Two down and three to go. That's the scenario for a Wittenberg football team that must win the rest of its games to have an opportunity to advance to the NCAA Division III Playoffs for a sixth straight season. Heading into this weekend's game at league-leading Allegheny, the Tigers have won back-to-back games by shutout over Hiram (66-0) and Ohio Wesleyan (63-0) since falling from the ranks of the unbeaten at Wabash on Oct. 11.
The Tigers beat the same two teams - by similar margins - a year ago, but this week presents a decidedly different scenario. In 2002, as Wittenberg marched to five straight wins, a 9-1 regular season finish and a berth in the postseason tournament, Allegheny was next in line. Wittenberg wiped out that obstacle with a 49-3 home win. But in 2003, the Gators are rejuvenated after an 0-3 start, and they get the chance to host the Tigers at Robertson Field in Meadville, Pa. with first place in the NCAC on the line. Allegheny leads the conference at 4-0, while Wittenberg and Wabash are 3-1 and Oberlin is 2-1. The Gators, who surprised Wabash, 7-6, on Oct. 4, control their own destiny. A Tiger win and the league standings could feature a four-way tie for first place by the end of day Saturday.
Starting in 1892, the Wittenberg football program has played at least three games every year except 1943 and 1944 due to World War II. This weekend's game at Allegheny is No. 1,000 in school history.
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Junior Raymar Hampshire leads the Tigers' rushing attack with 705 yards and 14 touchdowns (including one receiving), and he is averaging 6.7 yards per carry. He is ably backed by freshman Joe Brumfield, who has 355 yards and three TDs on 66 carries. Hampshire ranks third in the NCAC with 100.7 yards per game, while Brumfield checks in at No. 8 with 59.2. Freshman fullback Tyler Harmon has 35 rushes for 287 yards and four touchdowns in addition to his blocking duties.
Through the air, junior quarterback Ryan Holmes has 14 touchdowns, 1205 yards and three interceptions, all against Wabash. He and sophomore back-up George Andress, who has completed 18-of-23 passes for 191 yards and four touchdowns in mop-up duty, have combined to post a pass efficiency rating of 174.0, which leads the NCAC by more than 40 points. His chief targets have been senior Skip Ivery with 28 catches for 547 yards and seven touchdowns, including an 83-yarder on the first play from scrimmage against Ohio Wesleyan, and sophomore Jered Glover with 27 receptions for 354 yards and six touchdowns (including a school-record 96-yard kickoff return against Thomas More). The tandem combined for 102 receptions in 2002.
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The Tigers, who have led the NCAC in total defense 10 of the last 11 years, have been dominant again for most of the season. The unit is holding opponents to 259 yards and 13 points per game, although the latter figure is deceiving considering that the Tigers have yielded touchdowns on a fumble return, a blocked punt and an interception return, none of which were scored on the Tiger defense.
Linebacker Gary George leads the team with 63 tackles, including eight for a loss of 33 yards, and two interceptions, including one against Thomas More he returned 30 yards for a score. George had a team season-high of 17 tackles in the win over Ohio Wesleyan. Safety Yusef Abdul-Zahir is second on the unit with 47 total tackles, including 15 against Urbana when he was recognized as NCAC with Player of the Week. He also has four tackles for loss and two interceptions this season.
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Sophomore defensive back Brandon Slade ranks 15th on the team in 2003 with 14 total tackles, which could possibly explain the fact that opposing quarterbacks tend to forget about him. Slade leads the team and ranks among the top 40 in the nation with four interceptions, including two in the win over Hiram on Oct. 18. He also was credited with four passes defensed in that game, giving him the team lead in that category as well.
Wittenberg holds an 8-6 lead in the all-time series with Allegheny and has won the last six games between the traditional NCAC powers. The two teams had never met prior to 1989, when the Tigers joined the conference. In Meadville, Pa., the Gators hold a 4-3 advantage, although Wittenberg has won the last three games there, in 1997, 1999 and 2000.
Wittenberg is 5-0 on its home turf in 2003 and has won each of those games by at least 26 points. But on the road, the Tigers started impressively with a 34-7 win at Albion on Sept. 6 before being stunned 41-14 by Wabash on Oct. 11. All four road trips in 2003 are out-of-state, with the final one on Nov. 8 at Huntingdon in Montgomery, Ala.
