The Wittenberg Tigers put their season on the line this weekend before what they know will be a house packed to the rafters with fans in Red & White - but one they hope will be boisterously in favor of the home team wearing those colors as opposed to the visiting Wabash Little Giants. Wittenberg, winner of five straight games after a season-opening loss at nationally ranked Capital on Sept. 4, heads into the key North Coast Athletic Conference tilt with a 5-1 overall record, including a mark of 3-0 in the NCAC.

Wabash comes in sporting an identical 5-1 overall record, but a mark of 3-1 in the conference after a thrilling 33-30 home defeat against nationally ranked Wooster last weekend. The Little Giants own a three-game win streak against Wittenberg, dating back to the last time the two teams met in Springfield. That was 2002, when the Little Giants and Tigers were both undefeated and Wabash prevailed 46-43 in overtime.

A win in this game puts Wittenberg on a first-place collision course with Wooster, which is unbeaten at 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the conference, on Nov. 7 on the Scots' home field. A Wabash win keeps the Little Giants in the running for the conference title, while a loss all but eliminates the 2002 NCAC champions from title or NCAA Division III Playoff contention.

Devon Combs

Offensively, the Tigers feature a balanced attack with averages of 263.0 yards rushing and 223.0 yards passing per game in 2004. The starting quarterback is senior Ryan Holmes, who ranks second in the NCAC in passer efficiency for a second straight year - trailing only his back-up again in 2004. With a 65 percent completion percentage and a sparkling rating of 171.91, which places him among the national leaders, Holmes is having a fine season.

Junior wide receiver Jered Glover is Holmes' favorite target as he leads the Tigers with 28 receptions, 412 yards and five touchdowns. No other receiver on the team has more than 11 catches, although eight other players have caught at least five passes. Junior tailback Tristan Murray is the team's featured running back, grinding out a lot of tough yards to rank third in the NCAC with 105.2 yards per game. He is averaging 6.1 yards per carry in his first season in the Red & White after transferring from Brown University.

The Tigers, who have led the NCAC in total defense 10 of the last 12 years, are allowing 23.7 points per game, but their opponents' point total has decreased in each of the first six games (a trend that cannot continue after a shutout against Hiram last week). Fifteen different players have at least 10 tackles, with the team leader, sophomore safety Mitch Fonseca, posting 27. Freshman middle linebacker Wade Laughrey continues to show improvement as he checks in with 26 total tackles, while sophomore outside linebacker Devon Combs is tied with Fonseca for the team lead in solo tackles with 14 and ranks third in total tackles with 25.

Wabash is a very dangerous team offensively and defensively, but injuries have taken a toll on one of the preseason conference favorites. The Little Giants' rushing attack ranks just seventh in the conference, in large part due to the prolonged absence of sophomore Aaron Lafitte, who ran for 157 yards and three touchdowns against Wittenberg in 2003. The Little Giants' passing attack is faring better, with more than 1,500 yards through the air as Russ Harbaugh and Dustin Huff have shared the duties. Their main target is Brandon Clifton, who has a whopping 37 catches for 521 yards and eight touchdowns so far this season, including four scores against Wooster last Saturday.

Defensively, the Little Giants have ranked among the best in the conference and the nation the last two years, and even after giving up 30 points to Wooster and All-American tailback Tony Sutton last week, Wabash leads the NCAC in scoring defense at 12.3 points per game and total defense at 253.0 yards per game.

Eight Wittenberg University greats will be inducted into the school's Athletics Hall of Honor during Homecoming Weekend ceremonies, Oct. 22-24. Brad Baldridge '91, Loyal Bishop '52, Beth Green '94, Taver Johnson '94, Rick Lyons '92, Tony Vedova '61, Jon Warga '91 and Scott Watters '87 will join 139 other athletes who have been selected for this prestigious honor the last 19 years.

