HELENA, Mont. - Eyes from around the Frontier, and around the nation, will be on Caldwell, Idaho, this afternoon as the No. 12-ranked Carroll football team takes on No. 2 College of Idaho at Simplot Stadium with the Frontier-West championship on the line at 12 p.m.
For the second straight season, the Fighting Saints (7-1, 4-0) and Yotes (8-0, 4-0) will put their undefeated Frontier-West records on the line, searching for the division title and associated autobid to the upcoming NAIA Football Championship Series.
There are a very limited number of teams in the country that can claim a winning record in the all-time series against Carroll. Only 19 teams have a better record in their respective all-time series with the Saints, with the majority of those teams now at the NCAA Division I level, or teams that dropped football decades ago. Entering Saturday, College of Idaho holds a 9-7 edge in the head-to-head, making them one of just four current NAIA teams with a better record in the historical series. Of the 16 all-time meetings, 14 games have been played since the 2014 season, when C of I reinstated its football program that had been disbanded since 1978. The series is split dead even at 7-7 since. The two other Yote wins came back in the late 1930s.
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Since 2019, one or both of Carroll or College of Idaho has been in the NAIA Football Championship Series with the lone exception of the 2024 season. All of Carroll's last four wins in the series have put an end to the Yotes' postseason hopes. A Carroll win on Saturday will surely not eliminate the nation's No. 2-ranked team from a postseason spot, but it could very well bump the Yotes out of a homefield advantage position while catapulting the Saints into the top-four conversation.
For the first time since 2014, the Saints completed a full regular season (2020-21 COVID season excluded) undefeated inside Nelson Stadium. The 38-7 win over SOU made it nine unbeaten seasons since the stadium officially opened in 2001. In that same timespan, the Saints are 125-26 at home.
Saturday's win over Southern Oregon was a little different than the rest of Carroll's wins on the season. For the first time all year, the Saints were forced to play a strong second half in order to walk out with a win. Entering the week, Carroll had outscored opponents 207-36 in the first half. On Saturday, the Saints found themselves deadlocked at 7-7. Trailing by seven for the majority of the first half, the Saints rattled off 38 unanswered over the final 33 minutes to cruise to a win. Dating back to the Western game, the Saints have now scored 79 second-half points, nearly double that of the second-half points from the first five games of the year (48).
Saturday's victory over the Raiders featured a stressful first half, with any number of mistakes costing Carroll points. However, all said and done it was the single largest margin of victory in the 20-game all-time series. SOU has proven to be a thorn in Carroll's side over the last 25 years. Two-thirds of all the games played have been won by a single score or less. The 31-point win was nearly larger than the last five meetings combined (32 points).
Head coach Troy Purcell joined an exclusive club last Saturday, becoming just the 13th head coach in Montana football history (high school and college) to record 200 wins. Purcell is the third-winningest coach in Carroll history and will look to keep adding on the rest of the way in 2026.
The Carroll defense will have its hands full this weekend trying to slow down the No. 2 rushing offense in the NAIA. C of I enters the week averaging just shy of 300 yards per game on the ground, trailing only Friends (Kan.), which has only attempted 54 total passes on the season. The Yotes have four players with 300 or more rushing yards on the season (Byington - 785, Young - 663, EchoHawk - 360, Burnham - 332), combining for 2,133 yards and 40 rushing touchdowns on the year. The Saints are among the nation's best at slowing the run (98.8 ypg) and will have to be at their best on Saturday. Last year in Helena, C of I piled on 274 yards on the ground, while in Carroll's last three wins in the series, the Saints have held the Yotes to just 107.6 rushing yards per game. While plenty capable, the Yotes are not a pass-first team. Entering the weekend, only 29 percent of their season output has come through the air.
The strength of the 2026 Carroll defense lies in its veteran linebacker corps. Led by Eli Aby, Gage Norslien and Marcus Evans, the group has been among the most productive units in the Frontier Conference all season long. Aby leads the team with 59 tackles, Norslien is No. 2 with 55, while Evans checks in at No. 4 with 47. The group has accumulated 12 total tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Look for all three to play a key role in helping slow down the potent Yote ground game in hopes of a potential Carroll victory this weekend in Caldwell.
Ty Wilkinson matched a tight end season record for touchdown receptions last weekend with a pair of TD catches against Southern Oregon. He is now not only the nation's leader for tight end touchdowns, but has jumped into the top five of the NAIA ranks for touchdown catches on the year.
