. Setting The Scene: It takes time to build a winner, and the 2005 season has been a test in patience for the Wittenberg Tigers. After a disappointing three-game start to the campaign while playing one of the toughest nonconference schedules in all of NCAA Division III, the Tigers have bounced back to open the North Coast Athletic Conference schedule with a pair of victories - a 31-6 home win over Denison and a 48-0 drubbing of Earlham on the road last week.
Coming off their best performance of the season, the Tigers now have a home game against Hiram, which has a 1-4 overall record, including a 1-1 mark in the NCAC. The Terriers' lone win in the last two years came two weeks ago by a 7-2 count against Earlham.
|
. Scouting The Tiger Offense: In recent years, the Wittenberg Tigers have been among 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.
After the first shutout in 13 years in the 2005 opener against Capital, the Tiger offense has rallied, thanks primarily to senior tailback Tristan Murray. After emerging as the Tigers' most consistent offensive threat a year ago as the No. 3 rusher in the conference, Murray stands atop the conference in 2005 with 139.6 rushing yards and ranks second with 178.8 all-purpose yards per game. He tops the NCAC in scoring with 10 touchdowns already this season, good for a 12.0 points per game average.
Quarterback Ryan Holmes led the NCAC and ranked among the nation's leaders in pass efficiency rating in 2003 and 2004, but he went down with an injury in the season opener against Capital. After freshman Matt Brumfield filled in capably against Dayton, junior Geron Stokes provided a spark against Alma and then started the Tigers' victories the last two weeks. He is completing nearly 54 percent of his passes for more than 170 yards per game. Holmes, who saw limited action against Earlham, is scheduled to make the start against Hiram, though he is likely to share playing time again with Stokes.
Senior wide receiver Jered Glover, the Tigers' leading receiver each of the last three seasons, is once again the key man in the aerial attack. With senior wide receiver Braden Freeman sidelined with an injury, Glover has stepped up his game with nine catches the last two weeks and a game-breaking 70-yard punt return for a touchdown against Denison. The all-time leading receiver in school history, Glover leads an inexperienced corps of receivers, although junior Mark Harriman has played well since moving into the starting lineup, hauling in seven passes against Denison and Earlham.
|
|
Jered Glover
|
. Up The Charts: Jered Glover is now alone atop the Wittenberg receiving records after surpassing Michael Aljancic's school record of 147 receptions from 1998-2001. Glover started the season ranked fourth in career receptions, but he now has 151 catches after hauling in 18 so far in 2005.
Interestingly, Glover has largely been kept in check this season, with a yardage total of 132 and two touchdowns through five games. For his career, Glover now has 2,013 yards and 22 touchdowns, putting him fourth in receiving yards, 101 shy of Skip Ivery for third in that category, and receiving touchdowns, two behind Ivery. Rod Miller's 2,288 yards and 26 touchdowns are the current standards established between 1964-67.
|
. Scouting The Tiger Defense: The Tigers allowed an uncharacteristic 29 points per game in 2004, but after giving up 133 points in the first three games of 2005, they settled down against Denison to yield only a first-quarter touchdown and followed that up with a shutout against Earlham. It should be noted that Wittenberg's first three opponents in 2005 are all averaging more than 30 points per game through the first half of the 2005 season.
The linebacking corps was led by freshman Lance Phillips with 22 tackles in the first three games before he went down with an injury against Alma. Junior Tyler Harmon, a former all-conference fullback who missed two games due to injury himself, has slid to the middle spot and led the Tigers in tackles each of the last two games. First-year starter Walter Bonham, who was in the top five on the team in tackles in each of the first four games, is out of the lineup due to injury until the Oct. 22 game at Wabash, forcing former safety Ken Bibb, a senior, into action. Bibb and senior Anthoni Fazio, who has been a part-time starter throughout his career, are listed as starters in the two outside linebacker spots for the Hiram game.
