The Whitworth Pirates officially open the 2026 college football season on Saturday at home against Eastern Oregon, an NAIA program from La Grande, Oregon. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 pm in the Pine Bowl with a FloCollege streaming broadcast beginning at 12:45 pm.
Whitworth is coming off an 8-3record in 2025 that included a Northwest Conference championship and a bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs. Eastern Oregon is 0-1 this season and went 4-6 overall and 3-3 in the Frontier Conference in 2025.
Military Appreciation Day: Saturday is Military Appreciation Day at Whitworth football. The game will feature a skydiving demonstration and flyover by a plane from Fairchild Air Force Base. Halftime events will include a coining ceremony performed by Whitworth President Scott McQuilkin. Admission is FREE for all members of the military/veterans and their families. Please visit the red Whitworth "Serving our Veterans" tent just outside the entrance on game day to pick up your free tickets.
The Pirates: Whitworth won the 2025 Northwest Conference crown despite returning only a pair of starters on each side of the football from 2024. This year the team has eight starters back on each side and is picked to finish first in the NWC.
The Pirates played an exhibition game last Saturday against the Utah Islanders, a developmental club program based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Whitworth defeated the Islanders 45-0, holding Utah to only 151 yards of offense (2.4 yards per play) and 10 first downs.
Omari Williams led the defense with a pair of interceptions. He returned the first one 29 yards for Whitworth's second touchdown of the game in the first quarter. His second interception went 57 yards and set up the final touchdown of the first half. Whitworth led 35-0 at halftime. Reid Petschl had a team-high six tackles. Twenty-five Pirates made at least one tackle and more than 30 saw action on the defensive side of the ball.
Logan Lacio completed 14 of 19 passes for 156 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He threw a 15-yard score to Chayce Gomes in the second quarter. Carter Steinwand tossed a 33-yard touchdown to Wyatt Doran in the third quarter on his first throw of the game. The running game was kept in check for much of the contest, but Grant Spillman provided a highlight with a 17-yard scoring burst in the second quarter.
First-year Austin Schilt returned a punt 77 yards for a touchdown and finished with 118 yards on three returns.
Team Captains: The Pirate team captains in 2026 are QB Logan Lacio and center Caleb Cabrera from the offense and CB Omari Williams and LB Drew Cody from the defense. A special forces captain will be selected on a week-by-week basis.
In the Polls: The Pirates are listed among "others receiving votes" in the D3football.com and AFCA Division III Coaches preseason polls. Whitworth was picked first in the Northwest Conference preseason poll just ahead of Linfield. The Pirates got five first place votes while the Wildcats got three.
Home-Sweet-Home: Including the exhibition game date against the Utah Islanders, six of the ten games on the schedule are in the Whitworth Pine Bowl this season. It is the first time since 2021 and only the second time in the last decade. The Pirates are 50-12 at home since Rod Sandberg became head coach in 2014.
Looking Back at 2025: Whitworth bounced back from a 1-2 record against non-conference opponents to run through Northwest Conference action 7-0. The conference title came during what might have been considered a rebuilding season when the team was only returning a pair of starters each on offense and defense from 2024. Whitworth fell to Chapman 18-16 in the NCAA playoffs when a two-point conversion attempt with no time left failed to tie the game.
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 2026, the Pirates are 92-27 since 2014, a winning percentage of .773.
Above Water: The Pirates' all-time record in football now stands at 436-423-18. In 2024 Whitworth moved above the .500 mark in all-time won-loss record for the first time since the Bucs were 32-31-2 before the start of 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. Whitworth won for the 400th time in school history on October 16, 2021 vs. PLU. 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 record in football was 248-337-18, 89 games under .500. Since that point Whitworth is 187-84.
Power of 12: With the win over PLU on November 1, 2025, Whitworth clinched its 12th 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: Following the win vs. Gustavus Adolphus last Sept. 6, Whitworth has won ten of its 12 season-openers under head coach Rod Sandberg. The Pirates are 6-1 at home and 4-1 on the road. Whitworth's only season-opening losses under Sandberg came in 2016 and 2022.
Watch on FlowCollege: Like the rest of the Northwest Conference, Whitworth's home athletic events will be steamed through FloCollege in 2026-27. Fans can sign up to watch Pirate sports on the FloCollege portal. Registration is $120 for an annual subscription. Those who register with a .edu email address get a significant discount.
