Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

D3 standout gets his shot

I’ve made no secret of the fact that Luis Perez is my favorite non-NFL player. It’s not just his spring football pedigree – the Birmingham Iron (Alliance of American Football), Jousters (The Spring League), Los Angeles Wildcats and New York Guardians (XFL 2.0), New Jersey Generals (modern USFL), Vegas Vipers (XFL 3.0) and Arlington Renegades (XFL 3.0 and United Football League) – it’s his college journey.

The guy didn’t come to pro ball from a blue blood program, but rather community college (Southwestern) and Division II (East Texas A&M University).

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He recently announced he was returning to Arlington for the UFL’s second season, which is a good reason for alt-football fans to keep an eye on Bob Stoops’ team. But now the Renegades have given me another guy to root for: Luke Lehnen of North Central College.

Maybe you haven’t heard of Lehnen or his school.

That’s understandable.

Lehnen didn’t spend his playing days shining under the national spotlight, because North Central College is Division III. That classification is about as far as you can get from big budget, major college football.

So, there was no scholarship to lure him to the Cardinals, or the promise of a multimillion dollar NIL deal. What there was, though, was an opportunity and man, did he ever take advantage of it.

The two-time Gagliardi Trophy winner (the top award for D3 players) played every game the last four seasons for North Central College. He completed 178 of 257 passes for 2,960 yards and 39 touchdowns and ran for 924 yards and a career-high 14 rushing touchdowns this year in leading his team to a 15-0 record and D3 championship.

In a 41-25 win over Mount Union in the tile tilt on January 5, he accounted for five touchdowns and finished his college career with a 57-2 record.

He owns the NCAA record (all-divisions) for touchdowns responsible for (208) and is the only player in collegiate history with at least 50 rushing touchdowns (50) to go with at least 100 passing touchdowns (158).

The Renegades signed him on Thursday.

“We are excited to bring in a player like Luke and provide him an opportunity to showcase his skills,” Renegades general manager Rick Mueller said in a statement released by the club. “The talent he brings will capitalize on the experienced roster we have. We look forward to working with him this upcoming season.”

In 2023, he led the nation in completion percentage and touchdown passes, setting records for passing efficiency (263.2), yards per pass (14.7), yards per completion (20.0) and percentage of passes completed for touchdowns (20.7).

A native of Chatham, Illinois, Lehnen has thrown at least one TD pass in a record 58 consecutive games, and owns the Division III mark for career total offensive yards (15,632).

His 162 touchdown tosses ties him with John Matocha (Division II Colorado School of Mines) for most in the annals of the college game.

While the UFL is designed to help players either get their first shot at the NFL or another chance at a roster spot, it’s also about opportunity. Most of these guys aren’t gonna stick in the biggest league of all, but they can still make a living playing professional football.

In the case of the 6-1 202-pound Lehnen, I doubt that was a realistic goal when he first suited up for the Cards. There is an old NCAA commercial featuring student-athletes who proclaim, “Almost all of us will be going pro in something other than sports.”

That’s especially true for those coming out of the D3 pool.

And considering Lehnen was a finalist for the William V. Campbell Award – college football’s highest academic award – he obviously has the brains to take him far in life.

Still, how cool is it for him to be able to pay for play?

It reminds me of what Birmingham Stallions coach Skip Holtz said before the USFL initiated the new era of spring football back in 2022.

“Every meeting, we have a player stand up and talk about his ‘Why,’” he said. “Why are they playing the game? What’s their passion? What’s their motivation? What drives them to do what they’re doing right now? And the whys are incredible. When you listen to why these young men are here and what they’ve had to overcome to be here and what they want to accomplish being in this league, it’s been really rewarding.

“Every player under that helmet has a story. Everybody’s overcome adversity to get here and everybody has dreams and visions of where they want to go. This is another opportunity to keep those hopes and dreams alive.”

Now, Lehnen is getting such an opportunity.

Obviously, this is hardly a done deal.

The UFL keeps three quarterbacks and only two are on the game day active roster. With Perez returning – and a lot of NFL near-miss signal callers looking for work – Lehnen has a steep climb ahead.

