CAPTION: Hutchinson Community College’s Drew Dallas, now in his fifth season as Blue Dragons’ coach, spoke to the media at Friday’s Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference football media day coaches news conference. The HutchCC Blue Dragons were picked by the coaches to win their fifth straight league title. CREDIT JOHN MESH VIA LIVESTREAM
By John Mesh
Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference football coaches picked Hutchinson Community College to defend its league title.
The league’s annual media day took place Friday at Riverfront Stadium in downtown Wichita. Head coaches from all seven KJCCC football-playing institutions were present.
Emceeing the event for the second straight year was Pat Strathman, sports director and assistant program director at ESPN Wichita 92.3 FM.
For the sixth straight year, HutchCC is the preseason favorite to win the Jayhawk Conference. The Blue Dragons have won 23 of 25 conference games under fifth-year head coach Drew Dallas, now the dean of league football coaches. Dallas has a 38-4 overall record at HutchCC.
“I’m really excited about our football team,” said Dallas at the media day coaches news conference, which was streamed online. “This is going to be an exciting year. We have new coaches and there’s been a little bit of staff shuffling. They’re a group of great young men to mentor our players.
“We’re consistently looking at our depth chart. The players have been working hard in the weight room. The key in this league is to have good quality depth on the offensive and defensive lines. This football team has matured.
“This conference is a gauntlet, and you’ve got to bring your A-game each and every week. If you don’t bring your A-game every week, you’re going to get beat.”
The Blue Dragons have won their past 17 games played against KJCCC opponents dating back to the 2021 season and received 48 points along with six of seven first-place votes in this year’s poll.
Hutchinson’s last loss against a conference foe came Oct. 9, 2021, in a 33-28 defeat to Independence.
Garden City, led by Kiyoshi Harris in his first season as Broncobusters’ head coach, was picked to place second. Butler CC, led by third-year head coach Brice Vignery, is picked third.
Highland is picked to finish fourth, followed by a tie for fifth place between Coffeyville and Independence. Highland’s DJ May and Independence’s Keith Donerson are in their second seasons as head coaches at their respective schools. Nick Dobler is in his first season at Coffeyville.
Dodge City was picked seventh despite coming off an 8-3 season that saw the Conquistadors go 5-1 in KJCCC action to go along with their first bowl game win in program history. The Conqs have a new head coach, Ryan Lusby.
Independence will officially kick off the 2024 KJCCC football season for all seven schools as the Pirates will take on Trinity Valley on the road at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24.
The remaining six schools will all begin their season a week later with non-conference home games either on Thursday, Aug. 29 or Saturday, Aug. 31, followed by the opening game of the conference slate on Saturday, Sept. 7 when Garden City renews its rivalry with Dodge City in Dodge City.
The HutchCC Blue Dragons open the season Aug. 29 at home at Gowans Stadium against New Mexico Military Institute. Kickoff is 6 p.m.
No. 1 Hutchinson and No. 2 Iowa Western will meet on Sept. 7 at Titan Stadium in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Kickoff is 1 p.m.
In addition to being the KJCCC preseason No. 1 team, HutchCC is ranked No. 1 in the JCGridiron.com “Dirty Thirty” National Junior College preseason poll.
HutchCC lost to East Mississippi in the NJCAA Division I semifinals last year. HutchCC posted a 10-1 record and placed fourth in the final JCGridiron Poll.
Los Angeles Rams to sign former Blue Dragons’ cornerback Jerry Jacobs
Former Hutchinson Community College cornerback Jerry Jacobs, who played for the Blue Dragons in 2017 and also played NCAA football at Arkansas State and Arkansas, has found his next home early in training camp.
The veteran cornerback is set to sign with the Los Angeles Rams, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports.
After three seasons with the Detroit Lions, Jacobs did not receive a restricted free-agent offer in May. Jacobs took visits with the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings
Jacobs, 26, has made 29 starts, including 12 last season. Jacobs posted a career-high in interceptions (three) and tackles (55) in 2023.
In 2017, Jacobs earned All-Kansas Jayhawk Conference honors in his only season with the Hutchinson Blue Dragons and recorded 39 tackles and had four interceptions. His first play from scrimmage as a Blue Dragon was a pick-6 (interception for a touchdown).
After the 2017 season, he transferred to Arkansas State. During the 2018 season, he recorded 31 tackles, four interceptions and eight pass breakups in 13 games. Following the season he was named second-team All-Sun Belt Conference.
During the 2019 season, he made four starts with 21 tackles and two pass breakups before suffering a season-ending ACL tear.
Following the season he transferred to Arkansas. On Oct. 26, 2020, Jacobs opted out of the remaining six games of the season and declared for the 2021 NFL Draft.
In four games with the Razorbacks, he recorded 17 tackles, including one for a loss. His 249 defensive snaps were the fourth-most on the team.
Jacobs hosted the first Jerry Jacobs Combine March 12, 2023, in collaboration with The Boys and Girls Clubs of Hutchinson, the Hutchinson YMCA, the Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragon football team and HutchCC.
Nate Dreiling, Utah State football team adds two assistants with Kansas ties
The Utah State University football program is hiring a pair of veteran coaches with Kansas ties to interim head coach Nate Dreiling’s staff.
Utah State, a member of the Mountain West Conference, is located in Salt Lake City.
Troy Morrell will be the associate head coach and senior offensive analyst and Dave Wiemers will be the senior defensive analyst.
Morrell steps back into college football after a 10-year hiatus. He was the head coach of Butler Community College from 1996 through 2014.
He helped Butler win five national championships — three as head coach and two as offensive coordinator — and had a 154-22 record as the Grizzlies’ head coach.
Morrell was inducted into the Butler Community College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2021 and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
Wiemer was head coach at Division II Emporia State University from 2001-06, going 35-32 as head coach.
He also spent more than a decade as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Division II Pittsburg State and most recently has served as offensive coordinator at Carthage High School in Missouri.
Dreiling, a Hutchinson/Victoria native and a Hutchinson High School alumnus, was named the Aggies’ defensive coordinator this offseason after two years in the same position at New Mexico State University.
Dreiling, a member of the Pittsburg State and MIAA Halls of Fame, was elevated to interim head coach when Utah State terminated head coach Blake Anderson’s employment for “actions taken in spring of 2023.”
Dreiling, 33, is the youngest Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) head coach (albeit interim) in the country.
Dreiling played on the 2008 Hutchinson state championship team for his father Randy Dreiling.