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| Gage Timm and the UW-River Falls defense may not rank highly on the statistical charts, but they are also on the field more often than most. Photo by Wade Gardner, d3photography.com |
By Greg Thomas
D3football.com
The Top Gun offense had barely finished celebrating when UW-River Falls’ defense was already back on the field 57 game seconds after forcing a Johns Hopkins punt. A touchdown with 45 seconds left in the national semifinal had pushed the River Falls lead to 48-41, leaving Blue Jays with one last chance and the Falcons’ defense no time at all to catch their breath. One play later, the season’s defining trait surfaced again, sudden change, instant response, interception. The game ended the way River Falls’ season has unfolded, fast and often decided in moments rather than marches.
That sequence wasn’t a fluke, and it wasn’t just a dramatic ending to a national semifinal. It was a snapshot of what this defense has become, and why the Falcons are headed to Canton with a chance to win a national championship.
If you’re the type of reader who scrolls straight to the defensive rankings, this unit might not immediately jump off the page. River Falls ranks 90th nationally in yards allowed, 202nd in passing yards allowed, and 231st in first downs surrendered. Those aren’t the numbers usually associated with teams still playing into the final weekend of the season. They’re also deeply misleading.
The Falcons have played more defensive snaps than any team in Division III, a byproduct of an offense that scores quickly, snaps the ball relentlessly, and rarely bleeds the clock. More snaps mean more yards. More possessions mean more chances for opponents to accumulate counting stats. That reality isn’t ignored in the River Falls defensive meeting room; it’s baked into everything they do.
“It really comes down to a couple things,” defensive coordinator Jake Wissing said. “Are we creating turnovers? That’s number one. Turnovers and negative plays are big things for us. Anytime you can get a team behind the sticks, that’s what you really want to shoot for. And then regardless of how many turnovers we get, we want to be really good on third down.”
That perspective is essential to understanding this group. River Falls’ defense doesn’t exist in isolation. It exists in the wake of one of the most explosive offenses the division has ever seen.
The Top Gun unit doesn’t just score quickly. It reshapes the entire game environment. Drives end abruptly, fields flip suddenly, and the defense is often asked to respond with minimal rest and no margin for error.
Rather than fight that reality, Wissing and his staff embraced it. Practice tempo mirrors game tempo. Conditioning is non-negotiable. Even scout team periods are designed to reflect the pace the Falcons see on Saturdays.
“The biggest thing that we do to help us with that is we emulate it a little bit in practice,” Wissing said. “Our guys are in pretty good shape because of the tempo of our practice and we don’t know any different here. Even our scout team reps are pretty good. If you go to a regular college and get a 10-minute team session, they’re not getting 25, 30 reps in. We’re getting 25, 30 reps, and our guys just don’t know any different.”
Once you accept that context, the way River Falls measures defensive success comes into focus. This isn’t about suppressing yardage totals or winning time of possession. It’s about ending drives. Preferably abruptly.
The Falcons lead Division III with 37 takeaways, six more than the next closest team of ball hawks. Those aren’t empty numbers padded against overmatched opponents. They’ve come in tight moments, against quality teams, often when the margin for error was gone. In the semifinal against Johns Hopkins, a game where River Falls surrendered 41 points, the defense delivered two fourth-quarter stops and a takeaway in the final six minutes.
When the offense gave them a lead, they needed exactly one snap to close the door.
“Every drive we want to attack and we want to get back off the field,” senior linebacker Gage Timm said. “Giving the ball to our offense as many times as possible in any game is going to benefit us the most because of how high tempo they are. We know that they’re going to go and get their scores out there.”
That mindset didn’t arrive fully formed in September. Early in the season, River Falls’ youth was evident, particularly on the back end. The Falcons gave up 33 points to Alma and 47 to Coe in the first two weeks. Eighty points allowed in two games is a lot, even in a division that features no shortage of explosive offenses. For a defense breaking in new starters, especially in the secondary, those games served as a crash course.
They also forced the coaching staff to adapt.
“I do think, as coaches, and Coach Alex Wood, our secondary coach, has done a great job with these young guys getting them ready to go and finding out what can they do, what are they good at, what are they comfortable doing, and how do we get them prepared,” Wissing said. “If I showed you our fall installs and what we put in during training camp compared to what we’re running now, you’d be like, ‘What the heck is this?’ It’s completely different.”
Simplification led to confidence. Confidence led to speed. And speed, in this system, is everything.
“We really kind of turned the corner with knowing who they are and what these guys are good at,” Wissing said. “Let’s let them do it and find ways to let them do it.”
At the center of that growth is Timm, the Region 6 Defensive Player of the Year and a D3football.com first-team All-American. His accolades are well-earned, but his value to this defense goes far beyond the stat sheet. He’s played in all 45 games of his career at River Falls, and that experience shows up in moments when chaos threatens to take over.
“It starts with spring ball and getting them reps,” Timm said, referring to the younger players around him. “It’s the reps that they need to be comfortable. They might have known what they had to do, but getting comfortable and reacting without having to think is the big thing in our defense.”
Timm’s game translates to December football because it’s built on recognition, communication, and composure. When the offense scores in two minutes, he’s the one settling the huddle. When a sudden-change situation arises, he’s the one making sure everyone’s aligned. In a system that asks players to play fast without fear, that kind of leadership is invaluable.
The same philosophy has allowed freshmen like Taylor Sussner to thrive far sooner than expected. The 2025 WIAC Newcomer of the Year has six interceptions, including two against UW-La Crosse in the regular season and two more in the postseason. In the semifinal against Johns Hopkins, he added a career-high 11 tackles, often stepping into the box and holding his own against a physical offense.
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| Taylor Sussner has had a breakout year as a freshman at safety, as the River Falls defense adjusted to losing a highly decorated group of players in the secondary after the 2024 season. Photo by Wade Gardner, d3photography.com |
Sussner credits the adjustments made after those first two weeks for resetting the secondary. “After those first two games, that next week we slowed things down and got back into the small details,” he said. “Coach Wood did a really good job with us as DBs making things simple but effective. That really helped get a good baseline for the rest of the year. We got comfortable with that and then we were able to build off of that for the rest of the year.”
Comfort leads to trust, and trust allows players to attack instead of hesitate. That’s how a freshman ends up making his biggest plays on the biggest stages.
All of it points to why this defense feels particularly well-suited for what comes next. The Stagg Bowl is rarely decided by who racks up the most yards. Neutral sites, longer preparation windows, and evenly matched teams tend to compress margins. One possession swings everything. One mistake ends it.
River Falls has lived in that reality all season. They’ve faced nine teams that made the NCAA playoffs. They’ve played games where the offense scored in bunches and games where every stop mattered. The environment that defines December football isn’t new to them. It’s become normal.
“The football part is easy, it’s our same process,” Wissing said. “Our Monday’s the same, our Tuesday’s the same. Everything in the process from the start to the end of it has been the same.”
That consistency, paired with a clear understanding of who they are, has turned a defense once defined by youth into one defined by readiness. The offense may create the wake, but the defense has learned to live in it, thrive in it, and, when the moment demands it, end games in it.
When the Top Gun offense scores again in Canton, and it almost certainly will, the River Falls defense won’t be surprised to find itself back on the field. It will jog out, line up, and wait for the next moment to decide the game, just as it has all season.