Football | 9/20/2017 4:39:00 PM

DETROIT -- The Wayne State University football program (2-1, 1-0 GLIAC) will look to stay unbeaten in the league at Tiffin (2-1, 1-0 GLIAC) on Saturday as the teams meet at Frost-Kalnow Stadium for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff.

GAME STORYLINES
After winning the league opener over Saginaw Valley State, Wayne State will begin a two-game road trip at Tiffin on Saturday.  The Dragons are on their farewell tour as Tiffin is slated to join the G-MAC for the 2018-19 academic year.  The Warriors will look to overcome their road woes from the past two season as WSU went 2-3 on the road in 2016 and 1-4 in 2015.

SCOUTING THE DRAGONS
Tiffin enters week four of the 2017 season at 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the GLIAC.  The Dragons lost to Findlay at home to begin the season before collecting road wins at Lake Erie and at Davenport.  Head coach Gary Goff is in his seventh season at the helm and led the Dragons to their best season in program history, going 8-3 overall in 2016, including a 7-3 conference mark.  The player to watch when TU has the ball is senior wideout Charles Holland who is averaging 5.3 catches and 74 yards per game with two touchdowns.  Freshman quarterback Nick Watson has thrown for 561 yards and three scores, completing nearly 60 percent of his passes.  Sophomore JaQuan Hardy leads the roster with 255 yards, while junior Hunter Rockwell has a team-best four touchdowns.  On defense, sophomore Brandon Burks and sophomore Jacob Mertus both have 21 tackles, while freshman Charlie Cleveland has tallied 4.5 tackles for loss.  Cleveland was named the GLIAC Defensive Player of the Week on Monday after he posted seven tackles with two sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble as TU's defense registered four sacks, 11 tackles for loss, and allowed just 188 yards of total offense.  They also held the Panthers to just 9-of-25 passing with an interception.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Wayne State leads the all-time series 7-2 against Tiffin with the last seven meetings coming as GLIAC counterparts.  The first two matchups were in 1986 and 1987 were non-conference contests.  The Warriors are 3-1 in Tiffin, Ohio, and head coach Paul Winters is 5-2 in his time at Wayne State (2-1 on the road).  The Dragons have won two of the last three meetings, but the Warriors took last season's game, 35-21, at Tom Adams Field.

AN EXPLOSIVE BACKFIELD
Deiontae Nicholas is averaging 10.21 yards per rush for his 75 career attempts, which is currently tops in program history.  Against SVSU, Nicholas carried the ball four times and averaged 20.3 yards per rush.  For the season, he is averaging 17.8 yards per carry.

Nicholas received the GLIAC Special Teams Player of the Week after he recorded a game-high 235 all-purpose yards, which included 107 kickoff return yards on four attempts (all which led to Warrior touchdowns).  After three weeks, Nicholas is second in the GLIAC and 20th in NCAA Division II averaging 168.33 all-purpose yards per game.

A SOLID SIGNAL CALLER
Junior D.J. Zezula has been an offensive threat this season, completing over 72 percent of his passes for 533 yards and nine touchdowns with just two interceptions.  The Clarkston native ranks third nationally in passing efficiency (202.7 rating), fourth in completion percentage (72 percent / 39-of-54), eighth in passing touchdowns (9), 10th in yards per pass attempt (9.87), 17th in points responsible for per game (18.0) and 40th in passing yards per completion (13.67).  His 58.9 career completion percentage and 149.0 pass efficiency rating are the best marks in program history.

LEAGUE OPENERS
In the Paul Winters era (since 2004), Wayne State is 6-8 in league opening games.  At Tom Adams Field, the Warriors are 9-5 in home league openers under Winters.

A YOUNG OFFENSIVE LINE
Going into the season, fans of Warrior football knew the that 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 and Lane Potter has been strong despite only combining for three starts coming into 2017 (all by Webber).

QUARTERBACK WIN TOTALS
In baseball, the starting pitcher gets a win for going at least five innings so we thought we would take a look at the best win totals for WSU starting quarterbacks since 1959 (except 1980-81).  The same rules from baseball apply here -- the QB that was in when the winning points were scored received the decision. 

