Quarterback Kaleb Blaha broke Joe Burrow’s record for individual yards in a single NCAA season. Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via AP Images
Wisconsin-River Falls pulled off a shocking upset of North Central (Ill.) in the Division III national championship game on Sunday night, winning 24-14, as quarterback Kaleb Blaha broke Joe Burrow’s NCAA record for individual yards in a single season across all levels of NCAA football.
North Central, playing in its sixth consecutive D-III national title game, had won three of the last five NCAA titles. UW-River Falls was the heavy underdog, a program that had 19 consecutive losing seasons entering 2021. This year’s playoff appearance was the school’s first since 1996. But behind the fastest and most prolific offense in the country, the Falcons ran through the playoffs and upset North Central’s dynasty.
“It took 15 years to get here,” said head coach Matt Walker, whose tenure began with nine consecutive losing seasons. “I had teams that won no games, won one. Everyone stayed committed to this vision. I’m speechless.”
Blaha completed 27 of 41 passes for 291 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 128 yards and two touchdowns, giving him a total of 6,189 individual yards on the season. In the third quarter, he broke Joe Burrow’s NCAA record of 6,039 yards, which the quarterback set during LSU’s 2019 national championship season.
On Friday, Blaha won the Gagliardi Trophy, the Division III’s version of the Heisman Trophy.
“(North Central is) so good,” Walker said. “I told our team we were going to be unapologetically aggressive. A lot of teams lose to them before the game starts because of the logo on that helmet. I said we might get beat 100-0, but we were going to be aggressive.”
Blaha initially went to Division II Winona State in 2020 to play wide receiver before transferring to UW-River Falls. He spent the last four years as the Falcons’ starting quarterback. He came back for his fifth year this season after getting a medical redshirt due to only playing three games last season.
It’s the first national title for UW-River Falls football. The program had never gone beyond the quarterfinals in its three previous playoff appearances over its history.