Southwest Minnesota State University will christen its new $16 million football/soccer stadium with a Tomah High School graduate running the football team’s offense.

Josh Shudlick, son of Dave and Jan Shudlick, will be the Mustangs’ starter Saturday when SMSU hosts Minnesota-Crookston. Kickoff is 1 p.m. in the new Regional Event Center on the SMSU campus. Construction of the 2,800-seat on-campus stadium began in May of 2007 and will be the new home for SMSU football and soccer.

Shudlick, a senior, begins his third season as the Mustangs’ starting signal caller. He started all 11 games last season and completed 250 of 444 passes for 2942 yards with 18 touchdowns. He finished the season with a 119.04 passing efficiency and 56.3 completion percentage. He also rushed for two touchdowns.

He finished last season with five consecutive games with over 300 yards passing, making him the first SMSU quarterback to achieve that feat since 1992.

A political science major, Shudlick was an all-academic Northern Sun Interscholastic Conference selection last season.