Since the beginning of the 2025 season, the Carleton football team has pulled off a series of shocking wins that has left the entirety of Carleton’s campus truly speechless considering the team’s checkered performance over the past several years. On Sept.r 6, the Knights lost 45-14 to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater but soon came back with a 51-7 win against Macalester College on Sept. 20, retaking the Book of Knowledge. On Sept. 27, the team once again stunned all of campus in a 35-28 win against St. Olaf, winning back the Goat Trophy and Cereal Bowl, and on October 4, the Knights beat Gustavus Adolphus College 45-28.
While Carleton is not widely known as a football school, it is known for its talented Ultimate Frisbee teams. Ultimate has been an integral part of campus for decades, and the school offers 6 teams for students to play on. In May, both Division I ultimate teams, CUT and Syzygy, competed at ultimate nationals in Washington, with CUT emerging victorious against University of Colorado-Boulder’s Mamabird. On campus, for the eight days a year when temperatures are not subzero and it is not blizzarding in Minnesota, students can be seen discing down on the Bald Spot and Mini Bald Spot.
Carleton football’s Sept. 27 battle for the Goat Trophy and Cereal Bowl against St. Olaf drew hordes of both Carleton and St. Olaf students to the bleachers, nearly filling them up to almost halfway for the first time in a longggg time. However, while watching the game, many Carleton students quickly realized that they had no idea what was going on, attempting to make sense of the non-frisbee sport. When St. Olaf scored, supporters erupted in cheers. However, “When we scored a touchdown the crowd was silent,” said Carleton football player Helmet ’29.
Student spectators, such as Disc ’29, when asked if they had noticed the touchdown, reported that they “really had just no idea what was going on”.
“What is a touchdown?” Disc later asked. “Is it like a point?”
Attempting to make sense of what he was watching, spectator Cleat ’28 reported at kickoff that “They started doing that big kick thing at the start of the play and I thought it was the D-line pulling to the O-line…I was like, ‘why are they kicking it?? Aren’t you supposed to throw it??’
Similarly, Ball ’27 described how “They started running with the ball and I was so confused like… I thought you couldn’t run with it… isn’t that traveling?”.
Similar situations are expected to occur across the bleachers for the remainder of the season as Carleton students try desperately to explain to their friends what a down is, what a quarterback does, and what a field goal means in terms of frisbee.
