Setting The Scene: The Wittenberg Tigers have their work cut out for them. Coming off a humbling 54-0 season-opening defeat against Capital University last Saturday at home, the Tigers now must hit the road for a game against one of the powerhouses of NCAA Division I-AA, the University of Dayton Flyers.
The Tigers are shorthanded, to say the least, with senior quarterback Ryan Holmes sidelined for the next few weeks with a broken collarbone (non-throwing shoulder), and their confidence is shaken after the worst season-opening loss since 1942. Dayton, on the other hand, has its usual high expectations after starting the 2005 campaign with a convincing 38-0 win over Tiffin on the road.
It will be the first meeting between these one-time intra-divisional rivals since 1989, when UD avenged a home loss in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament to the Tigers the year before by a 28-3 score.
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Scouting The Tiger Offense: In recent years, the Wittenberg Tigers have been one of the most prolific offensive teams in all of NCAA Division III. Most recently, the Tigers ranked among the leaders in the NCAC and NCAA Division III in 2004 with averages of 45 points and 485 yards per game.
But Wittenberg got off to a rough start in the 2005 season opener. Quarterback Ryan Holmes, a fifth-year senior who had started every game the last two years, led the NCAC and ranked among the nation's leaders in pass efficiency rating in 2003 and 2004, but this year he will be forced to watch from the sidelines for several weeks after the aforementioned injury. His expected replacement on Saturday is freshman Matt Brumfield, who completed 2-of-5 passes for nine yards in his relief stint against Capital. The Tigers'other quarterback possibility is junior Geron Stokes, who was a part-time starter for Urbana University the last two years and was an all-conference performer at Urbana High School before that.
With the absence of a seasoned quarterback to run the show, it will be imperative that senior wide receiver Jered Glover, who has led the Tigers in receptions in each of the last three seasons, and senior wide receiver Braden Freeman, who posted 25 receptions for 443 yards in 2004, step up even more. Along with senior tight end Nate Cherry, who had 15 receptions in 2004, Glover and Freeman figure to give the new man at the reins plenty of passing options.
Offensive option No. 1, however, is undoubtedly senior tailback Tristan Murray, the third-ranked rusher in the NCAC a year ago with 132 yards per game and a robust 6.1 yards per carry average. Murray opened the 2005 season with 73 yards on 20 carries and another 39 yards on five receptions against Capital.
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Scouting The Tiger Defense: Defensively, the Tigers allowed an uncharacteristic 29 points per game in 2004 and then yielded a whopping 54 points to Capital in the 2005 opener. Junior safety Mitch Fonseca has ranked among the team leaders in tackles in each of the last two years, and he was forced into the position of leading tackler again in the opener as he tallied 18 stops, including 14 solos.
The linebacking corps is inexperienced but full of promise. A trio of first-year starters at linebacker took the field against Capital in converted fullback Tyler Harmon, a junior, sophomore Walter Bonham, who did not receive any playing time in 2004, and freshman Lance Phillips. All three were among the team leaders in tackles against Capital. The defensive front is a veteran group, with fifth-year senior Chris Vennefron turning in an inspired performance against the Crusaders as he was among the team leaders in tackles.
Scouting The Flyers: Dayton's winning tradition, including 28 straight winning seasons, hasn't been a result solely of a strong offense or a strong defense. The Flyers feature balance, and in 2005 they have a great deal of experience and talent throughout the roster.
Under center in 2005 is junior Kevin Hoyng, a part-time starter a year ago who got off to a strong start against Tiffin with 12 completions for 271 yards and a 50-yard touchdown. He also rushed for a team-best 57 yards on seven carries, while nine other Flyers running backs shared the other 44 carries in the game. Hoyng's favorite target in the passing game is senior wide receiver Ryan Wrobleski, who had an outstanding season opener with six catches for 170 yards. Seven different Flyers players caught at least one pass in the game.
Defensively, the Flyers may have just three returning starters, but in linebacker John Hoppe, cornerback Casey Klaus and defensive end Scott Wintering UD has an outstanding nucleus. Hoppe led the Flyers with 11 tackles against Tiffin, which managed just seven first downs and 87 total yards in the season opener. Dayton finished with 530 yards, by comparison.
Tigers on the Radio: All Wittenberg athletic broadcasts can be heard locally on WUSO 89.1-FM, the university's student-operated station. They 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.
