Tyson Bagent, Harlon Hill and A Quick History of Div. II Football

OK, so let me level with you before jumping into this edition of The Press Break: I’m breaking a personal rule of mine writing this newsletter entry. At least, sorta.

See, I have become increasingly of the perspective that social media has done more harm than good to traditional sports media¹ in the past decade. Social media can be a terrific resource in a variety of ways, but too often, journalists write exclusively for an audience that understands Twitter references. Worse, there’s a tendency to extrapolate a singular misguided post to represent and slander an entire group.

So with that in mind and copping to my guilt up front, I admit that an obnoxious tweet provides the jumping-off point for today’s newsletter. It’s not the entire basis, but the bad tweet in question provides some necessary context since it inspired the following:

Tyson Bagent made his first NFL start in Week 7 for the Chicago Bears, a team struggling mightily through the initial six weeks of 2023. Bagent’s numbers weren’t eye-popping — 21-of-29 for 162 yards passing, a touchdown pass to D’Onta Foreman and solid contributions to the run game with 24 yards on three carries.

However, his steadiness helped Chicago to a 30-12 win. “QB Wins” is a mostly a garbage metric, given 11 players are on the field for offense, defense or special teams at any given time; likewise, pinning losses on a quarterback exclusively is superficial and lazy.

Thus, Bagent’s loss to end his career at Shepherd in Pennsylvania vs. Colorado School of Mines in last year’s NCAA Div. II Playoffs stopped being relevant the moment it ended.

For one thing, and as return readers of The Press Break know from me previously heaping praise on the Orediggers, Colorado School of Mines is exceptionally good.

Mines’ win over Shepherd was part of the program’s march to the 2022 NCAA Div. II Championship Game, where the Orediggers lost to repeat champ Ferris State.

D-II Talent in the NFL

Ferris State flourished behind an excellent defense last season, the captain of which was All-American pass-rusher Caleb Murphy. Like Bagent, Murphy is now an NFL rookie with the Tennessee Titans.

Other Div. II products currently in the NFL include Los Angeles Rams punter Ethan Evans out of Wingate, and his former South Atlantic Conference counterpart, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Dareke Young from Lenoir-Rhyne.

Lenoir-Rhyne figures to have more alumni move onto playing on Sundays in the near-future, too. Defensive lineman Andre Jefferson, who I profiled in this feature earlier this week for FloFootball, is a name to know for future draft consideration.

But back to Bagent. Div. II products have had opportunities in the NFL before, but quarterback prospects to graduate to the league are exceedingly rare. Bagent is just the fourth in the 21st Century, and with his win over the Raiders last Sunday, perhaps already the second-most famous.

The clubhouse leader in that regard is Central Washington alum Jon Kitna. In seven seasons as a full-time starter for the Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals and Detroit Lions, Kitna set the bar for Div. II quarterbacks in the pros.

Bagent obviously has a long way to go to match Kitna’s longevity, obviously. Earnestly bringing it up after one start is the opposite of the same reactionary coin as Nick Wright’s dismissive tweet.

But Bagent delivering a memorable performance in his debut start is both a cool bit of history on multiple fronts.

Harlon Hill Trophy Winners

In addition to joining an ultra-exclusive club among former Div. II quarterbacks to make the NFL, Bagent is also among rare company with Harlon Hill Trophy winners to make the leap.

The Harlon Hill Trophy is essentially the Div. II Heisman, and Bagent claimed the honor in 2021 when he passed for 5,000 yards and 53 touchdowns with another three scores on the ground.

Other Harlon Hill Trophy winners to make the jump to the NFL in the 21st Century are Abilene Christian product Bernard Scott, who rushed for more than 1,000 and scored five total touchdowns in four seasons with the Baltimore Ravens and the Bengals.

Succeeding Scott, the 2008 recipient, was 2009 winner Joique Bell of Wayne State.

Bell had a solid stretch with his hometown Detroit Lions, scoring 22 rushing touchdowns between 2012 and 2015.

