By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University will open its 136th season of football and second under coach Zach Watkins at 6 p.m. Saturday in Kirksville, Mo. against former MIAA foe Truman.
The Washburn Ichabods will open their 2026 football season Saturday night at Truman, looking to improve on last fall's 3-8 record. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
The Ichabods are coming off a 3-8 season in 2025 while the Bulldogs, who received votes in the preseason AFCA Top 25 Coaches Poll, are coming off an 8-4 campaign, falling 57-14 to Indianapolis in the first round of the NCAA playoffs.
"It's been a really good fall camp I thought,'' Washburn sophomore quarterback Logan Madden said. "We're in a way different spot than we were last year, personnel-wise and just the way we're going about things. And I'm excited to play someone new because it's tough going against our defensive guys every day.
"We've got dudes everywhere so we just need to get them the ball and let them work.''
Watkins agreed with Madden that it's time to get the season started.
"Absolutely,'' Watkins said. "It's time to play somebody else and our guys are hungry and excited to go do that. We set very specific goals as a coaching staff for what we wanted to accomplish in camp and we did that.
"You're never fully ready for the entire season, but we're ready to start the season and ready to figure out who our best players are and our best schemes and kind of figure out what works and what doesn't, but our goals for training camp and our objectives that we talked to the team about, we've definitely achieved.''
The Ichabods and Bulldogs are meeting for only the second time since Truman's last season in the MIAA before joining the Great Lakes Valley Conference for the 2013 season. Washburn won last season's meeting in Topeka 20-17 in the Ichabods' season-opener.
Washburn trails the all-time series with Truman 18-13, but has won the last seven games. The Bulldogs' last win in the series came in a 21-7 win on Oct. 21, 2006 in Kirksville. Overall the Ichabods have won the last three played in Kirksville.
Washburn was tabbed No. 8 in both the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll and Preseason Media Poll while the Bulldogs were selected second in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Preseason Coaches poll, receiving 58 points and two first-place votes. Indianapolis was chosen as the preseason favorite with 63 points and seven first-place votes.
The Ichabods are 82-47-6 in season-openers and 1-1 against Truman in season openers. Washburn and Truman also faced off in the season-opener on Sept. 19, 1958, with the Bulldogs winning 26-13 in Kirksville.
Washburn enters the season on a one-game winning streak, topping Missouri Southern 29-24 in the 2025 season finale.
The Ichabods were 2-4 in one-score games last season with the lone wins coming against Truman in the opener and over Missouri Southern in the finale.
Washburn junior lineback JC Heim, a former Washburn Rural star, led the MIAA and finished second in the nation in tackles with 142 (12.8 per contest).
Madden saw action in seven games with five starts last fall as a redshirt freshman, completing 117 of 202 passes for 1,163 yards and eight touchdowns, and won the Ichabods' starting quarterback job in fall camp.
Now the 6-2, 210-pounder is looking to take another big step forward this fall.
"You want to be pushed,'' Madden said. "It's easy to sit back and relax, but you're not going to get any better. And I knew after last season, obviously I did some good things but I needed to get a lot better.''
Kellen Nesbitt is in his third season as head coach of the Bulldogs after removing the interim tag following an 8-4 season in 2024 and is 16-8 overall. Nesbitt was promoted to interim head coach in February of 2024 following the retirement of his father, Gregg, after spending the previous 14 seasons as the Bulldogs' defensive coordinator.
The Bulldogs return a strong veteran nucleus, including 17 returning starters and a number of All-GLVC performers.
Leading the Truman offense is senior quarterback Dylan Hair, who earned second-team All-GLVC honors after throwing for 2,463 yards and accounting for 33 total touchdowns last season.
Hair will once again have one of his top targets available in senior wide receiver Nathan Ryan, a second-team All-GLVC selection who caught nine touchdown passes in 2025.
Along the offensive line, first-team All-GLVC selections Greg Krupa and Wyatt Bonnett provide valuable experience up front.
Defensively senior linebacker Jack Weltha returns for the Bulldogs after earning first-team All-GLVC honors and recording 94 tackles a season ago.
The Ichabods will open their 2026 home schedule with Colorado School of Mines on Saturday, Sept. 5, in Yager Stadium with kickoff set for noon. The Orediggers received votes in the AFCA preseason coaches poll.
