Warriors football set to play on national TV

Warriors football set to play on national TV: The Wayne State football team (4-1 overall, 4-1 GLIAC) heads to Saginaw Valley State University Oct. 11 for a meeting with the first-place Cardinals (5-1 overall, 4-1 GLIAC).

Don’t worry if you can’t make the trip to Saginaw to see the Warriors play. The game will be broadcast on national television by the CBS College Sports Network.

“Any time you can get on national TV and people can see the Wayne State logo and the Wayne State name and we can represent the university well,” Warriors head coach Paul Winters said, “it’s all positive."

WSU moved up to No. 18 in this week’s American Football Coaches Association Top 25 poll, while the Cardinals sit one spot ahead at No. 17.

The Warriors come into the short week on a four-game winning streak, which was extended on Oct. 6 with a 27-24. The Cardinals, winners of their last three contests, lost its only game of the season to the Findlay Oilers, 29-27.

WSU can expect a hostile environment at Wickes Stadium, the home of the Cardinals. But Winters has been preparing his players for just that.

“We try to make practices as loud and as hostile as possible so that we can be in a similar situation where we struggle to hear and things like that,” he said. “I think that our guys are used to it [because] we’ve played so many games on the road. It’s just kind of natural.”

The GLIAC’s No. 1 scoring defense faces another high-scoring offense in the Cardinals. Through six games, SVSU is averaging 33.7 points per game.

SVSU features a potent passing game, which ranks first in the GLIAC, averaging 323 yards per game. The Warriors’ secondary is faced with the tough task of stopping SVSU’s standout receiver, Jeff Janis, who has 53 receptions and nine touchdowns on the season, which rank first amongst GLIAC receivers.

“I think we’ve got to eliminate the easy touchdowns that they have the tendency to score with their big-play wide receiver [Janis],” Winters said. “If we can do that, and if we can take advantage of their turnovers, then we can keep the score down."

On offense, the Warriors will have to keep running the ball as effectively as they have in recent contests. In their last four games, they’re rushing for 176.2 ypg.

“Our guys are coming off the ball and the running backs have good vision and are making good cuts,” Winters said of the run game.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t improve.

“We have to pick it up a notch,” Winters said. “[We have to] be better in short yardage situations, keep drives alive, and I think if we can do that, we have a tendency to wear people down.”

Another phase of the game that the Warriors have been successful in and have gained much praise in is special teams, which many believe led the Warriors to victory last week against Hillsdale. They’ll need another solid performance from kicker Stefan Terleckyj and the rest of the special teams corps against SVSU.

“It’s very important,” Winters said of that aspect of the game. “Our kicker has been playing very well. He’s going to be a big weapon for us on Thursday. [Special teams is] going to play a big part of [the game].”

Kickoff is at 8 p.m.