CWU FOOTBALL GAME DAY
#25/14 Central Washington University Wildcats (1-2, 1-0 GNAC)
vs. Dixie State College of Utah Red Storm (0-3, 0-2 GNAC)
Date: Saturday, September 18, 2010
Time: 1:05 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time
Site: Tomlinson Stadium (Natural Grass; 4,000 capacity), Ellensburg, Washington
All-Time Series: Central Washington leads 5-0
Last Meeting: CWU 24, DSC 14 (Sept. 4, 2010 at St. George, Utah)
Buy Tickets: At the gate
Game Notes: Download
Television: SWX-TV (Cable: Charter 287 in Ellensburg, Comcast 115, Time Warner 306, Cable One 466, Northland // Over the air: 25-3 in Yakima, 25-3 Tri-Cities, 6-2 Spokane and Northern Idaho)
Radio: KXLE-AM 1240 (Ellensburg)
Live Stats: Click here
Live Audio: Click here
Video Stream: Click here
GAME OVERVIEW: EXPANDED
• Central Washington has won all five previous head-to-head meetings against Dixie State. The Wildcats are a perfect 2-0 versus the Red Storm at Tomlinson Stadium to go with three wins in as many visits to St. George, UT.
• The series between Central and Dixie State began just two years ago in 2008, when the Red Storm joined the Great Northwest Athletic Conference as a scheduling affiliate for football only. Dixie State is in just its fifth year as a four-year institution, making the move from junior college status prior to the 2006-07 academic year.
• This week's game is the second meeting in three weeks between the Wildcats and Red Storm. Central Washington defeated Dixie State, 24-14, in St. George on Sept. 4. As part of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's eight-game, five-team schedule, each team in the conference plays a home-and-home series with the other. This format has been in place since the GNAC re-established football as a conference sport prior to the 2008 season, and coincidentally, Simon Fraser and Western Oregon play each other again this week as they had done on Sept. 4.
• The Wildcats have won both previous meetings with Dixie State at Tomlinson Stadium by a combined 86-20 margin. Central's first meeting with the Red Storm on Oct. 4, 2008, resulted in a 49-14 CWU win after the Wildcats had just barely escaped St. George with an overtime win in the first meeting of that season. Central claimed last year's game on Oct. 3 by a 37-6 count.
• Central is looking to snap a two-game home losing streak. The Wildcats lost their 2010 home (and season-) opener to Minnesota Duluth, 35-10, after losing their final home contest of the 2009 season in the NCAA Division II national quarterfinals against Northwest Missouri State, 21-20. The last time CWU lost back-to-back games at Tomlinson Stadium was in 2002-03 (playoff loss to UC Davis in 2002, season-opening loss to Carroll in 2003) and they have not dropped three straight home counters since October 1998 (lost to UC Davis, Western Oregon, and Eastern Oregon).
• The Wildcats barely held onto their American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division II top 25 ranking this week, extending their streak of consecutive weeks/polls in the top 25 to 37 straight. With the sixth-longest active streak in Division II of being nationally-ranked, Central somehow fell 13 spots from 12th to 25th in the AFCA following just a three-point loss to (17th-ranked) Division I-Football Championship Subdivision rival Eastern Washington. Ironically, the Wildcats fell just five spots in the D2football.com poll and are listed 14th in that ranking this week.
• CWU hopes to avoid starting the season with a 1-3 record for the first time since 2004. Early-season success (and full-season success, for that matter) has been common practice for the Wildcats over the course of the past decade. Central has had eight consecutive winning seasons with four NCAA Division II playoff appearances (2002, 2007, 2008, 2009) during that span, and the Wildcats have started a season with a 1-3 mark just twice since their 1995 NAIA National Championship season (1996 and 2004). In 2004, the last time CWU dropped three of its first four games, the Wildcats actually began 1-4 but won their final five contests to post a 6-4 overall mark.
• The Wildcats are looking to earn their first win in a game televised live from Tomlinson Stadium. SWX-TV, owned by KHQ-TV in Spokane, will again televise Central's game this week, with Patrick Noland and Dan Whitsett calling the action. The Wildcats' live TV debut at home was their 2010 opener against Minnesota Duluth (a 35-10 loss), a fortune that CWU is hoping to reverse as it faces Dixie State this week. With the television broadcast, kickoff is moved back to 1:05 p.m. (from its traditional 1 p.m. time) and there will be the implementation of at least three media timeouts per quarter. From the perspective of “extra time” involved with a live television broadcast, this year's opener against Minnesota Duluth lasted 3 hours and 10 minutes—the third-longest regulation game for the Wildcats since 2008 (behind the 3:25 of the 2008 NCAA Division II first round playoff game at West Texas A&M and the 3:15 of the 2009 meeting with Minnesota Duluth, both of which were televised).
