Mount Union to Host Randolph-Macon (VA) in NCAA First Round Playoff Game
NCAA PLAYOFFS - FIRST ROUND
#1 Mount Union College Purple Raiders (10-0)
vs. Randolph-Macon College (VA) Yellow Jackets (6-4)
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008, 12 p.m. - Mount Union Stadium (5,529) - Alliance, OH
Radio: WDPN 1310 AM (Alliance), WRMU 91.1 FM (Alliance)
TV (Tape Delay): Joe
Tait (play-by-play); Harry Paidas (color)
WIVM CH. 52/WIVN Ch. 29 (Nov. 22 at 8 p.m.; Nov. 23 at 1 p.m.);
SportsTime Ohio (Nov. 22 at 10 p.m.; Nov. 23 at 3 p.m.)
THE GAME
No. 1 ranked Mount Union College hosts Randolph-Macon (VA) College in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Division III Football Championship Saturday at noon at Mount Union Stadium in Alliance, Ohio.
The Purple Raiders are 10-0 overall and won their 17th straight and 20th Ohio Athletic Conference title to claim the conference’s automatic bid. Mount Union is making its 20th NCAA playoff appearance with a record of 56-10 (.848) in the playoffs with nine national championships (1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006). Mount Union has played in the Stagg Bowl, national championship game, 10 of the last 12 seasons.
Randolph-Macon is making its second-ever NCAA playoff appearance and first since 1984, where they lost a first round game at home, 22-21 to Washington & Jefferson (PA). The Yellow Jackets, 6-4 overall, rallied to beat Hampden-Sydney (VA), 31-21, and needed a 37-26 win by Bridgewater (VA) over Catholic (DC) this past Saturday to claim the championship and automatic bid from the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC).
MOUNT UNION FOOTBALL ON THE RADIO AND ONLINE
All Mount Union football games will be broadcast on the radio on WDPN 1310 AM and WRMU 91.1 FM and simulcast online at www.muc.edu/athletics, while the website will also feature a live statistics game tracker at home games.
MOUNT UNION FOOTBALL PLAYOFF GAMES ON TV
PURPLE RAIDERS PARTNER WITH SPORTSTIME OHIO
Mount Union football games in the NCAA Playoffs will be shown on television via tape delay on cable channel SportsTime Ohio, WIVM TV52 (Stark County), WIVN TV29 (New Philadelphia), Time Warner Cable (ch. 365-Stark County, ch. 99-Tuscarawas County), Massillon Cable (ch. 21) and Clear Picture Cable (ch. 21-Wayne County).
Image Video produces the broadcasts with Joe Tait, who is in his 37th season as the voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers does the play-by-play and Harry Paidas handles the color commentary. Mount Union has a broadcast agreement with SportsTime Ohio, a regional cable sports network that reaches more than 4-million homes nationwide on cable and satellite. For complete channel listings for your area go on the Internet to www.sportstimeohio.com.
PLAYOFFS ... TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS
For the fourth year the NCAA Division III Football Championship consists of a 32-team field. In Mount Union’s first appearance in the playoffs in 1985, the field was just 16 teams. This year’s field breaks down like this: Automatic bids will be given to 23 conference champions including Mount Union (OAC) and Randolph-Macon (ODAC), three spots are reserved for teams that are independents or in conference not granted automatic bids and the final six spots are national at-large bids.
TICKET INFORMATION
Advance tickets are available for sale Tuesday-Wednesday from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. by calling (330) 821-6759. Tickets can then be picked up Friday at the Hoover-Price Campus Center from noon to 3 p.m. or when gates open Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
UP NEXT ...
The winner of this game plays the winner of a matchup between Lycoming (PA) College and Hobart (NY) College next Saturday at noon.
THE COACHES
Larry Kehres (Mount Union ‘71) is 270-21-3 (.923) in his 23rd season at his Alma mater. Kehres is one of the most successful coaches in all of college football, as under his tenure, the Purple Raiders have claimed 19 Ohio Athletic Conference championships, including the last 17 in a row and nine of the last 15 NCAA Division III National Championships.
