UWF football opens Division I journey against No. 16 Southern Illinois

UWF football head coach Kaleb Nobles still remembers the first game in program history. After a more than two-hour rain daily, he threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns in the Argos 45-0 win over Ave Maria on Sept. 3, 2016.

It was the start of the Argos meteoric rise through NCAA Division II, which included a national championship in 2019 and six playoff appearances.

Now, nearly 10 years after leading the very beginning of UWF football, Nobles will lead the next era of it when the Argos welcome No. 16 Southern Illinois in their NCAA Division I debut.

“I’ve learned as a head coach that you think you know what you have as a team, and you might be fairly accurate, but you really don’t know until you play somebody else,” Nobles said at media availability Aug. 24. “They have to do live situations, run through live scenarios, it’s not scripted by us. We’ll find out a lot about our team and what they’re made of but I think we feel good as a staff so far in preparation.”

The university announced the move in April, joining the United Athletic Conference for football and the Atlantic Sun for other sports. While all UWF programs will be allowed to compete for conference championships immediately, they aren’t allowed to compete for NCAA championships until the 2029-30 academic year.

Still, Thursday is the start of a historic beginning in Argos athletics. Here are three things to know ahead of the season opener.

New year, same standards

UWF enters this season in an unfamiliar spot.

The Argos are used to being ranked in preseason top 25s, not last in conferences like their eighth out of eight teams finish in this summer’s media poll.

Nobles knows his team is the new kids on the block, making the jump not even five months after the university announced its move to Division I in April. That means UWF didn’t even have the chance to remake their roster for the FCS, as the NCAA’s only transfer portal window opened in January.

Still there, are 21 players on the roster who used to play at Division I schools and a group hungry to prove outsiders wrong. Nobles admitted the team was frustrated about the ranking, but is trying to put all their focus into the present. Even with the jump in competition, the goal remains playing “great football.”

For now, that can’t mean competing for national championships. But it can mean giving a complete effort against each opponent and continuing to do the things that made them successful for the program’s first decade.

“Division II is no different than Division I as far as what we’re doing on a day-to-day,” Nobles said. “Leadership is hard work. Discipline is discipline. Playing together is playing together, doesn’t matter the division. Our guys are excited about that and what they’ve done so far in preparation for this year.”

New QB known, but not revealed

The Argos have 73 new players on their roster this fall, which means new faces all over the field. Perhaps no new face will be bigger than whoever replaces quarterback Marcus Stokes, who was named an honorable mention All-American last fall and transferred to Memphis in the offseason.

UWF has six quarterbacks listed on the roster who have thrown a combined eight passes in their college careers. Sophomore Blake Boda (Arkandas), senior Donovan Leary (Tulane) and sophomore Bubba Thompson (South Alabama) all transferred in from FCS programs.

Nobles didn’t name a starting quarterback Monday and doesn’t intend to reveal it until the Argos first offensive series.

“That probably won’t be public until 6:02 or whenever that first offensive play is,” Nobles said. “We’ll keep it close to the vest. But he’s had a good couple weeks of practice. This is my fourth quarterback battle as a position coach and head and this was a tough one. A couple of guys really gave us a lot to think about.

SIU a big first test

UWF definitely isn’t easing into its first Division I season.

The Argos are opening with a top 25 opponent from a loaded Missouri Valley conference. Despite being ranked 16^th nationally, the Salukis were voted sixth in the conference’s preseason poll. SIU finished a 7-5 campaign in 2025 with a 37-7 win over an Illinois State team that went on to play for the FCS championship for the first time since 2014, falling to Montana State in overtime.

Senior quarterback DJ Williams returns after a record-setting 2025. The sixth-year senior ran for a SIU quarterback record 847 yards and 18 touchdowns and threw for 2,846 yards and 22 touchdowns a year ago on his way to Missouri Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors.

The Salukis averaged 36.4 points per game since 2025, its most since 2007. Williams was named a Phil Steele second team preseason All-American.

 “Certainly does not remind myself of really anybody we played last year,” Nobles said of Williams. “He’s a new kind of threat for us so we have to be ready to hem him up and not let him get loose because when he does he can run, he’s a really good player. We’re very aware of that. Pretty much our whole team has heard it. Our defense has heard it, our offense has heard it, my wife’s heard, everybody’s heard it. We have to hem that guy up because he’s a good player.

Thirteen Salukis landed on the conference’s  preseason watch list, with senior guard Andrew Harden and junior long snapper Ryan Algrim being named Phil Steele preseason first team All-Americans.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: UWF football opens Division I journey against No. 16 Southern Illinois