But first things first, and that means making the trip north to face the young Terriers. Wittenberg heads into the game with a 4-1 overall record, including a mark of 2-0 in the NCAC after a 47-21 win at Denison and then a 56-14 victory at home against Earlham last Saturday.
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Offensively, the Tigers have a trio of standouts who are emerging as go-to players in a balanced attack, starting with senior quarterback Ryan Holmes, who ranked second in the NCAC in passer efficiency a year ago to teammate and back-up George Andress. This year, he again ranks second in pass efficiency (166.8), up from his final rating of 160.0 a year ago. Again a Wittenberg back-up leads that conference statistical category, only this time it is sophomore Chris Clark (169.9).
Holmes is completing 65 percent of his passes for 1002 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2004. Junior wide receiver Jered Glover is Holmes' favorite target as he leads the Tigers with 27 receptions, 392 yards and five touchdowns. Junior tailback Tristan Murray has become the team's workhorse, grinding out a lot of tough yards to rank third in the NCAC with 111.6 yards per game. He is averaging 5.9 yards per carry in his first season in the Red & White after transferring from Brown University.
The Tigers, who have led the NCAC in total defense 10 of the last 12 years, are allowing an uncharacteristic 28.4 points per game and have allowed at least 14 points in each game this year. Sophomore safety Mitch Fonseca, sophomore linebacker Devon Combs and freshman linebacker Wade Laughrey lead the Tigers with 24 tackles. Senior defensive end Jamie Hoover, junior defensive tackle Clinton Tiggs and Combs have 3.5 tackles for loss to top the squad.
The Terriers have one player who accounts for most of its offense - running back Tim Anderson. He has 347 yards rushing this season - no one else has more than 29 yards - and he is the team's second-leading receiver with 15 receptions for 151 yards. The quarterback is Max Kravitz, who is completing just 35 percent of his passes for 492 yards and four touchdowns. The Terriers do not have a rushing touchdown on the season and rank last in the NCAC in six of 12 major statistical categories included in the conference's weekly news release.
This year's broadcasts can be heard locally on WUSO 89.1-FM, the university's student-operated station. It can also be heard around the world on the Internet thanks to Wittenberg's partnership with Stretch Internet. Wittenberg fans do not have to pay to listen to broadcasts, and anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can log in and listen.
Feedback during and after games is encouraged using a new e-mail address: wittradio@yahoo.com. Whenever possible, e-mails will be read on the air during games by the announcers, and questions will be answered at that time.
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Jered Glover
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Jered Glover continues to work his way up the career receiving charts at Wittenberg. The team's leading receiver each of the last two years, Glover has added 27 catches for 392 yards and five touchdowns in 2004, bringing his career totals to 123 catches, 1,752 yards and 18 touchdowns, good for fourth, fifth and fifth respectively on the all-time lists.
In terms of receptions, the next player Glover will leapfrog is former teammate Skip Ivery, who caught 138 passes for 2,114 yards and 24 touchdowns between 2000 and 2003. The school record for receptions is held by Michael Aljancic (147). Next up in receiving yardage is the legendary Bob Cherry, who picked up 1,790 yards on 90 catches between 1961-63. Rod Miller leads in that category with 2,288. The top four in receiving touchdowns are all far ahead of Glover currently, with the top spot held by Cherry at 27.
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Ryan Holmes
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Ryan Holmes is quietly making his mark on the Wittenberg record books as well. In 22 career games, Holmes has 197 completions in 328 attempts for 2,887 yards, in addition to 10 interceptions and 32 touchdowns. He stands eighth on the career yardage list after passing Mike Donnelly (1993-96) with 230 yards against Earlham last Saturday. He stands eighth on the completions list, two ahead of Donnelly and ninth in career attempts, 40 behind Donnelly. Finally, his 32 touchdowns rank sixth, just four back of Gene Laughman.
At his present pace, Holmes has a chance to break into the top five in career passing yardage. With 1,002 yards passing in 2004, Holmes is on track to become just the third Tiger quarterback with 2,000 yards through the air in one season.
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The Wittenberg special teams have their strong and weak points. It's kind of interesting to break them down statistically.
