best in Tacoma for the fourth straight year

Jonathan Cohen

Football Flies into 2025 with Big Expectations

By Mark Albanese, Director of Sports Communication

Coming off the best season in over a decade, the Pacific Lutheran University football team looks to build on that momentum as they head into the 2025 season with a veteran team under the leadership of eighth year Head Coach Brant McAdams.

The Lutes finished last fall with a 7-3 overall record and a 5-2 mark in Northwest Conference play, finishing third overall in the league standings behind playoff teams Linfield University and Whitworth University.

Last year’s squad had a strong finish to the season, winning five of their final six games, including a 50-0 drubbing of Willamette University. PLU’s only blemish over the final stretch of the season was a 38-10 road setback to Linfield, a team that advanced to the third round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.

PLU’s 2024 season was the programs best since going 7-2 in 2014, a year removed from the program’s last NCAA playoff appearance. With a veteran roster, the Lutes will look to end that drought in 2025.

Our goal is to compete for a championship. We have a strong senior class. We lost seven players on defense and just three on offense, so this year’s team will be more offensive-led than in previous seasons. We’ve specifically scheduled a playoff team in Trinity as part of non-conference play to gauge our standing before stepping into conference.

Head Coach Brant McAdams

2025 Team Roster

PLU’s offensive coaching staff will look a little different this fall. Zach Willis ’19 was promoted to offensive coordinator after Spencer Crace departed to become the head coach at NWC rival George Fox University. Also joining the staff is Grayden Kulick who comes to Luteville after a successful coaching stint at D3 powerhouse Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.

“We have a new OC but we’re maintaining our foundational identity which includes establishing the run game, take advantage of numbers, leverage, and grass out on the perimeter, and in the passing game. We’re going to try and create some one-on-one matchups that we think we can win.

Things may look a little different. Some different alignments and formations, moving guys around to make it tougher for the defense to predict what’s coming and let our guys go play.”

Anchoring the offense will be the men up front, with the Lutes returning a slew of impact offensive linemen including Aaron Daly, Griffin Montana, and Josh Holder.

“All three of them started their first-ever college football game against #13 Bethel in 2022 and they’ve steadily grown since in both their physical abilities and their leadership. So we’re excited to see what these guys can do.”

Montana and Daly were both Honorable Mention All-Conference selections for the Lutes, paving the way for an offense that average 377.2 yards per game. Joining the season vets will be Wyatt Davis, Caleb Rhinelander, and Ethan Hall.

Behind the bigs, the Lutes are loaded with veteran talent at the skill positions. That starts at arguably the most important position and the return of quarterback Darius Chaffin.

All the guys coming back in those skill positions have taken significant snaps, and that’s a difference maker to be able to have the experience that allows the game to slow down and allows these guys to gain a greater understanding of the offense and defense they’re facing. They’ve put in the work through the off-season to truly understand what we’re trying to do, and when a play is called they understand why it’s being called.

The Kahili, Hawaii native threw for 1,969 yards and 16 touchdowns last season, competing 63.2 percent of his passes while rushing for 442 yards and seven more scores. An Honorable Mention All-NWC selection, Chaffin will continue to be a dual threat this fall, now his fifth season with the squad. The senior’s 4,231 career passing yards currently stands as the ninth most in program history.

“This is his last year of eligibility, so there’s a finality to that that brings an elevated sense of urgency to go and maximize every opportunity, and he’s done that this fall camp. He’s looked as calm and collected and confident and able as I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot for a kid who’s put himself in the top 10 in total yards for a season his first year starting.”

A Second Team All-League selection a season ago, Jacob Schuh will spearhead the ground game. The Mount Vernon, Washington native has racked up 890 yards on the ground and 237 receiving yards over the last three seasons, finding the endzone 10 times, including on six occasions last fall. Also looking to get carries will be junior Richie Fotualii-Aliifua, sophomore Brock Kinch, and freshman Keegan Mallon.

A spring injury will keep Second Team All-League receiver Thor Stepina sidelined this fall but the Lutes expect big things from receivers Jase Ellamar, Connor Meade, and AJ Stepina. A senior from Mililani, Hawaii, Ellamar was second on the team in receiving yards last year with 489 and three touchdowns. Meade was a deep threat with 305 receiving yards, averaging an impressive 20.3 yards per catch.

Baker City, Oregon native Alex Ritter will assume the role as tight end and fullback while also being one of the bigger leaders on the team.

Alex is going to that be versatile 20-personel, 11-personel guy (sometimes a full back sometimes a tight end), hand in the grass, hip tight end, split out in the side if we need to. So you’ll see him a little more. He’s been a tremendous leader as well.

