BY CHARLES CHANEY
The 100th meeting all-time between two bitter rivals kicks off on Saturday night in Montgomery County as ninth-ranked Butler travels to play Coffeyville.
Revenge will be on the mind of many people.
Butler were stunned in the season finale with a chance to win the conference out right after upsetting Hutch earlier in the season. Instead, it was now current Butler back up QB, Joseph Vick, leading the upset and forcing a 3-way tie for the conference championship.
Butler will be hoping to ride the wave of moment from Saturday’s win but so will Coffeyville. The Red Ravens upset then-fourth ranked Garden City on a last second field goal.
So many similarities.
Both teams traded quarterbacks… kind of.
Vick now is a back up at Butler and last year’s opening day starter, Mac Armstrong, is the starter at Coffeyville. It gives the feeling of Jackson Arnold playing Oklahoma. Armstrong is thriving at Coffeyville as he led Coffeyville to a comeback win against Garden City. Armstrong finished with 261 yards and 3 touchdowns in the 26-24 win.
The Grizzlies had their own comeback as they battled back from 20-7 down to stun Indy 30-27 in overtime.
Now, there are only three undefeated teams in conference play (excluding winless Highland who has not played a conference opponent and lost to Ellsworth), There will only be two after Saturday’s showdown, with Hutch looming for both.
A win for both teams and they’ll be in the thick of a national title hunt. A loss, could derail any chances of heading to West Texas in December.
NJCAA Rankings
Butler jumped in the most recent rankings from 13th all the way to ninth, with the OT win over Independence. It’s like the voters (computers) had better respect for Indy than they did NEO because Butler dropped after winning on the road against NEO.
Defending champion Hutch is No. 1, while Garden City edged out Butler for eighth.
There are only three KJCCC schools ranked.
QB controversy
True freshman Tate McNew came in and helped the Grizzlies beat Independence. He was the third option this past Saturday as the starter Dylan Dunn was pulled and Davion Wilson did not fair any better. While McNew had an interception, the Maize South alum, showed poise in the pocket and ability to move when trouble came his way.
Hard to bet against Dunn, who has helped Butler get to this point. The BYU transfer and Blue Valley Southwest alum, has shown he can throw the ball. Coach Kyle Woodall just said he wasn’t up to his best this past Saturday and if they were going to play rotating quarterbacks, might as well play the true freshman.
Then, there is Vick.
The Coffeyville transfer hasn’t seen the field but could if they need him. He’s shown he can win games as he led Coffeyville to a conference title last season. He joined the team right before the start of the season, so his grasp of the offense compared to the other three is definitely behind the curve at this point of the offense.
A lot of signs point to McNew stepping into the starting position but we won’t fully know until kick off.
RUNNING MAD
Might matter too much who the quarterback is because there’s a two-headed monster growing in the Butler backfield with Jeremiah Singleton and Markellus Bass. They each had 100 yards rushing and it was the first time Butler had multiple 100-yard rushers in a conference game since Oct. 2019.
It was the first time since the first week of the 2022 season the Grizzlies ran for more than 200 yards in a conference game. They ran for 226 against Garden City that year.
Bass is averaging 120.0 yards per game this season with two touchdowns. His 120 ypg is second nationally behind Co-Lin’s Martavious Boswell. While Singleton has two touchdowns and 139 total yards this year.
Heading into the weekend, Butler ranks fourth nationally in rushing yards per game (249.7) it’s really third because the top team does not play real NJCAA opponents.
TOUGH DEFENSE
Butler’s defense sits sixth nationally, allowing only 15.7 points per game. The large reason is the shutout of Ellsworth. The defense has done a solid job without All-American Seven Cloud, who is probably going to miss the season after having knee surgery.
Butler is 14th in yards per game allowed at 270.7 yards per game. One sign how good the defense can be was the second half against Indy, where they allowed only 60 yards of offense and most of it came on the final drive of regulation that tied the game.
They’re third nationally in rushing yards per game (158.0 rpg). Butler is 29th of 41 teams in passing yards allowed at 218.0 passing yards per game. They’re also tied ninth for sacks with 12.
They had three sack forced fumbles in the win over Indy and it really changed the tide of the second half.
RIOUX THE DAY
Hunter Rioux came up clutch when it mattered against Independence, hitting the game tying and game winning field goals. He did miss two but those don’t matter when you still win ball games.
