---

The Wittenberg University football team finds itself in unfamiliar territory heading into the eighth week of the 2003 season. Losses in the last four weeks to North Coast Athletic Conference rivals Wabash and Allegheny have put the regular season championship and a berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs all but out of reach for the first time in six years. But that doesn't mean the Tigers have nothing to play for.

Far from it. This was expected to be a rebuilding season for a Wittenberg football program that graduated one of the biggest and most successful senior classes in school history last spring. The Tigers have competed well and battled a veteran Allegheny team down to the wire last week on the road. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor was another national title contender in Springfield, Ohio. It takes time, and this year's team has shown tremendous promise.

In addition to building confidence and gaining experience for the 2004 season, the Tigers have much to play for in 2003. Wittenberg has won at least seven games in every season since 1992 and they have lost three NCAC games just twice - and never since 1991. So this weekend's game at Huntingdon in Montgomery, Ala. is important because the Tigers can improve to 7-2 overall. Next weekend's home game and season finale against preseason NCAC favorite Wooster is important because the Tigers can move to 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the conference, which will be good for either a tie for second or third place in the final standings. Allegheny is unbeaten in NCAC play with games against two lower-division teams remaining.

Starting in 1892, the Wittenberg football program has played at least three games every year except 1943 and 1944 due to World War II. Last weekend's game at Allegheny was No. 1,000 in school history.

Tyler Harmon

Junior Raymar Hampshire leads the Tigers' rushing attack with 852 yards and 15 touchdowns (including one receiving), and he is averaging 6.5 yards per carry. He is ably backed by freshman Joe Brumfield, who has 355 yards and three TDs on 66 carries. Hampshire ranks third in the NCAC with 106.5 yards per game. Freshman fullback Tyler Harmon has 56 rushes for 385 yards and five touchdowns in addition to his blocking duties. Last week, he posted a career-high 99 rushing yards and caught two passes as well.

Through the air, junior quarterback Ryan Holmes has 14 touchdowns, 1205 yards and four interceptions, all in the two games Wittenberg has lost this year. He and sophomore back-up George Andress, who has completed 18-of-23 passes for 191 yards and four touchdowns in mop-up duty, have combined to post a pass efficiency rating of 167.5, which leads the NCAC by a wide margin. His chief targets have been senior Skip Ivery with 30 catches for 566 yards and seven touchdowns, including an 83-yarder on the first play from scrimmage against Ohio Wesleyan, and sophomore Jered Glover with 31 receptions for 451 yards and seven touchdowns (including a school-record 96-yard kickoff return against Thomas More). The tandem combined for 102 receptions in 2002.

Gary George

The Tigers, who have led the NCAC in total defense 10 of the last 11 years, have played well on that side of the ball again in 2003. The unit is holding opponents to 271.5 yards and 15 points per game, although the latter figure is deceiving considering that the Tigers have yielded touchdowns on a fumble return, a blocked punt and an interception return, none of which were scored on the Tiger defense.

Linebacker Gary George leads the team with 68 tackles, including nine for a loss of 35 yards, and two interceptions, including one against Thomas More he returned 30 yards for a score. George had a team season-high of 17 tackles in the win over Ohio Wesleyan. Linebacker Peter Franz is second on the team with 52 tackles. Safety Yusef Abdul-Zahir is third with 51 tackles, including 15 against Urbana when he was recognized as NCAC with Player of the Week. He also has four tackles for loss and two interceptions this season.

This is the first meeting for Wittenberg and Huntingdon, which is in its first season playing varsity football. The Hawks will make a return trip to Springfield next year in Game 3 of the 2004 season.

All four of Wittenberg's road trips in 2003 are out-of-state, with the final one this weekend on Nov. 8 at Huntingdon in Montgomery, Ala. Wittenberg is 5-0 on its home turf in 2003 and has won each of those games by at least 26 points. However, on the road, the Tigers started impressively with a 34-7 win at Albion on Sept. 6 before being stunned 41-14 by Wabash on Oct. 11 and falling last weekend to a veteran Allegheny team on its home muddy turf 27-21.

Wittenberg fell out of the American Football Coaches Association poll for the first time since the poll's inception in 2000. The Tigers are in the "others receiving votes" category of the AFCA poll, as well as the d3football.com poll. In Don Hansen's National Football Gazette, Wittenberg is 34th among the 40 teams ranked.

One has to go back 11 years to find the last shutout that Wittenberg has suffered. Baldwin-Wallace did the honors in the opening game of the 1992 season, which also is the last time that Wittenberg lost back-to-back games (the Tigers lost their 2001 season finale to Ohio Wesleyan as well). Since the defeat to B-W, Wittenberg has played 129 games without either being shutout or suffering two consecutive losses. During that span, Wittenberg has recorded 27 shutouts of its own. Not only has Wittenberg not been shutout in 129 games, the Tigers have been held below 10 points in a game on just one occasion during that span - against Mercyhurst in a 7-6 victory in 1993.

