Justin Johns, right, is getting significant playing time this spring as a freshman linebacker for Washington & Jefferson, and he and the Presidents are hardly along in finding significant snaps for their newest student-athletes. Washington & Jefferson athletics photo by Sarah Dudik

By Greg Thomas 
D3football.com 

This academic year has been entirely too short on Division III football games and much too long on adversity. 

For those of us who have been around Division III football for a long time, we know what we’ve been missing and what we have to look forward to. For first year college student athletes, pandemic college football is the entirety of their experience - but one that many have found opportunity in despite all of, well, this. 

At Heidelberg, freshman quarterback Drew Sims made his debut this spring with a 349-yard, six-touchdown performance against Capital. While that impressive start was delayed by several months, Sims did find positives in the slower-than-usual start to the football season. 

Drew Sims got to experience a little bit of everything for Heidelberg this spring, including huge success in a win against Capital and also facing the Mount Union defense. Photo by Bob Forbes for Heidelberg athletics

The delayed season “benefited myself personally and all of the underclassmen a lot,” Sims said. “Normally you’re starting college classes, you’re learning the playbook, you’re going through fall camp and then the season starts. Now, it was a slower moving process. We got to spend time on Zoom with coaches and seniors to learn the playbook. We got a whole semester of a college lifting program with the team. 

"I think for all of the underclassmen, being able to get acclimated to college and getting used to what college classes are like without having football really benefited everyone.”

Justin Johns, a freshman linebacker at Washington & Jefferson, echoed Sims’ thoughts on having time to acclimate. In fact, W&J’s underclassmen got extra attention in the fall. “In the fall there were hardly any juniors and seniors on campus so there was a lot of time focused on the underclassmen which isn’t typically the case,” Johns said. “That actually helped me out a lot and I was more prepared than if it was a typical season.”

At Bluffton, coach Aaron Krepps has a relatively young roster populated by his first two full recruiting classes. That youth has been reflected in the Beavers’ depth chart this spring. The extra time created by this year’s circumstances allowed Krepps to bring his young players along at a more deliberate pace. 

“We’re so accustomed to how we operate as football coaches with camp and practices, so for us to start out in the fall with groups of 10 only, you have to think outside the box to maximize your efforts,” said Krepps. “That paid off for those guys in the fall because we were able to install everything slowly.” 

With that context, it is easy to see why young players are contributing significantly this spring. Not only have first year players had time to learn their respective systems and spend an extra four or five months in a college strength program, the whirlwind adjustment to college life in general is not there as an added distraction. 

For Sims and Johns, this first year of college has been far from what they expected, including the very fragile nature of their schedule. Sims and the Student Princes were able to play all five of their scheduled games, but that didn’t come free of anxiety. 

On schedule uncertainty and the possibility of cancellations, Sims told Around The Nation that “You try not to think about it because you’re thinking about the game plan and preparing to play that week, but it’s in the back of your mind that you have to attack every practice like it’s the last one because we could test positive or get the call [from that week’s opponent] that they tested positive and this could all be over real quick.”

“Fortunately the West Division was pretty good up until the last week,” Sims added. “But you were always looking to see who would get it next and hoping that it wouldn’t end up back in our program.”

Johns is currently tied for second in tackles with the Presidents this spring. He and his teammates have not been quite so lucky as the schedule goes, as their April 16 game against Bethany was indeed canceled due to COVID-19 protocols. “It’s really not like anything I’ve experienced before,” Johns said of the sudden cancellation. “This week it was a shock to everyone. We went through the week prepared to play the game and we had no idea they may be going through COVID protocols.”   

The fragility of this year’s schedule has not been lost on Krepps either. Embracing every opportunity has been a key part of Bluffton’s message this season. This spring it has been paramount to “stay focused on being grateful that we have the opportunity to play,” said Krepps. “Have fun, because a ton of guys across the country right now that would love to be in our position.” Indeed, Bluffton has had as many opportunities as anyone in Division III, having played eight games this season. 

Given the uncertainties about campus life in the fall and the lack of fall football seasons it is understandable to see student-athletes choose to take a year off or for first year students to defer their enrollment. Johns, however, was not interested in waiting to enroll. “I considered it for about five minutes, to be honest,” Johns said when asked if he considered a gap year. “I saw that the pros [of coming to W&J in the fall] far outweighed the cons. Especially as a freshman, I thought I could use it to my advantage and I think I did. The quarantine was pretty tough, but I would definitely do it again if I had the opportunity to do so.”  

Sims was also not interested in waiting to get started at Heidelberg. “I knew I wanted to be on campus and meet new people. After the season got canceled it sucked, but it wasn’t that much longer before we had another team meeting and Coach (Scott Donaldson) told us they had a plan for us to play in the spring.”

“I think the OAC and everybody from top to bottom did a great job organizing this spring,” Sims said. “We had a goal to win the Rhine River Cup (against Otterbein) and win the Bendekovic Bowl (against Ohio Northern), win the west and then go and try to win the conference championship,” Sims said. I think that really put a lot of excitement in the OAC and us as a program because we knew we had a goal to reach.”

Krepps was effusive in his praise of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference’s commitment to a full conference season and credited the chase of a conference championship as a factor for Bluffton’s strong roster numbers this spring. “The fact that the HCAC came out early and said that we’re going to sponsor a title this year, our guys all jumped on board with that.”  

Montez Archer Jr. burst onto the scene for Bluffton this spring with a pair of three-interception games. Bluffton athletics photo

“It was huge,” Krepps said. “It’s just the competitor in you that says ‘what are we playing for?’  We probably would have lost guys if we said we’re only going to play five scrimmages. The fact that we’re playing for a conference championship makes it meaningful.”

Just as they were able to use the time they had without football to better prepare for the spring, the panel believes their spring seasons will serve as springboards for the fall. 

Of playing through the pandemic, Johns said: “I have a better ability to adapt to different situations. It’s been difficult for a lot of us going through the ups and downs of this process. The ability to adapt has greatly improved for me and for many of my teammates. I think this whole situation is going to benefit us next fall for sure.”

Krepps thinks his team, especially his young players, will have a significant advantage this fall. “They didn’t go through a full fall camp, but they’ve gone through a season and they’ve been through the rigors of a college season,” Krepps said. “Some schools are going to have two classes of players that are experiencing everything for the first time. There are going to be some discrepancies because of that preparation and how far along some schools have been able to go.” 

Across the division this spring, underclassmen have shone. Sims emerged as one of the top passers in the North region en route to an OAC championship game appearance. Johns has been a key part of Washington & Jefferson’s young and talented defense that will play for a PAC championship on Friday. Budding stars like current Division III interception leader Montez Archer, Jr. have given Krepps’s Bluffton Beavers momentum and promise. 

Their stories of perseverance are hopefully a harbinger of things to come as we start to turn toward post-pandemic football this fall.