Football | 11/2/2017 11:14:00 AM

DETROIT -- The Wayne State University football team (3-6, 2-5 GLIAC) will host Northern Michigan (1-7, 1-6 GLIAC) on Saturday as the Warriors will honor its 12-member senior class prior to the noon kickoff at Tom Adams Field.

GAME STORYLINES
With one quarter to play, Wayne State had 12th-ranked Ashland on the ropes and looking for a knockout blow.  Instead, it was the Eagles that delivered the KO, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter to leave Detroit with a 30-10 victory and push the Warriors record to 1-4 at Tom Adams Field.  WSU looks to send its senior class off with a win in its final home game on Saturday against Northern Michigan.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Northern Michigan is 1-7 overall and 1-6 in the GLIAC.  The Wildcats have dropped five straight with their last win coming on Sept. 23 over Davenport (24-14).  Head coach Kyle Nystrom is in his first season with the program after time as an assistant at Ferris State.  Freshman quarterback Ryan Johnson has been a bright spot, throwing for 1,122 yards and five touchdowns, while completing 62 percent of his passes.  NMU boasts the top rusher in the league as junior Jake Mayon is averaging 130.0 yards per contest and has found the end zone on six occasions.  Sophomore Ryan Knight has caught 30 passes for 446 yards and five scores.

Senior safety Pat Ryan leads the conference in tackles with 79 and has picked off three passes.  Freshman defensive end John McMullen is the team leader with 8.5 tackles for loss.  As a team, NMU is allowing 31.6 points per game and scoring 15.9 points per contest.

SENIOR DAY
Wayne State will recognize 12 senior members of its football squad this Saturday.  Both Keith Love (Lake Erie) and Braxton Southwell (Adrian) joined the team this year as graduate transfers.  Dustin Carlin is a fourth-year senior, while the fifth-year seniors include LaMonte Baker, Ronny Brant II, Romello Brown, James Howard, Blake Mazur, Manny Mendoza, Trevor Van Tubbergen and Greg Webber.  Redshirt senior Harold Gibbs made the squad as a walk-on in 2016.

Four other seniors are slated to return in 2018.  Jake Carrizales, Paul Graham and Tommy Richardson will be applying for sixth-year extension of eligibility waivers, while Demetrius Stinson will re-join the squad in August after doing the 10-semester rule this Winter.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Wayne State trails 13-17  in the all-time series versus Northern Michigan, that began in 1957.  NMU won seven of the first eight meetings, six of which were non-conference affairs.  The Warriors have had better success of late, winning five of eight, including a 34-31 win in Detroit in October of 2015.  WSU is 8-6 at home, while head coach Paul Winters has a 5-5 mark against the Wildcats.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
Wayne State has played the fourth toughest schedule nationally up to this point of the 2017 season.  The Warriors past opponents have combined for a .662 winning percentage (45-23).  Overall (including the final two regular-season games), WSU's schedule is the 22nd toughest in Division II with all 11 opponents winning 56 percent of their games.

NATIONAL RANKINGS
In the weekly NCAA Football stats report for Division II, Wayne State is eighth nationally in fewest penalties per game (4.11 per game) and 12th in fewest penalty yards per game (41.22 yards per game).

As a team, WSU is 19th nationally in kickoff returns (23.85 yards per return), 24th in fewest tackles for loss allowed (4.56 per game), 25th in time of possession (32:01), 26th in fumbles recovered (9), 38th in fourth-down percentage defense (35.7 / 5-of-14), 39th in fewest passes had intercepted (6), 40th in punts blocked (1), 42nd in fewest sacks allowed (1.44 per game), 43rd in red zone offense (85.0 percent / 17-of-20 / 12 touchdowns plus five field goals), and 49th in fewest passing yards allowed (188.0 per game).

The Warriors are ranked fourth nationally in toughest schedule with opponents having a .662 winning percentage (45 wins, 23 losses).  WSU is behind North Alabama (.702), Minnesota Duluth (.667) and Northern State (.667).

In terms of individual stats, Justin Hollins leads the GLIAC and is tied-for-fourth nationally in fumbles recovered (3), while Ryan Smith is tied-for-27th in fumbles recovered (2).

DeOntay Moffett rankes 43rd in kickoff return average at 25.1.

D.J. Zezula is 25th nationally in passing efficiency (152.3 rating), and 42nd in passing yards per completion (13.47), and 49th in passing touchdowns (15),

JUSTIN ON THE SPOT
Justin Hollins has three career fumble recoveries, all this season which has him one shy of the single-season school record of four accomplished seven times.  He is tied-for-35th in school history with the career record of eight fumble recoveries set by Joe Golaszewski (1989-92).

TOUGH SLEDDING
As the end of the season approaches, Wayne State continues to be decimated by injuries.  Two All-Region players in guard Tommy Richardson and all-purpose back Deiontae Nicholas have been on the sidelined.  Richardson has missed all nine games this year, while Nicholas has missed the last five-and-a-half contests.  Two All-GLIAC players in defensive end Jake Carrizales and cornerback James Howard have also missed time.  Carrizales has not dressed for a game this year, while Howard did not dress at Tiffin.  All told, WSU has already lost 118 man-games due to injury.  That is over 13 injured players per game that were unable to dress.

A YOUNG OFFENSIVE LINE
Going into the season, fans of Warrior football knew the offensive line was going to be a work in progress after losing 144 combined starts from the group of Robert Kelly (41), Nate Theaker (33), Tommy Richardson (32), Andrew Zimmerman (21) and JT Pillars (17).  The group of Israel Helms, Justin Tockstein, Charlie Younger, Greg Webber, Lane Potter and Reagan Kropp is gaining valuable experience since starting the year with only three combined starts (all by Webber).

