Wittenberg heads into this week's key NCAC match-up with Ohio Wesleyan sporting a 6-1 overall record, but more importantly a 4-0 mark in the conference. The Battling Bishops have rebounded a tough start to the 2004 season, which included a 78-21 debacle at Olivet, to win three straight games. They stand at 3-4 overall and 3-1 in the NCAC, good for third place after Wittenberg and Wooster, two of the Battling Bishops' last three opponents.
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Offensively, the Tigers feature a balanced attack with averages of 261.4 yards rushing and 219.3 yards passing per game in 2004. The starting quarterback is senior Ryan Holmes, who leads the NCAC in pass efficiency for a second straight year. With a 65 percent completion percentage, a touchdown to interception ratio of 15-5 and a sparkling rating of 162.82, which ranks among the nation's best, Holmes is having a fine season.
A total of 16 different players have caught at least one pass this season, with five of them reaching double figures in total receptions. Junior wide receiver Jered Glover is Holmes' favorite target as he leads the Tigers with 34 receptions, 454 yards and six touchdowns. Junior tailback Tristan Murray is the team's featured running back, ranking third in the NCAC with 120.1 yards per game and a robust 6.4 yards per carry after busting out for 218 yards on 28 carries in the win over Wabash.
The Tigers, who have led the NCAC in total defense 10 of the last 12 years, are allowing an uncharacteristic 25.3 points per game as the youthful unit continues to be hurt by the big play more than anything else. Balance is key on this side of the ball as well, considering the fact that 19 different players have at least 10 tackles on the season. Freshman middle linebacker Wade Laughrey continues to show improvement and make plays, hence he leads the team with 34 total tackles, one sack, one interception for a touchdown and two passes broken up. Sophomore safety Mitch Fonseca and sophomore outside linebacker Devon Combs are next with 30 total tackles, while junior defensive tackle Clinton Tiggs checks in with a team-best 5.5 tackles for loss, including 2.5 sacks.
But then again, Sir Louis isn't generally asked to throw the ball much. He leads the Bishops in rushing attempts with 92 and rushing touchdowns with six, part of a multi-pronged running attack. Five different players have at least 40 rushing attempts and seven players have at least 16 carries on the season, led by Eric Indiciani with 73 carries for 479 yards and five touchdowns, including the game-winner against Kenyon last week that broke a fourth-quarter 24-24 tie.
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.
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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 34 catches for 454 yards and six touchdowns in 2004, bringing his career totals to 130 catches, 1,814 yards and 19 touchdowns, good for fourth, fourth and fifth respectively on the all-time lists.
In all three categories, 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), Rod Miller leads in the receiving yards category with 2,288, and the legendary Bob Cherry is tops in receiving touchdowns with 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 24 career games, Holmes has 224 completions in 369 attempts for 3,175 yards, in addition to 11 interceptions and 36 touchdowns. He stands seventh in career yardage, completions and attempts and fifth in touchdowns passing. Next up on the first three lists is Tim Green (1985-88) with 3,343 yards, 261 completions and 457 attempts. He is tied with Gene Laughman (1964-67) in touchdown passes, and he is just two behind Greg Cornett (1999-2002) and Anthony Crane (1997-2000).
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After the game of his collegiate career, in which he cracked four punts for a 53.8 average, senior Jacob Thomas is averaging an NCAC-best 45.9 yards per punt in 2004, which puts him on pace to obliterate the school record of 41.1. His punting average would rank in the top five nationally for NCAA Division III, except that he doesn't meet the minimum standard of 3.6 punts per game for qualification.
In the Wabash game, Thomas made the play of the game with a 73-yard punt inside the final three minutes. It was the second-longest punt in school history.
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Early this season, the Tigers' special teams were clearly an Achilles' Heel. That may not be the case any longer.
Since giving up an 84-yard touchdown return on a kickoff in the first half against Capital, the Tigers' special teams have not allowed a score, and against the Little Giants the kickoff return team was nothing short of outstanding, yielding just 75 yards on eight returns for a paltry 9.4 yards per return average. Wittenberg has been covering punts extremely well all season with just 11 returns allowed for a total of 20 yards. Wabash and Thomas More both wound up with negative punt return yardage.
The Tigers have the NCAC's best punter in Jacob Thomas (by a wide margin), and freshman kicker Mark Porter continues to show improvement. After making both of his field goal attempts and all five of his extra point attempts against Wabash, Porter is now 8-of-11 on the season on field goals and 33-of-39 on PATs. He is tied for first in the conference in points by kicking and fifth in overall scoring with 57.