The duo followed two-time Harlon Hill winner Danny Woodhead, the best known of the 21st Century Hill recipients. Woodhead won his second in 2007 at the expense of Scott chasing two; Scott finished runner-up in the voting to Woodhead, whose 1,597 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns in his senior campaign were actually career-lows for his time at Chardon State.

Woodhead may have been the best Div. II running back since Johnny Bailey, the only three-time Harlon Hill Trophy winner. Bailey completely the hat trick in 1989 and left Texas A&M Kingsville with more than 7,800 career rushing yards.

The late Bailey earned a Pro Bowl invite as a returner, representing the Cardinals in the game’s 1992 season edition.

Bailey was actually one of three Harlon Hill selections with prominent roles on the Cardinals in the ‘90s. Linebacker Ronald McKinnon of three-time national champion North Alabama spent almost a decade with Arizona from 1996 through 2004.

McKinnon overlapped for one season with running back Ronald Moore, 1992 Hill winner and the second Pittsburg State Gorillas player to claim the award in as many seasons.

Moore spent three years across two stints with the Cardinals, starting off with a bang by breaking the 1,000-yard mark as a rookie in 1993.

Moore may very well have been one of two Gorillas making an impact on the NFL at the same time, had 1991 Hill winner and wide receiver Ronnie West not sustained a serious knee injury after being drafted by Minnesota Vikings.

With the exception of Bagent, you may notice a recurring theme that each of these Harlon Hill Trophy alumni in the NFL played a position other than quarterback. A conundrum, then, is that the Harlon Hill — like the Football Championship Subdivision’s Walter Payton Award and the Heisman Trophy — has become quarterback-dominated.

Every winner beginning with two-time Ferris State recipient Jason Vander Laan² in 2014 and 2015 has been a quarterback. It’s a group that includes Luis Perez, leader of 2017 national championship-winning Texas A&M Commerce.

Perez has gained some acclaim for his play in spring leagues, most notably the XFL. Perez quarterbacked the Arlington Renegades to this past season’s championship.

The reigning Harlon Hill Trophy winner, John Matocha of the aforementioned Colorado School of Mines, is building a case to repeat in 2023.

Matocha has throw for a shade less than 2,400 yards in eight games this season, has 26 touchdowns, and has rushed for almost 200 yards.

Matocha may not command the NFL interest Bagent drew coming out of Shephard despite Mines beating the Rams in last year’s Playoffs — underscoring the usefulness of QB Wins in such discussions. The Oredigger quarterback is 5-foot-11 and lacks the profile of a typical NFL prospect.

Still, it’s neat to think more lower-division players might get a look from someone like Bagent flourishing.

Innovators and Originators

I opened this newsletter with one confession; I now must reveal another. My knowledge about Div. II largely comes from having been paid to cover it. Similarly, I became invested in and an advocate for the FCS after getting my first high-profile professional opportunity covering the subdivision for CBS.

It would be hypocritical of me to chastise someone for not just knowing about Div. II without some kind of entry point — the above-referenced Nick Wright tweet notwithstanding. Tossing out opinions about a genre without knowledge of it is an exception that warrants rebuke.

FBS, and “power” conferences specifically, garner the vast majority of mainstream coverage and attention, so it’s understandable why someone may not know about the history and happenings of a lower division.

However, it should be noted the profound impact Div. II has had on the highest tier of college football.

Colorado School of Mines isn’t a foreign name to those with any more than surface-level understanding of modern passing offenses. In much the same way that Mike Leach and Hal Mumme refined the first incarnation of the Air-Raid offense at Div. II Valdosta State, the scheme evolved at Mines.

Former Orediggers coach Bob Stitt was renowned for his innovations in the early 2010s, with implementation of looks more commonly associated with pro-style or power football integrated seamlessly into the high-flying attack.

Mines commanded a ton of media attention as variations on the air raid became more the norm around FBS. Unlike in the case of Kevin Kelley — the “Coach Who Never Punts” and later the Coach Who Didn’t Beat An NCAA Opponent In A Full Season At Presbyterian — it wasn’t just gawking national reporters making the pilgrimage to Golden for Stitt’s insight.

