Minnesota State Mankato’s early dominance and four other things to know about Minnesota college football

Coming off a 9-3 season, Minnesota State Mankato was ranked No. 11 in the D2football.com preseason top 25.

The Mavericks have climbed to No. 4 in the poll after opening the season with four victories, including dramatic finishes against Bemidji State and Wayne State.

One explanation for their early season success is their offensive balance.

The Mavericks are averaging 477.3 offensive yards per game — 259.5 passing and 217.8 rushing — while outscoring their first four opponents 142-85.

Quarterback Hayden Ekern, in his fourth season as the starter, has passed for 991 yards and eight touchdowns while throwing only two interceptions. He has also rushed for 152 yards and five touchdowns.

Junior receiver TreShawn Watson ranks ninth in Division II in receiving yards (393) and is tied for third in receiving touchdowns (six). Last week, he caught six passes for a career-high 144 yards and two touchdowns in the Mavericks’ 40-6 victory over Minot State. On the season, Watson has 19 receptions. His six touchdowns equal his total of last season, when he caught 36 passes for 582 yards in 12 games.

Redshirt freshman Sam Backer has helped the Mavericks running game fill the void left by the departure of Shen Butler-Lawson, who transferred to Indiana State. Butler-Lawson was named a first-team All-America last season after rushing for 1,446 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Backer, from Chatfield, Minn., leads the Mavericks with 313 yards in 41 carries (7.6 per carry).

The Mavericks play at Concordia (St. Paul) on Saturday. The Mavericks have won the last 12 meetings with the Golden Bears.

Here are four other Minnesota college football story lines this week:

The fourth and final season of divisions in MIAC football begins this weekend. The MIAC split into two five-team divisions (Northwoods and Skyline) in 2021.

St. John’s won the Northwoods division in 2021 and 2022 before Gustavus Adolphus won it in 2023. Bethel has won the Skyline division all three years.

In 2025 and 2026, MIAC teams will play an eight-game conference schedule, which will include a championship week game as the eighth conference game. Beginning in 2027, the MIAC will return to a nine-game conference schedule with one nonconference game.

The six UMAC teams are idle this Saturday before they open a seven-game conference schedule on October 5. The league members voted to play a seven-game conference schedule this season by adding two additional games with conference foes.

The previous single round-robin, five-game schedule meant teams had to find five nonconference games if they wanted to play the maximum of 10 games allowed in Division III. The new schedule left the teams only needing to find three nonconference games.

The six UMAC teams went 6-12 in nonconference games this season. The UMAC will also use the seven-game format next season.

St. Thomas, coming off a 64-0 loss to Lindenwood in St. Charles, Mo., last week, is idle this week before opening Pioneer League play on Oct. 5 in St. Paul.

The Tommies were without six injured starters — three on offense and three on defense — against Lindenwood as they fell to 1-3. Among the players sidelined was Hope Adebayo, who leads the team in rushing.

The Tommies have never lost more than three games in a season under Coach Glenn Caruso, who has been their head coach since 2008. The Tommies play host to Stetson in their Pioneer League opener.

Minnesota Duluth quarterback Kyle Walljasper is fourth in DII in passing efficiency. Walljasper, a junior, has completed 50 of 76 passes for 780 yards and nine touchdowns. He has not been intercepted. Walljasper is also the Bulldogs’ leading rusher with 216 yards. The Bulldogs (2-1, 1-1 NSIC) play host to Southwest Minnesota State (0-3, 0-3) on Saturday.