The defensive line has shown steady improvement, led by senior end Chris Vennefron. A fifth-year player who is a starter for a second straight year, Vennefron recorded five tackles, including three for a whopping loss of 18 yards. Senior defensive tackle Tyler Jenkins had his best game as a collegian against Earlham, stepping up to post seven tackles overall, including six solos.
|
. Defensive Dynamo: Junior safety Mitch Fonseca has been a force in 2005. After leading the Tigers with 68 tackles a year ago, Fonseca topped the team with double figure tackle totals in each of the first three games, including a career-high 18 stops in the season opener against Capital. He added eight more tackles in the win over Denison, and then he posted three stops and two interceptions, giving him three on the season, against Earlham.
Fonseca ranked among the leaders in the NCAC and the nation before the three-tackle performance against Earlham, but even after falling in the tackles category Fonseca is tied for the conference lead in interceptions with three.
Also of note has been the play of senior cornerback Mike Freeman. A 2003 second-team All-NCAC honoree, Freeman has started four games (he missed the Dayton game due to injury) in 2005 and ranks 45th nationally with 1.5 passes broken up per game. He has six on the season.
. Scouting The Terriers: Coming off a winless 2004 season, the only direction available to the Hiram Terriers was up this year and it appears that they have taken some steps forward in 2005.
The Terriers are starting a freshman quarterback in Trevor Henderson, and he has thrown for 654 yards and three touchdowns. His favorite target is wide receiver Sean Hardy, who has 19 catches for 181 yards and a touchdown. Running the ball is a problem for Hiram, however, as the Terriers rank last in the conference with a paltry average of 26 yards per game.
Defensively, Hiram ranks third in the conference against the pass with an average of 162.4 yards per game allowed. The Terriers are allowing 33.8 points per game.
. 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 is joined in the booth each week by either Jim Scoby or Wittenberg senior Sean Golden, who has provided on-field insights and postgame interviews for home games the last two years. 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.
. 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 Leo host the show.
|
|
Tristan Murray
|
. Mr. Everything: Tristan Murray racked up 239 yards rushing in a little over three quarters of action against Dayton, one of the best defensive units statistically in NCAA Division I-AA. The Tigers' leading rusher and scorer in 2004 en route to NCAC Newcomer of the Year honors, Murray has been even better in 2005.
Murray not only leads the Tigers' rushing attack with an NCAC-best 698 yards (139.6 yards per game), he is second on the team in receiving with 168 yards on 13 catches. He stands second in the NCAC and ranks 10th nationally with 178.8 all-purpose yards per game, and his 139.6 rushing yards per outing is good for 18th in all of NCAA Division III.
In addition, Murray tops the Tigers and the conference with 10 touchdowns, nine on the ground, en route to 12.0 points per game. That average puts him 12th nationally.
|
. On The Mark: Sophomore kicker Mark Porter missed his first extra point of the 2005 season, then he made 12 in a row before missing in the third quarter at Earlham. After making 49-of-56 PATs a year ago - and missing just once in the final five games - Porter has been strong overall this year with 13 out of his 15 splitting the uprights.
With 25 total points, he ranks second in the NCAC in points by kicking and fourth in scoring per game. His four field goals in four games (he never made an appearance against Capital in the opener) place Porter 16th nationally in field goals per game.
|
. Big Leg: Senior punter Jacob Thomas no longer leads the nation in punting average after a 37.0 average on five punts against Earlham. After breaking the school record for punting average in a season with 42.3 in 2004, Thomas has been even better this year, putting up an average of 44.5 yards per punt through the first four games, in part thanks to a 65-yard boot in the third quarter against Capital and a school record-tying 77-yarder in the second quarter against Alma.
Thomas has had ample opportunity to make up for a 2004 season in which he did not have enough punts to qualify for the NCAA Division III statistics. Thomas, who would have ranked second in the nation after topping the NCAC, still stands first in the conference and fourth in the nation with an average of 43.1 so far in 2005.
