CHADRON, Neb. – After playing one-score matchups in each of the past two seasons, Chadron State will take on Colorado School of Mines once again this Saturday on Hall of Fame Weekend at Elliott Field. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

The Eagles (1-3, 0-2 RMAC) are hoping to come up for air after facing the No. 5 and No. 8 nationally-ranked programs in each of the past two weeks to open RMAC play, while the Orediggers (1-2-1, 1-1 RMAC) endured a winless first three weeks of the season but are coming off a 31-point win last weekend.

Neither team is nationally ranked for this game, but last year's contest between the two schools marked a turning point when Chadron State defeated then-No. 23 Mines 34-28, knocking the Orediggers out of the poll. CSC would finish the 2025 season ranked No. 23 in the AFCA poll and No. 18 in D2Football.com's poll.

Last time the two programs met at Elliott Field at Don Beebe Stadium, then-No. 4 Colorado School of Mines survived a Chadron State upset bid with a 13-12 victory in 2024.

Numbers to Know

• 1: Margin of victory for then-No. 4 Mines during their last visit to Elliott Field at Don Beebe Stadium (13-12)
• 5: Harlon Hill trophies combined between the two schools, the only five won by the RMAC
• 16: Punts inside the 20-yard line for Triston Hite, double any other RMAC punter
• 73: Yards on a rushing touchdown by Aidan Thompson against Mines last season, when the now-Preseason All-RMAC QB was making his first career start

Promotional Notes
It is Hall of Fame weekend at Chadron State. The CSC Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2026, featuring eight individuals and the 1996 Football Team, will be formally enshrined in an induction banquet ceremony on Friday night, but will also be honored at halftime of the football game.

In honor of the 1996 team entering the Hall of Fame, it will be "Throwback/90s Day" for the Chadron State crowd. Students are encouraged to wear throwback jerseys and other fans are encouraged to wear authentic or approximate 1990s gear.

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

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 suffered its second-straight top 10 loss last Saturday, as the No. 5 CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves defeated the Eagles 33-6.

STORY: Eagles Fall to No. 5/7 CSU Pueblo

Daytuawn Pearson rushed for 98 yards, including 81 in the second half and 68 in the third quarter. Starting quarterback Aidan Thompson exited after just two drives, with Wyatt Sprague completing seven passes for 102 yards in relief. 

Two Eagles finished with double-digit tackles – Reese Jacobs with 12 and Jarred Marquez with 10 – while Marquez added a sack, an interception and a pass breakup.

One Year Later
Saturday's gameday – September 26, 2026 – will be one year and change to the day of Aidan Thompson's coming-out party. 

Thompson, an Abilene, Texas native, stepped in to make his first career start for Chadron State on September 20, 2025 against Colorado School of Mines and led the Eagles to a 34-28 victory over the Orediggers, CSC's first over Mines since 2012 and the first Eagle win over a ranked opponent since 2018. (CSC would add another ranked win later that year).

Thompson threw three touchdown passes and rushed six times for 110 yards including a 73-yard rushing touchdown. Chadron State took a 17-0 lead, watched Mines pull ahead 20-17, then scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns on TD passes from Thompson.

In the aftermath of that game, Thompson won RMAC Offensive Player of the Week and would go on and go 6-0 as a CSC starter before getting hurt and giving way to original, now-healthy starter DJ Ralph for CSC's final three games of 2025, including the NCAA playoffs. 

Thompson was named the RMAC preseason all-conference quarterback ahead of 2026 as the leading all-conference vote getter from last season returning to the league. Thompson has started all four games for the Eagles this season but has needed to exit the game in each of the past two weeks.

Special Teams, Special Plays
Many of CSC's highlights against CSU Pueblo came on the "third" side of the ball. The Eagles blocked two kicks, with Mason Kiewiet coming off the edge to block an extra point and Brady Dahlberg extending a hand to tip away a ThunderWolves field goal.

Chase Nelson also racked up the return yardage last Saturday. Nelson ran back four kickoffs for a total of 124 yards, with a long of 49, then scooped up Dahlberg's blocked kick and ran that back 45 yards as well.
In addition, Shay Prichard has been steady as CSC's placekicker, converting 5-5 field goals, with a long of 50, and is 5-5 on extra points.

Triston Hite, the Week 1 D2Football.com National Special Teams Player of the Week, has punted 28 times for a 43.5-yard average, hitting 16 balls inside the 20 (most in the RMAC) against just two touchbacks. He has a punt of 60 yards or more in three consecutive weeks.

This is 40
Jarred Marquez has emerged as CSC's top statistical player on the defensive side of the ball.

After playing rotationally in 2025, his first year with the Eagles after beginning his career at Northern Arizona (DI/FCS), Marquez has stepped into a starting linebacker spot for the 2026 season, helping in part to replace All-American linebacker Logan O'Brien.