Pedro Arruza (Wheaton, IL ‘95) is 21-29 (.420) in his fifth season as head coach at Randolph-Macon. In 2007, Arruza led the Yellow Jackets to biggest single season turnaround in the nation as they went 8-2 a year ago. Arruza had assistant coaching stints at Washington (MO) and Butler (IN) before going to Randolph-Macon in 2004. Arruza was a two-time All-American running back at Wheaton (IL) College.
THE SERIES
This is first-ever meeting between the schools in football. Mount Union has only played one other member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference with wins in 2001 (30-27) and 2003 (66-0) NCAA Playoff meetings against Bridgewater (VA). The Raiders have played only one other school from Virginia with a pair of regular season wins against Averett.
2008 MOUNT UNION CAPTAINS
Seniors in defensive back Daryl Ely (Winter Springs, FL/Winter Springs), running back Nate Kmic (Delta/Delta), quarterback Greg Micheli (Upper Sandusky/Upper Sandusky) and linebacker Chas Yoder (Martins Ferry/Martins Ferry) have been selected by their teammates as captains for the 2008 season.
MOUNT UNION LAST WEEK ...
Mount Union had a 49-0 win at Marietta to finish off a 14th undefeated regular season. After starting the game with a punt and fumble, the Purple Raiders defense got things going as junior Lambert Budzinski (Canton/Massillon Jackson) had a 35-yard interception return for a touchdown. Later in the quarter, Budzinski had a fumble recovery that led to another score to put Mount Union up 21-0 at the end of the first quarter. Running back Nate Kmic (Delta/Delta) had 201 yards and three touchdowns rushing and quarterback Greg Micheli (Upper Sandusky/Upper Sandusky) had a pair of touchdown passes all in the first half as the Raiders led 35-0 lead at the break.
SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS
After starting the season 2-4, Randolph-Macon rolled off four-straight wins including a 31-21 win Saturday over Hampden-Sydney. Running back Steve Matthews came off the bench and scored two touchdowns while Tristan Carr had a 65-yard fumble return for a touchdown in a fourth quarter that saw the Yellow Jackets score 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to pull off the victory.
During its current four game win streak, Randolph Macon has averaged 36.8 points per game and rode junior running back Zak Thornton. Thornton has carried the ball 121 times for 615 yards over those four games including a 45-carry, 256-yard performance in a 21-12 win over Frostburg State (MD). On the season, Thornton has ran for 1249 yards and five scores. Junior quarterback Austin Faulkner has thrown for just under 1600 yards with 17 TD’s and seven interceptions and his top targets has been junior Brandon Braner with 43 catches for 585 yards and senior Alex Ramirez with 36 catches for 401 yards. Defensively, junior linebacker Christian Stahl has 67 tackles and senior safety Eric Dardozzi has 53 stops for a unit that has 11 interceptions and 11 forced fumbles.
STREAKS
Mount Union has the best winning percentage and most wins in all of college football since 1990 (240-11-1/.954). The Raiders also hold the NCAA’s two longest consecutive college football win streaks -- 55 games from 2000-2003 and 54 games from 1996-99. Mount Union currently holds the nation’s longest active regular season win streak at 33 games.
TURNOVER IMPORTANCE
Since 1996, the Raiders are 94-0 when winning the turnover battle. Since 1990, Mount Union is 139-1 when winning the turnover battle with that lone loss coming in the 1995 NCAA Playoff semifinals in a 20-17 loss to Wisconsin-LaCrosse. In that game, the Raiders had a +1 turnover margin.
KMIC Has 10th 200-YARD GAME
Kmic posted the 10th 200-plus yard rushing effort of his career as he had 201 yards on 21 carries in the first half against Marietta. Kmic is No. 2 on the NCAA Division III career rushing yards list with 6,924 yards and is 429 yards from NCAA Division III career leader R.J. Bowers of Grove City (Pa.) College, who tops the list with 7,353 yards. Nate Kmic has more touchdowns (114) and scored more points (684) than any other player at any level in college football history.
