Crusaders in the Pros: King and Fritz continue to find success in the IFL, Jackson opens Sunday’s win for St. Louis with 58-yard kick return

Photo: Kyle King (#17) hands the ball off in Friday’s IFL game in Green Bay (Photo courtesy of the Iowa Barnstormers on X/Twitter, @iabarnstormers)

As the spring rolls on, so do the football seasons for four Crusader alums, who are playing on three different teams across two leagues in this 2024 season. 

In Green Bay, Wisconsin on Friday night, Kyle King made his second career start for the Iowa Barnstormers in the Indoor Football League, and guided the Barnstormer offense against a Green Bay defense that leads the league in fewest points allowed per game (32.0). 

The Green Bay Blizzard came away with a 40-33 win, but King, who played at UMHB from 2019-2022 and started on the 2021 Stagg Bowl title team, finished 18-of-39 passing for 131 yards. He tossed two touchdown passes along with one interception and added a 10-yard run on the first play of Iowa’s second drive of the third quarter. Quian Williams, who has established himself as King’s top receiving target, caught nine of those 18 completed passes and pulled in both of King’s passing touchdowns. 

On the defensive side of the ball for the Barnstormers, Jefferson Fritz tallied four total tackles, one of which was a solo tackle. Fritz, a four-time All-American at safety while at UMHB, remains one of the top defensive players in the IFL, leading the league in solo tackles (29) and tackles per game (34.5). He tallied a key pass breakup on Friday night, just minutes after Iowa cut the deficit to 30-17 on a 23-yard field goal. 

On 3rd & 10, former UW-Whitewater quarterback Max Meylor dropped back and fired a pass in the direction of EJ Burgess. But Fritz, who last went up against Meylor in the 2021 D-III national semifinals—a 24-7 win at Whitewater for UMHB—disrupted the crucial pass, forcing a 58-yard field goal attempt from Green Bay that was missed. King then led Iowa on a touchdown drive, cutting the deficit to six points. 

In the United Football League on Sunday, Blake Jackson turned in three exceptional kickoff returns for the St. Louis Battlehawks, who won on the road in Washington D.C., beating the DC Defenders, 45-12, in a game broadcasted nationally on ESPN. 

Jackson, the 2016 Stagg Bowl MVP for UMHB, returned three kickoffs for 114 yards, averaging an impressive 38 yards per return. The Houston native, with great agility, caught the opening kickoff at the St. Louis 17-yard line, and took it 58 yards up the field, breaking three tackles as he raced up the left sideline. He initially took the kick towards the middle of the field before cutting to his left behind two key blocks that opened up a seam down the sideline. He sprinted to the DC 25-yard line before being pushed out of bounds, setting up St. Louis quarterback AJ McCarron and the Battlehawks’ offense with prime field position. 

And in a 35-18 victory for the Michigan Panthers over the Memphis Showboats on Sunday afternoon in UFL action, Keith Gipson Jr. tallied one solo tackle from his spot at cornerback, as Memphis was shutout in the first and third quarters. Gipson, a Killeen native, was part of the UMHB program from 2017-2021, playing in 48 career games with 211 total tackles and 13 interceptions. 

Next Week

King, Fritz, and the Iowa Barnstormers host the Quad City Steamrollers on Saturday, May 4, at 7:05 p.m. CT. Fans can tune in to the action on the IFL’s YouTube channel. 

Jackson and the St. Louis Battlhawks will also be at home, hosting the Houston Roughnecks at 2:00 p.m. CT on Saturday. That game can be seen on FOX. 

Gipson Jr. and the Michigan Panthers host the Arlington Renegades on Sunday, May 5, in Detroit, in a 12:00 p.m. CT matchup on FOX.