After leading the Wisconsin-River Falls football team to the program’s first Division-III national title, Falcons coach Matt Walker is off to Iowa.
Walker accepted the job at Drake University in Des Moines, Drake announced Sunday night, shortly after Walker informed the Falcons football team of his decision.
Drake is a non-scholarship Division-I football team in the Pioneer League, the same FCS conference in which St. Thomas competes. Drake plays the Tommies in St. Paul on Nov. 14.
Drake has won each of the last two Pioneer League titles.
Walker earned Division-III national coach of the year honors after leading the Falcons to previously unthinkable heights last season, with Wisconsin-River Falls winning its first WIAC title since 1998 and making its first playoff appearance since 1996.
The head coach also led the quarterbacks room, where he guided senior signal caller Kaleb Blaha to National Player of the Year honors.
Walker was hired at Wisconsin-River Falls in 2011, and the program stuck with the coach through nine straight losing seasons to open his tenure.
A COVID “reset” year in which the Falcons didn’t play football in 2020 allowed for Walker and his staff to get bolder in its strategies, upping the pace of its offense to speeds not otherwise seen at the collegiate level. Since then, the Falcons have won seven-plus games each season, a stretch capped by the recent national title.
“I’m not sure there are words to properly explain how much I love River Falls and how much I appreciate everything it has given me and my family,” Walker said in a Wisconsin-River Falls release announcing his resignation. “I’ve given everything I had to UWRF and feel good about leaving it in a better place than we found it. None of this could have happened without great administrative leadership, my incredible coaching staff, and obviously our student-athletes. We have truly created a family here.”
In the Drake release announcing his hiring, Walker insinuated Jake Wissing, the Falcons’ defensive coordinator, is set to take the reins in River Falls.
“I cannot wait to be their biggest fan under the leadership of Jake Wissing, who was with me all 15 years,” Walker said in the Drake release. “He will do amazing things and I cannot wait to follow them on their quest for another national title.”
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