NCAA DIVISION III CAREER RUSHING YARDS
Carries Yards
1. R.J. Bowers, Grove City (PA), 1997-2000........................ 1,188.................... 7,353
2. Nate Kmic, Mount Union, 2005-present.......................... 1,036.................... 6,924
MICHELI = MR. EFFICENT
Senior quarterback Greg Micheli is the nation’s top rated passer finishing the regular season with a 215.8 passer rating. Micheli has completed 76.7-percent of his passes (168-of-219) for 2,573 yards and 28 touchdown passes with just two interceptions. Last week against Mareitta he completed just eight passes, the fewest in a game for him as a starter, took him over 500 completions (506-of-679, 74.5%) with 73 TD’s. His career passer rating is 197.8 makes him the highest rated passer in college football history just ahead of former Purple Raider Bill Borchert (1994-97) who is 194.2 rating. Micheli is also one of 15 finalists for the Draddy Trophy, which is known as the Academic Heisman. Just being one of the 15 finalists gets Micheli an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship and a trip to the National Football Foundation Awards Dinner, Dec. 9 in New York City.
SHORTS GOES LONG
Junior wide receiver Cecil Shorts III (Cleveland/Collinwood) is tied with Adam Marino (1999) with a Mount Union single-season school record of 19 TD catches on the season. 11 of those scores are from 20 yards or more, with a 22-yard score at Otterbein, a 41-yard score at Wilmington, 69 and 40 yard scores against Capital, 68 and 27-yard scores at B-W, 55 and 40 yard scores at Muskingum, a 20-yarder against Ohio Northern and a 35 and 36-yard scores against St. John Fisher. He also had a 38-yard catch that did not go for a score against Otterbein.
HERBERT HAS A DOZEN
Junior defensive end James Herbert (Sagamore Hills/Nordonia) had 1.5 sacks against Marietta to give him 12.0 on the season. To put that in perspective, a year ago All-American Pat McCullough had 12.0 sacks last season.
For the seventh-straight week, the Mount Union defense held an opponent under 200 yards of total offense limiting Marietta to 80 yards. On the season, senior defensive end Joe Millings (Copley/Copley) leads the team with 51 stops, Herbert is next with 50, while sophomore linebacker Sam Kershaw (West Jefferson/West Jefferson) is third with 48 tackles.
PIERRE CATCHING ON WITH COLTS
Former Mount Union wide receiver Pierre Garcon had his first catch in a pro game as had a two-yard reception from Peyton Manning as the Indianapolis Colts knocked off the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-20 two weeks ago. Garcon, a sixth round draft pick (No. 205), ranks sixth among NFL rookies in kickoff return yards. He also has nine special teams tackles this season. On the Colts bye week, Pierre returned to Alliance and autographed a Colts helmet that is on display in the Gulling Training Center trophy case. He also visited an elementary school where he read to the students. This week the Colts play against the against San Diego Chargers at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday Night Football on NBC.
DID YOU KNOW?
That there are three Mount Union alums as head coaches in this year’s playoff field. Aside from Larry Kehres, Washington & Jefferson head coach Mike Sirianni (‘94) and Wabash head coach Eric Raeburn (‘91) are former Purple Raiders.
Both Mount Union and Randolph-Macon are affiliated with the Methodist church.
Randolph-Macon is located 15 miles north of Richmond, VA and 90 miles south of Washington, DC.
Randolph-Macon is a member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The ODAC is the hosts for the Stagg Bowl in Salem, VA.
One of Randolph-Macon’s ODAC foes is Emory & Henry College coached by former Mount Union assistant coach Don Montgomery (‘77). Emory & Henry handed Randolph-Macon its last loss, 24-10 on October 18.
Three of the 16 NCAA First Round games are in the state of Ohio. Otterbein College is hosting Franklin (IN) College and Case Western Reserve University is hosting Wabash (IN) College.