CHADRON, Neb. – After taking possession of the Good Life Trophy with a three-point home win, Chadron State will travel to a top-10 nationally-ranked opponent in a rematch of one of the most memorable games in recent Eagle football history.

The Eagles (1-1) will open RMAC play at Western Colorado (2-0), ranked No. 8 nationally in both the AFCA Coaches Poll and the D2Football.com Media Poll. 

It will be the first matchup since last season's memorable 27-24 overtime win for Chadron State, which topped then-No. 11 Western Colorado on a walk-off Wilson Yee field goal after intercepting the Mountaineers on the first play of overtime and blocking a potential WCU game-winning FG on the final play of regulation.

Numbers to Know

• 88: Yards on the touchdown pass from Aidan Thompson to Devon Sundgren during last weekend's games, the second-longest CSC TD pass in program history and the longest passing play in the RMAC so far this season
• 32: Yards per reception by Devon Sundgren (160 yards on five catches)
• 11: Number of tackles in an RMAC Defensive Player of the Week-winning performance by linebacker Jarred Marquez
• 8: Jersey number of Aiden Kuester, who snagged CSC's first interception of the season last week and had two last year vs. Western Colorado
• 3: Out of the last four RMAC Special Teams Player of the Week awards won by CSC dating back to last season (Wilson Yee, Chase Nelson and now RMAC/National Special Teams Player of the Week Triston Hite)

How to Tune In
Saturday's game, along with every CSC football game for the remainder of the regular season, will be livestreamed on the RMAC Network.

Fans can purchase monthly subscriptions to the RMAC Network for $25 or annual passes for $130. Those prices are both unchanged from the 2025-26 season, which was the first for the RMAC Network's pay-per-view model.

PURCHASE: RMAC NETWORK

A radio stream of the game will take place on Double Q Country 97.5/105.9 FM and doubleqcountry.com, with Dave Collins on the call. Finally, Eagle fans can follow along via live stats for free or keep track on social media (@cscfootball on X/Twitter and Instagram) for updates.

Looking Back
Chadron State earned its first win of the season, taking a 24-7 lead midway through the third quarter and making it hold up for a 24-21 win over rivals Nebraska Kearney.

STORY: Eagles Claim Good Life Trophy

The win was the first for Chadron State over the Lopers since 2008 and allowed CSC to keep the Good Life Trophy, a traveling trophy between the two schools introduced in 2024, for the first time.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Eagles scored 17 points in the second and didn't trail the rest of the way. Quarterback Aidan Thompson and Daytuawn Pearson collected rushing TDs before Thompson linked up with Devon Sundgren for an 88-yard touchdown, the second-longest scoring pass play in program history. Sundgren also had a 55-yard reception in the game.

National Player of the Week
Triston Hite earned national recognition from D2Football.com when the site named the Eagles punter its National Special Teams Player of the Week. The honor came one day after Hite was also named the RMAC Special Teams Player of the Week.
 
STORY: Hite Wins D2Football.com National POTW
 
During the game, Hite averaged 45.3 yards per punt and placed four kicks inside the opponent's 10-yard line, including a 70-yarder that went for only a 2-yard return. In the fourth quarter, with Chadron State holding just a three-point lead, Hite's punt was downed by the Eagle coverage team at the UNK 5-yard line, leading to a three-and-out that allowed CSC to maintain a field position advantage while seeing out the win.

Through two games, Hite has nine punts inside the 20, more than double any other RMAC punter, and zero touchbacks. His 41.8-yard punting average ranks second in the RMAC and 31^st in NCAA Division II.
 
RMAC POTW x2
While Hite also won a weekly honor at the conference level, he wasn't alone in terms of Eagle winners. 

Linebacker Jarred Marquez earned the conference's Defensive Player of the Week honor after forcing two fumbles and racking up 11 tackles during the win over UNK. 

STORY: Marquez, Hite Win RMAC Player of the Week Awards

The double wins were the first two Player of the Week awards of the 2026 season for Chadron State. 

The Eagles had eight winners last season (2025) – one Offensive (Aidan Thompson), five Defensive (four by Logan O'Brien, one by Aiden Kuester) and two Special Teams (Wilson Yee, Chase Nelson). With Yee and Nelson winning the award in the last two weeks of the 2025 season, Chadron State has now won three of the past four awards dating back to last year.

