DETROIT -- The Wayne State University football program will begin the 2018 season at home against Walsh University on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m.

GAME STORYLINES
Wayne State University, which opens the 2018 season at home against former GLIAC member Walsh University, is looking to extend its winning streak to three after besting Northern Michigan and Davenport to finish the 2017 campaign.

SCOUTING THE CAVALIERS
Walsh finished the 2017 season with a 4-7 overall record and 4-3 mark in the G-MAC.  Similar to the Warriors, the Cavs also won their final two contests last year.  In addition, WU was victorious in four of its final six matchups.  John Fankhauser enters his first season as the top man on the Walsh sideline after nearly 20 years of Walsh coaching experience.  He most recently served as Associate Head Coach/Co-Defensive Coordinator, handling all aspects of the Cavs' special teams and the defensive line.  Junior quarterback Mitchell Ault returns after completing nearly 60 percent of his passes for 950 yards and five touchdowns, while also throwing 11 interceptions.  The top returning rusher will be sophomore Koby Adu-Poku, who carried it 106 times for 408 yards and six TDs.  The top two pass catchers return as junior Quinn Thomas and sophomore Lee Hurst II will look to build upon a 2017 season where they combined for 29 receptions, 369 yards and a score.  Junior defensive back Dylan Garver led the Cavs with 82 total tackles last season.  As a team, Walsh scored 21.2 points per game, while allowing 35.4 on defense.  The Cavs ran for 198.3 yards per game, while accounting for 105.5 yards per game through the air.

ALL-TIME SERIES
WSU has won the four previous meetings against Walsh.  The teams have met each season dating back to 2014, three times as conference foes.  Last season, the Warriors topped the Cavaliers 28-9 in Canton, Ohio.  The three other final scores were 52-17 (Detroit), 31-16 (Canton) and 47-14 (Detroit), respectively.

STRONG NUMBERS RETURNING
Wayne State will look to rebound in 2018 after posting just its second losing season in the last 10 years by going 5-6 a year ago.  Head coach Paul Winters enters his 15th season guiding the Warriors, who have 49 returning letterwinners, including 15 starters.

The nine starters on offense include four offensive linemen with the contingent being bolstered by the return of All-Region honoree Tommy Richardson, who missed all of 2017 with an injury.  Seniors Deiontae Nicholas and Demetrius Stinson will lead the rushing attack, while Corey Ester and Darece Roberson, Jr., will be the main targets for either Dakota Kupp or D.J. Zezula.  Graduate student Preston Pelham will lead a deep tight ends corps.

The WSU defense has six returning starters with Kyle Toth being the only returnee in the secondary.  Middle linebacker Anthony Pittman was a First Team All-GLIAC selection a season ago.  Linebackers Drew Dowding, Leon Eggleston and Ryan Smith have all seen considerable playing time.  Derrick Coleman, Jalen Lewis, Tiroca Battle and Brady Beedon will anchor the defensive line.

Place-kicker Paul Graham returns for his 10th semester needing just 20 points to move into second place in career scoring at WSU among kickers.  Graham is 31-of-35 on field goals and 94-of-98 on PATs in his career.

SEASON OPENERS
Since Paul Winters took over prior to the 2004 season, Wayne State is 7-7 in season openers.  It will be the first time since 2014 that WSU has started the season at home.  The Warriors are 4-3 in season openers at home under Winters and 8-6 in home openers in the last 14 seasons, but 8-2 over the last 10 years.

EARLY SEASON SUCCESS
Since  the  start  of  the  2008  season,  WSU  has  a  30-13  record  for  games  played  in  August  and  September.  The  Warriors  are  24-21  in  October during that same time period, 12-11 in November and 2-1 in December.

ROAD WOES
Dating back to 2004, Wayne State is 34-44 on the road (including neutral site contests).  However, the Warriors finished with a winning record on the road a year ago for the first time since 2014 (3-2), and for the sixth time under Winters.

A MATURING OFFENSIVE LINE
Going into the 2017 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 (10), Justin Tockstein (11), Charlie Younger (11), Lane Potter (11) and Adam McJunkin (1) gained valuable experience since the 2017 season began with only three combined starts (all by then senior Greg Webber).  With the return of Tommy Richardson and his 32 career starts, the 2018 offensive line begins the year with 76 career starts.

