Lindenwood Lions 2026 Season Preview

Steady Under Stugart

Jed Stugart's group finished 6-6 overall but 5-3 in Big South-OVC play, the kind of split that says this roster competes with the league even when the non-conference slate muddies the record. That conference mark is the number worth carrying into 2026, not the .500 overall line, since it points to a team that already knows how to win the games that matter most to its standing. Nothing about the 2025 results demands a different approach, just continued building on the in-league form.

A Quiet Backfield Question

Lindenwood's offense was oddly split last year, respectable through the air at 217 yards per game but stuck on 131 rushing and a brutal 31.8% third-down rate that undercut every promising drive. The 2026 quarterback picture points to Pops Battle, who threw for just 9 yards with an interception and no scores in his limited look, which means the passing efficiency that carried this offense has to be rebuilt largely from scratch under him. If Battle cannot find the explosive plays this group flashed (28th nationally in explosiveness), that third-down problem gets worse, not better.

Nate Glantz's 2,590 yards and 17 touchdowns walk out the door, and Pops Battle is the front-runner to replace them despite having thrown for all of 9 yards on file. Battle takes the first-team reps into camp over Hoyt Gregory and Gavin Shaigineik, but Jed Stugart has not locked the job to him yet. That competition matters because the passing game was actually the more functional half of last year's attack, 217 yards per game and 54th nationally, while the ground game lagged at 86th, so whoever wins this camp inherits a role that can carry the offense rather than prop up a broken one.

Jared Rhodes (620 yards, 7 TD) and Steve Hall (612 yards, 8 TD) form as productive a returning backfield duo as Lindenwood has had, and the numbers say the run game was never the problem behind a passing attack that ranked 54th nationally. The issue was efficiency: a 108th-ranked third down rate and 92 sacks allowed marks put too much stress on the ground game to bail out stalled drives. With Rhodes and Hall both back and La'Revious Woods and Bryce Giesler available in support, Jed Stugart's offense should keep churning chunk plays (28th in explosiveness), but the 2026 leap depends on the line and passing downs cleaning up around them, not on the backfield finding new juice.

Jalen Smith (39 catches, 750 yards, 4 TD) is the clear focal point after Rico Bond's 60-catch, 694-yard, 6-TD season walked out the door, and that gap is the story of this passing attack in 2026. Drew Krobath (29-513-2) gives Jed Stugart a legitimate second option, but the explosive plays Bond created have to come from somewhere else, and CJ Reese and Ryan Boyd combined for just 4 catches last year. Lindenwood's passing game still ranked 54th nationally and the offense flashed explosiveness (28th), so the ceiling is real if Smith and Krobath can absorb the target share Bond leaves behind.

Darrin Fugitt's 32 catches for 341 yards and 2 scores walk out the door, leaving Luke Birkner, Mason Brown, Mac Busteed, Aiden Grote, Vaughn Johnson and Cole Watson to sort out who actually catches passes at tight end in 2026. None of the six carries any prior receiving numbers into the season, so this group is a blank slate for a passing attack that ranked 54th in yards per game but stalled at 108th on third downs. Whichever of that group Jed Stugart trusts most in the middle of the field could be the difference between fixing that third-down number and repeating it.

The line's real problem last season was on money downs, a 31.8% third-down rate that ranked 108th nationally despite Lindenwood grinding out 5.51 yards per play. That success came in chunks, not sustained drives, and the departure of Gavin Hulet only adds to Jed Stugart's task of finding push up front rather than isolated explosive gains. Fix the on-schedule blocking and this offense already has the pieces, 217 passing yards per game and a 28th-ranked explosiveness mark, to turn hidden yardage into finished drives in 2026.

Lindenwood's front gave up 167 rushing yards a game and 5.81 yards per play last season, middling numbers that left Jed Stugart looking for more juice off the edge. Tajay Passmore and Kobe McClendon are both gone from that group, and the fix comes straight out of high school in Cornell McIntosh, a three-star edge signee out of East St. Louis with no college snaps yet. There is no proven pass rush production to point to here, so McIntosh's development matters more to this defense's 2026 trajectory than anything else in this room.

Sanjay Strickland's 24 tackles walk out the door along with Jaymason Willingham and Devon Edwards, wiping out the tackle production this group put on the field last season. That comes on a defense that already gave up 167 rushing yards a game, 73rd nationally, so Jed Stugart is patching the second level of a run defense that was already leaking yardage before the losses. The pass defense held up better at 211 yards allowed per game, 55th nationally, and keeping that number steady while sorting out who fills the tackle void is what will decide whether this defense holds at 27.0 points allowed or slides.

Lindenwood's secondary allowed 211 yards a game through the air last fall, good for 55th nationally, while the run defense lagged at 73rd, so the pass defense was actually the sturdier half of a middling unit under Jed Stugart. The losses on the depth chart, Jayden Patrick and Eric Gant among them, were modest tacklers rather than difference-makers, which means this group's fate rides less on replacing production than on an experienced secondary tightening up the 42.6% rate of opponent plays kept on schedule. If that number climbs, the yards-per-play mark of 5.81 follows it down and this defense stops bleeding the explosive plays that made it merely average instead of good.

Will Graham hit 5 of 6 field goals with a 36-yard long and 51 points in 2025, and he is back to anchor a specialist group that otherwise carries no returning numbers beyond punter A.J. Vinatieri, who averaged 41.6 yards on 55 punts. That duo gives Lindenwood a settled kicking and punting operation heading into 2026 even as the depth behind them, Brogan Hartmann and Connor Lander, arrives without an on-field track record. Long snapper Nelson Pipes is gone, but Jack Berry and Zach Ely return to handle that job, so the operation stays intact around Graham's leg and Vinatieri's foot.

Pops Battle at Quarterback

Nate Glantz threw for 2,590 yards and 17 touchdowns last season, and Lindenwood replaces that arm with Pops Battle, who has thrown all of nine yards and an interception in his career. The ground game is set with Jared Rhodes and Steve Hall combining for real production, and Jalen Smith gives Battle a proven target, but with no transfer help added at quarterback, how fast Battle grows into the job determines whether this offense holds steady or backslides.

Backed and covering

Jed Stugart's team made bettors money without needing to be great, going 7-5 against the spread despite a straight-up 6-6 finish, and that gap is the tell heading into 2026. The conference-play number stands out most: 5-3 against the spread and 5-3 straight up in league games, a sign Lindenwood played its truest football when it mattered for Big South-OVC positioning. The 5-1 mark against the spread coming off a loss shows a team that responds rather than spirals, a trait worth tracking as the schedule turns over next season.