CHADRON, Neb. – After a road loss in the season opener, Chadron State football will return to the confines of Elliott Field at Don Beebe Stadium for the first of three trophy games on the schedule when the Eagles battle Nebraska-Kearney this Thursday night, with kickoff set for 6 p.m.

Both teams are still searching for their first win. Kearney lost at home on the last play of the game against Wayne State last Thursday, as the Wildcats booted a walk-off field goal to defeat the Lopers 21-20.

This Thursday will be the 75^th all-time meeting on the football field between the two rivals, and the third since the traveling "Good Life Trophy" was introduced. It also marks the first of six home games at Elliott Field this year for Chadron State.

Numbers to Know

• 2008: Most recent Chadron State football win over UNK
• 75: Number of times CSC and UNK have met on the gridiron after Thursday
• 46: Receiving yards on three catches for fourth-year receiver Richard Okuno, eclipsing his career total of 41 entering the game
• 44: Yards on the field goal made by junior Shay Prichard on his first career attempt
• 5: Punts inside the 20-yard line in Week 0 by Triston Hite, the most in the RMAC
• 3: Combined yardage of Chadron State's two scoring plays, a 1-yard run by Devon Rivers and 2-yard catch by Devon Sundgren

Promotional Notes
Thursday's game is First Responders Night at the field. Local firefighters and EMS personnel can receive free admission to the game, and are encouraged to wear their department shirts to get in at the gate. Local first responders will also be recognized during the contest.

How to Go
Season tickets, single-game tickets, tailgate slots and parking passes remain for sale at chadroneagles.com/tickets. 

How to Tune In
Thursday'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 suffered a season-opening setback with a 42-17 loss to Northern State last Thursday in Aberdeen, S.D.

STORY: Eagles Drop Opener to Northern State

Northern State scored three touchdowns on plays of 65 yards or more to open up a 42-3 lead after three quarters before the Eagles closed the gap with two fourth-quarter touchdowns. The game included ties for the third-longest pass play and third-longest rush to go for touchdowns against the CSC defense in the recorded history of the program.

CSC/UNK History
by Con Marshall
While this will be the 75^thgame in the all-time series between the intrastate teams, it's the third time the Eagles and the Lopers have meet since the rivalry was renewed in 2024.
 
Kearney has won the first two games, and thus has had full possession of the Good Life Trophy that was goes to the winner and was created to give the contest special emphasis.   
 
The Lopers won 18-6 in Chadron to open the 2024 season and took advantage of three turnovers and a blocked punt to win last year's contest in Kearney, 41-21. Both teams had exactly 306 yards of total offense in the 2025 game.
 
UNK has a 52-21-1 advantage in the all-time series. The Lopers built their lead by winning 31 of 32 games from 1948-1980.
 
After Kearney joined the RMAC in 1996, the series resumed full-time. Chadron State had more success, winning six in a row from 1996-2001 and defeating Kearney every season while winning three consecutive RMAC championships from 2006-2008.
 
After Kearney left the RMAC in 2011, the programs did not see each other, except for 2020 during a COVID-19-impacted season. That game turned out to be a shootout, with UNK winning 45-35 while the cumulative 1,080 yards and 80 points are both the most ever in the history of the rivalry.

Family Ties
Nebraska-Kearney and Chadron State both feature kickers from the same family. 

UNK's Trey Prichard and younger brother Shay Prichard, the third and fourth of five children, will be on opposite sidelines for Thursday's game while parents Nicole and Craig watch in the stands. The UNK athletic communications office featured the brothers for a story that has appeared in several local news outlets this week.

STORY: "Different teams, same family: Prichard brothers meet in UNK/CSC rivalry"

Trey didn't see the field in UNK's opener against Wayne State in 2026, but he is 48-49 on PATs and 5-10 on field goals in his career across 15 games played in 2024 and 2025.

By contrast, Shay Prichard waited his turn behind All-American kicker Wilson Yee for several years and is now stepping into the spotlight as CSC's starter. Shay Prichard is 4-4 on PAT's in his career, two last Thursday and two in a blowout win last season, and drilled a 44-yard field goal to put the Eagles on the board on his first career collegiate three-point attempt.

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.

Super 8
Aiden Kuester set a high bar for the rest of his career when he was named the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week after his first start, an Eagles win over then-top 10 Western Colorado late last season. During that game, Kuester had two interceptions of All-American QB and RMAC Man of the Year Drew Nash, including one in overtime that set up CSC's game-winning field goal in that contest.

Kuester has continued to be productive as an opening-night starter for the Eagles in 2026. Against Northern State, the senior from Neligh, Nebraska led all CSC defenders with eight tackles, including seven solo stops, and recorded a tackle for loss. Kuester also had a pass breakup, one of four for the Eagles on the night.

Kuester tallied 17 tackles in 2025, nine of which came during the last three weeks of the season. The eight tackles against NSU doubled Kuester's previous career high of four, achieved twice vs. Adams State and Western Colorado last season.

Late Sparks
Backup quarterback Wyatt Sprague didn't enter the game until the Eagles were down by several scores, but had an effective outing in the fourth. 

Sprague ended as CSC's leading rusher with 50 yards on three carries, highlighted by a 43-yard run. He also completed 5 of 7 passes for 53 yards.

Sophomore Camden Walker, a Grand Island native who didn't see snaps during his freshman season, made the first three catches of his career in the fourth quarter, totaling 37 yards with a long reception of 20 yards.

In the Polls
Chadron State fell out of the D2Football.com Top 25 poll after their season-opening loss to Northern State.

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. 

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 went 5-4 in Week 0 nonconference action to begin the 2026 season. 

Mount Rushmore State schools took center stage. South Dakota Mines defeated a Division I opponent in FCS school Drake, toppling the Bulldogs 38-35. Black Hills State, which finished 3-8 last season, went on the road and defeated Sioux Falls, who finished 7-4 in 2025, by a 24-21 margin.

Among the other notable results – No. 6/10 CSU Pueblo handled Central Missouri 44-25 and No. 11/11 Western Colorado beat West Texas A&M 52-21. Colorado Mesa and Colorado School of Mines both lost to Top 25 ranked opponents. 

All 10 teams were supposed to take the field on the season's opening weekend, but Fort Lewis had their game canceled against William Jewell after the sudden, tragic death of a William Jewell student-athlete.

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.

Scouting the Lopers
Nebraska-Kearney finished 6-5 a year ago, including a 41-21 win over the Eagles that ended up as CSC's largest margin of defeat in 2026. 

The Lopers are led by dual-threat quarterback Devin Tate, who went 10-17 for 99 yards passing against Wayne State, and a defense that created seven tackles for loss, three sacks and an interception against the Wildcats. 

The big question for Nebraska-Kearney is the health of star tailback Isaiah Harris, a D2Football.com Elite 100 watchlist selection. Harris rushed for 121 yards on 24 carries against Chadron State in 2024, but did not suit up against Wayne State to open this year. 

If Harris doesn't go, an old friend will likely take the lion's share of the carries as he did in Week 0 – Chadron State transfer Quincey Ryker. The former Eagle rushed 15 times for 63 yards during last week's contest.