By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Zach Watkins has spent much of his life involved with the Washburn University football program, as an All-American player, assistant coach, defensive coordinator and most recently as the associate head coach.
Former All-America linebacker and longtime assistant coach Zach Watkins was introduced Wednesday morning as Washburn's new head football coach. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
And as of Wednesday morning Watkins officially took over the job he had long dreamed of as the Washburn Hall of Famer was introduced as the 38th head coach in Ichabod history and the first alum in more than 30 years to guide the WU program.
"I've wanted to be a head coach for a long time,'' Watkins said. "I've turned down some opportunities to stay here and never thought it would happen the way it's happened the last couple of weeks, but it was always a job that I coveted and a job that I knew was special to me and one that I always thought I could do well.''
"He's done an outstanding job and I'm excited about this hire,'' Washburn athletics director Loren Ferre said. "He brings the energy, the passion, knowledge and experience we were looking for. He has been great to work with over the past 11 years that he's been on staff and I'm truly excited about the future of Washburn football and what coach Watkins can bring to this position.''
Watkins succeeds longtime Ichabod coach Craig Schurig, who was relieved of his duties after a 3-8 2024 campaign, and Watkins said he was thankful to get the opportunity to guide the program at his alma mater.
"I know there was high interest in this position,'' Watkins said. "I know there were a lot of people that really thought they could be successful here and I appreciate (the WU administration) being able to understand our vision for the program and how we've got a good plan for it.
"The responsibility of this position is not something that I take lightly. This place means a lot to me and being the head football coach makes it mean even more. Coach Schurig took a chance on me as a player a long time ago and helped me shape the career that I've had and the job that I now have wouldn't be possible if he didn't give me a chance at the very beginning and then he got a chance to hire me and he did.
"He built a program that everyone can be proud of, every alumni, myself, his coaches can be proud of, and I'm excited to build on the foundation that he built for a long time here.''
The Ichabods have struggled the past two seasons, posting a combined 5-17 record, but Watkins said he believes WU can win immediately.
"We have players in place to make this thing go and be very successful for a very long time,'' Watkins said. "We're not starting over. We have all the pieces to be ready to win now. Our program motto is 'Be the standard.' It's be the standard in everything that we do and we'll hold everybody accountable that touches our program -- our staff, support staff, players -- to be the highest quality individual and hold things to the standard that we create.
"I really look forward to working with our players and our staff to make this a program that everybody can be proud of. We've got a really good base of young kids and we'll add some kids to that and should be really good.''
