No. 5 UW-La Crosse not overlooking DII’s Northern Michigan in home-opener Saturday
After a dominating win on the road in New York to start the season, the fifth-ranked UW-La Crosse football team is finally set to show things off for the home crowd Saturday.
Coach Matt Janus isn’t taking anything for granted, as his Eagles host a Northern Michigan team that’s 0-2 to start the year, after going 0-11 last season — including a 34-3 loss to UW-L.
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In preparing for the matchup, Janus says it’s not the same Wildcats.
“They run the option offense,” Janus said. “It’s not very prevalent at the college level so defensive coordinators don’t really have a plan for it. In Week 2, you don’t want to build a whole new defense that isn’t yours. We’re trying to match it with our base system but also have our option rules in it.”
The Eagles, ranked sixth by D3football.com and fifth in the coaches poll, hope the defense they see Saturday is close to what they witnessed last week in a 35-0 shutout of RPI.
Everyone contributed, according to Janus.
“I think we played everyone on defense that got on the bus,” Janus said. “I’ve said it before. This is a high participation defense. Everyone’s going to play. Last year we had growing pains because of injuries and having to play younger guys. Those guys have experience. Now we also have other guys healthy. To see guys like Marick Dickson and Chris Powell back on the defensive line healthy and playing to their full potential, what a cool thing to see.”
The Eagles offense also looked solid last week, after a few early game hiccups — mainly not converting twice on goal-to-go drives.
But new quarterback Zach Weir had more touchdown passes (three) than incomplete passes (two). He was 12 of 14 for 279 yards and also ran for a score. His go-to target, Jack Studer, a DIII preseason All-American, had six catches for 173 yards and a touchdown.