Looking to extend its streak of consecutive winning seasons to eight in a row, Whitworth University opens the 2021 football season at 4:00 pm on Friday at home against Carnegie Mellon University. It is the season opener for both teams and the first all-time meeting between the schools. The game will be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230am and on the internet at KSBN.net. The radio broadcast will begin at 3:45 pm (PDT).
Whitworth is coming off a 4-0 record during the Covid-shortened spring schedule in 2021. CMU went 2-2 against members of its own Presidents' Athletic Conference.
The Pirates: With eight starters back on offense and ten on defense, Whitworth is picked to finish second in the Northwest Conference, based on a preseason poll of conference coaches.
Jaedyn Prewitt became the starting QB last spring and completed 60% of his passes for 1,074 yards with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. Several of his favorite targets are also back. Ethan Peloquin caught 14 passes for 325 yards (23.2 yards per catch) with seven touchdowns. Jerusalem To'oto'o had 13 catches for 154 yards with a touchdown. Alan Ballew caught a pair of TD passes.
Isaiah Jones is the top returning running back. He played in all four games and made two starts, finishing with 130 net yards and a touchdown. Isaiah Cole returns after taking last season off, and Solomon Hines has transferred in. All three expect to get plenty of carries this fall.
Whitworth returns three starters on the offensive line. They include Cody Bollig at left tackle, AJ Sellem at left guard and Devon Zwanzig at right tackle. Chaz Evangelista is expected to start at center, while Luke Davis takes over at right guard. Anthony Christopher, Max Long, Trent Nomura and Sam Tefft all have experience in the program and can push for playing time.
Whitworth is deep and talented in the secondary with four senior starters who return from last season. Cornerbacks Bryce Hornbeck and Colten Chelin, along with safeties BJ Mullin and Jacob Hogger, give Whitworth the luxury of a reliable secondary. Hornbeck has led Whitworth in interceptions the last two seasons, with two returned for touchdowns. Chelin is a four-year starter. Parker Shaw and Atticus Templeton are veteran backups with plenty of experience in the secondary
Jaylen Gonzales, Derrick Platt and Patrick Serrano return as starting linebackers. Gonzales has been a first team All-NWC honoree (2018) during his career. Platt led the Pirates in tackles (24) last spring. Serrano became a starter in the second game last year. Dylan Ventress, who was second on the team with 22 stops, and Ethan Fields, are proven reserves at linebacker.
Whitworth experienced illness and injury on the defensive line last spring, but that gave several younger players an opportunity. Brayden Miller and Mason Bertelli are experienced starters on the end. Jack Gibson and Dylan Owen both saw playing time at DE as first-year Pirates last spring.
RudyJay Keopuhiwa was the Pirates' leader in tackles for loss (6.5, 30 yards) last season. He tied with Dylan Peterson with three sacks apiece. Both return as starting defensive tackles. Justin Gies played as a first year last spring.
A Long Time Coming: Carnegie Mellon will be Whitworth's first-ever opponent from the Eastern Time Zone. The Tartans are from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, nearly 2,300 miles from Spokane. Previous opponents that held the mark for longest distance from campus include Hardin-Simmons (Abilene, Texas – 1,800 miles) and Wisconsin-Stout (Menomonie, Wis. – 1,230 miles). Whitworth will make the return trip to CMU's campus in 2022.
Team Captains: The Pirate team captains in 2021 are Jaedyn Prewitt and Cody Bollig from the offense and Bryce Hornbeck and BJ Mullin from the defense. A special teams captain will be selected on a week-by-week basis.
Extended Home Slate: Whitworth will play six home games in 2021, two non-conference contests and four Northwest Conference dates. The last time the Pirates had six home games during the regular season was 2018, which is the last time Whitworth won a Northwest Conference title.
Looking Back at 2018: Whitworth played four games, but only two opponents, in 2020-21 after the season was delayed until February and March because of COVID-19. The Washington members of the Northwest Conference played each other in all fall and winter sports.
The Pirates opened with a 53-6 win over Puget Sound and beat the Loggers 30-12 in Tacoma in game three. After beating Pacific Lutheran 28-10 on the road in the second game, Whitworth closed the spring with a 56-23 win over the Lutes at home.
Bryce Stands Tall: Despite the fact that he is one of the smaller players on Whitworth's roster, Bryce Hornbeck has come up huge for Whitworth's defense the last two seasons. After he did not get much playing time in his first two years, Hornbeck has owned one corner spot since 2019. He had four interceptions that season and five deflections. He added three interceptions in 2020-21 with four breakups. He has returned an interception for a touchdown each of the last two seasons.
The Ironman: Colton Chelin has not missed a start, much less a game, in his Pirate career. The senior cornerback has started every game since stepping on campus for the 2019 season. He has six career interceptions and 18 passes defended in his career.
Prewitt Can Do It: Jaedyn Prewitt, who threw nine passes over the course of his first two seasons, worked his way to becoming Whitworth's starting QB last spring. All he did was complete 62 of 103 passes (60.2%) for 1,074 yards with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. He established career highs with 458 passing yards, 23 completions, 38 attempts and four touchdowns in the season-ending win over Pacific Lutheran.
Mr. Touchdown: If there was an official statistic for touchdowns per reception, Ethan Peloquin would likely have been a national leader in that category last spring. Half of his 14 receptions went for touchdowns. He had at least one in each of the four games. Four of those touchdown receptions came on either third or fourth down.