To the Races
Devon Sundgren has been a big-play machine so far in 2026, making the most of his five catches. Sundgren had three catches for 144 yards against Nebraska-Kearney, highlighted by the 88-yard touchdown and a 55-yard catch.

Sundgren is a former Division I sprinter at Fresno State University. He placed 10^th at the 2023 Mountain West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships by running the 100-meter dash in 10.67 seconds before transferring to first Bakersfield College, then Chadron State to play football.

The Shafter, California native's five catches rank second on the roster, but his 160 yards are fourth in the RMAC and nearly triple the output of the nearest CSC receiver. Sundgren's 32 yards per reception ranks seventh in Division II and is third among players with five or more catches.

Sundgren has also hauled in both receiving touchdowns that the Eagles have scored over the season's first two weeks. He is just under halfway to his 2025 total of 11 catches, which went for 251 receiving yards (22.8 per reception) and three touchdowns, tied for second on the team.

Stat Standouts

• Aidan Thompson ranks seventh in the RMAC with 355 passing yards and a 59.5 percent completion percentage.
• Backup quarterback Wyatt Sprague ranks second in the league by averaging 13.0 yards per carry (52 yards on four carries).
• Devon Sundgren's 160 receiving yards rank fourth in the RMAC. Sundgren is part of a large group of receivers tied for second with two touchdowns.
• Aiden Kuester ranks fifth in the RMAC with 11 solo tackles. He ranks 10^th with 16 total tackles, and is tied for eighth with two passes defensed.

5-for-5
Under a new eligibility ruling passed by the NCAA this summer, all NCAA student-athletes will have five years of eligibility while developmental redshirts and medical waivers that previously could grant another year of eligibility have been eliminated.

To accommodate this new system, Chadron State is changing how student-athletes are labeled on the football roster – using the term "freshman" for a player in their first year of college, "sophomore" for a player in their second, "junior," "senior," and "fifth-year," regardless of whether the player has previously received a redshirt year.

For example, a player now being referred to as a "junior" has been with Chadron State or another college football program for two seasons (regardless of if they played or not during those seasons) and has three years of eligibility remaining, including 2026.

In the Polls
In the RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll, released July 22, Chadron State was picked to finish fourth out of 10 RMAC programs. The Eagles received one first-place vote, one second-place vote and three third-place votes in the poll. 

CSU Pueblo finished in first place in the poll, with eight first-place votes, followed by Western Colorado (one first place vote), Colorado School of Mines and Chadron State. Behind CSC, Colorado Mesa was fifth while New Mexico Highlands, South Dakota Mines, Black Hills State, Fort Lewis and Adams State rounded out the poll.

Last year, the Eagles were picked seventh in the preseason and went on to finish second in the conference standings.

Preseason Plaudits
The RMAC released a Preseason All-RMAC team alongside their preseason polls back on July 22, based on the leading vote-getters from last year's all-conference voting that return to the league. 

Chadron State had four players honored, tied for the third-highest total in the RMAC – quarterback Aidan Thompson, offensive lineman Dominic Castanon, linebacker Cooper Walton and defensive end/edge rusher William Stemler.
Stemler also made an appearance on the D2Football.com Elite 100 watchlist as a "squad" member of the defense, one of six RMAC honorees across the national 100-player listing.

Stemler's selection marks the fourth consecutive year that an Eagle defensive player has made the Elite 100 preseason list, joining alumni Dax Yeradi (2025) and Hunter O'Connor (2023, 2024).

RMAC Update
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference has posted a 13-5-1 record in nonconference play. The RMAC's 10 wins against fellow Division II teams are the second-most of any DII conference.

The conference went 8-1-1 last weekend. Colorado School of Mines and Washburn played to a tie when heat temperatures forced the game to be called at the end of regulation. Adams State, which fell to Sul Ross State, was the only RMAC team to lose.

Two matchups featuring the top four teams in the preseason poll will headline the conference slate this week – CSC's showdown with Western Colorado plus No. 5/7 CSU Pueblo hosting Colorado School of Mines. 

The RMAC has two nationally ranked teams. CSU Pueblo is ranked No. 5 in the AFCA Coaches Poll and No. 7 in the D2Football.com poll. Western Colorado is ranked No. 8 in both.

