Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

By Greg Thomas
D3football.com

At the end of the first quarter in Saturday’s game at Minnesota-Morris, a game which had yet to see a point, Crown linebacker Keivon Davis came tearing through the line on a blitz. He hit the quarterback and jarred the ball loose, and defensive lineman Kyjuan Simmons scooped it up and sprinted 22 yards the other way for a touchdown. 

It wasn’t just the first score of the day, it was the spark that ignited an avalanche. By the time the third quarter ended, Crown led 34-8, and the Polars were on their way to their fifth win of 2025.

As the final seconds ticked off, the Crown sideline looked calm. Maybe that’s what happens when you’ve spent most of the day comfortably ahead. Or maybe that calm was the kind that comes when a team starts to believe this is who they are now.

Five wins might be just a standard month and change in places like Naperville or Alliance, but at Crown College, it means something different. It’s validation for years of hard work in a conference full of small programs that have fought just to stay afloat. It’s the school’s first five-win season since 2010 and a chance, with two games left, to earn the program’s first-ever bid to the NCAA playoffs. For a team that’s spent more than a decade searching for traction, five wins means more than numbers on a schedule. It’s proof that they’ve built something real.

When head coach Anthony Franz took over five years ago, Crown’s football program had barely enough players to run a full practice. The roster hovered in the 40s, and so did the spirits. The Polars had finished in the top half of the UMAC standings just once since that 2010 season, and the wins had become scarce.

Today, Crown’s roster is more than double that size, with over 80 players in uniform. Retention has improved, the locker room has filled out, and so has the campus. At a school with just 631 full-time undergraduates, football isn’t just a sport, it’s an anchor of the student body.

Franz understood from the beginning that a quick fix wasn’t realistic. “We went the long way,” he said. “We always say culture is more important than talent. We always remind ourselves not to be teased by talent in the recruiting process. If we stay true to our principles and find guys who want to grow their faith, excel in the classroom, and play really good football then we’ll have a competitive roster. And if we retain well, we’re going to do a good job of growing and leading and playing really, really good football.”

The early signs of that growth showed up in this year’s opener, a 28-21 loss to Hamline. It was a defeat on the scoreboard, but to Franz, it was the first time he saw a glimpse of what was coming. “In that first game against Hamline, I thought we played really tough. You could see flashes of really good football,” he said. “We’ve shown flashes in the past, we just couldn’t string a lot of it together. This year, with the leadership of the upperclassmen, those guys are out there making plays and just doing a really good job. That’s what’s been exciting to see.”

That foundation -- the ability to finally sustain good football for four quarters, then four weeks, then four months -- came from a handful of veterans who believed long enough for the program to catch up.

Graduate student Rudy Criner and senior Millicent Grear are two of those veterans. Between them, they’ve seen more losses than they care to count, but they also stayed long enough to change the story.

Rudy Criner gets his hands on the football as a return specialist as well as a defensive back for Crown. Crown athletics photo by Noah Larson

Criner, a defensive back who earned D3football.com All-Region honors in 2022, has been a voice of steadiness in a defense that now leads the UMAC in yards allowed. “The most rewarding part,” Criner said, “is just seeing those other guys that have stuck it out with me also get that same smile and excitement on their face to see it finally start to pay off.”

Grear, a defensive lineman who set the school record for tackles for loss last season, has been just as vital, not just for his production, but for his presence. “I hope that they learn the value of hard work,” he said of his younger teammates. “At the end of the day, I’m not the biggest fella. I’m not the strongest or the fastest, but whatever you put your mind to, anything is possible no matter what anyone tells you. Anything is possible through God and through hard work.”

Franz doesn’t hesitate to credit them for setting the tone. “They do an excellent job of not only doing what the expectation is, but they go above and beyond,” he said. “I lean on these guys a lot. I put a lot on their plate. I ask them to be like coaches, and they don’t complain, they do it. Then the best part is they bring somebody along with them. Their energy and their attitude are infectious, and our team’s way better because of these two.”

That attitude has spread quickly. The roster is still overwhelmingly young. The two players who combined for that defensive touchdown against Minnesota-Morris are both sophomores, but the maturity of the roster has come along.

The Polars’ defense has turned into a cornerstone of the program and ranks aming the top 25 nationally in many defensive categories. The offense, led by underclassmen, has blossomed into a top 20 rushing offense in the country. More importantly, the belief has taken root.

What used to be flashes are now habits. The buy-in that Franz preached from the start has found traction with the players who’ll carry this team forward. And that’s where Crown’s story stretches beyond just wins and losses.

