Augustana football aims to rely on new leaders

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The Augustana football team sits second in the preseason conference poll after having lost 27 lettermen and the team is looking to adjust.

24 incoming freshman will be joining the Vikings roster and the physicality they bring make them easy to teach, as the team looks to fill in some gaps on offense.

“A lot of what it is is just bringing younger guys along, seeing how we can work our combos, seeing how we can communicate better in the pass game. And the same goes for the receivers. There’s a ton of opportunity, a ton of talent, a ton of speed,” Augustana tight end Matt Francis said.

Standout quarterback Casey Bauman was signed as a free agent to the Chargers, before being released in mid August. Now, Thomas Scholten and Gunnar Hensley are battling to be the starting signal caller.

“The gap continues to change between the two. The off schedule plays, the out of pocket plays a little bit more run threat potentially. All those things come to play. We won’t make a single guy take snaps until one separates to the point where we feel we have to,” Augustana head coach Jerry Olszewski said.

Augustana returns plenty of talent from last year’s team, but there are still holes to be filled ahead of their first game at U-Mary.

“At the end of the day, our defenses are always really great. Coach Sipple is one of the best in the country and they’re always going to do their great things. But as an offense, we’re bringing that up to, we’re filling those spots, we’re competing with them every day. We’re just trying to get better every single day,” Augustana offensive linemen C.J. James said.

“Even though we got a lot of guys returning. We still have a lot of room to improve. We still have a lot of things we can get better at. So, just coming into each practice, trying to fix mistakes, trying to add new tools to what we do to give us the best shot once we come to game day on Saturdays,”Augustana defensive back Peyton Buckley said.

The Vikings will meet UMary in Bismarck on Thursday, September 5.

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