• After the brief stop home, Central returns to the road for back-to-back games starting next week. The Wildcats just came back from consecutive road games at Dixie State and versus Eastern Washington (in Seattle), and after this week's pit stop, it will be time to pack the bags and load the buses for back-to-back trips to Simon Fraser (Sept. 25) and Humboldt State (Oct. 2). The good news is that, after the trip to Humboldt State, the Wildcats will have four home games and a second game at Qwest Field (Oct. 16 versus Western Oregon).
• Five Dixie State players will be making their return to their home state for this week's game. Of those Red Storm players, three began their careers at Western Washington University before the Vikings dropped football after the 2008 season. Through three games this season, the top four tacklers on Dixie State are all Washington natives, including Ballard High graduate Keauntea Bankhead, who ranks third in Division II in tackles per game. The Red Storm's fifth Washington native is senior running back Adam Wells, who prepped at Inglemoor High School and is the team's rushing leader.
• Central has a 2-5 all-time record on Sept. 18, with six of those seven previous games having been played on the road. The only time the Wildcats have played a home game previously on this date was in 1971, when they lost 17-9 against Linfield (OR). Their last two games on Sept. 18—in 1999 and 2004—were against Division I-FCS schools (Northern Iowa and Eastern Washington, respectively). CWU averages 15.4 points per game on this date over its history.
• This week's game is part of the university's Welcome Weekend and a near-to-above-capacity crowd is expected. With the beginning of the academic year set for next week, incoming freshmen will return to campus this weekend with Welcome Weekend activities planned around the football game on Saturday. The addition of those new students, plus a traditionally-strong home attendance, should translate into a crowd of 4,000 or more for this week's game against Dixie State.
CENTRAL NOTES
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ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER GNAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: For the second straight week, a Central Washington linebacker was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week as senior
Paul Wright (Martinez, CA/De La Salle HS) earned the honor this past week. Wright, a transfer from Division I-FCS Illinois State University, made 13 tackles and registered 2 1/2 tackles for loss in Central's 35-32 defeat against Division I-FCS rival Eastern Washington. With his selection, Wright, who now ranks second on the Wildcats with 25 tackles this year, joins senior
Jared Silva-Purcell (Honolulu, HI/St. Louis HS) as Central's POW recipients so far in 2010.
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NATIONAL RANKING SUCCESS: This week's game will mark the 50th time in Central's 12 years as a member of the NCAA Division II that the Wildcats will take the field ranked among the top 25. They have had quite a successful run in the national polls, with a 39-10 all-time mark (79.6 percent) when earning a top-25 ranking. This week's game will mark the first time CWU is playing when ranked 25th nationally in the AFCA polls. Of Central's games played when ranked in the Division II poll, 21 of them have been played at Tomlinson Stadium, with a 16-5 mark in such contests.
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TEAM CAPTAINS: Three seniors and a junior were selected as team captains for the 2010 season. Taking on the captaincy role for the Wildcats this season are seniors LB
Adam Bighill (Montesano, WA/Montesano HS), RB
Bryson Kelly (Mukilteo, WA/Kamiak HS), and WR
Jamal Weems (Seattle, WA/Cleveland HS), as well as junior DE
Tyrell Nielsen (Woodland, WA/Woodland HS). All four were voted as team leaders for the first time in their respective careers.
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INJURY BUG AFFECTING OFFENSIVE LINE: The injury bug has impacted the CWU offensive line so far in this young season, and the Wildcats are becoming resourceful when it comes to putting players in the trenches. Senior
Luke Conklin (Walla Walla, WA/Walla Walla HS) and junior
Brian Vander Yacht (Bellingham, WA/Meridian HS) both made their first starts of the season at the offensive guard positions against Eastern Washington, but neither may end up playing in this week's game due to injuries. Instead, the Wildcat coaching staff has turned its attention to a pair of former defensive linemen in the program—redshirt freshmen
Donnie Johnson (Olympia, WA/Capital HS) and
Neil Fuhrmann (Sumner, WA/Cascade Christian HS). For that duo, not only have they never started a college game, but only Johnson has taken the field (with limited action on the defensive line each of the past two games). Returning starter
James Meeks (Oakland, CA/Bishop O'Dowd HS) was lost for the year in the first week of pre-season camp, while regular starting guards
Justin Eden (Lacey, WA/Timberline HS) and
Bryce Waller (Oak Harbor, WA/Oak Harbor HS) have both been hampered by injuries as well.
