UW-River Falls rides "Top Gun" offense to D-III title

5 days ago 2

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🚨 Headlines

🏈 NFL coaching carousel: The Browns fired Kevin Stefanski after six seasons, the Cardinals fired Jonathan Gannon after three seasons and the Raiders fired Pete Carroll after one season. Those three teams join the Giants, Titans and Falcons among the league's six coaching vacancies.

🏀 Thunder blown out: OKC's slide continued with a stunning 27-point home loss to the lowly Hornets, falling to 6-6 in their last 12 games after going 24-1 in their first 25. Their pursuit of the single-season wins record has officially hit a wall.

🏆 Bobcats crowned champs: Montana State outlasted Illinois State, 35-34 (OT), to win its first FCS title since 1984. How good was this game? It featured a 20-point comeback, a blocked FG, a blocked PAT in overtime and a game-winning score on 4th and 10.

🏀 Trae on the move? After the Hawks began talks with Trae Young's camp last week about moving the four-time All-Star, reports now suggest the Wizards are a potential landing spot in a deal that would be centered around C.J. McCollum's expiring contract.

🌹 Rose Bowl makes history: Indiana's blowout win over Alabama drew 23.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched CFP game in the 12-team era. By comparison, last week's other three quarterfinals all fell short of 20 million viewers.

❤️ Why we love sports

Frank (L) and Clayton. (Frank Michael Smith)

Frank Michael Smith is one of my favorite people in sports — and millions of followers on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms agree. Frank is also a loyal Yahoo Sports AM reader, and he was kind enough to share a memorable experience he had on Sunday that captures the magic of sports.

Frank Michael Smith (Pittsburgh) writes:

My father in-law barely speaks English. He arrived from São Paulo and was greeted by Pittsburgh weather at its worst, a new culture, and a Steelers team in the midst of yet another late season collapse. None of it mattered. The moment he stepped foot in the North Shore, he belonged.

The days before the Steelers Week 18 showdown versus the Ravens were ordinary, but packed with new experiences. His first snowball, icy roads, and a Bloody Mary he politely finished but vowed never to order again.

Clayton was treating each day like an open invitation. The guy was down for anything, but when the Steelers blew their Week 17 game vs. Cleveland, I knew what had to be done. I broke the news that things were about to get serious. The purest most authentic version of my city lives inside Steelers January football.

I explained to Clayton that it wouldn't be enough to dress warm. We had to leave the house looking like Eskimos if we were to endure my struggling Steelers for 3.5 hours in 20 degree weather. Clayton smiled and said…"nova experiência" (new experience).

Clayton waving a Terrible Towel. (Frank Michael Smith)

We both speak a bit of each other's languages, but once we rolled into the North Shore our broken conversations weren't necessary. The crowd spoke for us. Collective groans after the Steelers went down by 10 points early, and eruptions after they stormed back to seize the lead with 4 minutes remaining.

Clayton understood the winner take all stakes, but nothing could prepare him for the pandemonium after Baltimore missed a 44 yard field goal that sent the Steelers to the playoffs.

When I say the crowd exploded, I mean for a minute there I was nervous about the structural integrity of the venue. It was a level of euphoria usually reserved for an AFC Championship game. We hugged each other and seemingly everyone else in a 15 foot radius.

This is what sports are all about. They transcend distance and language. They bring people together and transform random visits into core memories. Years from now, Clayton won't remember the weather. He'll remember the night Pittsburgh adopted him.

✍️ Submit your story: Do you have a fondest sports memory? Or an example of sports having a positive impact on your life? If you'd like to share, email me at kendall.baker@yahooinc.com. We hope to feature more of these kinds of stories throughout 2026.

🏀 AP polls: Arizona, UConn on top

Arizona held off Michigan for the top spot in this week's AP poll by a single point (!!), while Nebraska moved into the top 10 for the first time since 1966.

Conference call: The Power 4 are dominating this season, with nearly every team in the top 25 coming from the Big 12 (7), Big Ten (6), SEC (5) and ACC (5). The Big East and West Coast round things out with one team each.

The women's poll got a major shakeup with Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Louisville replacing Iowa State, LSU and TCU in the top 10 after the latter three all lost last week. The very top, however, remains unchanged as the top four has comprised the same four teams every week this season.

Streak snapped: Notre Dame's run of 85 consecutive appearances in the top 25 ended after the Irish lost twice last week. That had been the third-longest active streak in the nation behind UConn (615) and South Carolina (257).

🏈 NFL power rankings: Final edition

Our final NFL power rankings of the season are in, courtesy of Yahoo Sports' Frank Schwab. How do they compare to our power rankings entering Week 1?