Inland Northwest Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Bud Nameck, familiar in Spokane as the KXLY channel 4 sports director for over 20 years and the longtime host of the KXLY 920am Morning News, is in his 11th season as the voice of the Pirates in 2025. 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.
Listen to Road Games: Fans can tune in online to listen to Pirate ROAD games for free at WhitworthPirates.com. Bud Nameck will provide play by play when Whitworth is away from the Pine Bowl.
The Head Coach: Now in his 13th season, Rod Sandberg has entrenched himself in the Whitworth and NCAA record books as the Pirates' head football coach. Sandberg has guided the Pirates to an 92-27 record over that span, including five appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs (2015, 2018, 2023, 2024 and 2025). 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 .773 is the best among Whitworth coaches with at least five seasons and currently ranks among the top 15 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 then duplicated that accomplishment in 2023. In 2023 and 2024 Whitworth had the first-ever back-to-back ten-win seasons in school history, and the Pirates have made three straight NCAA playoff appearances. 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 Mountaineers: Eastern Oregon (0-1) is coming off a 4-6 season in 2025 when the Mountaineers went 3-3 in the Frontier Conference's Western Division. They are picked fifth of seven teams in the West Division in the Frontier's preseason poll. EOU brings back five starters on offense and six on defense, along with an All-American kicker.
Solo Taylor is in his first year as the head coach, after serving four seasons as a defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator.
Sophomore transfer (Oregon State) Kallen Gutridge is expected to step in as the new starting quarterback. He has a good weapon to work with in second team All-Frontier WR Tyler Creswick, who caught 42 passes for 561 yards and three touchdowns last fall. Senior LB Nehemiah Medrano should anchor the defense again in 2026. He was first team all-conference in 2025 after posting 90 tackles, including 7.5 TFLs for 20 yards in losses. Junior DB Michael Lenke was a second team All-Frontier choice last year. Senior Ethan Cutler was an All-American as a punter after he averaged 41.5 yards per kick. He also held down kick off and place-kicking duties for EOU.
The Mountaineers opened the season at home on August 29th against College of Idaho, the #4 team in the NAIA preseason poll. After taking a 7-3 lead in the first quarter on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Gutridge to Creswick, the offense fell silent in a 37-7 loss to the Coyotes. Gutridge completed 11 of 24 passes for 114 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Senior LB Cole Martin led the defense with 12 tackles, including a pair of sacks.
Last Meeting: Whitworth struggled to get on track offensively in last season's 16-10 loss at Eastern Oregon. The Mountaineers ended a three-game losing streak to the Pirates that began with the recurrence of the rivalry series in 2022.
Whitworth's defense gave up only one touchdown drive of 34 yards on EOU's first series of the game and the Mountaineers finished with only 252 yards of offense. Ethan Cutler kicked three field goals for EOU. Sophomore linebacker Drew Cody had 13 tackles (8 solo), including one for loss. Lane Watkins had Whitworth's only sack of the game among his five tackles. Whitworth was unable to come away with a turnover against EOU.
The Mountaineers held the Pirates to 174 yards of total offense. The tone was set on Whitworth's first possession when the Bucs were held on fourth and one at their own 34-yard line. Logan Lacio completed 25 of 34 passes for 160 yards. He was sacked three times for 31 yards in losses. Whitworth finished the game with 14 net rushing yards on 18 carries. Deacon Dietz caught eight passes for 80 yards.
Iden Bone made a 47-yard field goal in the first half and missed a 35-yard effort in the fourth quarter. His 47-yarder established a new career-long. Matthew Herzog punted four times for an average of 42.5 yards. Whitworth's only turnover of the game came with just under two minutes left in the game on a fumbled punt inside the ten-yard line, allowing EOU to down the ball and run out the clock.
The Series: Whitworth holds an 18-17-2 lead in the series. The Mountaineers ended a three-game losing streak to the Bucs in 2025. EOU and Whitworth played each other 28 years in a row from 1978 through 2005 before renewing the rivalry in 2022. The biggest Whitworth win in the series was 42-6 in 1987. The biggest Eastern win was 63-20 in 1991. The last game played in Spokane was a 31-19 win for the Pirates in 2024.
Coming up next: Whitworth will play at Redlands (Calif.) on September 19th in the 2026 road opener and the only night game on the schedule.
