• Setting The Scene: After enduring the first winless nonconference schedule since joining the North Coast Athletic Conference in 1989 and the first 0-3 start to a season since 1953, the Wittenberg Tigers have a fresh start of sorts this week. Conference play starts after a badly needed week off for the banged-up Tigers, and the season's goals remain in front of them - win the NCAC, make the NCAA Division III Tournament and compete for a national title.
But it's not going to be easy, starting with a Denison Big Red squad that is much improved in 2005 with a 2-1 overall record. The Big Red are brimming with confidence after turning the tables on Waynesburg in Week 1 - a 21-17 Denison win after a 64-0 loss to the same opponent in last year's season opener - and hungry to get their first win over Wittenberg since the Tigers' trip around the conference loop in 1989.
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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.
After the first shutout since 1992 in the 2005 season opener against Capital, the Tiger offense rallied against Dayton and Alma behind senior tailback Tristan Murray. After emerging as the Tigers'most consistent offensive threat a year ago, Murray, the No. 3 rusher in the NCAC a year ago with 132 yards per game and a robust 6.1 yards per carry average, stands atop the conference with 141.3 rushing yards and 198.0 yards of total offense per game.
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 he went down with an injury against Capital. Freshman Matt Brumfield filled in capably against Dayton, finishing with 104 yards on 14-of-19 passing against the Flyers, and junior Geron Stokes provided a spark against Alma with 217 yards and two touchdowns through the air in three quarters of work.
Senior wide receivers Jered Glover, who has led the Tigers in receptions in each of the last three seasons, and Braden Freeman, who posted 25 receptions for 443 yards in 2004, are key to the Tigers' offensive attack this year. They had nine catches between the two of them against Alma, more than they had in the first two games combined.
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• Scouting The Tiger Defense: Defensively, the Tigers allowed an uncharacteristic 29 points per game in 2004 and have been struggling to find the right mix again in 2005 with 133 points allowed in the first three games. It didn't help that Wittenberg played three outstanding offensive teams that are averaging more than 30 points per game through the first four weeks of the 2005 season.
Junior safety Mitch Fonseca has been a force in the backfield again in 2005 after leading the Tigers with 68 tackles a year ago. He has led the team with double figure tackle totals in each of the first three games, including a career-high 18 stops, including 14 solos, in the season opener against Capital.
The linebacking corps has been led by freshman Lance Phillips, who had 22 tackles on the season before going down in the Alma game with an injury. Junior Tyler Harmon, who has missed the last two games due to injury, is slated to slide to the middle spot against Denison after recording seven tackles in the season opener. He was an all-conference fullback each of the last two seasons.
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Mitch Fonseca
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• Defensive Dynamo: Mitch Fonseca ranks second in the NCAC and 16th in the nation with 13.0 tackles per game so far in 2005, and he is second in the conference and fifth in NCAA Division III with 9.0 solo tackles per outing.
Thirty-nine tackles in the first three games 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 21 of 23 games, now has 173 tackles, more than any other Tiger player during that time.
• Scouting The Big Red: Denison is off to a 2-1 start after its first winning season since 1991 a year ago. The offense is led by senior quarterback Larry Capetto, a running and passing threat, and senior tight end Frank Roe, who leads the team with 11 catches for 187 yards after earning preseason All-America mention. Defensively, the Big Red features seven returning starters in 2005, led by senior linebacker Rob Hackett with 25 tackles, including 3.5 for loss.
• 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, Jim Scoby or Wittenberg senior Sean Golden, who has provides on-field insights and postgame interviews for home games. 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 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 is now No. 3 in Wittenberg receiving annals with 142 receptions after surpassing former teammate Skip Ivery, who finished his career with 138 catches from 2000-03, with three catches against Dayton. next up is Rod Miller with 143 catches between 1964 and 1967 and Michael Aljancic, who caught 147 passes from 1998-2001 to establish the current receiving standard.
Glover remains fourth in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.
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Tristan Murray
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• 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 year in and year out. 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 424 yards (141.3 yards per game), he tops the team in receiving as well. Murray has accounted for 424 of Wittenberg's 512 yards rushing on the season, and he has 11 receptions for 142 of the team's 407 receiving yards in 2005.
Murray, who may add kick return duties to his resume starting this weekend, leads the NCAC and ranks eighth nationally with 198.0 all-purpose yards per game. His 141.3 rushing yards per outing is good for 16th in all of NCAA Division III.
