2017 Mount Union Season Preview

By: Jay Alan

ALLIANCE, Ohio- A string of 11 consecutive titles by the Purple Raiders and Warhawks was snapped by Mary Hardin-Baylor last December following a 10-7 win against UW-Oshkosh in the Stagg Bowl, which was also the first title game in more than a decade that didn’t feature Mount Union or UWW. Ironically, the Crusaders were one of the participants the last time that happened, when they lost to Linfield in the 2004 title game.

For the first time since 1991, the Purple Raiders will not be the defending Ohio Athletic Conference champions, so even with three home games in September, Mount Union will be in unfamiliar territory when its opens the season by hosting North Carolina Wesleyan on Sept. 2. Their 24-year run at the top of the OAC ended with a heartbreaking last second 31-28 loss to John Carroll in the regular season finale at Mount Union Stadium last November. The Purple Raiders nearly reached their 12th straight national championship game but fell 14-12 to eventual national champion Mary Hardin-Baylor in the national semifinals.

Mount Union followed up its 2005 regular season loss with 112 consecutive wins. The last time the Purple Raiders didn’t play in the Stagg Bowl before last year was 2004 and they proceeded to reach the title game for 11 straight years from 2005-16.

This year’s incoming freshmen marks the fourth recruiting class for head coach Vince Kehres, who has continued the legacy of the Kehres name with a 55-4 record since taking over for his father, Larry Kehres, in the spring of 2012.

Vince Kehres will once again have the luxury of having an experienced team for the third time in his five years. Showing his ability to win with any team, young or old, Kehres is also 1-1 when it comes to taking a young team to the Stagg Bowl. He managed to accomplish that feat with just five returning starters in 2013 and last year with one defensive starter back made it to the national semifinals.

“That’s a pattern that you are going to go through in terms of having experience and inexperienced teams. What you want to try and do is limit the number of inexperienced players you have or help them out by surrounding them with experienced players at the key positions,” said Kehres.

 

YOUNG AND RESTLESS

Two years ago, Kehres had one of the most experienced teams in school history. Nearly every defensive player had made over 30 starts by the time they faced St. Thomas in the Stagg Bowl, with three players having played in all 60 games and two others more than 50 games.

Several freshmen played key roles on last year’s 12-2 semifinal team, including three different starting quarterbacks. All three – Dom Davis, Luke Poorman and DeAngelo Fulford – return this year but that didn’t stop Kehres from pulling in five QB recruits, including Marlington’s Chris Pennell.

Mount Union returns nine defensive starters this year and brought in almost 40 defensive recruits to help build depth and develop future starters. This year’s recruiting class features players from 16 different states in all four time zones.

Freshman wide receiver Tim Labuda and running back Darreontae Jackson told their local newspapers they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play for the “Division III powerhouse.” Labuda comes from Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, and committed to Kehres in the spring as a wide receiver and punter.

“Mount Union is the premier Division III program. It’s an honor to be a part of that,” said Labuda, who added the coaching staff liked his size and hands. Jackson is a 5-10, 190-pound running back that compiled 1,966 all-purpose yards as a high school senior.

Mount Union has all the ingredients to start another long streak of Ohio Athletic Conference championships and Stagg Bowl appearances on the strength of an experienced and talented defense in 2017. For the third time in six years, the Purple Raiders return at least eight defensive starters including a secondary that returns three in senior Brian Groves, junior Austin White and senior Kollyn Crenshaw.

“I think our defense is going to be the strength of our team,” said Mount Union head coach Vince Kehres. “We were real young on that side of the ball and our guys got some valuable learning experience.” A number of injuries, a rare regular season defeat and going on the road for four straight playoff games forced the Purple Raiders to grow up in a hurry.

“We have a lot of hungry guys over there,” wide receiver Braeden Friss said. “There’s going to be some pretty competitive practices.” Friss is among the handful of returning starters on the offensive side of the ball.

All three quarterbacks who started games are also back. Luke Poorman started the first four games before D’Angelo Fulford got the nod in the fifth week.

“All three did great and we are glad to have them all back,” said a smiling Friss.

The three defensive guys are second-year captains while Friss, a first-year honoree, said he’s taking his role seriously.

“We know what we our potential is and what we need to do to achieve it.” Young or experienced, those expectations never change at Mount Union.

“It’s what Mount Union is all about.”

 

2017 OAC MEDIA DAY

Mount Union was once again picked first in both the media and coaches poll at the annual Ohio Athletic Conference football media day at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Purple Raiders received eight of the 10 first-place coach’s votes (coaches cannot vote for their own team) and 26 of the 36 media votes to continue their string of being picked No. 1 in the conference.

Last year’s champion, John Carroll, was picked second in both polls. The Blue Streaks received the other two first-place votes in the coach’s poll and nine first-place votes in the media poll. The rest of the polls look like this: Heidelberg, Ohio Northern, Otterbein, Baldwin Wallace, Marietta, Capital, Muskingum and Wilmington in the coaches poll; Ohio Northern third followed by Heidelberg, Otterbein, Baldwin Wallace, Capital, Muskingum, Marietta and Wilmington in the media poll.

