By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Solomon Gorillas have been steadily rebuilding their program under third-year head coach Devin Rizzo, and could finally be ready to take the next step when the 2026 season gets underway.
While a 3-6 season may not impress most, for a Solomon team with a gauntlet schedule, it represented not only a high watermark in wins, and a cause for optimism around the program.
“2025 was a year of growth for us,” Rizzo said. “We lost some big seniors but we bring back a lot of starters and we feel really excited about the new schedule with some long-standing rivals like Bennington back on the calendar.”
For Rizzo, rebuilding the football culture was paramount for a program that had just one winning season since 2018.
“When I took over we put a huge emphasis on changing the way we operate and focusing on the here and now in everything we do,” he said. “We wanted to change the mindset on what Solomon football is and we want to create a culture of sustained success here. We feel like we enter this season with the most momentum we’ve had in awhile and we’re really excited about the guys we have in our locker room and the numbers we have this year.”
That momentum is carried by a class of nine seniors who have slowly helped rebuild that culture year over year.
“Our senior group has me very excited,” Rizzo said. “We have a great class, and they’ve adopted the leadership roles you’d want them to. Many of these guys have had to start since their sophomore seasons so they have a ton of experience and now they’re really starting to grow in confidence.”
Solomon returns six starters to the offensive side of the ball, including both pieces of their all-senior backfield in quarterback Breken Coup and tailback Matt Hamm-Jones.
That tandem combined for 1,680 yards of total offense in 2025, scoring 14 touchdowns in nine weeks.
Coup has an opportunity to take another step forward this season, with two of his top four receivers back in seniors Jack Westhead and Koehn Duryea.
The fronts on both sides will also be veteran-led, with seniors Quentin Collins and Junior Gonzalez slotting in alongside juniors Aidyn Sreap, Riley Rodriguez, and Ryder Sutton.
Matt Hamm-Jones will reprise his role alongside Hunter Bronson at linebacker, Koehn Duryea will alternate between all three levels, and Jastyn Rego, Riley Perry and Corey Davis will round out a young, but talented secondary.
Solomon’s schedule will feature a good mix of returning rivalries, blue blood programs, and new challengers in the 8-man world.
“I feel really good about our schedule,” Rizzo said. “We have a huge opportunity in front of us to have a successful season with some tough teams near the end. It’s been nice to see some different teams finally and it’s great to have rivals like Herington and Bennington back on our schedule, our guys live in the same communities and the energy in those games should be great.”
If the wind blows the way of the Gorillas in 2026, this team could be primed for an unexpected breakout in a year that’s seen a lot of buzz around this program.
“I don’t really think there’s a ceiling on our program this season,” he said. “I think we have an opportunity to win a lot of games and I think we can make a deep run in the playoffs but we can’t do that unless we attack every single day. I think our floor is 5 or 6, but I think our ceiling could be 9 or 10 depending on how we attack each day.”
Solomon opens the new campaign with back-to-back rivalry matchups against Rural Vista and Bennington.
2026 Solomon Football Schedule
- 9/4 - vs. Rural-Vista
- 9/11 - at Bennington
- 9/18 - at Wakefield
- 9/25 - vs. Canton-Galva
- 10/2 - at Washington County
- 10/9 - vs. Hutch Central Christian
- 10/16 - vs. Herington
- 10/23 - at Clifton-Clyde