Culver-Stockton College lands at No. 22 in NAIA preseason football poll

CANTON, Mo. — Upon arriving on the Culver-Stockton College campus, Jase Orndorff heard the stories of the bleak days of the football team.

He doesn’t want the Wildcats to ever experience that again.

“Now it’s my job as the quarterback and one of the captains to keep us playing at a high level,” said Orndorff, a redshirt junior.

The expectations are the Wildcats will stay there.

Coming off an 8-3 season — the most single-season victories in the 112 years of the program — C-SC has gained national respect. The Wildcats are ranked No. 22 in the NAIA FirstDown PlayBook Top 25 preseason poll, which was released this week.

Three other Heart of America Athletic Conference programs are in the top 25. Grand View is No. 2, Baker is No. 13 and Central Methodist is No. 18. Grand View and C-SC were picked Nos. 1-2 in the Heart North Division preseason poll.

The Wildcats open their season August 27 at Baker.

“The challenge is every team is getting better, just like us,” said junior safety DavidHernandez, who led the C-SC defense with four interceptions last season. “We just have to stay motivated and still have that passion to go out there and work every day and try to get that national championship.”

The challenge of sustaining success and carrying the Wildcats into the postseason falls on the shoulders of the next group of leaders following the departure of All-American left tackle Andrew Rupcich, all-time leading tackler Dalton Huffman and others.

C-SC coach Tom Sallay, now in his sixth season, is confident the pieces are in place to continue pushing the program forward.

“We’ve had a program that’s had a lot of older guys for a really long time,” Sallay said. “We took over and the freshmen who came in were kind of like the seniors. They ended up playing for a long time. It’s nice to see new guys take leadership roles and have those guys keep our program and raise the expectations of what we’re supposed to do.”