Stitt held court for offensive coordinators and head coaches around FBS aiming to tweak their own version of the air raid; an offensive Sherpa in the Rocky Mountains.

Stitt left Mines for Montana and had middling results with the Griz, but his influence on the sport remains undeniable. Current Orediggers coach Pete Sterbick has continued the program’s tradition of offensive innovation.

Div. II boasts other unique offenses. Defending national champion Ferris State plays different quarterbacks in an attack that mixes option principles, power-run game and multiple wide-receiver sets.

The Bulldogs’ approach has similarities to the ever-evolving style Willie Fritz has employed, most recently overseeing Cotton Bowl-winning Tulane.

Fritz has won repeatedly throughout his coaching journey, coming onto the Div. I scene at Sam Houston. Bringing on triple-option coach Bob DeBesse, Fritz and his staff created the most beautiful Frankenstein monster of a scheme that integrated elements of the traditional option, attacked the boundaries with air-raid inspired horizontal passing, and utilized talented receivers to deploy long passes like a boxer throwing a haymaker.

Fritz’s tenure elevated Sam Houston to FCS title contender and laid the foundation for the Bearkats’ jump to FBS. Meanwhile, Fritz successfully transitioned Georgia Southern to FBS after leaving Sam Houston implementing a version of the offense that both satisfied longtime Eagles supporters and that brought the program into the modern age.

His tenure at Tulane is the Green Wave’s best in decades, with last year’s Cotton Bowl surpassing the standard set with another offensive innovator on the staff, Rich Rodriguez.

And Fritz began his journey as a successful four-year college coach nearly 30 years at Div. II Central Missouri.

Fritz’s Mules teams were regularly putting up 40 points per game for the season in an era that wasn’t nearly as common as today.

There’s some neat symmetry this year that Fritz is thriving once more with Tulane, in the same state where the most successful Div. II coach of Fritz’s time at Central Missouri has also been successful.

LSU’s Brian Kelly began his head-coaching career at Grand Valley State, where he won multiple national champions before taking the Central Michigan job. Kelly’s tenure at Central Michigan was noteworthy in part for the rise of quarterback Dan LeFevour.

LeFevour’s hard-charging rushing style and mastering of a still-in-its-early-phases spread offense garnered the nickname “Tebow of the Non-BCS.” That Kelly’s offense drew comparison to Urban Meyer’s at a time when the Florida head coach was the most celebrated offensive mind in the game is a fun coincidence.

Before LeFevour at Central Michigan, Kelly coached 2001 Harlon Hill winner Curt Anes at GVSU. Anes passed for 115 touchdowns and rushed for 17 in his time as a Laker.

Harlon Hill

The name Harlon Hill has been plastered throughout this piece, so it’s only right we give the man his due.

Tyson Bagent bringing the spotlight on Div. II football as a Chicago Bear seems only fitting, given it’s as a Chicago Bear Harlon Hill gained notoriety.

Hill won NFL Most Valuable Player in just his second season when he caught nine touchdown passes for the Bears. His rise to professional football fame was unlikely; Hill played college ball at Florence State Teachers College.

Florence State became North Alabama and grew into a Div. II powerhouse; it’s still the only D-II three-peat national champion. When Hill played, the school was a member of NAIA — NCAA Div. II didn’t yet exist — and had only just launched its football program when he arrived in 1949.

Harlon Hill’s name is a worthy choice to celebrate with the Player of the Year trophy. Harlon Hill Trophy recipient Tyson Bagent providing an opportunity to remember Hill as one of the all-time great Chicago Bears is a worthy celebration.

So, I suppose thanks are in order to Nick Wright for inspiring the history lesson.

1. Really, ALL media, but dissecting the problems it’s caused in the political sphere is a far more serious and complex problem than this newsletter is equipped to address.

2. Vander Laan actually made the NFL, but not at quarterback: He spent four seasons primarily as a practice-squad tight end.