TOM ADAMS HOME COOKING
Tom Adams Field is not an easy place to play for visiting programs. The Warriors have defended their home turf extremely well in the past nine seasons (2008-17) to a 39-18 tune.  WSU had a winning record at home for the past nine seasons, including a 5-1 mark last season, until this year's 1-4 record.  In the Coach Winters' era, the Warriors are 46-31 (.597) at home.  WSU is 30-15 at home this decade and carries a 214-216-19 all-time record at home in the first 99-plus years of the program as Detroit Junior College (1918-23), College of the City of Detroit (CCD / 1923-34), Wayne University (1934-56) and WSU (1956-present).

PLAYING RANKED OPPONENTS
Since the 2004 season when Coach Winters took over, Wayne State is 10-29 versus ranked opponents.  The last time the Warriors knocked off a top-25 program was when WSU topped Carson-Newman 41-31 on Sept. 4, 2014.  Five of those 10 victories came in 2011 as Wayne State won four road playoff contests en route to the title game.  The Green & Gold were unable to end an eight-game losing streak against ranked teams on Oct. 28th vs. Ashland.

CONSISTENT LEADER
Paul Winters is tied for the longest tenured football coach in program history this fall with 14 seasons.  He passed the founder of WSU athletics David Holmes in 2014 at 11 seasons (1918-28).  Winters matches Hall of Fame coach Joseph Gembis, who holds the WSU record with 14 seasons (1932-45).  Winters enters Saturday's contest 31st among all active DII football head coaches with 79 wins.  The game at Ferris State on Sept. 30th was his 150th as the Warrior head coach.  Gembis (101) and Holmes (80) are second and third in career games coached.

LAST 100-PLUS GAMES
Wayne State has compiled at least a .500 season in eight of the last nine years (2008-17) combining for a 66-46 mark over the last 112 games.  Prior to Coach Winters arrival in 2004, the Tartars/Warriors had 10 consecutive losing seasons on the field and only one winning season on the field in 19 years.

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?
Romello Brown's streak of not reaching 100 rushing yards ended at six games at Michigan Tech; the longest of his career except for his first seven collegiate games.  Beginning with the Sept. 26, 2015, contest at Northwood through the 2017 season opener at Walsh, Brown had rushed for over 100 yards in 15 of those 20 games.  He totaled 113 yards on 25 carries and helped WSU secure the victory at MTU with 10 carries on the final drive.

FLIGHT SQUAD
The two upperclassmen of the wide receivers corps, senior Manny Mendoza and junior Corey Ester, have been leading the way.  Ester has a team-high 25 receptions and receiving yards (334) and ranking second in touchdown receptions (4).  Mendoza had over 200 receiving yards in a three-game span against GVSU, NU and MTU (11 receptions for 208 yards and two touchdowns).  Meanwhile, redshirt freshman Ray'Jon Williams-Jackson has all eight of his career receptions in the last three contests.  In addition, redshirt sophomore tight end Luke Ketterman had his first career reception in the MTU contest (for 24 yards on a third-and-three leading to a field goal).

MAKING THE MOST
Senior linebacker Dustin Carlin, who has started all nine games this season, has recorded 41 tackles this year (22-19) after notching 38 tackles (22-16) in his first three seasons for the Green and Gold.  Senior defensive tackle LaMonte Baker has all nine of his career tackles (7-2) in 2017.  Junior defensive end Derrick Coleman has totaled 32 stops (23-9) this year after tallying a then career-best 23 tackles (15-8) a year ago.

RED ZONE OFFENSE
When presented with the opportunity for six points, Wayne State has capitalized.  The Warriors rank 43rd in all of Division II football and fourth in the GLIAC in red zone offense, scoring 17 times in 20 opportunities this season when getting inside the 20-yard line.  WSU has seven passing TDs, five rushing scores and five field goals in its 20 trips to the red zone.

WINNING WHEN EXECUTING
Wayne State has won 18 of its last 21 games when rushing for over 200 yards, including the win at MTU where WSU ran for 243 yards.  The only setbacks when accomplishing the feat all came in 2016-at Ashland, where the Warriors ran for exactly 200 yards in a losing effort; at Ferris State; and at Ohio Dominican when WSU ran for 242 yards.  During the past five-plus seasons (2012-17), Wayne State is 28-7 when rushing for 200 yards, including a 12-4 mark on the road.  Under Coach Winters, the Green & Gold are 47-16 under those parameters, including a 27-6 mark at home.  Against GVSU, the Warriors would have finished with over 240 rushing yards if it was not for a bad snap on a punt, which accounted for a negative 47 yards. 

WHERE TO WATCH AND LISTEN
If you are unable to make it to Tom Adams Field for one of the six home games this season, all home games are broadcasted live on Comcast CN 900 and also replayed at select times throughout the following week.  Fans can also watch on Warrior All-Access on a pay-per-view basis (24 hour pass) or select to purchase a monthly or year-long pass.  Joe Abramson, Rod Beard, Tony Ortiz and Kevin Brechmacher will bring you all the action from Midtown Detroit.

Sean Baligian and Josh Renel return to call the action for every game live on WDTK - The Patriot (1400 AM & 101.5 FM).  The pregame show begins 15 minutes prior to kickoff for every road game and 30 minutes for home action.  Ashley Casavant will serve as the sideline reporter this season at all home games.

WINTERS ON WEDNESDAYS
Family, friends and fans can hear the inside scoop on WSU Football from head coach Paul Winters as Winters on Wednesdays returns to Tony V's for another season.  Rod Beard, Sean Baligian or Kevin Brechmacher will serve as your host during the hour-long show that includes special interviews and segments plus student-athlete profiles.