h-back and should play a part in the offense. The Eagles' third receiver will be whoever separates themselves from a group including redshirt sophomores Garet Schlabs and Richard Okuno and transfers Devon Sundgren (Bakersfield College), Sedjro Agoumba (Wayne State) or Deon Metezier (Monroe College).

The offensive line is overhauled from last season. CSC's projected lineup sees redshirt freshmen on both tackle spots, with Tristan Randall on the left side and Corben Holler on the right side. Senior Levi Banuelos, the only returning starter from last year's team, is expected to slot in at left guard. Transfers will occupy the final two spots, with University of La Verne transfer Jal Chan set to start at right guard and Fresno City CC transfer Dominic Castanon starting at center. A third transfer, Carlos Orea from Division I FCS school Hampton, is expected to help once he fully recovers from offseason surgery. Veteran Rudy Gish and redshirt freshmen Wyatt Anderson and DeAndre Berry are expected to be key reserves on the O-line.

Defensive Outlook
Continuity is the name of the game for the Chadron State defense, which could return as many as nine starters from last year's group that ranked among the league's best. Chadron State's defense will likely morph between a mixture of 3-4, 3-3-5 and 4-2-5 formations.

The defensive line still has plenty of ammo, even without all-time sack leader Hunter O'Connor. Junior William Stemler (57 tackles, 4.5 sacks) and redshirt sophomores Ryder True (three sacks) and Griffin Clubb (seven tackles for loss) will look to create havoc as edge rushers while All-RMAC selection Tanner True and senior Andrew Calderon will handle things in the trenches. 

Linebackers Logan O'Brien and Reed Henkel return after combining for 125 tackles last season. Key reserves Liam Blaser (19 tackles, 2.5 sacks) and Reese Jacobs (17 tackles) also return and are joined by a pair of Division I transfers in Cooper Walton (University of Montana) and Jarred Marquez (Northern Arizona). 

Chadron State will likely spend a lot of time playing five defensive backs, led by a trio of accomplished and experienced safeties in All-Region selection Dax Yeradi (51 tackles, four interceptions), junior Tucker Peterson (three interceptions, one fumble recovery) and senior Sutton Pohlman (48 tackles). 

Cornerback will have the most change from last season on the Chadron State defense. Senior Jadon Bowen, who snagged interceptions in each of CSC's final two games last year, is expected to move into a starting role opposite newcomer AJ Scurlock, a junior transfer from Moorpark College while redshirt sophomore Jahmir Everett and redshirt freshman Eli Martinez could work in. Senior Omar Ali, who led the Eagles with seven pass breakups last season, is on the roster but out indefinitely with injury. 

On special teams, the Eagles return longtime mainstays in kicker Wilson Yee (Honorable Mention All-RMAC) and punter Brodie Eisenbraun (Second Team All-RMAC). Yee kicked the second-longest field goal in program history last season at 57 yards (he also has the school-record 61-yarder from 2023) while Eisenbraun set a new single-season program record by averaging 43.26 yards per punt, which ranked 14^thin Division II. 

The Eagles will have a new starter at long snapper, with a pair of true freshmen in Greenwood Village, Colorado's Ty Douglas and Queen Creek, Arizona's Jeff Goins competing for that job. Running backs Chase Nelson and Quincey Ryker are projected to handle kick return duties, with Dax Yeradi back to return punts. 

Scouting the Bears
by Con Marshall
The Northern Colorado Bears are a Division I team that plays in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). They are members of the Big Sky Conference made up of teams such as Eastern Washington, Idaho, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State and Northern Arizona. The Bears went 1-11 in 2024, defeating only Weber State 21-17. 

Head coach Ed Lamb is beginning his third season at UNC, going 1-22 in the previous two seasons, but is no stranger to rebuilds at the FCS level. Before coming to Greeley, Lamb was the head coach at Southern Utah for eight seasons. He inherited a team that had suffered 18 straight losses at the start of his tenure, but he eventually led the Thunderbirds to two conference championships and was a national FCS Coach of the Year finalist. Lamb then spent seven seasons as the assistant head coach and special teams coordinator at Brigham Young University (BYU) before taking the UNC job.

Something that stands out about the Bears is that all five starters on the offensive line are at least 6-foot-3 and weigh at least 300 pounds, showing the advanced size and speed at the Division I level.
 
The projected starting quarterback is listed as redshirt junior Peter Costelli.  He played in five games a year ago, completing 39 of 72 passes for 591 yards and four touchdowns. The major pass receiving threat is Brayden Munroe, a 6-2, 200-pound junior, who led the Bears with 37 catches for 447 yards and three TDs last year.
 
The probable starter at tailback is Mathias Price, a 6-2, 215-pound sophomore who carried just seven times for 24 yards last season. Aliou-Rocco Traore, a defensive back last year, who made 54 tackles, is No. 2 on the tailback depth chart.
 
Last fall's leading tackler for UNC was then-freshman Cam Chapa, who recorded 83 tackles, 45 of them solos, and had four of the team's six interceptions. He was named to the FCS Football Central Freshman All-American team and was placed on this year's Big Sky Preseason All-Conference Team.  
 
The returning defenders also include senior linebacker Keenan Gutherie, who was second on the 2024 tackle chart with 73 stops, and junior strong safety Darrell Bryant II, who was sixth with 52. 
 
During the 2024 season, the Bears were outscored 37.8 to 11.3 points per game and outgained 472 to 285 yards per game.