Wittenberg ranks No. 21 in the latest American Football Coaches Association poll, three weeks after reaching a high of No. 8 prior. The Tigers are in the "others receiving votes" category of the d3football.com poll after ranking as high as No. 10 and stand at No. 21 in National Football Gazette after ranking as high as No. 6. The latter ranks 40 teams each week. Wittenberg and Mount Union are the only Division III programs to earn a national ranking from the AFCA, the only poll officially recognized by the NCAA, every week the last three years.
Wittenberg scored 48.5 points per game in 2002 and this year the team is nearly matching that output at 47.3 points per game. The only time the Tigers were held below 34 points this season was in the loss at Wabash on Oct. 11. Wittenberg ranks No. 1 in the NCAC and NCAA Division III in points per game.
One has to go back 11 years to find the last shutout that Wittenberg has suffered. Baldwin-Wallace did the honors in the opening game of the 1992 season, which also is the last time that Wittenberg lost back-to-back games (the Tigers lost their 2001 season finale to Ohio Wesleyan as well). Since the defeat to B-W, Wittenberg has played 128 games without either being shutout or suffering two consecutive losses. During that span, Wittenberg has recorded 27 shutouts of its own. Not only has Wittenberg not been shutout in 128 games, the Tigers have been held below 10 points in a game on just one occasion during that span - against Mercyhurst in a 7-6 victory in 1993.
The last time Wittenberg recorded two straight shutout victories, the year was 1998. The Tigers defeated Earlham, Allegheny, Ohio Wesleyan and Oberlin by a combined total of 166-0 in Weeks 2-6. The two shutouts in 2003 match last year's total.
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Skip Ivery
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Senior wide receiver Skip Ivery leads the Tigers with 28 receptions for 547 yards and seven touchdowns, number that leaped upward after his huge game against Ohio Wesleyan (five catches for 164 yards). His career totals are now 116 receptions for 1,775 yards and 19 touchdowns. He ranks No. 3, No. 4 and No. 3 on those respective school record lists. He tied Jim Collins (1984-87) in receptions against Ohio Wesleyan and he moved past Labon Storts (1997-200) in the receiving yardage list in the same game.
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Senior Conrad Hindert has been close to perfect this season. He has made all four of his field goals this season and 38-of-39 extra points. For his career, Hindert now has made 80-of-84 extra points and 8-of-15 field goals. Presently, he has made 29 straight extra points, dating back to a blocked PAT on Sept. 27. The record for consecutive extra points is 33, set by Jimmy Watts in 1995. Hindert is also on pace to break the school record for extra point percentage, set by Steve Jefferies in 1978 when he converted 33-of-34.
Conrad Hindert, who has been handling kickoff duties since his freshman year, is also punting in games for the first time in his career. He has an average of 34.4 yards per punt, with a long of 46 yards. Tim Gaal started the year as the punter, and he still leads the team with 10 attempts. Jacob Thomas, the punter in 2002, has battled injuries and has just three attempts this year.
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Ryan Holmes
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Ryan Holmes leads the NCAC and ranks second in the nation in passing efficiency with a rating of 173.9. Jered Glover ranks first in the NCAC in kickoff returns with an average of 29.0, but after two straight shutout wins that have given him a combined total of one attempt the last two weeks, Glover now doesn't meet the NCAA minimums. He would rank 13th nationally. Raymar Hampshire is averaging 12.3 points per game to rank tied for 10th nationally and second in the conference in scoring. And Brandon Slade is tied for No. 40 in the nation in interceptions with four in seven games.
As a team, Wittenberg ranks 13th in total offense (446.0), 23rd in rush offense (242.7), tied for 37th in turnover margin (+1.0), 33rd in pass efficiency defense (91.3), 25th in total defense (259.4), first in scoring offense (47.3) and 22nd in scoring defense (13.6) in the national statistical rankings.