The honorees will be formally inducted into the Athletics Hall of Honor at a banquet on Friday, Oct. 22. They will also be honored by Wittenberg's loyal fans at halftime of the Homecoming football game against Wabash the next day, which kicks off at Edwards-Maurer Field at 1 p.m.

Donn Gallatin '74 is spearheading an effort to fire up the Tiger football players as they head onto Edwards-Maurer Field on Saturday. At approximately 12:45 p.m., Gallatin is inviting all Wittenberg alums, parents and students in the house for Homecoming Weekend to join him in creating a Tiger Tunnel for the players and coaches to run through prior to the game.

Wittenberg is blessed with outstanding radio coverage again in 2004, as Marty Bannister heads things up for a 12th straight year. Bannister is joined most games in the booth by Scott Leo on color commentary after four years as the broadcast crew's sideline reporter. When Leo has been unavailable, Tiger men's lacrosse coach Vinnie Lang and Tim Dellapina have filled in. Also on the broadcast team for home games is Wittenberg sophomore Sean Golden, who is providing on-field insights during games and postgame interviews.

This year's broadcasts can be heard locally on WUSO 89.1-FM, the university's student-operated station. It can also be heard around the world on the Internet thanks to Wittenberg's partnership with Stretch Internet. Wittenberg fans do not have to pay to listen to broadcasts, and anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can log in and listen.

Feedback during and after games is encouraged using a new e-mail address: wittradio@yahoo.com. Whenever possible, e-mails will be read on the air during games by the announcers, and questions will be answered at that time. Click Here To Listen

One has to go back 12 years to find Wittenberg's last shutout loss. 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 1991 season finale to Ohio Wesleyan as well). Since the loss to B-W, Wittenberg has played 136 games without either being shutout or suffering two consecutive losses. During that span, Wittenberg has recorded 28 shutouts of its own, including five straight against last week's opponent, Hiram. In addition, the Tigers have been held below 10 points in a game on just one occasion since 1992 - against Mercyhurst in a 7-6 victory in 1993.

Jered Glover

Jered Glover continues to work his way up the career receiving charts at Wittenberg. The team's leading receiver each of the last two years, Glover has added 28 catches for 412 yards and five touchdowns in 2004, bringing his career totals to 124 catches, 1,772 yards and 18 touchdowns, good for fourth, fifth and fifth respectively on the all-time lists.

In terms of receptions, the next player Glover will leapfrog is former teammate Skip Ivery, who caught 138 passes for 2,114 yards and 24 touchdowns between 2000 and 2003. The school record for receptions is held by Michael Aljancic (147). Next up in receiving yardage is the legendary Bob Cherry, who picked up 1,790 yards on 90 catches between 1961-63. Rod Miller leads in that category with 2,288. The top four in receiving touchdowns are all far ahead of Glover currently, with the top spot held by Cherry at 27.

Jered Glover has at least one reception in all 28 games as a collegian, including two playoff games in 2002. In three games against Wabash, he has been tremendously productive with 28 receptions, including 10 in the overtime game in Springfield in 2002 and 10 in the playoff loss at Wabash later that season. He had eight for 104 yards in the Wabash win in Crawfordsville, Ind., last year.

Ryan Holmes

Ryan Holmes is quietly making his mark on the Wittenberg record books as well. In 23 career games, Holmes has 202 completions in 334 attempts for 2,978 yards, in addition to 10 interceptions and 33 touchdowns. He stands eighth on the career yardage list, eighth on the completions list, ninth in career attempts and sixth in touchdowns.

Jacob Thomas

Senior Jacob Thomas is averaging an NCAC-best 42.6 yards per punt in 2004, which would break a school record of 41.1 if the season ended today. His punting average would rank in the top 10 nationally for NCAA Division III, except that he doesn't meet the minimum standard of 3.6 punts per game for qualification. Thomas has booted the ball just 16 times in six games. Interestingly, the next lowest total number of punts for an NCAC team is 27 by Wabash. The Little Giants are averaging 31.0 yards per punt.