Finally, the Tigers are averaging 20.0 yards per kickoff return, good for second in the conference, and 7.1 yards per punt return, also fifth in the conference. Freshman Alan Tracewell returned three punts for 30 yards against Wabash, including a 15-yarder that he nearly broke for a touchdown.
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Tristan Murray
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For the second time this season, a Tiger earned NCAC Offensive Player of the Week. Six weeks after quarterback Ryan Holmes garnered the award for his career-best performance against Thomas More, tailback Tristan Murray garnered the honor on Oct. 24 after posting career-highs of 218 yards, 28 carries, four receptions and four touchdowns in the win over Wabash.
Junior tailback Tristan Murray covered the final five yards to cap a day in which he rushed for a career-high 218 yards on 28 carries and caught four passes for 16 yards, in the process finding the end zone four times. After giving up a touchdown on Wabash's first drive, the Tigers scored 31 straight points before halftime, thanks to one touchdown running and another receiving for Murray, a 12-yard TD reception by junior wide receiver Jered Glover, an eight-yard scoring pass play to senior wideout Joe Rumschlag and a 38-yard field goal by freshman kicker Mark Porter with just three ticks left on the clock.
Wabash battled back in the second half with three third-quarter touchdowns, sandwiched around Murray's third TD, this time on a 17-yard run. In the fourth quarter, Porter started the scoring with a 27-yard field goal before Wabash scored a touchdown to set up to the game's final, aforementioned sequence. The team statistics were remarkably even, with Wabash gaining 25 first downs to 23 for Wittenberg and the Little Giants outgaining the Tigers by three yards, 452-449.
Individually, Wittenberg got a solid game from senior quarterback Ryan Holmes as he went 22-of-35 for 197 yards and three touchdowns. Glover finished with six catches for 42 yards before leaving the game with an injury in the third quarter. Six Tiger players caught at least two passes in the game, including Rumschlag, who hauled in five tosses for a team-high 48 yards. Freshman cornerback Alan Tracewell was simply outstanding, contributing a game-high 10 solo tackles and 13 total tackles and he also was credited with two passes broken up. Junior cornerback Lavon Wilborn added nine total tackles and a first-half interception he returned 40 yards to set up a touchdown. The Tigers, who had just six sacks on the entire season, doubled their output with six on Saturday, led by junior linebacker Anthoni Fazio with 1.5 for a loss of five yards.
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Skip Ivery
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Wittenberg leads the all-time series 40-33-6. Ohio Wesleyan is the opponent Wittenberg has played the most times in its history, dating back to 1894, the third recorded year of organized football. The Tigers are on a 12-game win streak in the series, dating back to 1991 when the Battling Bishops won for the fourth straight time over Wittenberg.
Since a 15-13 win over Ohio Wesleyan in 1995, the rivalry has turned decidedly in Wittenberg's favor as the Tigers have won the last eight games by at least 14 points each, including last year's 63-0 stunner on Homecoming in Springfield. In that game, Wittenberg played nearly perfect football in recording the widest margin of victory for Wittenberg in the series. For trivia's sake, OWU has the two widest margins of victory in the series, a 66-0 rout in 1934 and a 65-0 victory in 1949.
Wittenberg got touchdowns from seven different players in posting its second consecutive shutout victory, and the Tigers ran up 538 yards of total offense to 237 for the Battling Bishops. Wittenberg got on the board on its first play from scrimmage as quarterback Ryan Holmes hooked up with senior wide receiver Skip Ivery on an 83-yard scoring pass. Just 56 seconds later, cornerback Mike Freeman returned an interception 24 yards to make the score 14-0 and the rout was on. Ivery had one of the biggest games in his outstanding career with five receptions for 164 yards and two touchdowns and two carries for 23 yards. Holmes was equally outstanding with 11 completions in 15 attempts for 268 yards and three touchdowns.
The scoring barrage also included two touchdowns by tailback Raymar Hampshire and one each from wide receiver Dymond McDonald, fullback Tyler Harmon, wide receiver Mark Harriman and tailback Scott Williams. Defensively, Wittenberg had 28 different players register a statistic, led by linebacker Gary George with a career-high 17 tackles.
Ohio Wesleyan is led by Mike Hollway, who had a 98-51-1 record covering 15 seasons (prior to this 2004) and owns the best winning percentage in school history. The chair of the NCAC football coaches committee and a former member of the prestigious NCAA rules committee, Hollway came to Ohio Wesleyan from Marietta College, where in four years as head coach, he took a team in the midst of a 34-game losing streak into league championship contention. A 1970 graduate of Michigan, Hollway's father, Bob, was head coach of the National Football League's St. Louis Cardinals.