COURTESY OF NJCAA/HUTCHINSON SPORTS INFORMATION (August 14/15, 2024)

Charlotte, NC - The NJCAA has announced the first 2024 NJCAA DI Football Game of the Week on ESPN+. The match-up will take place on August 29th between Hutchinson Community College and New Mexico Military Institute. Hutchinson will host the Broncos at Gowans Stadium in Hutchinson, KS at 7:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM CT. This is the first of five NJCAA Football games that will streamed on ESPN+ this season. The other four games will be announced in the coming weeks.

This will be the fifth time that the Blue Dragons will appear on an ESPN network, the first time during a regular-season game.

Hutchinson's first appearance on ESPN was in the 2020/21 NJCAA National championship game, a 29-27 win over Snow College on June 5, 2021 in Little Rock, Arkansas, to showcase Hutchinson's first NJCAA national football championship on ESPNU. The Blue Dragons appeared twice in 2023, winning a national semifinal game vs. Coffeyville at Gowans Stadium on ESPN+ and falling in the national championship game to Iowa Western on ESPNU.

Pat Strathman (play-by-play) and Gary Thomas (analyst) will be the game's broadcast team. Last season, the Blue Dragons played host to East Mississippi in the 2023 NJCAA national semifinals on ESPN+.

Head Coach Drew Dallas enters his fifth season with the Blue Dragons and has compiled a 38-4 record in his first four years. Coach Dallas had one of his most successful years last season as Hutchinson led the nation as the No.1 team in the DI Football rankings for 13 consecutive weeks and slammed the door shut on the regular season as the undefeated KJCCC Champions. The Blue Dragons 2023 season soon came to an end after falling short to East Mississippi in the 2023 NJCAA DI Football Semifinals to close out the year with a 10-1 record.

Hutchinson Community College goes into the 2024 season in search of its second national title after earning the first in the 2020-21 football season. The Blue Dragons offense is led by returning starting Quarterback Samari Collier, who had 20 touchdowns and 1,851 total yards last year to earn the KJCCC Co-Offensive Player of the Year. They are returning nine overall starters from last season and were picked to win the conference for the sixth consecutive year in the 2024 KJCCC Coaches Preseason Poll. 

New Mexico Military is led by first-year head coach Oliver Soukup. Soukup re-joins the Bronco coaching staff after serving as the Special Teams Coordinator and Defensive Line Coach in 2011.  The Broncos are on the hunt for their second national title in program history. They won their first in 2021, defeating Iowa Western 31-13.

The Broncos closed out the 2023 season with a 6-6 record, with five of those losses being to ranked teams. They hope to redeem themselves this season behind the arm of returning Quarterback Elliot Paskett-Bell. Bell steps up into a role that was previously held by Kobe Muasau. Muasau had 182 completions last year with 2,296 total yards and 22 touchdowns. Defensively, The Broncos finished out the season with 982 tackles, 110 tackles for loss, and 10 interceptions. 

For more on the NJCAA and ESPN multi-year agreement, visit: HERE.

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