Tyler Harmon

The Tigers made short work of Hiram Saturday. With all 65 players who made the trip getting into the game, the Tigers jumped on the winless Terriers from the outset and cruised to a 74-0 victory. Wittenberg scored on its first two drives of the game, needing just six offensive plays and less than five minutes to jump ahead 13-0 on a pair of touchdown runs by Tyler Harmon. The rest of the scoring included freshman linebacker Wade Laughrey's 23-yard interception return, a Tristan Murray three-yard run, a nine-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Holmes to junior wide receiver Braden Freeman, a one-yard scoring burst by Harmon, an 18-yard scoring pass from Chris Clark to junior wide receiver Dymond McDonald and a one-yard run by freshman fullback Andy Vanover. In the second half, the Tigers tacked on 20 more points as freshman wide receiver Jason Alonso scored his first collegiate touchdown on a seven-yard end-around in the third quarter and Clark added scoring runs of seven and 37 yards in the fourth quarter.

Junior tailback Will Block carried the load with a career-high 143 yards on 20 carries. Murray finished with 65 yards on nine carries, none after the first quarter, and Clark and Holmes combined for 116 yards rushing from the quarterback position on 13 carries. Wittenberg gained 30 first downs in the game to just five for the Terriers, who have now been outscored 322-0 in five meetings with the Tigers since joining the NCAC in 2000. The total yardage differential was 564-136.

Eleven different Wittenberg players recorded at least one rushing attempt in the game, and six different players shared the eight receptions. Leading the way was junior tight end Nate Cherry with two catches for 23 yards, while Harmon had a 46-yard reception and Jered Glover extended his receptions streak with one catch for 20 yards.

Gary George

Wittenberg leads the all-time series 4-3. The two teams met twice in the 1960's in non-conference action, and Wittenberg came away with a pair of convincing wins, 42-7 in 1964 and 28-0 in 1965. In 2000, Wittenberg won the first meeting between the two teams as members of the North Coast Athletic Conference by a 41-10 score. Since then, the Tigers won in 2001 in Springfield and Wabash has won the last three meetings, two in 2002 and one in 2003.

In last year's game, Wabash jumped out in front early in the game and never allowed the Tigers back into the game before an enthusiastic home crowd in Crawfordsville. Wittenberg lost an NCAC road game for the first time since 1997 lost by double digits in the NCAC for the first time since 1996 in a 41-14 stunner.

The game was as lopsided statistically as it was on the scoreboard. Wabash outgained the Tigers 476-301 for the game and held the ball for 36 minutes, compared to 23 for the Tigers. Aaron Lafitte became the first player to top 100 yards against Wittenberg in 2003 as he accumulated 157 yards on 27 carries and scored three touchdowns, and his rushing accomplishments were complimented by the passing of Russ Harbaugh, who was nearly flawless through the air.

Individually, Tigers' quarterback Ryan Holmes finished with 249 yards on 19 completions in 39 attempts. He had one touchdown and his first three interceptions of the season. Tailback Raymar Hampshire finished with 49 yards rushing on 16 attempts and wide receiver Jered Glover led the receivers with 104 yards on eight receptions. Defensively, linebacker Gary George led the way with 11 total tackles, including two for a loss of 11 yards.

Wittenberg is led by Joe Fincham, a 1988 graduate of Ohio University. In his ninth season at the helm, Fincham has a 85-12 overall record, including a mark of 56-5 in the NCAC and a regular season record of 79-8. 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.

Wabash is led by Chris Creighton, who has guided the Little Giants to a 32-7 record in his four seasons at the helm. Creighton, a former all-conference player at Kenyon, was named the 2002 NCAC Coach of the Year. He was also named the Don Hansen's Football Gazette North Region Coach of the Year and the American Football Coaches Association Division III District III Coach of the Year that season. He has a career record of 64-14 in eight years, including four at Ottawa University in Kansas.