Rick Willis photo courtesy/ Elwin Huffman at KOEL
The Wartburg College football team will be relying on several untested players this season. Coach Rick Willis lost 31 seniors, the largest senior class in program history, off last year’s team that finished second in the Iowa Conference race. That includes at quarterback where sophomore Matt Sacia takes over for four-year starter Logan Schrader.
“Matt got a lot of great experience a year ago learning behind Logan and got tons of reps in practice situations and some game experience as well”, said Willis. “He is a smart and versatile athlete with a good arm and a very accurate arm.”
Wartburg finished 9-1 in 2015. The lone loss was to Iowa Conference champ Dubuque and it prevented the Knights from returning to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
“There really is not margin for error the way it is set up for us and the way it works in the sport of football in division three. I don’t know that our guys were unaware of that before but they certainly are aware of that now.”
Wartburg will get a late start to the season by opening on September 10 at Monmouth of Illinois.
Elwin Huffman at KOEL contributed to this story