Because at a place like Crown, football is about more than competition. It’s about vitality. When Franz arrived, a roster of around 40 reflected the college’s broader enrollment challenges. He’s since doubled that number, and with it, helped boost retention and strengthen the campus community.

“When we’re doing a great job of recruiting and retaining the right kids, the school feels different and acts different,” Franz said. “That’s why guys want to come to a place like Crown. You can have that kind of impact here. You can be a big fish in a small pond, and that’s a really fun thing.”

The transformation isn’t just on the field. “The guys we recruit are leaders on campus. RAs, student body president, guys that are leading from the front,” Franz said. “In the past, everybody would apologize for Crown football. Even when I came to the first game, people would apologize for the state of the program. I said, just give it time and trust the process. We’re gonna get it there.”

He laughed remembering those early days. “I remember the first game, there might’ve been 20 people (in the stands), and I’m thinking, ‘What job did I just take?’ Now, at homecoming, it was almost standing room only. The alumni are coming around, they’re reenergized, they see what we’re doing. It’s intense and exciting what’s happening at Crown.”

Criner sees that same purpose through a different lens. “Being at Crown is bigger than football,” he said. “What we do in our everyday life here is to glorify God in everything we do. Getting the younger guys to see that, and not just see football, has been a big part. If guys are only here for football, they’re trying to do what they do and get out. Helping them see the bigger picture is what I’ve personally tried to push across.”

Whether or not this team makes history in the next two weeks, Crown has already redefined what success looks like.

A conference championship, and along with it an NCAA playoff bid,  is within reach. For players like Criner and Grear, that’s almost unimaginable compared to where things started. “It would mean more to me than I could even express right now,” Criner said. “Going back a few years, I couldn’t say that I saw myself in this place today. But thanks to continuous buy-in and growth that we’ve had as a program and as a school, it’s been very exciting. Ending it with one of those things that we may not talk about around here would be great.”

Grear said the same joy he feels from winning is rooted in the people around him. “I don’t think I’ve smiled more during a football season than I have this year,” he said. “Even in years where I did as good as I thought I could individually, the joy that comes from winning football games with this group of guys makes Mondays so much better. We won on Saturday and I’m here to celebrate with y’all. We’re all happy to be together, and we’re all just one big family. That brings a different level of happiness to my heart, honestly.”

Whatever happens next, Crown football has already shifted its story. Five wins used to be a summit. Now, it feels more like the ground floor of something lasting.

Bids, Bids, Bids

Crown’s playoff disposition likely won’t be settled this weekend, but there are a lot of teams that can punch their ticket to the postseason this weekend.  Teams that have win-and-in games this weekend:

Hardin-Simmons (at Mary Hardin-Baylor)
North Central (at Elmhurst)
Cortland (vs. Brockport)
Susquehanna (vs. Wilkes)
Bethel (vs. Carleton)
Monmouth (vs. Ripon)
John Carroll (vs. Ohio Wesleyan)
Whitworth (at Willamette)
Mount Union (at Marietta)
Washington & Jefferson (at Geneva)
Berry (vs. Maryville)

In addition to those above, automatic bids will be on the line for winners of head to games in three conferences:
NEWMAC - Coast Guard at Springfield
NJAC - Salisbury at Christopher Newport
USAC - Belhaven at LaGrange

Concordia (Wis.), Hanover, and Wartburg have already clinched their spots in the tournament but the dance floor is going to get quite a bit more crowded in just a couple of days. 

Seven ways to Saturday 

Whether you need to recap the week that was or get ready for the week to come, D3football.com is your daily source for fresh Division III football content. We’re bringing the content seven ways to Saturday. 

Sunday: New Top 25 poll

Monday: Around The Nation podcast. Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas recap the weekend that was and preview the weekend to come in Division III football.

Tuesday: Team of the Week Honors

Wednesday: Features columns

Thursday: Around the Nation Column

Friday: Quick Hits featuring our panel’s predictions and insights into the weekend’s games

Saturday: Game Day! The D3football.com Scoreboard has all of your links for stats and broadcasts. 

I’d Like to Thank…

Special thanks to Crown’s Rudy Criner, Millicent Grear, and Anthony Franz for spending time with Around The Nation for this week’s column. Additional thanks to Crown Associate Athletic Director Jared Gilmore for coordinating this week’s conversations! 

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There’s nothing small about small college football. Division III is home to 241 teams, and many thousands of student-athletes and coaches. There are so many more stories out there than I can find on my own. Please share your stories that make Division III football so special for all of us! Reach out to me at greg.thomas@d3sports.com, on X @wallywabash, or on Bluesky @d3greg.bsky.social to share your stories.