. Series History: Wittenberg leads the all-time series 6-0, including five in a row since Hiram joined the NCAC in 2000. The closest game between the two schools was in 2001 as Wittenberg took a 39-0 home decision. The Tigers have not allowed Hiram a single point in those five games as conference rivals. Adding in an 82-7 pasting in 1920, as Wittenberg Athletics Hall of Honor member Wilbur Etter rushed for a school-record seven touchdowns, the combined margin of victory is a whopping 404-7.
|
. Last Meeting: The Wittenberg Tigers made short work of Hiram in their 2004 meeting. With all 65 players who made the trip getting into the game, the Tigers jumped on the winless Terriers for a 74-0 victory.
Wittenberg scored on its first two drives of the game, needing just six offensive plays and less than five minutes to jump ahead 13-0 on a pair of touchdown runs by Tyler Harmon. Linebacker Wade Laughrey went 23 yards to the end zone with an interception return just nine seconds later, and the rout was on. The Tigers built leads of 54-0 by halftime and 74-0 by game's end on additional touchdowns by Tristan Murray, Braden Freeman, Harmon, wide receiver Dymond McDonald, fullback Andy Vanover, wide receiver Jason Alonso and two by quarterback Chris Clark.
Tailback Will Block had a career-high 143 yards on 20 carries, Murray added 65 yards on nine carries, none after the first quarter, and Clark and Holmes combined for 116 yards rushing from the quarterback position on 13 carries. Wittenberg outrushed the Terriers 442-44 in the game.
|
|
Andy Vanover
|
. Last Week: For the second straight week Wittenberg's defensive unit made a statement, this time with a 48-0 whitewashing of Earlham. The win was Wittenberg's 15th straight over Earlham since the two schools joined the NCAC together in 1989.
The Tigers limited Earlham to 232 total yards and generated six turnovers. Mitch Fonseca intercepted two passes and returned them a combined 60 yards, while Tyler Harmon and Tyler Jenkins led the Tigers with seven tackles each.
Offensively, the Tigers showed good balance in rolling up 507 total yards. Ryan Holmes saw his first action since opening week and, after Geron Stokes made his second start, played parts of three quarters. Stokes completed 9-of-13 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns, a 48-yarder to Andy Vanover and a 24-yarder to senior tight end Jon Kirkwood. Holmes completed 6-of-12 passes for 74 yards and an 11-yard touchdown to Jered Glover. Tristan Murray rushed for 154 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries, in addition to a 17-yard reception. Vanover rushed for 36 yards on 11 carries and gained another 90 on three catches, both career highs.
. Toys For Tots: For the fourth straight year, representatives of the United State Marine Corps and Wittenberg Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) will collect new toys and/or monetary donations for the Reserve Toys for Tots program. This year's Wittenberg collection will take place before and during the Nov. 5 football game against Wooster.
Toys for Tots is an annual Christmas program run by the U.S. Marine Corps that distributes thousands of toys to less fortunate families. With the support of Wittenberg football fans last year, more than 1,700 needy Clark County children received toys.
• What A Difference: Wittenberg shot from fourth to first in the NCAC punt returns rankings after Jered Glover's 70-yard return for a touchdown against Denison. Glover, who did not return a punt against Earlham after recording all 13 of the Tigers' punt returns in 2005 prior to that game, ranks 10th in the nation individually and first in the conference at 17.9 yards per return. The team's punt return unit ranks 16th in NCAA Division III.
. The Coaches: Wittenberg is led by Joe Fincham, a 1988 graduate of Ohio University. In his ninth season at the helm, Fincham has a 90-17 overall record, including a mark of 59-7 in the NCAC and a regular season record of 84-13. 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.
Hiram is led by Mike Lazusky, who has a two-year record of 1-14. Lazusky, a 1994 graduate of Shippensburg, where he was a four-year starter at linebacker, is also the director of facility operations and is an instructor in the college's exercise/sport science program.