WSU Football Weekly Game Notes

WAYNE STATE BEGINS SEASON AGAINST MICHIGAN TECH
Game #1

Setting the Stage	Wayne State University Football vs. Michigan Tech
Dates	Thursday, September 4
Time	6:00 PM Kick-off
Location	Detroit, Mich. (Adams Field)
Live Video	Warrior All-Access
Live Stats	WSU Live Stats
Live Audio	WDTK 1400 AM/92.7 FM (wdtkam.com)
Opponent Information	Michigan Tech Football

Michigan Tech Storylines
The Wayne State University football team begins its 97th year of collegiate football against Michigan Tech at Adams Field.? The Warriors are 4-2 in their last six season openers and 5-5 in the last 10 openers under head coach Paul Winters.? WSU's last home victory to start the season was a 69-24 triumph over Urbana University on September 3, 2011.

Wayne State ended its season a year ago at Michigan Tech.? The Warriors opened the 2006 and 2007 seasons with the Huskies, splitting the contests.? WSU won 36-14 in a game played in Houghton in 2006, and lost 21-14 the following year at home.

Warriors Name Captains For 2014 Season
Wayne State University head football coach Paul Winters, who begins his 11th season at the helm of the Warriors, announced his 2014 captains during a special "Captains Presentation" prior to the scrimmage on August 23rd.

The 2014 WSU captains will be senior center Thom Box (Milan, Mich.), senior cornerback Gerren DuHart (Toledo, Ohio / Central Catholic), senior linebacker Nores Fradi (Dearborn Hts., Mich. / Dearborn), senior running back Desmond Martin (Redford, Mich. / Thurston) and senior left tackle Ben Walker (Oxford, Mich. / Lake Orion)

Box will be in his second year as a captain while the other four are first-year captains.

Prior to the announcement of the 2014 captains, nine previous WSU captains spoke about their time in Detroit:? Jeff Bero (1985-88), Dale Dwojakowski (1989-92), Michael Hall (2002-05), Huston Julian (1997-2000), Steve Lee (1988-91), Josh Renel (2008-11), Donald Urban (1962-64), Ed Viverette (2010-13) and Leo Wells (2002-05).

What To Watch For
Led by head coach Paul Winters, entering his 11th season as Wayne State's football coach, the Warrior football squad will look to improve upon a 3-8 campaign in 2013. The future looks bright for the Warriors, which lost just eight starters from a year ago and returns 14 starters and 41 letterwinners overall.

The Warriors lost just four starters on each side of the ball and bring back depth and experience at several positions both offensively and defensively. Even with the returning starters, the competition is strong at each position.

Wayne State returns seven starters on defense, including all four starters in the secondary. Senior cornerback Gerren DuHart has made 29 career starts for the Green and Gold, while junior Brandon McKay-Lee started the last seven games during 2013. Sophomore Lairren Johnson played in every game in 2013, while redshirt freshman James Howard should provide depth at the cornerback spot in his second year in the program.

Junior safeties Jamiil Williams and Zak Bielecki combined for 14 starts last season for WSU.

The defensive line loses Greg Hasse and Mike Laamanen but returns several key pieces from 2013 including defensive end Justice Akuezue, who started nine games at the spot last year. Also returning on the outside is Alex Medenbach.? Returning up front are junior nose tackles Ryan Hankins and Raafat El Hage, along with senior tackle Sam Sillmon.

Sophomore Jada Littlejohn, along with redshirt freshman Blake Mazur should provide depth on the inside of the defensive line for the Warriors.

Perhaps Wayne State's strongest position last year, linebacker may be the thinnest in terms of depth. Despite the losses, senior and three-year letterwinner Nores Fradi returns. He made 10 starts last season and was second on the team in tackles-for-loss with 8.5 and third in total tackles with 61. Anthony DeDamos made 29 stops in 2013 and gives WSU a physical linebacker in the middle.

Senior linebacker Marcell Jones, a three-year letterwinner, has played in 31 games for the Warriors and provides speed on the outside. Sophomore Valorian Cunningham, who played safety last season, was moved to linebacker this season. Idris Hobdy is another returner that could see time at the position this year. Sophomore Alex Kish, who also moved to the position from safety gives WSU depth at linebacker.

On offense, the quarterbacks position is deep after a season that saw three different signal callers make starts for Wayne State. Seniors Doug Griffin and Sean Guinanae and junior Carl Roscoe are again fighting for first-team reps.