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It took 79 meetings for Wittenberg to make things perfect against Ohio Wesleyan. The Tigers posted a 63-0 Homecoming win over the visiting Battling Bishops, representing the widest margin of victory for Wittenberg in the series that dates back to 1894. The Tigers got touchdowns from seven different players in posting a second straight shutout win. Wittenberg held a 538-237 advantage in total offense, and the Tigers allowed OWU into the red zone just once all day.
Quarterback Ryan Holmes hooked up with wide receiver Skip Ivery on an 83-yard scoring pass on the Tigers' first play from scrimmage. Just 56 seconds later, cornerback Mike Freeman returned an interception 24 yards to make the score 14-0. Ivery had five receptions for a career-high 164 yards and two touchdowns and two carries for 23 yards. Holmes was equally outstanding with 11 completions in 15 attempts for a career-high 268 yards and three touchdowns. His back-up, sophomore George Andress, also got into the act, completing both of his passes for 36 yards and one touchdown.
The scoring barrage continued in the second quarter as tailback Raymar Hampshire scored on runs of 16 and three yards and Ivery added a 19-yard TD reception from Holmes. Hampshire led all rushers with 82 yards on 15 carries, while Joe Brumfield finished with 70 yards on seven carries and fullback Tyler Harmon added 49 yards on nine carries. Wide receiver Dymond McDonald, Harmon, wide receiver Mark Harriman and tailback Scott Williams all scored second-half TDs. Defensively, Wittenberg had 28 different players register a statistic, led by linebacker Gary George with a career-high 17 tackles. Linebacker Peter Franz and safety Mitch Fonseca added 12 tackles each.
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Jason Stephan
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Wittenberg walloped visiting Allegheny 49-3. It was the biggest margin of victory in the 14-game history of the rivalry, and it was Allegheny's worst regular season loss in 50 years. The Tigers were dominant from the outset as wide receiver Skip Ivery capped a six-play, 82-yard drive with a 40-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Greg Cornett. After defensive tackle Jarrett Brown intercepted a pass, tailback Jason Stephan scored on a two-yard run to close the first-quarter scoring.
The second quarter offered more of the same as Stephan and Ivery scored touchdowns to push the lead to 28-3 by halftime. The second half was the Jason Stephan show as he rushed for 123 yards and crossed the goal line three more times. He finished the day with career highs of 23 rushes, 181 yards and five touchdowns. Cornett was also outstanding, finishing 14-of-20 passing for 231 yards and two touchdowns. Ivery had three catches for 88 yards and wide receiver Adrian Crane added six receptions for a game-high 91 yards. Defensively, the Tigers stifled the Gators, holding them to just 141 total yards on 53 plays.
Wittenberg is led by Joe Fincham, a 1988 graduate of Ohio University. In his eighth season at the helm, Fincham has a 79-10 overall record, including a mark of 51-4 in the NCAC and a regular season record of 73-6. His teams have claimed five conference titles, including four straight outright with undefeated records from 1998-2001. Fincham, who ranks second in winning percentage in NCAA Division III history among coaches with five or more seasons, has been named NCAC Coach of the Year four times.
Allegheny is led by Mark Matlack, who guided his alma mater to a 5-5 record in his first season. He was a four-year letterwinner at fullback and on the baseball diamond for the Gators and was PAC Offensive Most Valuable Player in 1977. He graduated as the second-leading career rusher in school history with 2,382 yards.
Wittenberg is blessed with outstanding radio coverage again in 2003, as Marty Bannister heads things up for an 11th straight year on WULM. Bannister is joined in the booth by former Tiger All-American offensive lineman Xan Smith, who provides color commentary, while Scott Leo patrols the sidelines to provide insight.
All season long, WULM also hosts Tiger Talk on Thursdays from 8-9 p.m. The show includes interviews and analysis with Wittenberg Head Coach Joe Fincham and his players and assistant coaches.
Wittenberg has partnered with Stretch Internet to make selected sporting events available around the world. Wittenberg fans will not have to pay to listen to broadcasts, and anyone with a computer and an Internet connection will be able to log in and listen without risk of getting bumped off due to listener limitations. Stretch Internet utilizes QuickTime, so prospective listeners need only to download the free QuickTime Player and they're ready to listen to Wittenberg games live.