Wittenberg is blessed with outstanding radio coverage again in 2005 as Marty Bannister heads things up for a 13th straight year. Bannister will be joined in the booth by former Tiger captain Tim Dellapina or Jim Scoby, who will share the color commentator duties in 2005. Scott Leo, the play-by-play announcer for the Tiger men's and women's basketball teams that last two years, is coordinating the broadcasts and handling pre-game duties each week. Wittenberg senior Sean Golden joins the broadcast team for home games, providing on-field insights and postgame interviews, and Sean Leo is handling the board operations back in the radio station.
Coaches Show: Tiger Talk is back and better than ever in 2005, and the first show of the season is scheduled for Thursday at Joe's Route 40 Grill in Springfield. It can be heard locally on WUSO 89.1-FM and on the Internet from 8-9 p.m. Bannister and Scott Leo are the hosts of the show.
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Jered Glover
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Up The Charts: Jered Glover finished an injury-riddled 2004 season with 37 receptions for 511 yards and seven touchdowns, pushing his career totals to 133 receptions, 1,881 yards and 20 touchdowns. He ranked among the top four in the first two categories and No. 5 in TD receptions coming into the 2005 season, which he opened with a three-catch, 30-yard performance against Capital.
He is now two receptions short of Skip Ivery, who stands No. 3 in Wittenberg annals with 138 catches from 2000-03. Michael Aljancic caught 147 passes from 1998-2001 to establish the current receiving standard.
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Big Leg: Amazingly, Wittenberg's kicker Mark Porter never made an appearance in the game against Capital. The Tigers kicked off just one time - at the beginning of the game - and those duties were handled by fifth-year senior Jacob Thomas, who also picked up right where he left off in 2004 as the team's punter.
Thomas, who broke the school record for punting average in a season with 42.3 in 2004, was called upon six times against Capital, and he responded with a 43.2. That average was helped significantly by a 65-yard boot in the third quarter, the second-longest of his career.
Since he did not have enough punts to qualify for the NCAA Division III statistics in 2004, Thomas was not recognized with any All-America honors. However, he was a first-team All-NCAC and second-team All-North Region honoree.
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Mitch Fonseca
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True Safety: Mitch Fonseca doesn't plan to be the Tigers' leading tackler week in and week out. It just kind of happens.
Fonseca recorded 18 tackles in the season opener against Capital, including a whopping 14 solos. That comes on the heels of a 2004 season in which Fonseca led the Tigers with 68 total tackles, 29 of which were solo stops. For his career, Fonseca, who has started 19 of the 21 games in which he has played, now has 152 tackles.
End of the Line: Wittenberg hadn't been shut out by an opponent in 13 years before Capital turned the trick last week. That was a span of 147 games, starting with a 20-0 season-opening loss to Baldwin-Wallace in 1992.
Ironically, that Tiger team went on to finish 7-1-1 overall and 7-0 in the NCAC (a forfeit win over Oberlin that season does not count toward the Tigers' final record). In 2005, Wittenberg's football team can only hope that history repeats itself.
Series History: Dayton leads the all-time series between the two Miami Valley rivals, 12-7.
The first meeting between UD and Wittenberg came in 1897 as the Flyers got the best of things with a 12-0 win. Wittenberg won six of the next nine meetings before the Flyers reeled off six straight victories between 1933 and 1938. In 1988, UD won in the regular season by a convincing 35-0 margin, only to have the Tigers rally for a thrilling 35-28 double overtime victory in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The last meeting between the two teams came in 1989 as Dayton claimed an 28-3 win in a game played at Edwards-Maurer Field in Springfield, the site of next year's scheduled game between the regional rivals.
Coaching Connection: Former Wittenberg linebacker Nic Black, a 2003 graduate, is now a graduate assistant coach for the Dayton Flyers in charge of the defensive line. Black played for the Tigers from 1999-2002, during which time Wittenberg went 39-1 in regular season games. Black was a two-year starter and three-year letterwinner in the Red & White.
The Coaches: Wittenberg is led by Joe Fincham, a 1988 graduate of Ohio University. In his ninth season at the helm, Fincham has a 88-15 overall record, including a mark of 57-7 in the NCAC and a regular season record of 82-11. His teams have claimed five conference titles, including four straight outright with undefeated records from 1998-2001. Fincham, who ranked second in winning percentage in NCAA Division III history among coaches with five or more seasons coming into the 2005 campaign, has been named NCAC Coach of the Year four times.
Dayton is led by Mike Kelly, who has a phenomenal 223-46-1 record in 24 years leading the Flyers. Kelly, who led UD to an NCAA Division III national title in 1989 and an NCAA Division I-AA Mid-Major National Championship in 2002, has never had a losing record as the Flyers' head coach.