When the Augsburg and Hamline football teams meet on Nov. 15 in Minneapolis, it will be only the second time in MIAC history that Black head coaches will face each other. KiJuan Ware (AU) and Chip Taylor (HU) coached against each other in 2021 when the former was Macalester interim football coach. Ware this season is Augsburg’s first-year head football coach; Taylor is in his ninth season as HC, and 12th year overall at the school.
The MSR spent time with both teams in separate days during the week of August 18, and watched the two squads in a joint practice/scrimmage at Augsburg August 23.
Special thanks to both Head Coaches Taylor and Ware, their respective coaching staffs, and the players for their cooperation in allowing us unfiltered access as they prepared for their season openers this week.
Ware sees ‘a lot of good work’
The Augsburg football team might be the most diverse team in the MIAC — 47 of 81 players on this year’s roster are Black, as is their football coach KiJuan Ware, who was hired this summer as the school’s first Black football head coach.
“I love the energy,” Ware told me before a practice. “They’re coming together as a unit.”
Ware returns to the Minneapolis school located in the Cedar-Riverside area after his recent stint at Division II Shippensburg (Pa.) University offensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator, and quarterbacks coach last season. He was defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator during his two seasons at AU (2022-23). He has at least a quarter-century of coaching experience, including coaching at six different DI schools in a variety of roles.
He also returns to the MIAC: Ware served as interim head coach at Macalester College in 2021 after serving as the Scots’ offensive coordinator the prior two seasons.
“I’m confident Coach Ware will lead our program to new heights on the field and in the classroom,” said Augsburg Athletic Director Amy Cooper of Ware.
The first year Auggies head coach pointed out that his squad is “becoming students of the game. They’re buying it,” stressed Ware. “We’re still teaching. That’s what we’re doing each and every single day.”
Augsburg opens the 2025 season at Valley City (ND) State University Sept. 4 at 6 pm. After two more road games at St. Scholastica (Sept. 20) and Saint John’s (Sept. 27), the football team opens its 2025 home portion of the schedule Oct. 4 vs. St. Olaf.
“A lot of good work out here today,” said Ware after the Aug. 23 joint practice and scrimmage against Hamline.
Taylor says ‘We’re getting there’
Charles “Chip” Taylor begins his ninth season as Hamline head football coach. By virtue of his years of service, Taylor is the “dean” of MIAC Black coaches.
“Part of my job is getting everybody on the bus, and then the second part of it is getting everybody on the right seats on the bus,” Taylor said simply after a practice. He was pleased with his squad’s performance that day: “We got a long way to go, but we’re getting there.
“Defense is obviously a little bit ahead of the offense. We got to get our second teams caught up with the defense,” the coach stressed.
Taylor has had years of coaching experience even before he arrived at Hamline as defensive coordinator (2013-15) and before being named HC in 2016.
Jon Brown is in his first season as the Pipers’ offensive coordinator. He let me sit in on an offensive team film session in which he broke down the players’ work at practice earlier that day.
“This isn’t really about football,” Brown told me afterwards. “It’s about our disposition, how we approach our own lives. So, I wanted them to be encouraged that they have the stuff that they need [to be successful].
“None of that is worth anything if we don’t believe in ourselves,” said Brown. “That’s what I was trying to convey. We’re nitpicking technique. They’re not really messing up.”
Hamline opens the 2025 season Sat., Sept. 6 at home vs. Crown at 1 pm, the first of three straight home contests.
“You can’t simulate game speed,” said Taylor after his team’s participation with Augsburg in a joint practice-scrimmage Aug. 23 at Augsburg. “I think both teams played fast, played magical. It’s good work.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.