 

NEW HEAD COACHES FOR 2017

John Carroll’s Rick Finotti, Baldwin Wallace’s Jim Hilvert and Wilmington’s Bryan Moore were welcomed into the OAC coaching fraternity.

“There’s going to be a lot of excitement this year.” The coaching change at John Carroll is unique in the fact that the Blue Streaks won last year’s OAC title.

It’s not often a first-place team undergoes a coaching change in the OAC. In fact, the last two times it’s happened involved the last name of Kehres. Back in 1986, head coach Ken Wable stepped down after winning the conference and handed the program to Larry Kehres, who followed up with a second consecutive title. Almost 30 years later, Larry Kehres relinquished the head coaching duties to his son and current Mount Union head coach Vince Kehres, who like his father, also won a conference title in his first year.

Rick Finotti did sustain some heavy personnel losses, but the first-year coach is keeping things in perspective after being picked second behind Mount Union at last week’s OAC football media day.

“Our spring practices were a clear demonstration of this. Every challenge we threw at them, they met it head on. As a coach you worry about whether guys can handle success. These guys have handled success very well.” Even rarer than the defending OAC champion changing coaches is having both Cleveland-based schools doing so in the same year.

Jim Hilvert is just the third Baldwin Wallace head coach since Ronald Reagan was in his first term as president.

“We are going to compete every single day in order to put out ourselves in the best position to win games and improve on our ranking by the end of the season.” The coaching youth movement extends past Hilvert, Finotti and Moore as five of the OAC’s 10 head coaches are in their first or second year.

Braeden Friss is not just a student of the game, but he also appreciates and understands history and tradition. To prove his point, the fourth-year wide receiver started naming off a who’s who of Mount Union receivers before saying how honored he is to play the same position as the likes of Pierre Garcon, Cecil Shorts and Jasper Collins.

“There’s a lot of pressure when you play wide receiver here. You have to deal with all of the tradition and standards those guys set but also you are constantly having to stay on your toes and compete against all of the other receivers on the team or you will lose your spot,” said Friss at the Ohio Athletic Conference’s media day Thursday.

“There’s enough motivation for us right now from not making the Stagg Bowl for the first time in a long time.”

“There was some vindication last year because some people thought we shouldn’t have been in the playoffs but there’s no satisfaction whatsoever from last year because we didn’t achieve our goals,” said Friss.

 

SWITCHING SIDES

Kehres announced that Chris Kappas will change from defensive coordinator to offensive coordinator this season. Kappas had held the DC position since 2014 after Kehres gave up the title in his second year as head coach.

“I am also more comfortable taking on the dual role with more experience under my belt” said Kappas.

Former offensive coordinator Geoff Dartt’s departure came at the start of recruiting season so head coach Vince Kehres held off on addressing the situation until things calmed down heading into spring practice. Once Kehres and his staff got back to work in February and March, they started evaluating film and going over what changes they felt necessary for the upcoming season.

“We got back into our self-evaluation process during our staff meetings and started talking through ideas and things we felt as a staff would make us better. After doing that for a few weeks, it seemed to make sense that maybe Chris should go over,” said Kehres.

He worked with the wide receivers in a previous stint at Mount Union before inherting Kehres’ defensive coordinator duties after the 2013 season. Kehres believes Kappas’ knowledge of defenses makes him a prime candidate for calling the offensive plays.

“He knows what gives a defense problems. He knows what things he didn’t like to defend, just like I knew what I didn’t like to defend when I was defensive coordinator,” explained Kehres.

Kehres carried the dual role as defensive coordinator and head coach in 2013 before working with the special teams the last three years.

“I’ve learned over my five years all of the things a head coach is responsible for and it’s put me in a much more comfortable position to handle the dual role,” said Kehres.

Kehres said his father, Larry Kehres, would be around to help out and former Alliance High School head coach and Mount Union assistant coach Joel Cockley has joined the staff this year.

“Joel is back with us and he brings a lot of experience with play calling,” said Kehres.

 

DEAN OF OAC COACHES

Dean Paul is entering his 14th season as head coach at Ohio Northern and has suddenly become the longest tenured coach in the OAC after Baldwin Wallace’s John Snell stepped down following last season. Paul is 89-45 with the Polar Bears and have been nationally ranked during the season in 10 of Paul’s 14 years.

Muskingum’s Al Logan has been head coach for 11 years while every other coach has been on the job six years or fewer. The three rookie coaches already mentioned mean a lot of fresh faces and change at the head of several OAC programs.

 

2017 MOUNT UNION FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 2 — North Carolina Wesleyan

 

Sept. 16 — at Marietta

 

Sept. 23 — Baldwin Wallace

 

Sept. 30 — Ohio Northern

 

Oct. 7 — at Heidelberg

 

Oct. 14 — Capital

 

Oct. 21 — at Wilmington

 

Oct. 28 — Otterbein

 

Nov. 4 — Muskingum

 

Nov. 11 — at John Carroll