GAME 1 – Simpson (Calif.) at No. 22 SOU
6 p.m. Thursday | Ashland, Oregon | Raider Stadium (Laurel Field)
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ASHLAND – The 91st season of Southern Oregon University football kicks off this week with the first ever Thursday game at Raider Stadium and Laurel Field.

The No. 22-ranked Raiders and Simpson (Calif.) are set for a 6 p.m. start, also making it SOU's first non-spring home night game since 2019. It's the first of two matchups between the teams – the other will be a Frontier Conference West Division counter, Oct. 11 in Redding – and the first of 10 total games on SOU's regular-season schedule.

A NEW FRONTIER: Simpson, a second-year program, is one of five teams new to the Frontier football circuit this season – the others being Dakota State (S.D.), Dickinson State (N.D.), Mayville State (N.D.) and Valley City State (N.D.), all previously part of the now-defunct North Star Athletic Association. The additions brought the conference's total to 14 teams, which gave the Frontier a second NAIA Championship Series automatic bid and necessitated a split into two seven-team divisions. SOU and Simpson are in the West Division with Arizona Christian, Carroll (Mont.), College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon and Montana Western. The champion of the six-game divisional round robin, which begins Oct. 4, will get one of those automatic bids.

PRESEASON POLLS: For the first time in six years, SOU was included in the preseason edition of the NAIA Top 25 coaches' poll that was released Monday, checking in at No. 22. The Raiders were also picked to finish second in the Frontier West Division behind defending champion Montana Western, which took its only 2024 conference loss at SOU and went on to advance to the NAIA quarterfinals. UMW leads all Frontier teams in the NAIA Top 25 at No. 5; Montana Tech is No. 11, Dickinson State is No. 13, Carroll is No. 25 and College of Idaho is receiving votes.

The Raiders finished last season at No. 24 in the NAIA postseason poll after peaking at No. 7 and entering their final game at No. 14. They went 8-3 overall, tied for fourth in the Frontier standings at 5-3, and were in line to make their first postseason appearance in seven years before dropping the finale in overtime at College of Idaho. It was the first year since 2018 that they'd been listed in a regular season Top 25 poll.

QUICK HITS:

• Reigning Frontier Offensive MVP Gunner Yates begins his junior season, and fourth at SOU, with 39 career total touchdowns. His next will put him alongside Griff Yates (1996-99), Dusty McGrorty (2000-03) and Matt Retzlaff (2013-16) as the only players in team history to reach 40. The running back from Coquille last year broke SOU single-season records for rushing TDs (27) and total TDs (29), ranking second nationally in both categories while leading the NAIA with 1,488 rushing yards. He has scored at least one touchdown in 12 consecutive outings and multiple in 10 of those. This year, he'll be running behind an offensive line that graduated four of five starters.
• The Raider defense returns seven starters and another, Spencer Kuffel, who redshirted last year with an injury after becoming the Frontier's top safety in 2023. Kuffel, a junior, led the conference and ranked third in the NAIA with six interceptions as a sophomore, two of which he returned for TDs. Under third-year defensive coordinator Tyler Stinn, the Raiders have allowed just 19.3 points per game and surrendered 30 points once in their last 17 games.
• Stinn's defenses have also landed at No. 5 on the NAIA leaderboard in sacks two years in a row, averaging 3.4. Gabe Foster, last year's Frontier leader in sacks (10) and tackles for losses (14 ½), returns for his senior season at defensive end.
• SOU's top returning tackler is senior safety Jaxon Jedrykowski, who logged 46 a season ago. He and Kuffel are part of a veteran defensive backfield that also includes All-Frontier corner Jalin Speed and corner Auka Grace, who collected three interceptions in 2024.
• Oregon State transfer Dom Montiel will be the Game 1 starting quarterback. The Coos Bay product arrived last spring after spending three seasons on OSU's roster. At Marshfield High, he accumulated 86 touchdown passes, 7,340 passing yards on 509 completions, finishing top-15 in state history in all three categories. SOU graduated its two all-star targets, but top returning receiver Brandon Barthel registered 21 receptions, 403 yards and three TDs in eight games played.

THE BERK BROWN ERA: Berk Brown, the 2024 AFCA-NAIA co-Coach of the Year, begins his third season as SOU's leader with a 14-7 overall record. Behind him, the Raiders have put together back-to-back winning seasons after not posting one since 2018. Last year they ranked 10th among all NAIA teams in points, 11th in takeaways, and lost their three games, all on the road, by a combined margin of 14 points. His coaching staff remains largely intact, including offensive coordinator Ty Currie and defensive coordinator Tyler Stinn. It's the first time the Raiders have had the same coordinators in consecutive seasons since 2016-19.  

HOME HISTORY: SOU went 6-0 in Ashland last season and has won seven consecutive home games dating back to 2023. The Raiders are 116-70 all-time at Raider Stadium. They haven't lost in Ashland against an unranked opponent since 2022. Their last home game under the lights was a 21-14 win against Rocky Mountain (Mont.) on Oct. 12, 2019, though they'd dropped 10 of their previous 12 regular-season home night games before that.

ABOUT THE OPPONENT: The Red Hawks' debut season was as rocky as expected: With six Frontier teams on the schedule, they went 0-9 and lost by an average score of 61.8 to 8.1 in 2024. SOU took the inaugural matchup last Sept. 14 in Redding, 70-7, as Yates rushed for three first-half touchdowns (and 113 yards) en route to a 49-0 halftime lead. They'll have a more veteran group this time around, with more than double the number of seniors on the roster (13) under coach Shawn Daniel, who was hired in 2023. Starting quarterback Kaleb Anderson (126.8 yards/game, 4 TDs, 11 INTs) is back, along with top receiver Talan Ramirez (18 receptions, 217 yards, 3 TDs) and top rusher Ezekiel Anderson (38.9 yards/game).

COMING UP: The Raiders will renew one of their oldest rivalries in the second of four non-divisional games on Sept. 6, slated to visit Western Oregon in Monmouth for the teams' 75th meeting and first since 2010. WOU, a member of the NCAA Division II's Lone Star Conference in football, went 6-5 last year. It'll be the season opener for the Wolves, who were picked to finish fifth in the LSC.