Coaches' Corner
Head Coach Jay Long returns for his 15^th season at the helm of CSC Football in 2026. In his previous 14 seasons at Chadron State, Long boasts a 70-68 record. He is 85-83 overall in his 17-season head coaching career.

Notably, the Eagles' 8-4 record in 2025 was a substantial turnaround from a 3-8 record in 2024. Chadron State's eight wins in 2025 is tied officially for the most in a single season during Long's tenure, alongside eight-win seasons in 2013 and 2014.

For his efforts last season, Long was voted by his head coaching peers as both the RMAC Coach of the Year and the AFCA Region Five Coach of the Year, each for the first time in his career. Coach Long was one of only five AFCA award recipients in Division II and one of only 25 recipients among all levels of college football.

Chadron State's head coach (Jay Long) and all three coordinators – Micah Smith (offense), Clint Sasse (defense) and Mitch Collicott (special teams) are all Chadron State football alumni. 

Quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator Tommy Wilson also returns for a fourth season at CSC, while coaching assistant for defensive backs Deunte Moody returns for a second season. 

In year one on the CSC staff are coaching assistants Cole Cartwright (running backs), Reed Henkel (linebackers), Abe Hestdalen (defensive line), Seth Moore (offensive line) and Fred Pillivant (wide receivers). Henkel makes a move to the coaching staff after playing for the Eagles from 2022-25.

Opponent Preview
by Con Marshall
Western Colorado is 2-0 in 2026 after beating two Texas teams in non-conference action. The Mountaineers initially bested West Texas A&M in Canyon 55-21 and then nipped Angelo State 23-21 last Saturday at home. 

A year ago, instead of meeting during one of the opening games on the RMAC schedule, the Eagles and Mountaineers collided in Chadron on Saturday, November 8. 

Western built a 14-0 first quarter lead, but the CSC won 27-24 when Wilson Yee kicked a field goal in overtime. It was the Eagles' eighth straight conference victory of the season and the second consecutive loss for Western, which had fallen to CSU-Pueblo 24-21 the previous Saturday when the ThunderWolves booted a 32-yard field goal on the final play of regulation. 

Defense and special teams had much to do with the Eagles' victory versus Western. CSC blocked two field goal attempts, intercepted two passes, blocked a punt and recovered a Mountaineers' fumble.   

Although Western out-gained CSC 338 to 259 yards, the Eagles limited the visitors just 38 yards on 21 rushes to help offset the Mountaineers' 300 to 111 advantage in passing yardage.    

Last year's Western team, which finished 10-3, was led by senior quarterback Drew Nash, who averaged 319 yards passing and was responsible for 32 touchdowns in the nine RMAC games. He also was voted the conference's RMAC Offensive Player of the Year for the second straight year, but has graduated. 

His replacement is Josiah Roy, who was a backup signal caller at Western in both 2023 and '24, seeing action in seven games each year, but he did not play last year. So far this season Roy has completed 24 of 33 passes for 396 yards and six touchdowns and has not been intercepted.   

Western completed 11 passes for 306 yards and they were caught by 10 different receivers. Only Caden Measner, a preseason all-RMAC choice, caught two tosses. Three of the passes went for touchdowns of 50, 65 and 76 yards to separate players. Measner caught the 65-yarder.  

Last week against Angelo State, nine players ran the ball for 194 yards and eight caught it for 130, but the two touchdowns came on tosses of only 35 and nine yards. The Mountaineers' JT Miller has made all four of the field goals he's attempted with a 32-yarder the longest.   

During the RMAC coaches' preseason balloting in July, the all-conference offensive choices from Western besides Measner were linemen Taylor Nichols and Joe Shepardson, both 300-pound seniors.  

Defensively, linemen Drew Johnson (6-3, 250) and Mikey Smith (5-11, 295) and linebacker Ian Loomis (6-3, 225), all juniors, got first-team nods. So did Easton Peterson as a punt returner.

The veteran coaches on the two teams are well-acquainted. The Western staff is headed by Jas Bains, now in his 16^th season in that position after he was a Chadron State assistant coach for several years. Defensive Coordinator Todd Auer is in his 11th season at Gunnison and before that, had that position for 17 years at CSC.   

In addition, the offensive coordinator is Joe McLain, a Chadron native who was the Eagles' starting quarterback for most of four years and wrapped up his career as both the RMAC Offensive Player of the Year and its Academic Player of the Year as a senior.