A new face that could make an immediate impact is Dayton Savea out of Pearl City, Hawaii and Damien Memorial High School.

“He’s a threat in the receiving game, so I’m excited to see what he does when he gets the opportunity out there.”

Last year the stout Lute defense was suffocating in the run game, limiting teams to just 57.6 rushing yards per game.

Anchoring the defense up front will be veterans George Sonko and Zach Gable. Sonko had 5.5 TFL’s and three quarterback hurries last season while Gable was equally menacing with 24 tackles, five sacks, and a fumble recovery.

Those two guys have stepped up to anchor that group along with Cole Becker and Michael Hause. Michael, Gable, and Becker are three of our four sack-getters in the NWC. There’s no replacing Nico Golla, but these guys have put in the work and they’re doing a great job leading the front.

Hause finished 2024 with six sacks, second on the team only to First Team All-NWC lineman Nico Golla who graduated this spring.

An Honorable Mention All-NWC pick last fall, Micah Ragaza-Bourassa was second on the team in tackles last year with 60, including seven TFLs and will headline the linebacking corps.

“Micah has emerged as the solidified leader of the group. Avery Coleman had a tremendous offseason, dropped a half a second on his 40. He’s just been a student of the game and emerged as a leader. Kawika Bacos is a proven Saturday player. Those three will be the formable names inside the box with the potential of freshman Landen Downey maybe stepping in to spell a guy. And Jackson Hale was Davin Water’s backup last year, so Jackson and Mouse Williams are going to be the names you’ll see in the second level.”

One of the biggest gaps to fill will be the secondary where the Lutes graduated both starting cornerbacks and safeties from a season ago.

It was a group of freshman backups last year, and now they’re sophomores and they’ve got some big shoes to fill. Greysen Dagsaan-Phillips has been here for four years and has devel-oped and was poised to be a starter. Injury from fall camp is going to have him out for a bit of the preseason, but Will Frank, JJ Miles, Eli Fernandez, and Kawika Lopez have all really stepped up to fill the leadership and production void.

They’ve taken a lot of snaps together, put in a lot of work together, and you need a lot of cohesion on the back so we’re all on the same page, and those guys have definitely put that work in. They’re taking pride in being able to hold it in on the back end.

The Lutes will also have plenty of new faces on special teams, breaking in a new kicker and punter. Ryan Dikover is projected to be the starting punter and handle kickoff duties. A 24-year old Air Force veteran, the freshman is a Fort Myers, Florida native. Dikover will also compete with Bremerton, Washington native Evan Harvey to be the placekicker.

We had a mid-year transfer— Evan Harvey out of Bremerton. Two of his teammates were here, and he heard about the experience and wanted to come be a part of it. He’s competing to the be the placekicker right now. Ryan Dikover, he’s got a leg. Right now, he’s slated as the #1 punter, the #1 kick-off guy, and he’s competing with Evan to be that place kicker.

2024 Season Statistics

One area of consistency will be the return game. Last fall, Connor Meade was the main returner, returning 10 kicks for 285 yards and a touchdown. Meade also returned 15 punts during the year.

“Connor Meade will come back as our punt returner and kick returner. We’ll have a couple of guys in there with him with Eli Fernandez being one of them.”

Head Coach Brant McAdams will continue to serve as the special teams coordinator and understands the impact the unit can have on a game.

Special teams is one of those units that easily gets overlooked, but as the head coach being the special teams coordinator, I love that, because I get to work with guys on both sides of the ball. I get the opportunity to identify playmakers early in their career, in their first or second year, when they get thrown in there and prove they can handle the fire under one rep. Special team’s is something we’ve tried to utilize to capture or steal some momentum in the past, and getting aggressive with some fakes or blocks and different types of returns, and we’ll keep that mentality of always looking for an edge in the special teams to make the game harder on our opponent.

PLU has the benefit of six home games in 2025 and will play seven total games in Pierce County. Eight of the Lutes’ 10 games this year will be contested in the Evergreen State with the only trips outside the state will be the opener in California and a November trip to Portland.

First game, you always want to come out and operate cleanly. You don’t want any side line to huddle communication mistakes, you don’t want to see guys jumping offsides, so just taking pride in the fundamentals: right blocking, winning the horizontal and vertical leverage, and taking care of the football. Playing sound defense, playing with great strain, seeing guys lay it all on the line for the first opportunity to get on the field, seeing guys tackle well, not trying to make big NFL highlight-type tackles, just make sound, fundamental tackles. I think that’s the most important thing game one is really setting a strong foundation for the season.

2025 Football Schedule