Marquez previously won RMAC Defensive Player of the Week honors after Chadron State's September 3 victory over Nebraska-Kearney with 11 tackles and two forced fumbles.

In a three-week span starting with that game, plus contests against top 10 Western Colorado and CSU Pueblo, Marquez is averaging 10 tackles per contest (six solo tackles per contest) with three forced fumbles, three pass breakups, a sack and an interception.

Marquez's three forced fumbles lead the RMAC while his 18 solo tackles rank tied for third. His 33 total tackles rank ninth.

One-Two Punch
After running back Daytuawn Pearson split carries in last season's backfield with Quincey Ryker, the senior is doing the same in 2026 with fellow Californian and Fresno State transfer Devon Rivers.

The two have alternated time in the backfield throughout the season, with Pearson carrying 49 times for 177 yards (3.6 yards per carry) and Rivers hauling the rock 43 times for 148 yards (3.4/carry). Both have found the end zone once.

Rivers has been consistent, finishing with between 25-50 yards in every game so far this season, while Pearson set a new season-high and more than doubled his total entering the season with a 98-yard game last Saturday. The 98 yards tied a CSC career-high for Pearson, who previously rushed for 98 against Fort Lewis in 2025.

History and Tradition
While Colorado School of Mines and Chadron State were picked third and fourth, respectively, in this year's RMAC Coaches Poll, both programs have had dominant stretches atop the RMAC in their history.

Chadron State won at least a share of eight RMAC titles during a 13-year span kicked off by the 1996 team that is part of this year's Hall of Fame class. The Eagles were RMAC champs in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001 (outright), 2002, 2006 (outright), 2007 (outright) and 2008 (outright).

As the calendar flipped to the 2010s and 2020s, Mines added to their tally of 16 total RMAC titles, which ranks second among active RMAC members. The Orediggers claimed at least a share of the crown in 2010, 2014 and 2016 before finishing atop the league in five straight seasons from 2018-2023 (minus no 2020 season due to COVID-19).

Stat Selections

• Chadron State's defense ranks eighth in scoring (31.5 points allowed per game) and fifth in total defense (427.8 yards allowed per game) in the RMAC. 
• CSC's offense ranks 10^th in scoring (14.0) and ninth in total (262.8). The Eagles rank ninth in the league in both rushing yards (117.5) and passing yards (145.3).
• CSC's defense ranks fourth against the pass, allowing only 228 passing yards per game to opponents.
• The Eagles rank third in the RMAC in total kick return yards (275) and second in total punt return yards (95).
• Aiden Kuester ranks second in the RMAC with 20 solo tackles. Jarred Marquez is just behind, tied for third with 18 solo tackles.
• Devon Sundgren ranks third in the RMAC with 24.1 yards per reception.

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.

The RMAC has two nationally-ranked programs this week – CSU Pueblo, ranked No. 5 in the AFCA Coaches Poll and No. 7 in the D2Football.com media poll, and Western Colorado, ranked No. 8 in both.

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).

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 Orediggers
by Con Marshall
The Orediggers are coming to Chadron with an unusual 1-2-1 record. Their victory was a 34-3 blowout over Fort Lewis last Saturday.  They lost their opener 22-20 to Western Oregon, tied Washburn 16-16 and were defeated 45-17 by the Pueblo ThunderWolves two weeks ago.
 
The highly unusual tie occurred when the game with Washburn on Sept. 5 was ended before going into overtime because of the extreme heat and high humidity at Topeka, where the temperature was 99 degrees with a heat index of 108.
 
The next Saturday, the Orediggers visited a hot team at Pueblo. The home team completed 23 of 28 passes for 430 yards and four touchdowns and also rushed for two TDs during its 45-17 verdict. Pueblo then visited CSC last Saturday and prevailed 33-6.
 
Meanwhile, Mines overwhelmed Fort Lewis on Saturday, outgaining the Skyhawks 530 to 188 yards and keeping them off the scoreboard until the visitors kicked a field goal with 4 ½ minutes remaining.
 
During its four games this month, Mines is pretty much even statistically. The Orediggers have 1,476 yards of total offense and have yielded 1,467 and have scored 87 points and given up 86.
 
Mines quarterback Joseph Capra, a 6-1, 190-pound junior from Denver, has completed 88 of 134 passes for 897 yards and seven touchdowns, three of them vs. Fort Lewis.  Pierce Richards, a wide receiver, has caught 34 of those passes for 295 yards, but 14 other Orediggers have grabbed at least one pass.  
 
Mines' leading rusher is Braelon Tate, a 200-pound senior with 33 carries for 202 yards, including a 71-yard scoring jaunt.