However, a D3 product getting a chance to make that climb is quite an honor.

The Renegades are providing the harness and rope. The rest is up to him.

College football’s evolution

I admit, sometimes I get a bit nostalgic for the way college football was – or at least the way I thought it was when I was a kid.

I grew during the era when there usually was just one televised game per Saturday, so that was the game you watched. If it happened to be a matchup that featured the team you cheered for, well, that made a big deal that much bigger.

It was a time when there were only a handful of bowl games and national champions were determined by a vote of coaches and sports writers.

By today’s standards, it was downright primitive. But when it was all you knew, it all seemed pretty good.

Now here we are in 2025, with Notre Dame and Ohio State the last teams standing in major college football following a 12-team tournament. They’ll meet on January 20 in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, an event that culminates the first year of a “real” playoff.

(I realize something called the CFP Playoff has been around since 2014, but up until the 2024 season it included only four schools. As I’ve said many times, when a national championship is settled among four out of 134 teams, that’s not a playoff, merely an invitational).

Yet – speaking as a fan – the game gives off a completely different vibe now. The teams represent colleges, but what they’re playing doesn’t seem like NCAA football anymore.

Big-time college football has become so … transient. Players are looking to make the most of their opportunities, and nowadays that means jumping from one team to another thanks to the transfer portal and the possibility of a financial windfall.

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia suited up for New Mexico Military Institute and New Mexico before making his way to Nashville and the SEC.

Alan Bowman calls signals for Oklahoma State. Previously, he was on the rosters of both Texas Tech and Michigan.

And before moving on to the coaching ranks in 2024, J.T. Daniels played QB for Southern Cal, Georgia, West Virginia and Rice. The list goes on and on.

The Athletic reports that by the time the winter transfer portal had closed last month, more than 3,000 Football Bowl Subdivision players had entered it. That’s a whole lot of shuffling.

Playing time is the primary reason, of course, with the subtext being that more snaps increase NIL opportunities. Now that athletes can make money off their name, image and likeness, it’s even more important to join a program where you can elevate the profile of your name, image and likeness.

At this point you probably expect me to play the old man card and start pining for the “good ol’ days.”

I’m not gonna do that.

If a player can ink a big money sponsorship deal with Aunt Gertrude’s Old-Fashioned Carbuncle Salve, more power to him. And I’m glad revenue sharing will come into play starting with the 2025-26 season.

With head coaches making as much as $10 million per season, it’s criminal for athletes not to benefit financially. They’re the ones putting their bodies on the line and bringing fans to the stadium (and eyes to the TV).

That said, the evolution of college football has taken away much of its charm. While my decades-long fandom came with a heavy dose of naivety, I liked the fact that Saturdays were reserved for “amateur” kids playing for school pride. Sundays, meanwhile, were all about grown men playing for a paycheck.

The lines between college football and the NFL were clearly drawn, and I appreciated the distinction.

And while there’s still a huge gulf between the Power Four and the 32 franchises that play with the ball bearing Roger Goodell’s autograph, the relationship is increasingly symbiotic.

Today’s elite college players are often ready to move to the NFL and make an impact by the end of their junior years. And choosing a school is less about growing up cheering for that school and more about which institution provides the clearest path to the NFL – and the biggest payday.

Again, all of this makes perfect sense and I’m completely in the players’ corner. College football is big business, even if we like to pretend otherwise, and these guys have every right to make the best business decisions for themselves.

However, these major changes mean the game has morphed into more of a pro-type league – one with unlimited free agency and major financial disparity, depending on the team and conference. Many institutions have “collectives,” which raise money from donors to provide NIL compensation. The playing field is tilted, and the have-nots are falling even further behind the haves.

In cbssports.com’s report on the Buckeyes’ 28-14 victory over Texas in Friday’s Cotton Bowl semi-final, one line read, “Ohio State’s $20 million roster, one of the most expensive in college football, was on display throughout a gutsy win over the Longhorns.”

With that kind of cash floating around, I imagine there’ll come a time – likely soon – when the top 40 or 50 programs break away and form their own “Super League.”

