The Central College football team shoves off from port today for its maiden voyage of the 2025 season, as the Dutch are in Bloomington, Illinois for a matchup against Illinois Wesleyan.

This is the third straight year that Central has faced the Titans in non-conference action, with the Dutch winning the previous two meetings by a combined 60 points. Head coach Jeff McMartin says that watching those games hasn’t been a top priority, however, as Illinois Wesleyan is likely to have a whole new look this season.

“Illinois Wesleyan has a whole new coaching staff – offense, defense, head coach, everybody. So there’s no film that you can just sit back and watch and expect that you’re going to get this and that like we were able to do last year as far as kind of knowing what they’re going to do. You have to really work on you and know who you are and you’ve got to come in and be ready for anything. That’s really been our premise for this.”

Illinois Wesleyan went 5-5 in the final season of the 38-year career of Norm Esh, one of McMartin’s mentors. The Dutch finished 8-2 a year ago and have their sights set on getting back to the postseason for the first time since 2021.

Kickoff today is at 1:00 at Tucci Stadium, and Trevor Castle and Don DeWaard will be live to call the play-by-play on 92.1 KRLS. Pregame hits the airwaves at 12:35.