It has to be good for a coach's resume when his team brings home the coveted rivalry trophy in his first game, right? VTSU Castleton athletics photo

By Greg Thomas
D3sports.com

We’ve all moved into a new space. Maybe a new home or a new office. Maybe a dorm room. And every new space needs new adornments. Maybe a Maple Sap Bucket. Or a Mayor’s Cup. Perhaps a decorative sword. Around The Nation isn’t here to judge anybody’s taste in interior decoration — we love all rivalry trophies. For three head football coaches in Division III making their debut this past week, the fruits of their Week 1 labor brought much-desired decor back to their home campuses. 

On Saturday in Northfield, Vermont, Tyler Higley led his Vermont State University Casteton Spartans into a Week 1 contest at in-state rival Norwich, where the coveted Maple Sap Bucket has resided since 2017 — a span of five games in the series. Starting his head coaching career, at his alma mater, in this rivalry game amplified his emotions before the game. 

“Obviously, it's special being a part of that game. Seeing both sides of it and then being able to be fortunate to come out on top was even better because it's been a while for us here,” Higley said. “So yeah it was definitely intensified a little bit. I'm not going to lie about that, but at the end of the day, once the ball gets kicked off, you're coaching football again.”

While Higley locked in on coaching once the game started, there has been an adjustment period as he his responsibilities shifted from being Castleton’s defensive coordinator to overseeing all aspects of Spartan football. 

“One of my character flaws that I continue to work on is asking for help. I’ve internalized that I need to be able to do that, and I have done that,” Higley said, talking about a trait many can relate to. “It's something that, probably all of my life, I've never been very good at. Asking for help and delegating, but I've definitely learned when you need to and when you need to keep the reins on things.”

Higley continues to handle most of the defensive duties for the Spartans, and Casteton shined in that phase of the game on Saturday, holding Norwich to just 12 points and limiting the Cadets to just two scores in six trips to the red zone. Higley praised his defense’s ability to dig in when the field shortened up. 

“They had a lot of mental toughness. I think they kind of took pride in playing with their backs against the wall. It’s interesting that this is something that through preseason and in our scrimmage, we did red zone periods and I felt like we weren't getting the production from the defensive side of the ball in the red zone that I wanted. So it was a point of emphasis going into the game and I was happy that it paid off for us.

“They just played hard. The kids really, really played hard. We told the players after the game, we don't necessarily want to play down in the red zone that much every week, but I was proud of the way that they battled down there.”

After the Spartans knocked down Norwich’s late two-point try to preserve a 14-12 win, Higley’s storybook debut had its happy ending. “I couldn't have imagined it. I'm glad that that was the first one,” Higley said. “I think bringing the Sap Bucket home was really good for our program and a long time coming. it's just one of those special moments that I think, as a coach, I'll eventually look back someday and just kind of smile and be just really proud of the way the kids played.”

Under the lights in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., a very different kind of game unfolded in the annual Mayor’s Cup game between Wilkes and King’s. Making his debut as head coach for Wilkes, David Biever watched his team trade scores to the tune of five total touchdowns in the first quarter. 

“I told it to our team all week that you have to handle the emotions of a big conference game or a big rivalry. The first quarter, there's going to be good, there's going to be bad, there's going to be ugly,” Biever said. “They're going to score, we're going to score. I didn't think we were going to score at times as easily as we did, but we were ready to understand that's what happened and then we had to settle into our game plan in the second quarter, second half, to be able to control the game as we kept going.”

Biever previously held the role of associate head coach and offensive line coach at Wilkes before taking over the head coaching role this offseason following Jon Drach’s move to Union. The transition to the top job has been pretty smooth for Biever. 

The same headset now comes with new responsibilities underneath it for David Biever. 2023 Wilkes file photo

“Working under Jon Drach for five years really set me up for the opportunity to be ready for this opportunity. He did a really good job mentoring me, giving me ways to be a part of the administration, being the associate head coach, doing things that normal head coaches would do to be able to help him out, but then also be able to build my own confidence in running a football program,” Biever said.

Biever has also been able to settle in quickly because of the maturity of his players. “The transition's been awesome because of the kids we have. I have 29 seniors. I have a group of guys that are ready to go play every week and excited to come to work every day and excited to come to practice every day.”

While Biever felt fully prepared to become the head coach at Wilkes, he wasn’t quite ready for how his players might receive him differently. “My voice meaning something different was the biggest thing that I had to get used to. I was an O-line guy. So as the O-line guy you have the pulse of the football team. You're a guy that could bust chops, you could make some jokes, you could keep guys fun and happy at practice.” Biever continued, “then transitioning to the head coach, when you say stuff, they take you literally a lot of the time. Where you say something to a kid, they really think, like, he really means this. And then they come back to me the next day or two, and ask ‘Coach, what'd you mean by this?’ I was just joking around, it's not that big of a deal. And they're like, ‘you can't do that to me!’ That has been the biggest curveball for me is getting used to how my voice means something completely different as the head coach compared to the O-line coach.”

While Biever had a good measure of his emotions ahead of his head coaching debut, it was the feeling after his team’s 43-28 win over King’s that caught him off guard. “Pregame it matched what I thought it was going to be. Postgame, I didn't realize the enjoyment of that, that first win, and how big it was going to be.”