It’ll be at the top of the collegiate pyramid, moving far ahead of the FBS, Football Championship Subdivision and Division II. Calling it “NFL Lite” won’t be too far off the mark.

What college football “was” to me is now merely a fond memory. The days when a scholarship was the dangling carrot to lure a student-athlete are long gone.

What college football “is,” well, it’s a natural progression, and that progression comes with a hefty price tag.

We might not like it from our outside-looking-in vantage point, but we have no choice but to acknowledge it.

Being an ACE driver

High school was a long time ago for me, so many of the things that happened during those four years have faded from memory.

I still recall scoring my first goal in a soccer match (left-footed, no less … meaning it was an accident), losing my one and only after school fight (pugilism was never my strong suit, nor was being particularly strong), and renting a gray tuxedo for my senior prom (I guess I wanted to look like David Byrne from Talking Heads. Psycho Killer was a song that reallyspoke to me).

What stands out more than anything, though, was learning to be an ACE driver.

Yep, as part of my school’s drivers education program, we had to watch an old 1960s-era film about safe driving. The spokesperson, if I remember correctly, was Junior Miss Teen America USA Ingénue (or something along those lines), and she urged me to be an ACE driver – alert, courteous and educated.

And you know what?

Junior Miss Teen America USA Ingénue (or something along those lines) had a huge impact on my life, because I never forgot that acronym and the lessons that it taught. It has been my mantra ever since I got behind the wheel of my dad’s 1972 Gran Torino and thought, “Man, I hope Clint Eastwood makes a movie about this car in 2008.”

Alert? Darn tootin I’m alert … I’m “six cups of Italian Roast coffee and half a box of Vivarin plus I think I just saw a snake” alert when I’m driving.

I’m constantly watching for kids playing in the street, animals walking in the street, naked old people wandering onto the street, and super-smart monkeys who’ve escaped from a lab and join the kids, animals and naked old people on the street in an effort to give rise to a planet of the apes.

Courteous?

That’s me, baby. To a fault.

If I see you creeping up to a four-way stop, I’ll creep even slower because I’m a giver and I want you to be first and go first. And if we get to our stop sign destinations at the same time, I’ll wave you through.

And if you’re courteous, you might, in turn, try to wave me through.

But then I’ll frantically wave you through again and in an effort to avoid conflict and further eye contact, shift into reverse and start driving backwards, hoping there are no kids, critters, nude oldsters and talking apes back there.

Educated?

Absolutely. I even made the dean’s list a couple of times in college (although, admittedly, I don’t know what the list was for and how he planned to use it).

Of course, being an ACE driver means being educated in the ways of the Department of Motor Vehicles. To that end, here’s a sample question on a DMV Written Driving Test:

Using a cell phone while operating a motor vehicle is considered a distraction because: (A) It causes the driver to be concerned about the cost of the call; (B) It occupies the driver’s hands, eyes, and mind; or (C) It is an activity that draws the attention of other drivers.

The correct answer (spoiler alert) is B. When watching a video of funny cats on your phone, you should always pull over because your hands, eyes, and mind should be on cats and only cats. They’re a hoot.

Being an ACE driver has served me well during my 48 years of operating a motor vehicle. During that time I have gotten only two speeding tickets (both in South Carolina, where the po-pos didn’t approve of me going 77 in a 70-mile zone), and one citation for an expired tag (I just plain forgot one year).

And how, you ask, have I been able to keep such a (relatively) clean record?

All because of that cheesy film I watched during my sophomore year in high school.

So, I’d like to publicly thank Junior Miss Teen America USA Ingénue (or something along those lines) for the words of wisdom she shared – wisdom I’ve carried with me spanning five decades now.

Later today when I head to the grocery store to replenish my supply of fruits and vegetables, I’ll be alert (looking both ways to make sure smart monkeys aren’t in my path); courteous (if we’re both headed for the parking spot right next to the store entrance, I’ll let you have it unless I’m in a hurry and/or don’t like your looks); and educated (I’ll keep my college diploma in the passenger’s seat and show it to you upon request).

Happy motoring, fellow ACE drivers. I look forward to seeing you at the next four-way stop.