Will King III Provides Brief Solace to One of College Football’s Most Despondent Programs

It is difficult to find a more miserable existence in college football than being a Lincoln (Missouri) Blue Tigers fan. The hapless program has a record of 20-156 since 2009, good for a 12.8 winning percentage. The program is barely getting out of one of the roughest stretches in recent college football memory.

The Blue Tigers are 4-63 since 2019, including a 42-game losing streak from October 26, 2019, to October 5, 2024. Since the start of the abbreviated 2020 Spring season, Lincoln is 1-53 against NCAA competition, with two of their three wins during this time coming against the controversial non-affiliated Lincoln (CA) Oaklanders.

One of those losses was an 87-3 loss to Nicholls during the 2021 Spring season in front of a regional linear TV audience, the program's first linear TV appearance in seven years.

Yet, somehow, this school can boast something several schools, including most of Division I, cannot. The Blue Tigers have a former quarterback starting in an American pro football league.

Will King III seems to have earned the starting quarterback job for the Continental Football League's Texas Syndicate after coming off the bench and leading the team to a come-from-behind 23-20 victory over the Tall City Black Gold last weekend.

King III threw the winning touchdown to help the Syndicate rebound from a 24-0 shutout loss to the San Antonio Toros last weekend. Although official stats are not available from the league, an unofficial box score on Reddit credits King with 106 passing yards and 33 rushing yards.

The Continental Football League certainly does not have the prestige of the NFL or even the UFL, but it has already established itself as a league with a high level of talent relative to several indoor and arena leagues. This credibility alone makes King III's emergence a ray of sunshine amid Lincoln (MO) fans' gloomy existence.

Will King III's time in Lincoln (MO) may not have been long, but it was memorable. King III spent the last year at Lincoln (MO), the final stop of a vagabond college career that took him to Washburn, Minnesota State, and Minot State before he settled in Jefferson City.

Lincoln (MO) primarily used King III as a short-yardage rushing specialist to start the year, with his "signature" performance being a two-carry, four-yard, and 2 touchdowns stat line against McKendree. King III finally got a chance to start in the season finale and had a respectable performance in Lincoln's 59-13 loss to William Jewell. He completed nine passes for 107 yards and ran for 94 yards on just 12 carries. King III accentuated the performance with a 41-yard touchdown run to close the scoring.

Some may minimize the scope of the upstart Continental Football League, but being the starting quarterback of any pro franchise is something all quarterbacks, regardless of level, aspire to be. There are nearly 900 four-year institutions playing football across the country and fewer than 100 starting quarterback positions in the United States pro football landscape. Being a starting quarterback in any of these leagues is rare territory.

Even in the crowded Spring/Summer football scene, Lincoln (Mo) fans can find a brief respite from their never-ending troubles in knowing one of their own is the face of a franchise.