By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The Washburn University football team will be in Yager Stadium for the first time this season on Saturday, hosting No. 5-ranked Colorado School of Mines in a 1 p.m. contest.
Ichabod coach Craig Schurig played at Colorado School of Mines before beginning his long coaching career.
Veteran Washburn football coach Craig Schurig will lead his team against his alma mater, Colorado School of Mines, in Saturday's 1 p.m. home opener at Yager Stadium. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Ichabods have been idle since a 30-14 loss at Emporia State on Aug. 29 while the Orediggers, who are ranked No. 5 in the AFCA Coaches Poll and No. 6 in the D2football.com poll, dispatched West Texas A&M 41-13 in their season opener on Sept. 5.
"We feel like it's been very productive,'' Schurig said of the Ichabods' time off. "Obviously you know by how you play the coming week but hopefully we'll be a much better team. Obviously, we're playing a very good opponent in Mines, but I think we've improved and we've grown as a team having a game under our belt.''
Redshirt freshman quarterback Keller Hurla passed for a career-high 116 yards in his first career start against Emporia State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Redshirt freshman quarterback Keller Hurla led Washburn with 137 total yards of offense against the Hornets, including 116 passing yards, while Jacquez White led the Ichabods with 10 tackles, including seven solo stops, against ESU while adding a tackle for loss.
White's 10 tackles were a career high and is tied for second in the MIAA for tackle average this season while Hurla's 116 passing yards came in his first career start after taking over for injured Ichabod starter Sam Van Dine.
Former Highland Park star Tre Richardson caught five passes for 42 yards in his Washburn debut against Emporia State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Former Highland Park star and Hutchinson Community College All-American Tre Richardson made his debut for the Ichabods against Emporia State, catching five passes for 42 yards and returning two kickoffs for 37 yards. Richardson also carried the ball two times for five yards.
"I feel pretty good to have a game in and a lot of practices under my belt,'' Richardson said.
And despite the Ichabods' loss to the Hornets, Richardson said he saw numerous positives in WU's performance.
"Nobody fell apart from Sam getting hurt,'' Richardson said. "We all wished him the best, but we had to move on to the next man up. That's the mindset that the team has and we still had the same goals going in there -- playing hard, winning the game -- and there were a lot of positives.
"Our defense played good. They just got tired of playing back to back to back, so all we've got to do is work on scoring the ball and we'll be good.''
The Orediggers have posted a 62-9 record since 2018 and are looking to continue an incredible three-year run of success that has seen the program win three consecutive NCAA Super Region IV championships and appear in the last two NCAA Division II championship games.
In 2023 the Orediggers won their first 14 games on the way to the national final, going 9-0 in the RMAC for a second consecutive season and earning the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA playoffs.
Colorado School of Mines quarterback Evan Foster is a graduate of Olathe South and was a high school teammate of Washburn's Jai Haynes.
The Ichabods and Orediggers have not met since 2010 when Washburn survived five turnovers while racking up 611 yards in total offense in a come-from-behind 34-29 road win over Mines. The win was the sixth straight over the Orediggers in the final game in the series. The Ichabods are 13-5 all-time against the Orediggers.
"I've followed their success through the years and the series we had with them was a fun series,'' Schurig said. "They were very close games and I think they helped both teams prepare for the season because we played them early in the season.''
And Schurig thinks Saturday's contest will also benefit the Ichabods moving forward.
"When you play a team that you know is going to be disciplined and execute well and attack you a certain way you can judge your team,'' Schurig said. "If you play a team that's all over the place you don't know if you've improved or not so this is a good test for us and our kids will be excited to play it.''
Washburn will return to MIAA play on Sept. 21, hosting Pittsburg State. Overall, the Ichabods will have six home games this season.
