Sam Powers | Student Life As head coach Aaron Keen brought his team to a huddle at the 50-yard line after Saturday’s game, something in the air felt off. Keen’s players weren’t celebrating their big win in a game that clinched the Bears’ fifth straight season with seven or more wins. As friends and
WashU football experienced that unparalleled feeling in its game at Wheaton College this past weekend. The #12 Thunder narrowly defeated the Bears, ending WashU’s bid to upset a Wheaton team that is perennially ranked as one of Division III’s elite.
WashU Bears thrashed the Elmhurst Blue Jays 66-0. The win was WashU’s first shutout victory since 2019. Per the Athletic Department, this was football’s second-largest margin of victory in program history, second only to an 88-0 thumping of McKendree College in 1938.
Before this week’s college football action, ESPN writer Bill Connelly compiled a composite ranking of all 665 college football programs. Connelly rated the Washington University Bears as the 332nd-best program in the country, good for 15th in Division 3 and even ranked higher than three Division 1 programs.
Washington University football has five graduate students on its roster. Five players who have decided to use their extra year of NCAA eligibility after COVID-19 canceled the 2020 season. Five students who have delayed their post-graduate life for one more year on the sizzling turf of Francis Field.