Hutchinson, Iowa Western meet in NJCAA heavyweight football battle

Saturday’s showdown between No. 4 Hutchinson Community College and No. 2 Iowa Western in Council Bluffs, Iowa, represents an interesting turn of fate for both teams.

On one side, there’s Iowa Western (8-0), one of the elite programs in the nation, having already won a national championship in 2012 behind NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year and current Kansas State quarterback Jake Waters. The Reivers, who didn’t even begin playing football until 2008, finished last season 11-1 and ranked No. 2 in the final NJCAA poll.

On the other side, there’s Hutchinson (8-0) and eighth-year coach Rion Rhoades, the Jayhawk Conference’s forever bridesmaid no more after breaking through this season, beating national power Butler for the first time since 1997.

And it was Rhoades, incredibly, who helped Iowa Western along in the beginning.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Rhoades, his staff and what he’s done there,” Iowa Western coach Scott Strohmeier said. “When we started football, we started scrimmaging Hutchinson because we wanted to see where we had to get, talent-wise, to compete at a high level. I consider (Rhoades) a good friend.”

Rhoades’ willingness to help out a fledgling program proved to be a primer for greatness. With games remaining at Fort Scott (3-5) and hosting Iowa Central (3-5) in the regular-season finale, a win over the Blue Dragons almost guarantees Iowa Western a spot in the NJCAA title game.

Hutchinson, still trailing No. 1 East Mississippi (8-0) and No. 3 Trinity Valley (8-0) in the polls, must win and hope for a little help from NJCAA pollsters to earn a shot at its first national title. This is the first year of a two-year scheduling agreement between Iowa Western, Iowa Central and Ellsworth to play all eight Jayhawk schools.

“I think when the schedule came out, the excitement was already there because we saw Butler and Hutch were both coming to our place,” Strohmeier said. “The Butler game was one of the better atmospheres we’ve had this season.”

The Reivers have weapons to match Hutchinson. The Blue Dragons are led by Alabama transfer and Tennessee commit Alvin Kamara, a 5-foot-10, 210-pound running back who leads the Jayhawk with 17 touchdowns and is second in the league with 1,078 rushing yards.

On defense, Hutchinson defensive end Marquavius Lewis leads the Jayhawk with 9 1/2 sacks and is headed to South Carolina. Fellow defensive lineman Jeremiah Ledbetter, an Arkansas commit, is second with eight sacks.

Hutchinson’s coaches and players were not made available for comment this week.

Iowa Western is led on offense by sophomore quarterback Tay Bender, a Kansas State transfer who has thrown for 1,383 yards, 20 touchdowns and four interceptions. His favorite target has been 6-4, 180-pound freshman wide receiver Taj Williams, a former Indiana commit who leads the team with 49 catches for 634 yards and nine touchdowns.

Defensively, it’s a trio of transfers — safety Jayme Thompson (Ohio State), defensive tackle Darius Commissiong (Georgia Tech) and defensive end Kevin Robbins (Georgia Tech) who lead the way for the Reivers.

Hutchinson has a Georgia Tech transfer of its own in running back Travis Custis, who was a member of the same recruiting class at Georgia Tech as Commissiong and Robbins.

“Taj has been really having a solid year for us offensively, he’s been really good,” Strohmeier said. “And with Darius and Kevin, there’s definitely some familiarity between the two teams.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2014 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Hutchinson, Iowa Western meet in NJCAA heavyweight football battle."