Rock ranked No. 10 in final national poll - Slippery Rock University Athletics (2024)

Football 12/18/2023 1:13:00 PM Jon Holtz, Athletic Communication

Slippery Rock finished the year ranked No. 10 in the final Division II national rankings and was one of just 12 programs in the country to be ranked in every poll during the 2023 season.

WACO, Texas – The Slippery Rock University football team finished the 2023 season ranked No. 10 in the final set of Division II national rankings released by the American Football Coaches Association Monday.

The Rock entered the NCAA Playoffs ranked 15th in the national poll and moved up five spots to finish at No. 10 after reaching the quarterfinal round for the third time in the last five seasons. SRU made its fifth straight appearance in the postseason, tied with Colorado School of Mines for the second longest active streak among all programs in the country.

Slippery Rock was one of just 12 total programs in Division II to be nationally ranked in every poll during the 2023 season, beginning with the preseason rankings in August and finishing with the final rankings Monday. The Rock have been ranked in every national poll since the final rankings of the 2018 season, a streak that now spans five calendar years since the last time SRU was unranked.

National champion Harding finished the year at No. 1 after capping a perfect 15-0 season with a win in the national title game. Colorado School of Mines, the national runner-up for the second year in a row, finished at No. 2, followed by Grand Valley State, Lenoir-Rhyne and Pittsburg State rounding out the top five.

The Rock finished the 2023 season with a 12-2 overall record after claiming a fifth straight PSAC West title and reaching the NCAA Playoffs for the fifth straight season. SRU was one of only six teams in the country to win at least 12 games in 2023.

The 12-win season ranks tied for the second most wins in program history, marks the eighth time in program history that The Rock won at least 10 games in a season and is the fourth 10-win season in the last five years. SRU has racked up 55 wins over the last five seasons and is averaging 11.0 wins per season during that stretch. The 12-2 record extended the program's current streak of winning seasons to 14, which is the ninth-best active streak among all Division II programs.

Slippery Rock will return two All-Americans in the secondary next year in cornerback Josh Stokes and safety Eddie Faulkner IV. The Rock will also return Harlon Hill Trophy finalist QB Brayden Long, who finished fifth in the national voting for the Division II Player of the Year this fall. In addition to those three, SRU returns All-Region tight end Kam Kruzelyak and All-PSAC offensive tackle Joe Cooper.

Overall, Slippery Rock will lose just three starters from the defensive side of the ball and seven starters on offense, with four of those being along the offensive line. However, SRU does return two of the top running backs in the region in Chris D'Or and Isaiah Edwards and a slew of skill players looking to move into key roles on the offense. Included in that list is Kylon Wilson, who primarily served as a kick returner in his true freshman year this fall. Wilson shattered the SRU single-season record for return yards and ranked fourth in the country in combined kick returns despite not returning any punts.

"We've had a terrific start to recruiting already and have some key commitments from mid-year transfers that will join us in the spring," said head coach Shawn Lutz. "To be ranked every week of the season and finish in the top 10 this year is a testament to the overall strength of our program. We're proud of the season we had, but we fell short of our major goals. We're already excited to get to work on 2024."

The Rock will face a tough start to the 2024 schedule with back-to-back games against teams that qualified for the NCAA Playoffs this year. SRU will host Northeast 10 Conference champion New Haven Sept. 7 before traveling to Shepherd University Sept. 14. SRU will then visit rival Indiana (Pa.) in week five, giving The Rock three opponents in the first five weeks that have postseason expectations.

A tentative look at the schedules for the next two seasons can be found HERE.

The final AFCA Division II national rankings for the 2023 season can be found below.

2023 FINAL DIVISION II NATIONAL POLL
Dec. 18, 2023

Dropped Out: Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) (20), Davenport (Mich.) (22)

Others Receiving Votes: Davenport (Mich.), 58; Ouachita Baptist (Ark.), 51; Shepherd (W.Va.), 38; Southern Arkansas, 37; New Haven (Conn.), 25; Emporia St. (Kan.), 23; Limestone (S.C.), 18; Missouri Western St., 16; Southern Nazarene (Okla.), 15; Ashland (Ohio), 14; McKendree (Ill.), 13; Colorado St.-Pueblo, 12; Angelo St. (Tex.), 11; Virginia St., 11; East Stroudsburg (Pa.), 2; Frostburg St. (Md.), 1.

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