1.    Mickey Mohner (2009-12), 30-15-0, .667 
2.    Ed Skowneski (1972-75), 20-12-0, .625 
3.    D.J. Zezula (2015-SA), 15-9-0, .625
       Jim Gendron (1976-78), 15-7-0, .682 
5.    Mark Friday (1991-93), 13-13-0, .500 
6.    A.J. Vaughn (1965-67), 8-5-0, .615
7.    Trent Pohl (2006-07), 8-10-0, .444 
       Richard Popp (1983-86), 8-15-1, .354 
9.    Kevin Smith (2008), 7-2-0, .778 
      Carl Roscoe (2012-15), 7-7-0, .500
      Anthony Frederick (1992, 94-95), 7-12-0, .368
      Michael Gluski (1994-95, 97-98), 7-16-0, .304

WINNING WHEN EXECUTING
Wayne State has won 17 of its last 20 games when rushing for over 200 yards, including the win over SVSU where WSU ran for 257 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 27-7 when rushing for 200 yards, including an 11-4 mark on the road.  Under Coach Winters, the Green & Gold are 46-16 under those parameters, including a 27-6 mark at home.

SCORE FROM ANYWHERE
Last season, WSU tallied 35 touchdown drives of at least 60 yards, including nine over 80 yards.  The Warriors had three scoring drives of at least 60 yards at Walsh, including a 97-yard TD drive just before intermission.  Against UIndy, three of WSU's four scoring drives were over 60 yards and five of the six scoring drives versus SVSU were of the 50-plus yard variety.

WORTH NOTING
Senior running back Romello Brown became just the fourth person in WSU football history to rush for over 3,000 career yards after gaining 113 yards in the win at Walsh.  Brown, with 3,200 career rushing yards, joins Joique Bell (6,728), Joe Gough (4,204) and Toney Davis (3,933) in that exclusive club.

Sophomore wide receiver Darece Roberson, Jr. is tied-for-seventh nationally in receiving touchdowns (4) and tied-for-29th in total touchdowns (4).

Junior quarterback D.J. Zezula surpassed the 4,000-yard plateau (4,615) in the win of total offense by compiling 185 yards (149 passing, 36 rushing) at Walsh.  He moved past Jason Charron (4,266) into fifth place on the all-time list with 213 yards (193 passing, 20 rushing) vs. Indianapolis and is 175 yards shy matching of fourth place, currently held by Ed Skowneski (1972-75).

100 YEARS OF WSU ATHLETICS
This past Saturday, the Wayne State University Athletics Department began its celebration of 100 years.  Some of the special events included a parade of former student-athletes and a special football tailgate.  For more information and to follow along all year long, log on to WSUAthletics.com/100Years.  There is also a list of the most memorable moments on the site.
 
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 game ranked 28th among all active DII football head coaches with 78 wins.

LAST 100 GAMES
Wayne State has compiled at least a .500 season in eight of the last nine years (2008-16) combining for a 65-41 mark over the last 106 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.

FIRST HALF DOMINATION
Wayne State was at its best in the first 30 minutes of the game last season.  The Warriors outscored their opponents 114-35 in the first quarter and 216-99 during the first half.  However, on the other side of the coin, WSU only outscored its opponents 147-141 in the second half.  That trend continues into 2017 as WSU is outscoring opponents 69-27 in the first half.  However, the first three opponents turned in stronger second halves, outscoring Wayne State 44-28.

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 36-15 tune.  WSU has had a winning record at home in each of the last eight seasons, including a 5-1 mark last season. 

In the Coach Winters' era, the Warriors are 46-28 (.622) at home.  WSU is 30-12 at home this decade and carries a 214-213-19 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).

DECADE TO REMEMBER
Wayne State has 51 wins this decade, which is the second most wins in program history behind the 55 wins from the 1970s (55-37-2 / .596).  WSU is 51-33 (.607) to give this decade the highest winning percentage of any full decade.

ANOTHER WARRIOR IN THE PROS
After an All-American career, Nate Theaker joined the Dallas Cowboys and looks to find a spot with the best offensive line unit in the NFL.  He was signed to the Cowboys practice squad at the end of August, but was released on September 19.  In his six years at Wayne State, he played in 42 career games out of 43 contests, making 33 starts.  The team captain was selected to the 2016 D2Football.com All-America First Team and the Don Hansen All-America Second Team as well as being named to the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team.  Theaker was selected to the AFCA All-America First Team, voted to the D2CCA All-America First Team after receiving All-Super Region 4 First Team accolades, and was selected to the Associated Press Little All-America First Team for Division II, III and NAIA.  The White Lake native collected Don Hansen All-Super Region 4 First Team accolades, while being voted the GLIAC Offensive Lineman of the Year along with earning First Team All-GLIAC honors.

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 hoem 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 or Sean Baligian will serve as your host during the hour-long show that includes special interviews and segments plus student-athlete profiles.