Skip Ivery

Senior wide receiver Skip Ivery has 30 receptions for 566 yards and seven touchdowns. His career totals are now 118 receptions for 1,794 yards and 19 touchdowns. He ranks No. 3, No. 4 and No. 3 on those respective school record lists.

Conrad Hindert

Senior Conrad Hindert has been close to perfect this season. He has made all four of his field goals this season and 41-of-42 extra points. For his career, Hindert now has made 83-of-87 extra points and 8-of-15 field goals. Presently, he has made 32 straight extra points, dating back to a blocked PAT on Sept. 27 against Thomas More. The record for consecutive extra points is 33, set by Jimmy Watts in 1995. Hindert is also on pace to break the school record for extra point percentage, set by Steve Jefferies in 1978 when he converted 33-of-34.

Ryan Holmes

Ryan Holmes leads the NCAC and ranks fourth in the nation in passing efficiency with a rating of 166.2. Jered Glover ranks first in the NCAC and 18th in the nation in kickoff returns with an average of 27.9. Raymar Hampshire is averaging 11.3 points per game to rank 12th nationally and second in the conference in scoring.

As a team, Wittenberg ranks 18th in total offense (441.9), 20th in rush offense (244.8), 30th in total defense (271.5), third in scoring offense (44.0) and 31st in scoring defense (15.3) in the national statistical rankings.

Jarrett Brown

The Tigers put forth a gallant effort in the mud at Allegheny College but fell short 27-21. It was the first victory for Allegheny against Wittenberg since 1996.

The loss gave Wittenberg two regular season defeats for the first time under eighth-year Head Coach Joe Fincham, and it was just the fifth NCAC defeat for the Tigers since he took the reins in 1996. Amazingly, the two defeats are the most in conference play for a Wittenberg team since 1991, when the Tigers finished 5-3.

The scoring started late in the first quarter when the Gators took advantage of a fumble deep in Wittenberg territory to score a touchdown on a 14-yard pass play. That was followed by an offensive explosion, especially surprising considering the poor field conditions, as wide receiver Jered Glover took a short pass 65 yards to the house to tie the game, and then on the very next play from scrimmage, Allegheny responded with a 67-yard scoring pass play.

In the second quarter, Wittenberg got on the board first on a two-yard scoring burst by fullback Tyler Harmon. But Allegheny answered with a perfectly executed halfback pass to the quarterback to account for the 20-14 halftime advantage. In the second half, Wittenberg took its first and only lead on a 25-yard scoring run by tailback Raymar Hampshire with 11:35 remaining in the third stanza. But once again, Allegheny responded in kind, taking just 1:17 off the clock in going 66 yards on five plays to score on a 25-yard TD pass.

Wittenberg finished with 413 total yards, including 259 on the ground. Allegheny posted a total of 356 yards, including 225 yards passing. The key to the game was turnovers as the Tigers had one interception and two fumbles, including a key one in the final five minutes to allowed the Gators to run out the clock with a long drive. Individually, Wittenberg got 147 yards rushing on 26 carries from Hampshire and 99 yards on 21 carries from Harmon. Quarterback Ryan Holmes finished with 11 completions on 21 attempts for 154 yards. Glover topped the receiving corps with 97 yards on four receptions.

Defensively, Wittenberg was led by three players with seven total tackles - senior linebacker Peter Franz, freshman safety Mitch Fonseca and junior defensive tackle Jarrett Brown. Sophomore safety Yusef Abdul-Zahir had one interception for 15 yards and four total tackles.

Wittenberg is led by Joe Fincham, a 1988 graduate of Ohio University. In his eighth season at the helm, Fincham has an 80-10 overall record, including a mark of 52-4 in the NCAC and a regular season record of 74-6. His teams have claimed five conference titles, including four straight outright with undefeated records from 1998-2001. Fincham, who ranks second in winning percentage in NCAA Division III history among coaches with five or more seasons, has been named NCAC Coach of the Year four times. Huntingdon is coached by Duane Trogdon, the university's athletic director and head men's golf coach since 1999. Trogdon has more than thirty years of experience in higher education administration and teaching, and he helped to begin an NCAA Division II program at Southwest Baptist University, serving as a secondary coach to the new team, and continuing as defensive coordinator for ten years. By its third year, the team was nationally ranked.

Wittenberg is blessed with outstanding radio coverage again in 2003, as Marty Bannister heads things up for an 11th straight year on WULM. Bannister is joined in the booth by former Tiger All-American offensive lineman Xan Smith, who provides color commentary, while Scott Leo patrols the sidelines to provide insight. All season long, WULM also hosts Tiger Talk on Thursdays from 8-9 p.m. The show includes interviews and analysis with Wittenberg Head Coach Joe Fincham and his players and assistant coaches.

Wittenberg has partnered with Stretch Internet to make selected sporting events available around the world. Wittenberg fans will not have to pay to listen to broadcasts, and anyone with a computer and an Internet connection will be able to log in and listen without risk of getting bumped off due to listener limitations. Stretch Internet utilizes QuickTime, so prospective listeners need only to download the free QuickTime Player and they're ready to listen to Wittenberg games live.