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BIG BOOT FOR DAVIS IN 2010 DEBUT: Sophomore K/P
Sean Davis (Federal Way, WA/Todd Beamer HS) had a banner 2010 debut against Eastern Washington, booting a 50-yard field goal at Qwest Field in the first quarter that gave Central Washington a 9-7 lead. Davis, who played just one play as a redshirt freshman in 2009 (the on-side kick with six seconds left versus Northwest Missouri State in the playoffs), debuted against the Eagles and was successful on his only kick-scoring attempt. He also had two punts in the game, averaging 39.0 yards per kick while splitting time with senior P
Kyle Petersen (Alta Loma, CA/South Hills HS) in that role. Davis' 50-yard field goal was the longest by a CWU player since Ken McConkey set the school record with a 54-yarder on Oct. 3, 1992, at Idaho State, and Davis' kick against EWU was the longest in an outdoor stadium since Jeff Hilzendeger's 52-yard kick against Western Oregon on Sept. 18, 1988—61 days after Davis was born.
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PICK-SIX IS BIGHILL'S FIRST DEFENSIVE SCORE: Senior LB
Adam Bighill sparked the Wildcat defense with his 66-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter of last Saturday's game against Eastern Washington, which gave Central a 16-14 lead. Bighill's touchdown was the first defensive touchdown of his illustrious four-year career at CWU on his ninth career interception (he did have a blocked punt return for a touchdown in 2009).
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LEADING AFTER THE FIRST HASN'T BEEN GOOD IN 2010: Looking back on Central Washington's recent gridiron history, carrying a lead into the second quarter of a game would appear to be beneficial for the Wildcats. Between 2004 and 2009, CWU had a 38-3 record (including 22 consecutive wins) when leading after the first quarter. However, that trend has been reversed so far in 2010, as CWU has lost both games in which it has led after 15 minutes of play. Conversely, the Wildcats' lone win has been when trailing after the opening quarter.
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OUTGAINING THEIR OPPONENTS: The Wildcats have had an advantage in total offense and first downs in each of the first three games of 2010 despite having just one victory to show for it. Central has outgained its opponents by 29, 47, and 46 versus Minnesota Duluth, Dixie State, and Eastern Washington, respectively, and has broken the 350-yard plateau in two of those games (both losses). However, in comparison to 2009 when CWU outgained its opponent in total yardage in 11 of 13 games, the Wildcats have totaled just one fewer yard at this juncture in the 2010 season (980) than they had through three weeks of the 2009 campaign (981). Central finished 2009 averaging 357 yards of offense per game.
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THREE GAMES, THREE DIFFERENT RECEIVING YARDS LEADERS: In years past, it was almost a given as to who would likely lead the Central Washington offense in pass receiving yards in a game. However, with the graduation of Johnny Spevak, the number two receiver in NCAA Division II history, the Wildcats have turned their attention to a host of receivers, and three different pass-catchers have led CWU in receiving yards in as many games to start the 2010 campaign. Senior WR
Chris Smith (San Diego, CA/Helix HS) led the Wildcats with 86 receiving yards against Minnesota Duluth, and he remains the team leader with 16 receptions. Junior TE
Demetrius Guice (Portland, OR/Central Catholic HS), the team leader in touchdown catches with two, topped the Wildcat receivers against Dixie State with 40 yards on three grabs. And senior WR
Kollin Hancock (Columbus, OH/Gahanna Lincoln HS), who has taken over Smith's team lead in receiving yards for the season with 168, had a CWU season-high 88 receiving yards on six catches against Eastern Washington last week.
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TANASSE IS “WILDCAT OF THE WEEK” FOR SECOND TIME: Junior DE
Taylor Tanasse (Yakima, WA/West Valley HS) didn't have sparkling statistical numbers in last week's game, but for the second time in three weeks this season, he has been named the “Wildcat of the Week” by the CWU coaching staff. Tanasse, who has now started eight games in his three-year career at CWU, also won the award for the week of the Minnesota Duluth game.
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2010 Roster
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2010 Schedule
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2010 Statistics