Bievers also knows that you have to savor winning and he wants his team to enjoy their victories. “We're going to celebrate wins. You’ve got to be able to, at this level, have fun, play the game of football, get something out of it, learn life lessons, but then you’ve also got to make sure that when you win, you enjoy it. Because next week is, you don't know what's going to come next week.”

On opening night in Jackson, Miss., Brandon Lechtenberg led his Millsaps Majors onto the field for his head coaching debut against their crosstown rival, Belahven. But before the Battle for the Sword kicked off, Lechtenberg wasn’t afforded a lot of time to think about the moment for his head coaching debut because, well, head coaches have a lot on their plate. 

“There's a whole lot more administration and detail that goes into this that I think I knew was coming,” Lechtenberg told Around The Nation. “Whether it's administration stuff whether it's just working with player issues, and I'm not even going to say problems, just stuff that comes up with players, whether it's injury related, class related, family related, that you've got to be managing with a 110 person roster. There's a lot of life that you're helping kids navigate through and helping kids work through.”

Brandon Lecthenberg took on a new role for Millsaps this season, and ends up getting to size his office for a sword after the first game. Millsaps athletics photo by Samantha Himel

Helping his student-athletes through those situations is a major part of what Lechtenberg loves about his job. “It's about the kids and it's about growing these guys into young men. Without the players, man, nothing else matters and making sure they're bought in and loved and taken care of is probably the number one part of this job,” said Lechtenberg. 

Based on early returns, Lechtenberg’s players have bought in quickly. Coming off of a 1-9 campaign in 2023, Millsaps opened 2024 and the Lechtenberg era with a thrilling 23-21 win over reigning USA South Conference champion Belhaven. The Majors overcame a 14-point first quarter deficit to rally and defeat their rivals for the first time since 2019. Not flinching at that early deficit is something that Lechtenberg challenged his team with throughout fall training camp. 

“We talked about what faith is. Faith is, is if you're up by 14, do you still believe you can win? Because I've been a part of teams that were winning games and things were going good, but always felt like something bad was going to happen and it was going to go wrong.” Lechtenberg added, “Also what happens if we're down by 14 early? Are we going to still believe we can win the football game if they jump out on us? And that's exactly what happened. And then our kids on our sideline kept believing, kept fighting on both sides of the ball, I guess all three phases and clawed back into it.”

The Majors scored 23 unanswered points after falling behind early. A last minute Belhaven drive saw the Blazers at the Millsaps 4-yard line. A mishandled snap by Belhaven triggered a mad scramble for a loose ball, eventually won 35 yards later by Millsaps.

“One thing that stands out is our kids were still playing hard. They weren't taking the play off, but they hadn't quit and being in that huddle on that last drive I'll tell you this, our team fully believed we were still going to win that football game.” 

One adjustment that Lechtenberg is making is handing off some of his defensive responsibilities to defensive coordinator Julian Jean-Baptiste. “I think what we're going to see is a gradual handoff there. As I I told our staff after the game there was probably 30 times in this game I forgot I was the head football coach. I was trying to make special teams fixes or defensive fixes, but our staff did a great job of picking up the slack for me there.”

As for his nerves before his first game as a head coach, Lechtenberg told Around the Nation that his schedule was so busy leading up to the game that he didn’t have time to really get nervous. He was confident in his preparation and was eager to see how the last six months of preparation would play out on the field. “I was excited to get out there with our football team that had put so much work in since January. Our teams, our coaches, all those guys that had really bought in and been through a lot of ups and downs in the last six months. I was excited to see what they could do. Because I really believe we had some good players that were going to show out, and they did.”

For many, being a college football head coach is a dream come true. Winning the first game of a career makes that dream a little sweeter. Winning a rivalry trophy in the first game of a head coaching career is a trifecta that few even have the opportunity to do. Tyler Higley, David Bievers, and Brandon Lechtenberg realized that exact dream in Week 1. 

Seven Ways to Saturday 

Whether you need to recap the week that was or get ready for the week to come, D3football.com is your daily source for fresh Division III football content. We’re bringing the content seven ways to Saturday. 

• Sunday: New Top 25 Poll
• Monday: Around The Nation podcast. Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas recap the weekend that was and preview the weekend to come in Division III football.
• Tuesday: Team of the Week Honors
• Wednesday: Features columns
• Thursday: Around The Nation Column
• Friday: Quick Hits featuring our panel’s predictions and insights into the weekend’s games
• Saturday: Game Day! The D3football.com Scoreboard has all of your links for stats and broadcasts. 

I’d Like to Thank ...

Special thanks to Tyler Higley, David Biever, and Brandon Lechtenberg for spending time with Around the Nation this week. Additional thanks to VTSU Castleton Director of Athletic Marketing and Communications Tom Blake, Wilkes University Assistant Athletic Director for External Operations and Sports Information Director Vince Scalzo, and Millsaps College Director of Sports Information Chris Lawrence for coordinating our conversations this week!

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There’s nothing small about small college football. Division III is home to 240 teams, and many thousands of student-athletes and coaches. There are so many more stories out there than I can find on my own. Please share your stories that make Division III football so special for all of us! Reach out to me at greg.thomas@d3sports.com or on Twitter @wallywabash to share your stories.