COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The 2026 football season will be the seventh under the direction of head coach Josh Breske for Black Hills State University, as the buildup for the year begins Wednesday, July 22, at the annual RMAC Football Kickoff event. The conference media day will be held at the CAVEA Theater on the campus of MSU Denver for the second consecutive year beginning at 10 a.m. Joining Breske will be a pair of seniors as Danny Davis, a running back from San Diego, California, will represent the offense, and Cole Marquez, a linebacker from Las Vegas, Nevada, will represent the defense.
While the Yellow Jackets had a string of three straight winning seasons snapped last year, Breske and company have momentum to carry over as they ended the 2025 campaign with back-to-back convincing victories over Adams State (59-0) and New Mexico Highlands (55-28). The leader of the Yellow Jackets enters his seventh season with a career record of 26-31, the ninth most wins by a coach in program history. Additionally, he now becomes one of eight head coaches in team history to guide the team for seven or more seasons.
The 2025 Black Hills State football team averaged 30.3 points per game while totaling 356.8 yards of offense, as 260.8 yards per game came through the passing game and 96.0 yards per game came on the ground. The offensive attack was led by unanimous All-American wide receiver, TJ Chukwurah, who broke the school's DII era records for receiving yards (1,100) and receiving touchdowns (16) in a season. While now having to replace Chukwurah, the Yellow Jackets still return another big play player as First Team All-Super Region 4 kick & punt return specialists Bryce Coulson is back for his sophomore campaign. As a true freshman, he led the RMAC and ranked 13th nationally with 689 return yards. He also became the school's first player in the DII era to return multiple kickoffs for touchdowns with a 96-yard return at Grand Valley State and a 94-yard return at home against New Mexico Highlands. Defensively, Black Hills State returns five of their top-9 tackle leaders from a year ago, highlighted by the team leader in tackles in 2025 as Jack Gentile is back for his redshirt senior year. In his first season in Spearfish, Gentile tallied a team-best 67 tackles while also breaking up three passes in the secondary.
Davis gave the Green & Gold a strong second option in the backfield last season, appearing in all 11 games alongside Cameron Goods who appeared in all 44 games in his 4-year career. Davis carried the ball 93 times in 2025, rushing for 297 yards and four touchdowns. Additionally, he became a fixture in the passing game, hauling in 24 receptions for 160 yards and another two touchdowns. In the first two RMAC games of the year he tallied multi-touchdown games, recording a season-high 72 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground and 18 receiving yards and a touchdown through the air against Chadron State, while also adding another rushing and receiving touchdown the following week against Fort Lewis. He set a season-high 52 receiving yards against the Colorado School of Mines, helping him reach another season-high of 100 all-purpose yards.
Marquez has appeared in 30 games over the last three seasons for the Yellow Jackets to lead the defensive unit. Across those three years, he has accumulated 89 total tackles, with 7.5 tackles-for-loss. He was one of nine players to record 30 or more tackles a season ago with 36 and holds the fifth most by a returner for BHSU entering the 2026 campaign. Of the four games with five or more tackles in 2025, including three straight to end the year, he posted a career high of nine tackles in the victory over New Mexico Highlands to close out his redshirt junior year.