The Tigers are giving up an average of 22.8 yards per kickoff return, a number that wouldn't be of too much concern except that so many of the kickoffs have been short. That combination leads to great field position for the Tigers' opponents. But on the flipside, Wittenberg is averaging 20.1 yards per kickoff return, and several Tiger players would rank among the NCAC and NCAA Division III leaders if they met the minimum qualification standards. Junior tailback Will Block has had the most opportunities, averaging 23.1 yards on nine returns.
In the item above, Thomas' accomplishments are chronicled. The booming punts he has produced have been covered equally well - Tiger opponents are averaging just 2.2 yards per return. Wittenberg, on the other hand, is averaging 7.8 yards per punt return.
Finally, while freshman kicker Mark Porter has struggled at times this season, he still leads the NCAC with 7.8 points by kicking per game. He is 21-of-26 on point-after attempts and 6-of-9 on field goals. His six field goals are tied for tops in the conference.
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The Wittenberg Tigers made short work of the Earlham Quakers on Parents Weekend at Edwards-Maurer Field, scoring 20 points in the first quarter and 23 more in the second, which led to a comfortable 56-14 victory.
The Tigers spread things around as 11 different players recorded at least one rushing attempt, four different players took snaps at quarterback and nine different players caught passes. That doesn't even take into account the dozens of Tiger players who came in and out of the game throughout the second half in what was Wittenberg's first truly lopsided victory of 2004. Junior tailback Tristan Murray led the Tigers on the ground with 82 yards on 12 carries, junior wide receiver Jered Glover topped the team with eight receptions for 121 yards and senior quarterback Ryan Holmes was solid with 230 yards on 15-of-20 passing.
The Tigers scored the first 23 points of the game on two Glover touchdowns, a TD jaunt by Murray and a 25-yard Mark Porter field goal. After Earlham got on the board, Wittenberg scored three more touchdowns as junior wide receiver Braden Freeman hauled in two TD passes and senior defensive end Chris Vennefron returned a fumble 27 yards for his first career touchdown. In the second half, Porter added field goals of 24 and 27 yards and freshman fullback Andy Vanover added a five-yard touchdown on a swing pass from sophomore quarterback Chris Clark.
Junior defensive end Dave Fleck and sophomore linebacker Joe Swanson led the team, which had 26 different players record statistics in the game, with five tackles apiece. Vennefron was credited with four assisted tackles, including one for a three-yard loss, and the fumble recovery.
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Wittenberg holds a commanding 5-0 lead in the relatively short series between the two schools. What is noteworthy isn't the wins and losses, it is the margin of victory, however.
Wittenberg won the first meeting between the two schools in 1920 by a score of 82-7 as Athletics Hall of Honor member Wilbur Etter set a school record with eight touchdowns. Hiram and Wittenberg did not meet again on the gridiron until 2000 in Hiram's first year in the NCAC. In four meetings as members of the same conference, Wittenberg holds an unbelievable 248-0 advantage. The scores have been 66-0, 39-0, 77-0 and 66-0.
Last year, the 25th-ranked Tigers walloped the visiting Terriers 66-0 at Edwards-Maurer Field. Wittenberg got three touchdowns rushing from tailback Raymar Hampshire, two touchdowns receiving from wide receiver Jered Glover and three touchdowns passing from quarterback Ryan Holmes. The Tigers jumped out to a 49-0 lead before halftime and put it in cruise control, running reserves in and out of the game throughout the second half. Wittenberg was paced by Hampshire's 134 rushing yards on just 13 carries, while Joe Brumfield added 104 yards on 18 carries. Holmes finished 9-of-11 for 105 yards, Skip Ivery led the receivers with five catches for 62 yards. Defensively, linebackers Gary George and Devon Combs finished with seven and six tackles respectively.
Hiram is led by Mike Lazusky, who was named to the position of head coach in February 2004. Previously, he held coaching positions at Tri-State, Defiance, Hillsdale and Shippensburg, where he earned both a bachelor's and master's degrees in education. Lazusky was a four-year letterwinner and starter at offensive guard for Shippensburg, helping the team reach the NCAA Division II playoffs his junior year.