Nov. 7, 2006

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FERRIS STATE GAME STORYLINES

The Wayne State University football team (6-4 overall, 6-3 GLIAC) will play its regular-season finale this Saturday at Ferris State (7-3 overall, 6-3 GLIAC). The winner of Saturday's contest is guaranteed to finish no lower than third in the conference.

WSU upended Ashland, 33-17, last Saturday, while the Bulldogs were victorious at Northwood by a 17-14 score.

The Warriors secured their first winning season (on the field) since 1993 with last Saturday's triumph.

ON THE HEADSET

Wayne State's Paul Winters has a 10-20 mark in his third year with the Warriors. WSU has won nine of its last 15 games.

Jeff Pierce is in his 12th year at Ferris State and has an overall record of 76-55.

THROUGHOUT THE YEARS

Wayne State trails 22-20 in the all-time series which began in 1920. This will be the first meeting since 2003, and the road team has won the last three outings. WSU is 8-10 in Big Rapids.

IN THE POLLS

Wayne State was tabbed for ninth in the GLIAC pre-season coaches poll. The Bulldogs were tied-for-sixth by the GLIAC coaches.

ON THIS DATE

WSU is 1-11-1 on November 11. The lone meeting against FSU was a 55-26 loss to the Bulldogs in 1989. The lone victory was a 28-15 win over Northern Michigan in 1995.

SCOUTING FERRIS STATE

The Bulldogs won 17-14 last week at Northwood to improve to 7-3 overall.

Quarterback C.J. Van Wieren leads the team in rushing yards (465) and touchdowns (8). He has also passed for 286 yards and a score. Robert Miller has a team-best 30 receptions for 345 yards.

Mike Klobucher has a team-leading 80 tackles, while Jim Skodak has six pass break-ups and three interceptions.

ASHLAND GAME NOTES

Wayne State secured its first winning season on the field since 1993 with its win over Ashland.

It was WSU's first home victory over Ashland since 1976.

Freshman Trent Pohl had his second two touchdown passing game of the season to take over the top active spot in that category.

Freshman running back Joique Bell broke two single-season school records vs. the Eagles - rushing touchdowns (20) and all-purpose yards (2,157). He also became just the second player in GLIAC history with over 2,000 all-purpose yards in league games only in one year. Bell enters the season finale at 2,047 trailing Ferris State's Clarence Coleman who had 2,315 in 2001.

Junior place-kicker David Chudzinski set three WSU records - field goals made in a season (13), extra points made in a season (31) and consecutive extra points made in a career (35). He has connected on 10 of his last 11 field goal attempts and has not missed an extra point since October 15, 2005.

The Warriors have outscored their opponents 157-85 in the second half this year.

WSU's home total attendance of 13,758 was the second highest (not including the Ford Field game in 2004) in the last 29 years.

Seventeen WSU seniors were honored prior to Saturday's game. The group consisted of seven fourth-year seniors (Dan Barnes, Chad Blair, Alan Clay, Mike Ellison, Grant Fodor, Chris Middlebrooks and Jake Weingartz), seven fifth-year seniors (Nick Body, Jerriel Burrus, Adam Carter, Floyd Ferjuste, Ryan Oshnock, Chris Smilo and Merrick Steele), and three junior college transfers (Derrion Fuqua, Ty Spencer and Brandon Whitfield).

Jerriel Burrus is tied-for-eighth in single-season punt returns (23) and is fourth in punt return yards (254).

Sophomore Dante Dunn has the ninth-most kickoff return yards in a season (455) and needs 35 yards to move into sixth place.

THIS AND THAT

Fans can listen to this Saturday's game on WDTK (1400 AM) or online with audio from wdtkam.com.

Joique Bell is second nationally in all-purpose yards (215.7), and third in the country in both rushing yards (181.3) and scoring (12.6 points per game).

David Chudzinski leads the conference in field goals made (13), field goal percentage (86.7) and is tied-for-first in PAT percentage (100). He is fifth nationally in field goals made per game (1.3) and 35th in the country in scoring (7.0 points per game).

Derrion Fuqua is 26th nationally in solo tackles (4.9 per game).

Dante Dunn is 18th in NCAA Division II in kickoff return average at 26.8 yards per return.

Jerriel Burrus is ranked 35th in the country in punt return average at 11.0 yards per return.

WSU needs 22 points to equal the school record of 292 points set in 2000.

Wayne State is on pace to break the single-season school mark for yards per pass attempt of 7.34 set in 1967. The 2006 squad is currently at 7.42.

WSU has scored at least six points in each of the last nine quarters and 13 of the last 15 periods.

WARRIOR CAPTAINS

Alan Clay, Grant Fodor, Alan Guy, Ryan Oshnock and Jake Weingartz.