GAME STORYLINES
Wayne State travels to Grand Valley State on Saturday afternoon for the final game of the regular season.  The Warriors have won seven of their last eight games to move into second place in the GLIAC.  The seven wins is the most since the 2016 squad went 7-4.  Wayne State has not won eight games since 2011 when that squad went 12-4.  WSU was not ranked in the top 10 in this week's NCAA Super Region 3 rankings.  The top seven from each Super Region will qualify for the playoffs with the pairings being announced on Sunday at 5 p.m.
 

SCOUTING GRAND VALLEY STATE
Grand Valley State enters the week at 8-2 overall and 5-2 in the GLIAC.  The Lakers have dropped games to Ashland (20-17) and Ferris State (21-16) and are eighth in the latest regional rankings.  Head coach Matt Mitchell is in his 10th season leading the program.
 

Junior quarterback Cole Kotopka has completed 52 percent of his passes for 1,611 yards and 17 touchdowns, while throwing 12 interceptions.  The ground game features two talented ball carriers in sophomore Aryuan Cain-Veasey (603 rushing yards and seven TDs) and redshirt freshman Tariq Reid (507 rushing yards and three TDs).  Senior Austin Paritee leads the team with 35 receptions for 625 yards and five scores.
 

Senior linebacker Isaiah Nkansah is the top tackler on the roster with 87 stops, including 11.5 tackles for loss and five sacks.  Sophomore cornerback Antonio Strong has a team-best two interceptions.

Redshirt freshman place-kicker Josh Gorball has made five of his six field goal attempts with a long of 36 yards.  Senior Dan Madden is the team's punter and has an average of 41.7 yards per boot with five inside the 20 this season.  As a team, GVSU is averaging 31.4 points per game and allowing 15.6 points per contest.
 

ALL-TIME SERIES
Wayne State trails 5-35 in the all-time series against Grand Valley State, including a 2-17 mark on the road.  The Lakers have won 30 straight beginning in 1985.  The last WSU victory was on Nov. 10, 1984, in Allendale (30-3).
 

ROAD SUCCESS
WSU notched its fourth road win of the season at Davenport.  The Warriors also have road wins at Quincy, Northern Michigan and Northwood this year.  Wayne State had not won four road games in a season since the 2011 team went 8-1 on the road.
 

MONTH-BY-MONTH
For the first time since the 2015 season, WSU had at least a .500 record all three months of the season.  The 2016 squad which finished 7-4 was 0-2 in November.
 

WINNING STREAKS
Wayne State's current four-game winning streak is the longest since the 2016 squad won six straight from Sept. 17 through Oct. 22.
 

PICK SIX
The Warrior defense recorded its fourth interception return for a touchdown in the Michigan Tech game, which is a program record.  Only once has Wayne State had three "pick" six's" in the same season - 1959 when Don Fears, Barry Sarver and Angelo Nicholas each returned an interception for a touchdown.  This year Leon Eggleston has two (10 yards vs. Saginaw Valley State and 35 yards vs. Ashland), Brady Beedon had a 10-yard interception return for his first collegiate score at Davenport and Brandon Tuck-Hayden caught a ball in the end zone versus MTU.
 

MEET YOU IN THE BACK FIELD
WSU recorded 15 tackles for loss last Saturday against Michigan Tech, which is tied for the most by WSU since the Warriors had 18 for minus 108 yards vs. Ferris State on October 17, 2009.   The three other occasions with 15 TFL were Sept. 17, 2016, vs. Lake Erie; October 4, 2014 vs. Tiffin; and Sept. 15, 2012 vs. Lake Erie.
 

In addition, that total included eight sacks, which were the most since Wayne State had 10 sacks for minus 95 yards in the aforementioned 2009 contest against the Bulldogs.  FSU ended that game with 28 rushing attempts for minus 45 yards, while finishing with 100 yards of total offense.
 

SHUTOUT
The shutout at Davenport was the first for the Warriors since a 31-0 blanking of Walsh on August 30, 2018, and the first GLIAC whitewash since a 55-0 triumph over Tiffin on Sept. 10, 2011.  The last GLIAC road shutout by WSU was a 19-0 victory at Ferris State on Oct. 18, 2008.
 

FIRST HALF DIFFERENCE
During the seven wins this season, WSU has outscored its opponents 160-44 during the first 30 minutes.  Conversely, in the three losses, the Warriors were outscored 111-14 in the first half.
 

NEXT MAN UP
Redshirt freshman linebacker Julius Wilkerson, who was making his first collegiate start in the Ashland contest for the injured Ryan Smith, recorded 23 tackles, becoming the first Warrior with at least 20 tackles in a game since Nick Thomas amassed 24 tackles (9-15) on Oct. 3, 2009, against Ashland.  Since that game he made seven stops (3-4) at Northwood, a game-high 13 tackles (4-9) at Davenport and six tackles (4-2) in the win over Michigan Tech.  Wilkerson has at least one tackle for loss in each of the past four contests.
 

SUPER REGION THREE
Wayne State is currently ranked 16th in Super Region 3 according to the Massey Ratings.  The third set of regional rankings were released on Monday (11/11/19) with Ferris State (#1) and Grand Valley State (#8) representing the GLIAC in the top 10.  WSU's Super Region features 19 of the top 31 teams in the country, according to the Massey Ratings.
 