The Anchor: Cody Bollig is in his second season as Whitworth's full-time starter at left tackle. He has played in every game of his Pirate career, beginning as a major contributor during his freshman campaign.
Preseason rankings: Whitworth is listed first among "others receiving votes" in the D3football.com preseason poll.
NWC Poll: Whitworth is second in the 2021 NWC coaches poll with 43 points and one first place vote. Linfield (49 points, 7 first place votes) was first and Pacific (Ore.) (35 points) was third. Coaches cannot vote for their own school.
Leading the Evergreen State: Since Rod Sandberg took over as Whitworth's head coach in 2014, Whitworth University has the best winning percentage of any football playing university in Washington State. Heading into 2021, the Pirates are 51-14 since 2014, a winning percentage of 78.5. That figure is better than the University of Washington (58-27, .682), Washington State (47-34, .580), Eastern Washington (59-24, .710), Central Washington (45-21, .682), Pacific Lutheran (24-33, .421) and Puget Sound (31-31, .500).
Seven in a Row: With the win at Puget Sound last March, Whitworth clinched its seventh consecutive winning season under head coach Rod Sandberg. That matched the longest streak of winning campaigns in school history, set between 1959 and 1965.
On the Air Again: Whitworth's games will once again be carried live this season on KSBN 1230am in Spokane. The relationship between Pirate athletics and KSBN goes back to 1994, a span of 25 years. Bud Nameck, familiar to listeners in Spokane as the (now retired) longtime host of the KXLY 920am Morning News, is in his sixth season as the voice of the Pirates in 2021. He was the voice of Washington State University men's basketball for 22 years, and spent that same amount of time on the Cougar football broadcasts – the final three on play by play. He is a longtime resident of the Inland Northwest who began his career as the Sports Information Director and radio voice of Gonzaga University basketball and baseball in the 1980s.
Two SWX Broadcasts: Local cable station SWX will carry two of Whitworth's games this season: the October 2nd game against Lewis & Clark and the October 16th contest against Pacific Lutheran. SWX stands for Sports & Weather Right Now and is owned by local NBC affiliate KHQ channel 6. SWX can be seen both over-the-air and through some cable services in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene, Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, and Yakima viewership areas. In the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, SWX is found on digital channel 6.2, on Comcast channel 112 in Spokane and Time Warner channel 306 in North Idaho. Click here for a complete list of station numbers throughout the Eastern Washington/North Idaho region.
The Head Coach: In seven seasons Rod Sandberg has entrenched himself in the Whitworth and NCAA record books as the Pirates' head football coach. Sandberg has guided the Pirates to a 51-14 record over that span, including two appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs (2015 and 2018). He is in second place in total victories in school history and no Pirate coach reached 50 victories as quickly as Sandberg. Sandberg's winning percentage of .785 is the best among Whitworth coaches with at least five seasons and currently ranks among the top 10 active coaches in all of Division III. He coached the Pirates to only the fourth unbeaten regular season in school history (9-0) in 2018 and only the second NCAA playoff victory (48-6 over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps). The Bucs' 15-game winning streak, counting the final five games of 2017 and the first ten of 2018, is the second-longest in school history. Whitworth was 6-4 in 2014, Sandberg's first season, the best first-year record for a Pirate football coach since Rod Enos led the team to a 6-3 mark in 1965. Sandberg spent 19 seasons on the defensive staff at Wheaton College (Ill.), including the last 11 as defensive coordinator. Wheaton made the NCAA Division III playoffs five times during Sandberg's tenure as defensive coordinator. The team never lost a first round playoff game and reached the Division III semifinals in 2008 and quarterfinals in 2003. Sandberg's 2007 and 2013 squads led the Collegiate Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, regarded as one of the strongest football leagues at the Division III level, in scoring defense. The Thunder were second in the league in scoring defense five other times.
The Tartans: Carnegie Mellon University is a top-flight academic institution in Pittsburg and the Tartans are members of the Presidents' Athletic Conference. They went 2-2 in the Covid-shortened 2020-21 season and were 8-3 overall and 7-2 (second place tie) in the PAC in 2019.
Head coach Rich Lackner has announced his retirement, effective the end of the season. Lackner is 226-123-2 (.647) in 35 years as head coach at CMU. He ranks third in DIII, and eighth overall, in most wins by an active head coach. He is 12th all-time in Division III for wins heading into this season. Lackner is a Carnegie Mellon alum.
The Tartans' offense averaged 319 yards and 27 points per game last spring. Sophomore Ben Mills is expected to take over as starting QB. He completed 14 of 33 passes for 206 yards with four touchdowns and one interception in his first year. Kris Hughes (13 receptions, 257 yards, 4 TDs) and Ben Armbrester (12, 204, 2 TDs) are expected to be his top targets. Ryan Shaw, who carried 27 times for 161 yards in four games, is the top returning running back. Right guard Sean Pegorelc is a D3football.com preseason All-American (second team).
Twin brothers Bobby and Tom Coury anchor the defense, which allowed only 16 points and 300 yards per contest. Bobby led CMU with 25 tackles, while Tom had 23 tackles, a fumble recovery and an interception. Punter Casey Jaeb, who averaged over 40 yards per attempt, is also a D3football.com preseason All-American (second team).
The Series: Whitworth and Carnegie Mellon have never played. The Pirates have never played a member of the Presidents' Athletic Conference and the Tartans have never played a school from the Northwest Conference.
Coming up next: Whitworth will have another first-time opponent when the Pirates host Lincoln University on Saturday, September 11th. The Oaklanders are in their initial year of football.
