The D-III underdogs running college football's fastest offense and trying to topple a dynasty
UW-River Falls is the smallest school in its conference. It's also led by the fastest and most prolific offense in all of college football.
To most college football fans, the most surprising turnaround story in recent years is Indiana, which routed Alabama 38-3 in the Rose Bowl to reach the College Football Playoff semifinals.
But a more surprising turnaround might actually have taken place a few hours farther north. University of Wisconsin-River Falls, a program that had posted 19 consecutive losing seasons entering 2021, will play in the Division III national championship Sunday, capping off its first playoff trip since 1996. The conference’s smallest school is led by the fastest and most prolific offense in all of college football.
UW-River Falls averages 564.1 yards of offense per game, the most of any team in any division of NCAA football. Entering November, the Falcons were averaging over 600 yards per game. On Sunday night, they face off against the newest Division III dynasty, North Central (Ill.), which has won three of the past five national championships.
“I can say ‘joke’ now, but I joke I should’ve been fired three times,” head coach Matt Walker said, referring to the nine losing seasons that began his 15-year tenure. “Those were some long, hard nights and years.”
UWRF beat Johns Hopkins 48-41 to earn a trip to the Stagg Bowl, Division III’s national championship game. (Courtesy of UWRF Athletics)
UW-River Falls plays in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the SEC of Division III. It’s where Lance Leipold’s Wisconsin-Whitewater dynasty sprouted more than a decade ago. Walker wanted to coach at the highest level, which is why he left DePauw to take over a downtrodden program at a school with fewer than 5,300 students (Whitewater has more than 12,000). His first 10 years featured a winless season in 2013 and a 2-8 record in 2019. So Walker decided he had to get bold, making a pair of moves that changed everything.
First, he moved his offensive coordinator, Jake Wissing, to defensive coordinator. Wissing is Walker’s most trusted confidant, a longtime assistant and former player for Walker.
Then Walker promoted 26-year-old wide receivers coach Joe Matheson to offensive coordinator. The pandemic-canceled 2020 season proved to be a blessing in disguise. Walker wanted to move to an all-out up-tempo offense, and the lack of a season at the Division III level allowed more time to install and prepare the young Matheson’s “Top Gun” offense — even as Matheson was furloughed for a period.
“I knew early on he was going to be special with a unique mind,” Walker said. “As we talked football, we aligned, and we wanted to truly become the fastest team to ever play.”