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 10 seasons (2008-17) to a 40-18 tune.  WSU had a winning record at home for nine straight seasons, until a 2-4 record in 2017.  In the Coach Winters' era, the Warriors are 47-31 (.603) at home.  WSU is 31-15 at home this decade and carries a 215-216-19 all-time record at home in the first 100 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).

GLIAC PRESEASON POLL
The GLIAC released its Preseason Football Coaches Poll and Wayne State was tied-for-fourth with two other schools.  The Warriors received 35 points.  GVSU (61 / 6 FPV) was favored with Ferris State (56 / 2 FPV) and Ashland (54 / 1 FPV) following.  WSU was tied with Northwood (35) and SVSU (35).  Northern Michigan (20), Michigan Tech (19) and Davenport (9) round out the nine-team poll.

CONSISTENT LEADER
Paul Winters will become the longest tenured football coach in program history this fall as he begins his 15th season.  He passed the founder of WSU athletics David Holmes in 2014 at 11 seasons (1918-28).  Winters surpasses Hall of Fame coach Joseph Gembis, who held the post for 14 seasons (1932-45).  Winters enters the season opener tied-for-30th among all active DII football head coaches with 81 wins.  The game at Ferris State on Sept. 30, 2017, 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 10 years (2008-17) combining for a 68-46 mark over the last 114 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.

DYNAMIC DUO
The backfield duo of redshirt seniors Demetrius Stinson and Deiontae Nicholas will be at the top of the list for opponent's gameplan.  The pair combined for 1,026 rushing yards and nine scores on the ground a year ago. Stinson and Nicholas also caught a combined 29 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns.  Nicholas also returned 11 kicks for a team-leading average of 24.4 yards per return.

QUARTERBACK BATTLE?
The Warriors used four quarterbacks during the 2017 season as D.J. Zezula played in 10 games and made seven starts, while Dakota Kupp played in five contests, making four starts.  Jake AmRhein appeared in three games and Trevor Van Tubbergen made an appearance in one contest.

If WSU chooses to go with experience, Zezula should get the nod (32 games played) as he climbs the program record books.  Zezula ranks  second in passing yards (4,885), third in total offense (5,350), fourth in completions (337) and sixth in passing attempts (586).

STRONG CONNECTIONS
Senior quarterback D.J. Zezula has several weapons on the roster and he has used those weapons to move up within the program record books.  
Below are QB to WR touchdown totals (since 1991).
1.    Mickey Mohner to Troy Burrell -- 24
2.    Jason Charron to Pierre Brown -- 22
3.    Michael Gluski to Jimmy Hill -- 18
4.    D.J. Zezula to Jamel Hicks -- 11
5.    Carl Roscoe to Michael Johnson -- 10
       Dan Gray to Pierre Brown -- 10
7.    Dan Gray to Brandon Brown -- 9
       Richard Brown to Elbert Richmond -- 9
9.    Anthony Frederick to Nick Bush -- 8
10.  Randy Hutchison to Nick Body -- 7
       D.J. Zezula to Manny Mendoza -- 7
       D.J. Zezula to Darece Roberson, Jr. -- 7
13.  D.J. Zezula to Corey Ester -- 5
14.  D.J. Zezula to Deiontae Nicholas -- 4

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), 15-13-0, .535
      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
---
      Dakota Kupp (2017-SA), 3-1, .750

WINNING WHEN EXECUTING
Wayne State has won 21 of its last 24 games when rushing for over 200 yards, including the 2017 season finale win at Davenport where the Warriors totaled 276 yards on the ground.  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 previous seven seasons (2011-17), Wayne State is 31-7 when rushing for 200 yards, including a 13-5 mark on the road.  Under Coach Winters, the Green & Gold are 50-16 under those parameters, including a 31-5 mark at home.

WINNINGEST MICHIGAN FOOTBALL PROGRAMS
Over the last decade, Wayne State ranks sixth among all Michigan football programs in winning percentage (both regular season and playoffs).

    1. Grand Valley State, 101-26 / .795
    2. Michigan State, 93-39 / .704
    3. Ferris State, 77-40 / .658
    4. Adrian, 66-36 / .647
    5. Hillsdale, 67-45 / .595
    6. Wayne State, 68-46 / .597

16-GAME SEASON
In the 45-year history of NCAA Division II football, the 2011 Warrior squad is the only team to play a 16-game schedule.