Washburn University Athletics

Entering his 23rd season as the Ichabods’ head coach, Craig Schurig has built one of the most respected programs in the MIAA with three NCAA playoff appearances as well as the 2005 MIAA title coming on the heels of a 2007, 2009 and 2011 and 2021 runner-up finish in the conference race. 

Schurig has compiled an 139-101 record at Washburn. The 139 wins are on top of the all-time wins chart at Washburn. He won his 100th career game in a 45-13 win over Missouri Southern on Oct. 8, 2016 becoming only the fifth MIAA coach to reach the century mark in victories.

Through his first 22 seasons, in addition to four NCAA playoff appearances and a conference title, Schurig has led the Washburn football program to the 2004 Mineral Water Bowl championship, the 2010 Kanza Bowl championship and the 2017 C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl title; as well as the 2016 Mineral Water Bowl in Washburn’s eighth postseason game under Schurig.

The 2021 Ichabod squad was the fourth to receive an NCAA postseason invitation after completing the regular season with a second-place finish in the MIAA and a 9-3 overall record marking the third time in program history a season ended with at least nine wins. Schurig also coached the others with 2011 (10 wins) and 2005 (nine wins).

In 2011, the Ichabods reached their third NCAA playoffs in school history going 10-3 setting a school-record for the most wins in a season. Washburn also recorded its first playoff victory in school history with a 52-49 win over Abilene Christian. 

As quarterbacks coach, he helped Dane Simoneau throw for more than 4,000 yards setting a school record and a national finalist award for the Harlon Hill Trophy as the best player in NCAA Division II, the first national finalist in Washburn history. Simoneau would go on to be a five-time consensus All-American at quarterback as well as the MIAA’s Offensive Player of the Year, the first Ichabod to win the award.

The 2010 season saw the Ichabods go 8-4 with the Kanza Bowl appearance in front of a Topeka crowd topping a No. 24-ranked Midwestern State team.

During the 2009 campaign, Schurig led the Ichabods to their sixth straight winning season, something which had not been done in the program’s history, finishing with an 8-3 overall record and a second place MIAA finish with a 6-3 mark.

In 2008, the season was the fifth-straight winning campaign  for the  Ichabods  and   the first  five-year  run
of winning seasons since the 1903-07 seasons.

In 2007, the Ichabods made their second NCAA playoff appearance with an 8-4 overall record and a 7-2 MIAA mark placing second in the conference. 

Following the 2006 season, the Ichabods recorded a 7-4 record securing their third straight winning season for the first time since the 1986 to 1988 campaigns.

Schurig earned the 2005 MIAA’s Coach of the Year for his efforts leading the Ichabods that season in which Washburn won its first conference championship since 1983. He was also named the AFCA’s Region 3 Coach of the Year. Washburn finished the 2005 season with a school-record nine wins and a 7-1 mark in conference play.

The 2004 season saw the Ichabods record their first winning season since 1999 and their first postseason win since 1986 with a 36-33 win over Northern State in the Mineral Water Bowl.

In his 22 seasons at Washburn, the Ichabods have had 30 different players earn 74 different All-American accolades, two MIAA Most Valuable Defensive Players, an MIAA Offensive Player of the Year, three MIAA Special Teams Players of the Year, four MIAA Freshmen of the Year awards and 261 players receive all-MIAA honors. He has been equally on task with players in the classroom with 646 Ichabods named to the MIAA Academic Honor Roll, including four Academic All-Americans.

While under Schurig, the Ichabod football program has also seen sweeping changes in facilities with the improvements to Yager Stadium including a new artificial turf and equipment upgrades in the weight room. In the summer of 2009, the Ichabods moved into a renovated football locker room and a state-of-the-art strength and conditioning center in a renovated Whiting Fieldhouse as part of a $7 million project as well as the $20.3 million indoor athletic facility which opened in December 2020.

Schurig was named the Ichabod head coach on Dec. 28, 2001 after spending nine seasons on the Pittsburg State coaching staff, where he was a part of an NCAA national finalist squad in 1995, four MIAA championship teams and eight NCAA Division II playoff teams. He helped guide one of the top defenses in Division II, including the top-ranked defensive squad in 1999.

Prior to working with the defensive backs, he worked three seasons with the Gorillas’ tight ends. Before arriving at Pittsburg State, Schurig spent the 1992 season as a volunteer assistant coach at his alma mater, Colorado School of Mines before joining the Gorillas in 1993.

Schurig, a Willingboro, N.J., native, was a four-year letterman as a defensive back at Colorado Mines and was selected team captain as a senior. He earned second-team all-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference honors as a senior. He graduated in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering.

Schurig earned a master’s degree in physical education at Pittsburg State in 1996. Craig and his wife, Louisa, have a daughter, Samantha, two sons, Mitchell, an assistant coach on the Washburn staff and Michael, a former member of the Ichabod baseball team.