Senior tailback Desmond Martin, a three-year letterwinner, returns having played in 37 games during his Warrior career. He was Wayne State's second-leading rusher in 2013 with 665 yards on 139 carriers and has 1,213 yards and a 5.4-yard per carry average in three seasons overall.

Backing up Martin at tailback are senior Jay Hayes, junior Chris Burks and redshirt freshman Romello Brown. Juniors Rabeah Beydoun and Al Saad also provide depth in the backfield.? Fullback Sean McAuliffe returns for his senior season having played in 31 games during his Warrior career.

Three of Wayne State's top four receivers return in 2014, including senior Michael Johnson who led WSU with 491 receiving yards and tied for the team lead with 33 receptions as a junior in 2013. Senior Val Showers is also set to return this fall as a 10th semester senior. He had 626 all-purpose yards for Wayne State in 2013. Junior Will Wheat and sophomore Brandon Tinsley are among the other returners. Junior Mike Sawchuk also made the move from safety to receiver.

The tight end position is deep with all four returning from 2013. Junior Ethan Walsh started nine games last season and was fourth on the team with eight receptions and a score.

Wayne State returns most of its offensive line, including four of five starters. Leading the way is three-year veteran Thom Box, who has started 28 games at center for WSU. Other starters returning are senior left tackle Ben Walker, junior right guard Nate Theaker and sophomore tackle Robert Kelly. Sophomore guard Sawyer McFadden is battling for the starting job at left guard.

Besides the starters, several other offensive linemen return to provide depth at the position including centers Mike Komor and Alex Ziedas, guards Ed Reny, JT Pillars, Greg Webber and Sam Tate, and tackles Tommy Richardson, Andy Zimmerman and Jake Sheets. ?

Junior Majd Khytaz and redshirt freshman Paul Graham will share reps at kicker and punter for the Warriors.

Scouting Michigan Tech
The Huskies went 3-2 both home and away and ended last year with their third two-game winning streak of the season.

Michigan Tech has 13 returning letterwinners for 2014 including 16 starters, half of which are on the defensive side of the ball.

Senior defensive lineman Nelson Wienke, an All-GLIAC selection a year ago returns.? Senior quarterback Tyler Scarlett' will be in his fourth year at the helm.? He is already the most prolific passer in school history, and he holds the majority of MTU's career passing marks.? Joining him in the backfield will be fellow senior Charlie Leffingwell, who posted 1,238 yards on the ground a year ago, good for fifth in the league.? That is a solid one-two punch, and the return of wide receiver Brandon Cowie who led the team with 933 receiving yards last season should help give the Huskies a balanced offensive attack.

In The Polls
Wayne State was predicted to finish sixth out of eight teams in the 2014 GLIAC Preseason Coaches Poll. Michigan Tech was ranked fourth in the same poll which was released in mid-August.

Michigan Tech received two votes in the preseason AFCA Coaches Poll which was released on August 18th.? Two of Wayne State's 2014 opponents are ranked inside the top 25 as Grand Valley State (No. 2) and Carson-Newman (No. 16) also appear in the poll.

Other GLIAC teams to receive votes in the preseason AFCA poll were Saginaw Valley State, Findlay and Ohio Dominican.

On The Headset
Paul Winters enters his 11th season as the head coach of the Warriors.? He has a 56-56 record at Wayne State and equaled the second-place mark of 11 coaching seasons with the legendary David Holmes (1918-28) this fall.? Joseph Gembis holds the WSU mark with 14 seasons (1932-45).

Tom Kearly has compiled a 50-33 mark in his eight seasons at Michigan Tech.? The Huskies have posted winning records in seven of his eight seasons in Houghton.

Night Game
Wayne State's first home game of the 2014 campaign on Sept. 4 will also be the second collegiate home night game in Adams Field history.? The Warriors' 6 p.m. contest against Michigan Tech will be played under the lights at Tom Adams Field.? The lights were added to the football stadium in August of 2012.

All Six Home Games Televised
All six of Wayne State's home games will be broadcast on Comcast Xfinity Channel 900.? The broadcast team of Ryan Ermanni, Rod Beard and Joe Abramson will have the call from Tom Adams Field.? Every league contest will be shown live plus on a tape-delayed basis, while the Carson-Newman match-up will be shown only a tape-delayed basis.? Every game will also be available On-Demand.

WDTK and Warrior All-Access
All Wayne State football games can be heard on WDTK Radio (1400 AM/92.7 FM).? Fans can listen to the games online at wdtkam.com or watch the home games via Warrior All-Access for a $5.95 per game fee.? Sean Baligian and former WSU running back Josh Renel will call the action from the broadcast booth.
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