The Road Starts in Marion: Carterville Opens the 2026 Season

There is something different about the first Friday night of football season. The lights come on, the stands start filling up, the band is playing, and suddenly all those months without high school football seem like a distant memory. This Friday night, August 21, we get to do it all over again. Carterville Lions football is back, and Keenan Clark and I will be back behind the microphones as the Lions open the 2026 season on the road against the Marion Wildcats.

It is a great way to start the season. Carterville and Marion are separated by only a few miles, the players know each other, the fans know each other, and there should be plenty of people making the short trip to Marion. There is no easing into the schedule with a game like this. From the opening kickoff, we should get an early indication of what kind of football team Carterville will have in 2026.

The Lions enter this season following an outstanding 2025 campaign. Carterville went through the regular season undefeated at 9-0, captured the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Ohio Division championship and eventually finished 10-1 after advancing to the second round of the IHSA playoffs. It was one of those seasons that reminded everyone just how high the expectations have become for Carterville football.

Now comes the challenge of turning the page. Head coach Brett Diel and his staff have a new team, new roles to fill and another nine-game regular-season schedule ahead of them. You cannot simply carry last year's wins into a new season. What you can carry over is the confidence that comes from knowing what it takes to win football games, and there should be plenty of that confidence around the Carterville program.

One of the biggest reasons for optimism is the return of senior running back Johnny Miller. Miller established himself as one of the top players in Southern Illinois last season and gives the Lions an experienced weapon to build around offensively. Every opponent on the schedule will know where he is lined up. That makes the chess match interesting: how will defenses try to slow Miller down, and how will Carterville use that attention to create opportunities elsewhere?

Friday night will also begin the process of finding out who the next group of difference-makers will be. That is one of my favorite parts of opening night. We know some of the names going into the season, but there are always players who emerge once the games begin. Somebody makes a big third-down catch. Somebody comes up with a sack or forces a turnover. Somebody who didn't get much attention in August becomes a player we're talking about every Friday night by October.

And the schedule will give Carterville plenty of tests. After opening at Marion, the Lions travel to Nashville on August 28 before returning home September 4 against Charleston. Herrin visits Lions Field on September 11, followed by a September 18 matchup with Salem. That Salem game will be particularly interesting because Salem enters its first season as a member of the River-to-River Ohio Division.

The second half of the schedule includes road trips to Harrisburg and Massac County before Carterville closes the regular season with home games against Murphysboro and Anna-Jonesboro. There are rivalry games, conference games and some unfamiliar challenges mixed together. After last year's undefeated regular season, Carterville will also get everybody's best shot. When you're the defending conference champion, nobody circles your game in pencil.

For Keenan and me, Friday night also means the start of another season doing something we absolutely love—bringing Carterville Lions football to Southern Illinois. We'll have the call throughout the season on NewsRadio WJPF, online at wjpf.com, and through our YouTube livestream. Our opening-night coverage begins Friday evening before the Lions and Wildcats kick off the 2026 season.

You can watch our livestream here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AV9tZrTaGU

There will be plenty of questions when we arrive in Marion Friday night. How quickly will the Lions settle in? What will the offense look like with Miller back in the backfield? Which new names will emerge? Can Carterville build on one of the best seasons in recent program history? We have nine regular-season Friday nights to find those answers. That's the fun of a new season. Everybody starts 0-0, every possibility is still on the table, and another chapter of Carterville Lions football is ready to be written.

Friday night, the lights come back on. Football is back. And Keenan and I will see you from Marion.