Hawks focus on upcoming season as fall football camp continues

Published 11:30 am Thursday, August 6, 2026

QUINCY – Jason Killday isn’t putting much stock in preseason polls or last season’s gridiron accomplishments.

The Quincy University head football coach said Tuesday that his focus is on evaluating this year’s team and preparing the Hawks for the season ahead, regardless of where they were picked in the 2026 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) pre-season coaches’ poll.

Quincy was selected to finish fifth in the nine-team league after posting a 6-5 overall record and 4-4 conference mark in 2025.

“The coaches’ poll is a reflection of last year’s team. It’s a starting point,” Killday, QU’s head football coach, said Tuesday following completion of the morning session of Day Two of this year’s mandatory fall football camp held at QU Stadium.

“It’s not important where you start, it’s where you finish,” Killday told The Herald-Whig late Tuesday morning.

Indianapolis received seven first-place votes and 63 total points to earn the top spot in the poll. Truman State collected the remaining two first-place votes and finished second with 58 points. Upper Iowa was picked third with 46 points, while Missouri S&T ranked fourth with 40.

Quincy followed in fifth place with 33 points. McKendree and Southwest Baptist tied for sixth with 27 points apiece, while William Jewell and Lincoln rounded out the poll.

The preseason poll was voted on by the league’s nine head coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their own teams in accordance with GLVC bylaws.

While the preseason ranking offers an outside perspective, Killday said the Hawks’ attention remains fixed on the work ahead.

“It’s not important where you start, it’s where you finish,” Killday told The Herald-Whig.

Focus of the first couple of days of camp have been “to work through early downs,” Killday said, adding that “we have to eventually work through every position.”

That competition has created an energetic atmosphere early in camp, as veterans look to build last season while newcomers battle for playing time.

Quincy enters the season after recording its third straight winning season, something the Hawks haven’t accomplished since 2006–08. Additionally, the QU football program continued its rise within the GLVC, placing eight players on the 2025 All-Conference teams. The Hawks landed two players on the First Team, two on the Second Team, and four as Honorable Mentions.

With the mandatory fall camp in full swing, it would be premature to predict where this year’s Quincy University football team finishes at the end of the gridiron season. However, after observing the second day of practice, Killday believes the team has already taken steps forward.

“Obviously, it’s too early to tell, but the young guys know now what to expect,” and the veterans are setting the tone during the first days of practice, the QU head coach said.

To that end, several key players commented on the season ahead and their team goals.

“Our goal is to win every game of the year, that never changes,” senior linebacker Brock Wiley said, adding, though, that the goal is a work in progress and they only focus on winning one game at a time and “we’re not focusing on anyone else.”

Wylie, who was one of two Hawks to earn spots on the Second Team All-Conference roster last season, notes that he feels the veterans are really stepping up to show the younger guys and the newcomers what QU football is all about.

Teamwork is the key that both Wiley and Brayden Little, in his second year as starting quarterback for QU, point to as being one of the team’s greatest strengths.

“I’m very excited. We have a lot of new guys, but all the guys are working hard and there’s a lot of energy here,” Little, who was voted the GLVC’s top freshman of the year last season, told the Herald-Whig.

Personally, the QU signal caller knows his level of play will also be important to the team, but with the coaching staff remaining intact, he doesn’t have to change a whole lot from his award-winning rookie season.

“I’ve learned the offense and now I’m learning more on defense,” Little said, adding that the continuity in the offensive schemes means he “doesn’t have to relearn” a new system. “The goal (for me) is to be better each year.”

Little knows that last year’s success also comes with added expectations and realizes that past accomplishments are certainly no guarantee of future results.

“It actually makes you work a little harder,” Little said, noting that “people have the tapes from last year and have seen you.”

Any little changes that come from a different configuration of the team each season is just par for the course and something the quarterback said, “we take it and then get better.”

That’s certainly the personal and team goal of veteran offensive lineman Jack Bishop, who feels this year squad is poised to make its mark on the GLVC and beyond this year.

“Our strength overall has improved,” Bishop, who was one of four Hawks to earn Honorable Mention All-Conference status last season, said.

A key aspect of that improvement, Bishop said, is an intangible that is sometimes overlooked – football IQ.

“The physical aspect is important and I think that has gotten better but the biggest impact would be the mental aspect of the game,” Bishop said, noting that fans don’t always look at that part of the game, but he feels that it’s a vital one.

Bishop noted that besides the obvious differences players face when moving from high school to college football, he has grown both physically and mentally. He believes this year’s Hawks’ squad is strong in both areas.

“We’re a lot faster (in college) and a lot more physical, but people overlook the importance that the mental aspect of the game has.”

Killday added another intangible that he feels is a strength of this squad.

“We have strong leadership in a number of numerous positions. Every position has multiple guys who are strong leaders,” Killday said.

Just looking at some hardware returners received at the end of last season and you can see there’s a lot of potential this team brings to the table.

With only a few days of fall camp completed, Killday knows that the Hawks are still a work in progress. However, he has noticed a few things that have really impressed him.

The players’ ability “to hammer out the details and our staff’s ability to hammer things out – those are things that have impressed me,” Killday said.

As for his vision for the team, that remains consistent from year to year, even as the roster changes.

The goal is always “to keep improving,” Killday said. He believes last year’s team played several tight games and that the veterans are now “battle tested.”

Whether that experience helps the returners take another step forward and how quickly newcomers blend with the veterans will be questions answered beginning when the 2026 season kicks off Aug. 27 at Concordia-St. Paul.

The Hawks will play their first home game Sept. 5 when they host Roosevelt University at QU Stadium.

For now, the team will be “working hand in hand” as Killday looks for the right balance between the old guard and newcomers while the Hawks try to prove the GLVC coaches underestimated them in the preseason poll.

The players are embracing the challenge.

“I don’t think about it,” Bishop said. “I could get angry about it, but that won’t change it.”