SENIOR CLASS
Wayne State recognized 17 senior members of its football squad last Saturday. 

Deiontae Nicholas is the lone graduate student, while the fifth-year seniors include Marcus Bailey, Tiroca Battle, Brady Beedon, Stephen Charron, Leon Eggleston, James Hill, Luke Ketterman, Christian Klink, Dakota Kupp, Adam McJunkin, Lamar Namou, Ryan Smith, Kyle Toth and Charlie Younger.  Myron Riley-Brown joined the Warriors as a junior college transfer in 2017.  Darece Roberson, Jr. rounds out the class as a fourth-year senior.
 

Other seniors, but who are slated to return in 2020, include Andy Bielecki, Kenneth Cephus, Jalen Lewis, Kyle Lewis and Terry Sanders as each have used only three playing seasons with a freshman redshirt and a medical redshirt.  In addition, Greg McDade had medical redshirts in both 2015 and 2017, while DeOntay Moffett is receiving a medical hardship for 2019 and will return in 2020 as a sixth-year senior.
 

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
In terms of who Wayne State has played and will play, the Warriors' schedule is fifth-toughest in Division II with those teams posting a .598 winning percentage (58-39).  WSU's past opponents have tallied a .575 winning percentage (50-37), which is 14th nationally. 
 

TOM ADAMS HOME COOKING
Tom Adams Field is not an easy place to play for visiting programs. The Warriors have defended their home turf well in the past 12 seasons (2008-19) to a 45-24 tune.  WSU had a winning record at Adams Field for nine straight seasons, until a 2-4 record in 2017.  In the Coach Winters' era, the Warriors are 52-37 (.584) in home games.
 
WSU is 36-21 at Tom Adams Field this decade and carries a 220-222-19 all-time record at home in the first 102 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).
 

BLOCK THAT KICK!
WSU has officially blocked seven kicks this year, however an eighth blocked kick (PAT at Truman) landed behind the line of scrimmage which allowed a Bulldog to pick up the ball and rumble into the end zone for two points.  Both the 2003 and 2006 teams had seven blocked kicks.  Alan Clay had three blocks in 2006, while Gary Ruttan has the single-season school record of four set in 1995.  Seven different Warriors have blocked kicks this season, after Jalen Lewis batted down an MTU punt in the second quarter last Saturday.
 

WSU IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
The Warriors rank in the top 50 nationally in several statistical categories.  Wayne State ranks fourth in both blocked kicks (7) and blocked punts (4), 11th in defensive touchdowns (4), 14th in time of possession (32:47), 17th in red zone defense (.667), 21st in fewest turnovers lost (12), 23rd in third down conversion defense (.302), 25th in both fewest fumbles lost (5) and passing yards per completion (14.94), 31st in rushing offense (211.6), 34th in fewest sacks allowed per game (1.30), 35th in both winning percentage (.700) and kickoff return defense (17.61), 36th in fewest interceptions thrown (7), 39th in punt return defense (5.00), 42nd in passing efficiency (141.33), 44th in sacks per game (2.60), and 46th in turnover margin (+0.40) .
 

Darece Roberson, Jr. ranks ninth nationally in yards per reception (22.10), and 34th in receiving touchdowns (8).  Leon Eggleston is 25th in fumbles recovered (2), 34th in solo tackles per game (5.2) and 40th in interceptions per game (0.4).  James Hill is 18th in rushing touchdowns (12) and 35th in total touchdowns (12).  Dakota Kupp is 21st in yards per completion (14.51), 24th in yards per pass attempt (8.46) and 40th in passing efficiency (144.2).  Jalen Lewis is 45th in sacks per game (0.72).
 

RECORD CROWD
The announced attendance of 7,092 on Homecoming versus Ferris State was the largest to ever to watch a game at Tom Adams Field.  The only larger home crowd was when WSU played Temple in 1968 at U of Detroit Stadium.  The FSU contest was the first game with over 5,000 attendees since 5,277 watched WSU vs. Grand Valley State in 2015.  The previous Adams Field attendance record was 5,511 when Wayne State hosted Hofstra in 1971.
 

WELCOME BACK DEIONATE
Graduate student Deiontae Nicholas is in his sixth year of eligibility after missing much of the 2017 and 2018 seasons.  He is WSU's third three-time captain in program history (102 years).  He surpassed the 3,000 career all-purpose yards plateau by accumulating 225 all-purpose yards in the win over Ashland.  It was his most all-purpose yards since he garnered 235 vs. Saginaw Valley State on Sept. 16, 2017.  He was named the Mayo Clinic Comeback Player of the Week following the Ashland contest and is a nominee for the Comeback Player of the Year Award.
 

WINNING QUARTERBACKS
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. Jim Gendron (1976-78), 15-7-0, .682
     D.J. Zezula (2015-18), 15-14-0, .517
5. Mark Friday (1991-93), 13-13-0, .500
6. Dakota Kupp (2016-SA), 10-3, .769
7. A.J. Vaughn (1965-67), 8-5-0, .615
 Trent Pohl (2006-07), 8-10-0, .444
     Richard Popp (1983-86), 8-15-1, .354
10. 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
 

WARRIOR PODCASTS
There are two new podcasts from the WSU Athletic Department - "What I've Heard" with Director of Athletics Rob Fournier and "The Warrior Football Podcast" with Paul Winters.  Both can be found on the podcasts page at WSUAthletics.com.