SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The No. 16 Augustana football team travels to No. 1 Colorado School of Mines for the Second Round of the 2023 NCAA Division II Football Championship. The contest in Golden, Colorado, is the first time the two squads will have met on the gridiron. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. (CST).
 
Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app, presented by The Original Pancake House. The app can be downloaded in the App Store or Google Play. The live video is a pay-per-view per new NCAA rights fees.
 
About the Game
Colorado School of Mines had an off week as the No. 1 seed in Super Region Four while also holding a national No. 1 ranking from the AFCA Top-25 Coaches' Poll Committee. Augustana is the No. 16 ranked team in the country and No. 4 seed in the region. The Vikings are coming off their second-ever playoff win in the rout of No. 17 Minnesota State last week.
 
The winner of Saturday's contest will play the winner of Central Washington and Bemidji State, also taking place on Saturday.
 
About the Orediggers
Colorado School of Mines is 11-0 and the No. 1 team in the nation. After opening the season with a 31-28 win over then No. 3 Grand Valley State, the Orediggers topped No. 4 Angelo State, 31-21, while also owning a win over No. 9 Western Colorado.
 
The offense flows through John Matocha, the two-time RMAC Offensive Player of the Year as Mines won its fifth-straight RMAC Championship. Matocha has tossed for 3,183 yards and 36 touchdowns while holding a nice completion percentage of 69 percent. His top target is Max McLeod with 81 receptions for 1,202 yards and 14 touchdowns. On the ground, Noah Roper has rushed for 716 yards while averaging 65 per game.  
 
On defense, Nolan Reeve was named the RMAC Defensive Player of the Year with 39 tackles, nine tackles for loss and seven sacks. He is the NCAA's active leader in career sacks with 39.5. Jaden Healy leads the Orediggers with 45 total tackles as Jackson Zimmermann leads with five interceptions and six pass breakups.
 
About the Vikings
Augustana has tied its program record of 11 wins in a season while advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the second time after toppling Minnesota State 51-24. In the contest, Augustana forced six turnovers including five interceptions while the offense clicked on all cylinders for the 51 points.
 
Casey Bauman, coming off a four touchdown, 243-yard performance, has thrown for 2,634 yards while completing 63.9 percent of his pass attempts. Devon Jones has been on the receiving end of 38 completions for 553 yards and eight touchdowns. Jarod Epperson has rushed for 11 touchdowns on 1,059 yards, an average of 88.3 yards per game while catching 30 balls for another 336 yards.
 
On defense, Peyton Buckley leads AU with 70 tackles with 51 marked as solo while intercepting three passes, breaking up nine and accounting for a pair of quarterback hurries. Haden Wallace ranks second on the team with 58 tackles and Brayden Hoops owning 53 tackles. Will Davis has totaled eight tackles for loss and ties with Gradee Sherman for a team-high 4.5 sacks.
 
One Last Thing
Augustana has played the AFCA No. 1 team in the country on at least three occasions with the latest being Oct. 10, 2015. That was a 35-27 setback to Minnesota State. The other two times on record are against Minnesota Duluth. The Vikings have never topped the AFCA No. 1 team in the country.
 
The highest ranking win Augustana owns is this season when AU topped then No. 3 Minnesota State in the regular season. Previously, Augustana had topped No. 5 Sioux Falls in the 2015 season.