Truman State University opens the football season at 6 p.m. Saturday against Washburn at Stokes Stadium.
Saturday is Student and Community Appreciation Day, according to the athletics department’s May 27 schedule release. The game is a rematch of last year’s season opener in Topeka, which Washburn won 20-17.
Truman State is an NCAA Division II program in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. College results are kept separate from the high school slate.
The Bulldogs were 8-4 last season, 7-1 in the conference, and reached the NCAA Division II playoffs for the first time since 1994, the athletics department said in its Aug. 1 season preview. They were picked second in the GLVC preseason coaches poll, with 58 points and two first-place votes. Indianapolis was the preseason favorite.
Kellen Nesbitt enters his third season as head coach. He was named the conference’s coach of the year after last fall’s playoff berth.
The official preview lists 17 returning starters. Senior quarterback Dylan Hair threw for 2,463 yards and accounted for 33 total touchdowns last season. Senior receiver Nathan Ryan caught nine touchdown passes. Senior linebacker Jack Weltha had 94 tackles.
Washburn, of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, opens its season on the same night in Kirksville, according to a Washburn athletics preview posted Aug. 25.
Home games are scheduled for broadcast on the GLVC Sports Network, with Brad Boyer and Hank Janssen on the call, the May 27 release said.
Truman State plays at Davenport on Sept. 5, then hosts Northeastern State on Sept. 12 in the Hall of Fame Game. Conference play starts Sept. 19 at home against Missouri S&T.