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| Lane Watkins has played wherever he's been needed on the front line for Whitworth this season, and has a team-high nine tackles for loss and five and a half sacks to show for it. Whitworth athletics photo |
By Glen Crevier
D3sports.com
In the aftermath of a 42-17 loss to eventual national champion North Central in last year’s Division III playoffs, Whitworth coach Rod Sandberg refused to dwell on a sudden roster depletion of 33 seniors, some of whom had been in the program for five years, thanks to an additional year of eligibility because of COVID.
Skepticism surrounding the new season was well founded, despite a program that was coming off consecutive 10-win seasons and two NCAA appearances.
“They weren’t just 33 players,” Sandberg said. “They were All-Americans, they were three- year starters, they were all-conference players, the leading tackler in school history, the best receiver in America. I mean, those were absolute studs.”
But entering Saturday’s regular-season finale against the University of Puget Sound,
Sandberg’s Pirates are 7-2 and have already secured the Northwest Conference’s automatic bid to the Division III playoffs by virtue of its tie-breaker victory over Linfield. Whitworth can win the conference outright with a victory over the 1-8 Loggers.
On the plane ride home from Chicago after the tournament loss last November, Sandberg turned his thoughts to what lay ahead.
“This game that just moves on and you can't live in the past,” he said. “You can celebrate the past but you’ve got to constantly move forward and look into the future. Your seniors are going to be gone but next year the new seniors want to have a great year and a great experience. That’s what motivates me.”
Sandberg has found success in that approach. He is 91-26 in 12 seasons at the Spokane school and this will be his fifth trip to the playoffs.
Don’t be fooled. It hasn’t been so easy this season. The Pirates defeated Gustavus Adolphus in the opener but then dropped consecutive games to Eastern Oregon and Redlands to fall to an uncomfortable 1-2.
The bye week arrived at the right time, just before conference play began.
“We had a chip on our shoulder because we read that we were picked third in the conference,” said Logan Lacio, a junior and first-year starter at quarterback. “I think people counted us out because we were so young. The previous two years set a standard for this program and we realized we weren’t living up to that level.’’
The poor start to the season was a wake-up call, according to Lane Watkins, a senior captain and leader on defense who has played all four positions on the front line this season.
“We realized we weren’t going to go undefeated or even 9-1,” he said. “In the long run, you could say losing those two games helped us out.”
Watkins said bye-week practices were all about fundamentals and not game preparation.
“We just re-evaluated where we were as a team,” he said.
The slow start to the season was unfamiliar territory for Sandberg.
“Not even in my first year were we 1-2,” he said. “Thankfully we had two weeks to prepare for conference play. There were a lot of questions being asked. We were really trying to figure things out. But I asked the team to trust the process. We were 20-3 the previous two years so we had a good process. But the only way to get the experience is to throw yourself out there and be in the fire. It wasn’t perfect when we came off the bye, but then we just kept getting better and better.”
The Pirates have since rattled off six consecutive victories.
They’ve done so behind a balanced offense, a strong kicking game, an all new offensive line and a defense that has performed at its best when needed the most.
In an era when footballs fill the Saturday skies, Whitworth is content to hand off to Luis Salgado, who recently surpassed 3,000 career rushing yards and needs only 93 more to reach 1,000 for the season.
Lacio, who had thrown only 11 passes before this season, has passed for 1,928 yards, 10 touchdowns and has a 68 percent completion rate. He had a streak of 140 passes without an interception broken last week against Willamette.
If the offense sputters, it can always turn to Iden Bone, who has kicked 14 field goals this season, one shy of the school record.
Defensively, as Watkins says, “we do whatever we can to hold on. We pressure the quarterback and try to eliminate the run. That’s been our recipe for success. Sometimes our offense picks us up, and sometimes it’s on us, like against Pacific Lutheran, when we kept them out of the end zone.”
Said Sandberg: “I'm grateful to have a team where we have the talent on offense, defense or special teams to impact the game. I wish all three of them could be working at the same time. We are going to need that in the playoffs.”
Even so, the current version of the Pirates has created a memory for Sandberg to celebrate one of these days when he reflects on the past.
“It’s rewarding to see this group come together and rally together and trust each other. I’ve been part of 17 championships as a player and coach, and this is probably the most rewarding when you consider where we were and what we've overcome. To see them have such success is pretty awesome.
“Last year, everybody was back. We knew we were good. Our job as coaches was to get out of the way and don’t mess it up. But this year we’ve worked our tails off and it’s been a journey. But a very rewarding one so far.”
