SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth Pirates open the 2024 college football season on Saturday at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 pm (CT) / 11:00 am (PT) at Hollingsworth Field and a broadcast can be heard live at WhitworthPirates.com.
Whitworth is coming off a 10-1 record in 2023 that included a Northwest Conference championship and an appearance in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs. Gustavus Adolphus went 6-4 last fall and played in the championship game of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. Check the Whitworth football schedule above for other live coverage of the game.
The Pirates: Whitworth returns eight starters on offense and nine on defense from a team that outscored opponents by an average of 41-21 in 2023.
The Pirate offense is bolstered by a veteran offensive line that includes five returning starters – all seniors. Dillon Helle (OT) and Patton Miller (C) earned first team All-Northwest Conference recognition in 2023, while Jake Trost (OG) claimed honorable mention consideration. Luis Salgado returns at tailback after gaining first team All-NWC, while WR Evan Liggett was a second team choice.
The Whitworth defense is also very strong up front. The top nine players return for the front four, including first team All-NWC defensive ends JT Muñoz and Dylan Owen. Nathan Hummell also has experience starting at DE. Justin Gies is an honorable mention All-NWC DT. Zach Brooks, who led the Bucs in total tackles in 2023, returns as a first team All-NWC inside linebacker. Fellow ILB Caleb Shawen was a second team choice last fall. The secondary is anchored by first team All-NWC safety Daniel McKeirnan, who led the team with five interceptions and nine total passes defended.
Placekicker Iden Bone, who earned first team All-NWC as a freshman in 2023, is back to kick extra points and field goals. Marcus Viramontes is in his third season as the starting long snapper. Cameron Sheley will return punts and kickoffs and be assisted on kickoffs by Nate Owens.
Team Captains: The Pirate team captains in 2024 are QB Ryan Blair and OG Jake Trost from the offense and ILB Zach Brooks and DT JT Muñoz from the defense. A special forces captain will be selected on a week-by-week basis.
In the Polls: The Pirates are ranked 24th in the D3football.com preseason top-25 poll and 25th in the AFCA Division III Coaches Poll. Whitworth was picked second in the Northwest Conference preseason poll behind Linfield. The Wildcats received seven first place votes to only one for the Bucs.
Looking Back at 2023: Come-from-behind wins in the two non-conference contests at Eastern Oregon (42-28) and Chapman (24-17) sparked a remarkable 7-0 run through the Northwest Conference. Along the way the Pirates defeated PLU 42-13 and George Fox 24-13, two teams that had beaten Whitworth the season before. A momentous season-finale at Linfield featured two undefeated teams, the first time in NWC history two unbeatens had met at the end of the regular season. The Bucs came back from a 24-14 second half deficit to win 28-24. Whitworth defeated Chapman again, this time in the first round of the NCAA Playoffs, before losing at 3rd-ranked Wartburg (Iowa) in the second round. Head coach Rod Sandberg was voted as NWC Coach of the Year. Whitworth finished 17th in the final D3football.com poll. Ten Pirates earned first team All-Northwest Conference, including Offensive Player of the Year Austin Ewing (QB). Eight other players picked up second team or honorable mention consideration.
Leading the Evergreen State: Since Rod Sandberg took over as head coach in 2014, Whitworth has the best winning percentage of any football playing university in Washington State. Heading into 2024, the Pirates are 74-22 since 2014, a winning percentage of .771. That figure is better than the University of Washington (87-38, .696), Washington State (66-53, .555), Eastern Washington (76-42, .644), Central Washington (68-32, .680), Pacific Lutheran (39-47, .453) and Puget Sound (36-54, .400).
Almost Above Water: Whitworth won for the 400th time in school history on October 16, 2021 vs. PLU. After last season, the Pirates' all-time record in football now stands at 418-418-18, marking the first time Whitworth is at the .500 mark or better to start a season since the Bucs were 32-31-2 all-time before the 1929 season.
Whitworth won its 100th game in 1959, during Heritage Gallery member Sam Adams' second season. The 200th victory came in 1981 under Bruce Grambo and the 300th win came in 2006 when John Tully led the Pirates to an 11-1 finish. It took 55 years to get the 100th win, 22 more to get to 200 and 25 to get to 300. It took Whitworth only 15 years to get to 400. In 1997 Whitworth's all-time record in football was 248-337-18, 89 games under .500.
Perfect Ten: With the win over Puget Sound last October 14th, Whitworth clinched its tenth consecutive winning season under head coach Rod Sandberg. That extended the longest streak of winning campaigns in school history. The previous long streak of seven was set between 1959 and 1965.
Winning the Opener: Whitworth has won eight of its ten season-openers under head coach Rod Sandberg, including last year's win at Eastern Oregon. The Pirates are 5-1 at home and 3-1 on the road. Whitworth's only season-opening losses under Sandberg came in 2016 and 2022.
On the Air Again: Whitworth's games will air live this season on the internet at WhitworthPirates.com. Bud Nameck, familiar to listeners in Spokane as the (now retired) longtime host of the KXLY 920am Morning News, is in his tenth season as the voice of the Pirates in 2024. 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.
The Head Coach: In ten 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 74-22 record over that span, including three appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs (2015, 2018 and 2023). 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 .771 is the best among Whitworth coaches with at least five seasons and currently ranks among the top 20 active coaches in all of Division III. He coached the Pirates to the fourth unbeaten regular season in school history (9-0) in 2018 and repeated that accomplishment last season. 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 Gusties: Gustavus Adolphus had a remarkably resilient year in 2023. The Gusties, members of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics Conference, started out 1-3 including a 33-31 Homecoming loss to Augsburg. But Gustavus followed with five wins in a row, including a 38-35 upset of 7th-ranked St. John's to earn a spot in the MIAC championship game where they lost to Bethel College to finish 6-4.
Head coach Peter Haugen is in his 16th year as head coach of the Gusties. His record at Gustavus is 76-64.
The Gusties return both the 2023 MIAC Offensive Player of the Year and the 2023 MIAC Defensive Player of the Year. Jake Breitbach (Sr., WR) ended 2023 with 1,599 receiving yards, 110 receptions, and 13 receiving touchdowns to garner All-America recognition from the A.P. (2nd team), AFCA (2nd team) and D3football.com (3rd team). Carson DeKam (Sr., LB) led the MIAC with a career-high 93 total tackles. He added eight tackles for loss, including three sacks, a pass breakup, an interception and a forced fumble.
The Series: Whitworth and Gustavus Adolphus have never played in football. The Gusties are the fourth team from the MIAC to ever appear on the Pirates schedule. The Bucs have played Bethel (1-1), St. John's (0-3) and St. Scholastica (2-0).
Coming up next: Whitworth will come home to host Eastern Oregon on September 14th in the 2024 home opener.