Seahawks (17 in Week 1)
Broncos (8)
Patriots (21)
Rams (14)
Jaguars (15)
49ers (13)
Texans (17)
Bears (16)
Eagles (1)
Bills (5)
Chargers (11)
Packers (6)
Steelers (20)
Panthers (29)
Vikings (7)
Lions (3)
Falcons (23)
Ravens (2)
Buccaneers (9)
Colts (25)
Cowboys (22)
Saints (32)
Bengals (12)
Chiefs (4)
Dolphins (27)
Browns (30)
Commanders (10)
Giants (28)
Titans (31)
Cardinals (19)
Jets (26)
Raiders (24)

Biggest risers: No team vaulted more spots from Week 1 to Week 18 than the Patriots (up 18), followed closely by the Seahawks (up 16) and Panthers (up 15). The Rams, Jaguars, Texans and Saints (up 10) made the next largest jumps.

Biggest fallers: The Chiefs (down 20) fell the furthest over the course of the season, followed by the Commanders (down 17), Ravens (down 16), Lions (down 13), Bengals (down 11), Cardinals (down 11) and Buccaneers (down 10).

🏈 River Falls rides "Top Gun" offense to title

(Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Indiana's ascent from cellar dweller to juggernaut has been the story of the FBS season. A little farther north in River Falls, Wisconsin, another football team just completed an epic turnaround of its own.

Champions at last: UW-River Falls beat North Central (Illinois), 24-14, on Sunday to win their first D-III national championship, toppling a dynasty that has reached six straight title games and putting the finishing touches on a historically dominant campaign.

A long time coming: The Falcons hadn't won their conference outright since 1985, hadn't reached the playoffs since 1996, and endured 19 consecutive losing seasons entering the pandemic. Something needed to change.

That's when head coach Matt Walker, who took over in 2011 and jokes that he "should've been fired three times," implemented what's been dubbed the "Top Gun" offense.
Walker developed the up-tempo scheme alongside newly-promoted OC Joe Matheson during the lost COVID season. Their goal? Become "the fastest team to ever play," he told The Athletic ($).

What they're saying: "It was desperation," Matheson said of creating the offense, which utilizes a wide array of formations. "If you have the personnel to run 12 personnel, that's what you do. But we had to find ways to get our kids to success. People don't understand how important it is to have a head coach that is willing to do crazy things."

Well, the crazy thing worked: The "Top Gun" offense immediately paid dividends, resulting in four straight winning seasons before going supernova this fall.

The Falcons (14-1) averaged 556 yards of offense on 84 plays per game this season, by far the best marks across all NCAA divisions. What does 84 plays per game look like? One snap roughly every 20 seconds, a truly dizzying rate.
No player benefitted more from the scheme than QB Kaleb Blaha, who won the Gagliardi Trophy (D-III's Heisman) and broke Joe Burrow's NCAA record for most individual yards in a season, with 6,189 combined passing (4,971) and rushing yards (1,218).

The last word: "It took 15 years to get here," said Walker after hoisting the national championship trophy. "I had teams that won no games, won one. Everyone stayed committed to this vision. I'm speechless."

📺 Watchlist: Tuesday, Jan. 6

Duke, led by Cameron Boozer, has lost just one game this season — by just one point. (Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

🏀 NCAA Men's Basketball

Tonight's stacked slate is headlined by a pair of ranked-on-ranked matchups, with No. 6 Duke visiting No. 20 Louisville (7pm ET, ESPN) and No. 14 Texas Tech visiting No. 8 Houston (9pm, FS1).

Best of the rest: No. 2 Michigan at Penn State (7pm, FS1); No. 18 Georgia at Florida (7pm, SEC); Texas at No. 21 Tennessee (9pm, ESPN2); TCU at No. 22 Kansas (9pm, ESPN).

More to watch:

🏀 NBA: Heat at Timberwolves (8pm, NBC); Mavericks at Kings (11pm, NBC) … Minnesota's Anthony Edwards ranks seventh in scoring (29.4 ppg).
🏒 NHL: Panthers at Maple Leafs (7:30pm, TNT) … Both teams are currently outside the playoff picture.
⛳️ TGL: The Bay vs. Atlanta (5pm, ESPN) … Shane Lowry, Ludvig Åberg and Wyndham Clark vs. Billy Horschel, Patrick Cantlay and Chris Gotterup.

Today's full slate.

🏈 NFL trivia

Derrick Henry just recorded his fifth career season with at least 1,500 rushing yards, tied for the most such seasons in NFL history.

Question: Who is he tied with?

Hint: Spent his entire career with one team.

Answer at the bottom.

📸 Photo finish

The Hershey Bears, the AHL affiliate of the Capitals, collected 81,796 stuffed animals for charity during Sunday's Teddy Bear Toss. The furry friends will be donated to children throughout Central Pennsylvania.

Trivia answer: Barry Sanders

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