On the season, Rioux is 6 of 8 on attempts this season. He canned a 45-yard field goal against NEO for his season long. He’s also 13 of 14 on PATs. He leads the Jayhawk Conference in field goals made, attempted and longest field goal. He’s also second in the conference in scoring with 31 points. He trails Hutch’s Derrick Salley by 11 points.
He also puts it out of the end zone in five of his 11 kickoffs. He was 4 of 4 on kickoff touchbacks against teams not named Ellsworth.
MUST IMPROVE
Butler is a self-inflicting team and we saw that in the first half against Indy. They had turnovers and dumb penalties that put them behind the sticks, especially when they needed a crucial play. One point to that is Butler is tied for ninth nationally with 9.3 penalties per game and they’re tied for seventh in penalty yards per game (89.3).
The Grizzlies are only a plus-1 on the turnover margin. They’ve forced six turnovers, while having five of their own. If it wasn’t for the defense recovering three fumbles in the second half and overtime against Indy, it would be looking really negative.
Butler’s offense is only 29.4 percent (1o of 34) successful on third downs this season. It’s only slightly better than last season (25.9 percent). It puts the defense in a tough spot when you’re going 3-and-out. In games that were not against Ellsworth, Butler is only 6 of 27 (22.2 percent).
Butler’s passing game is barely there. If it wasn’t for McNew’s entry into the game, we could be seeing even worse. The Grizzlies rank 38th of 41 teams with 111.7 yards per game. I guess when your rushing game is this dynamic, you don’t really need to throw the ball. Butler currently is second to last in attempts and third in completions in the nation.
SERIES HISTORY
Coffeyville and Butler date back to 1929 and is the second longest running series for Butler in school history. The other? Independence, the other Montgomery County school.
Now, it’s time for the 100th edition of the rivalry but before you can appreciate the century mark, we have to travel back to 1929 for the first ever meeting.
Butler and Coffeyville met in the final game of the 1929 season, with Butler stealing a 14-13 win over the Red Ravens. Butler went 1-4-1 that season but their lone win was over Coffeyville. Coffeyville scored first and then Butler answered to tie it at 7-all. Coffeyville scored right out of half to make it 13-7 but Butler, then known as El Dorado College scored in the last minutes of the game to win 14-13.
Since then, it’s been a back-and-forth series between the two historic junior colleges. The Red Ravens currently own the 52-45-2 lead over Butler and the series has skewed Coffeyville’s way the last few years. Coffeyville has won six of the last eight, including the last three. All three games have been decided by a combined 14 total points.
The last time Butler beat Coffeyville was the blowout win in the fall of the 2021 season when Butler forfeited all their games and headed into the KJCCC playoffs as the bottom seed. They were originally going to be the second seed. Instead, they thumped Coffeyville 48-7 in an emotional win for the Grizzlies.
Since then, it’s been all Red Ravens.
They’ve been low-scoring affairs, too. 19-14 C’Ville win in 2022 when Butler was playing with a third string quarterback. Then, Butler goes to Coffeyville, struggles to score and loses a tough, 15-7 game. Then, last year, Coffeyville who had been kept out of the end zone all game long, scored with 105 seconds to go in the game to stun the Grizzlies. Current Grizzlies back up QB, Joseph Vick, led the Red Ravens to the win.
Butler is 20-23-1 all-time in Coffeyville. The schools did not play from 1934-1950 when Butler and Coffeyville met in a Butler’s first ever bowl win, over the Red Ravens 12-9 in the Coffey Bowl Champions.
In the modern era (1980 to present), Butler is 35-30 against Coffeyville. That had a run during the late 90s and into the 2010s where Butler won 23 in a row before Coffeyville snapped the streak in 2014.
Coffeyville had a streak of their own streak of 11 in a row from 1956-1966. They were also 22-9 over a stretch in the 80s and 90s.
SPREAD
MasseyRatings.com is a site that provides computerized simulations of a multitude of sports. They have multiple levels of NJCAA sports on their site. They were one of the computer simulation polls in the BCS rankings.
According to Massey Ratings, Butler is a 2.5-point favorite over Coffeyville. The over/under, or total points expected, is 48.5.
What time is the Butler at Coffeyville game and how to watch
Who: No. 9 Butler (3-0, 1-0 KJCCC) at Coffeyville (1-1, 1-0 KJCCC)
When: Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025—7 p.m.
Where: Veterans Memorial Stadium — Coffeyville, Kansas
View: RED RAVEN SPORTS NETWORK
Listen: KTBL 88.1 FM Butler Student Radio (El Dorado) | 97.5 FM & KNSS 1330 AM