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• Big Leg: Senior punter Jacob Thomas has picked up right where he left off in 2004. After breaking the school record for punting average in a season with 42.3 in 2004, Thomas has been even better so far in 2005 with an NCAA Division III-best 45.2 yards per punt. That average has been helped significantly by a 65-yard boot in the third quarter against Capital and a school record-tying 77-yarder in the second quarter against Alma.
With the Tiger offense struggling so far in 2005, 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. As a result, Thomas, who would have ranked second in the nation after topping the NCAC, was not recognized with any All-America honors. He was a first-team All-NCAC and second-team All-North Region honoree.
• Punting Into The Record Books: Thomas' five-punt average of 51.4 against Alma was just 0.2 off the school record set by current Denison kickers/punters coach Gary Sitler against Eastern Kentucky in 1976. Thomas' 77-yard punt against Alma tied the school record set by current special teams coordinator Matt Gallatin against Ohio Wesleyan in 1999.
• NCAC Openers: Wittenberg has won eight straight NCAC season openers, dating back to a 26-14 loss to Allegheny in 1996 in Head Coach Joe Fincham's second game at the helm. The Tigers went on to finish 9-1 overall that year and 7-1 in the conference, good for second place behind the Gators.
• Series History: Wittenberg leads the all-time series 45-23-2, and the Tigers are riding a 15-game win streak against the Big Red, dating back to a 21-14 win in the 1989 season finale. Since then, the margin of victory for Wittenberg has usually been extremely wide, including five straight shutouts from 1992 to 1996. The Tigers scored at least 24 points in each of those wins.
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• Last Meeting: The Tigers ground out a 47-21 victory over Denison in Granville in 2004. Tristan Murray carried the ball 26 times, doing most of his damage in a huge first half in which he scored four touchdowns. Murray finished the game with 171 yards as he gained positive yardage on every one of his carries.
Denison answered each of the Tigers' first two touchdowns, even taking its first lead against Wittenberg since 1990 during the second quarter. Wittenberg responded, however, on a 3-yard touchdown run by tailback Will Block and the Tigers added two more scores by Murray in the final 3:31 of the first half to push the lead out to 33-14 heading into the locker room.
In the second half, Wittenberg scored built a commanding 47-14 advantage as fullback Tyler Harmon scored on a three-yard run and tight end Jon Kirkwood added a one-yard scoring reception. Quarterback Ryan Holmes had a fine game with an efficient 13-of-16, 143-yard, one-touchdown performance. He also picked up 24 yards rushing on four carries. Thirteen different Tiger players caught at least one pass.
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• Last Week: Wittenberg fell to 0-3 with a hard-fought 38-27 loss to Alma, a 2004 NCAA Division III Tournament participant and the preseason favorite in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. For the second straight week, the Tigers were a road underdog ahead in the second half but were unable to keep the momentum going.
Tristan Murray was outstanding again, surpassing the 100-yard mark rushing and the 200-yard mark in total offense and junior quarterback Geron Stokes sparked the offense in his first appearance in the Red & White, throwing for more than 200 yards to help Wittenberg build a three-point lead it could not sustain in the end.
Alma, which opened the game with a 17-0 first-half lead, scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to put the game away. Tiger touchdowns were scored on a 5-yard reception by Jered Glover, a 65-yard run by Murray and a 56-yard reception by Murray, who finished with 112 yards on 20 carries and another 99 yards on three receptions in the loss. Senior wide receiver Braden Freeman had his second-best day as a collegian, hauling in six passes for 111 yards.
Defensively, junior safety Mitch Fonseca was the team's leading tackler for a third straight week, this time with 11 tackles. Senior cornerback Mike Freeman matched that with 11 tackles, his best output in two years, and sophomore linebacker Walter Bonham and senior linebacker Anthoni Fazio added 10 tackles each.
• The Coaches: Wittenberg is led by Joe Fincham, a 1988 graduate of Ohio University. In his ninth season at the helm, Fincham has a 88-17 overall record, including a mark of 57-7 in the NCAC and a regular season record of 82-13. 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.
Denison is led by Nick Fletcher, a 1976 graduate of Johns Hopkins who guided the Big Red to their first winning season in 13 years in 2004. He has a six-year record of 17-36 at Denison and an overall mark of 44-57, including five seasons at Eureka (Ill.) College. Fletcher directed Eureka to two Illini-Badger Conference championships, and he was recognized with Coach of the Year honors after both seasons (1995, 1997).