Football Feature: Preston Yohnke

By: Mauloa Wells

The USF Cougars success fully won a big home game over the Winona State Warriors with a score of 49 24on Saturday, November 1st, 2025. Senior defensive tackle Preston Yohnke was named atomic wings play er of the game after an outstanding performance coming from the senior. Yohnke has been here since the beginning of the Coach Glo era and hasn’t beaten Winona since 2023. “It feels great. Especially to win on our home field. We knew it was going to be a tough game and I’m happy we were able to come out with a win,” Yohnke stated. “It takes the whole defense. We started a little flat and gave up two touchdowns early. But then we settled in, and our defense was firing on all cylinders. D-Line was getting after the quarter back, and the secondary was covering the pass very well,” Yohnke stated on what it took to shut out the Winona offense.  He put up a total of 1 tackle, but was so outstanding up front that their offense didn’t want to run anywhere near Yohnke. But the Cougars have lost a couple of key defensive linemen with experience early in the season and now transition to a very young group. Yohnke pointed out that, “The young guys really stepped up like Max Elrod, James Woodward, and Dashawn Rohlik. These guys haven’t gotten a lot of reps and know they are being asked to play a lot of meaningful snaps, and they have really stepped up for the D-Line.’’ These young guys were very impressive in this game. “I plan on moving back home and start work,” Yohnke said, since he is near to closing out his career here at USF. The 6’2, 290lbs graduate student will focus on finishing his career here on a strong note with two games left in the sea son.