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RIPON, Wis. - The Red Hawks have had this weekend circled on their calendars for a full year now. After opening last season with a 57-0 loss to the hands of UW-Oshkosh, the Red Hawks will finally get their chance at redemption, only this time they'll be in front of their home fans at the friendly confines of Ingalls Field. With last year's result sitting with them for an entire year, the Red Hawks are more than ready to hit the field for the start of the 2007 season.
"We have a lot of players that are anxious to get back on the field to play UW-Oshkosh because of last season," head football coach Ron Ernst said. "More than anything though, we're just tired of hitting each other and practicing without a game plan, so I think our guys are ready to get this season started."
Ripon had a fairly young team last season, which showed against UW-Oshkosh. Even so, the Red Hawks held their own in the first half, trailing 17-0 at the break. The wheels then came off in the second half as the Titans wore Ripon down with their size and depth. With many Red Hawks having one more year of experience under their belt, they'll look to be the ones wearing the other team down come Saturday.
"You can't teach experience, so hopefully that will pay off for us. We have a lot of guys returning, but so does
UW-Oshkosh, so they're going to be much more experienced as well," said Ernst.
One of the Titan's most experienced players will also be the one that Ripon must key on nearly every play. Senior running back Andy Moriarty had a field day in last year's match up, running for 117 yards on 12 carries, while also scoring two touchdowns. The Red Hawks aren't the only team he torments though. Moriarty has led the Titans in rushing in each of the last two seasons, running for 2,321 yards and 21 touchdowns in those two years combined.
"Moriarty is a very strong runner and they have a big offensive line that we've got to stop," Ernst said. "They've got a very balanced team all the way around with great receivers and a quarterback that can get the ball to any one of those players at any time, so we have got to remember our individual assignments on defense. If each of our guys wins his own battle, then we'll be alright."
The Red Hawks looked great at times in last weekend's Red-White scrimmage, but they still have a couple question marks heading into the first game of the season. One interesting battle is at the most scrutinized position on the field, as junior Tygh Walters was able to fend off four incoming freshmen for the right to start at quarterback. Walters may have limited game experience, having thrown just 10 passes in his Red Hawk career, but he's not limited in his knowledge of the playbook.
"We have a couple positions that still have some real question marks. Like every team in the country, we're going to be playing some new players every year. We're playing with a new quarterback, and we've got a few new players on both sides of the ball, as most teams do." Ernst said.
Due to the new players at some of the positions, Saturday's game may be used just as much for evaluation as it will be for experience. This game will be used as somewhat of a tune up for the beginning of Midwest Conference play, when the games will have more meaning.
"We want to see if we've chosen the right guys to be starters and this will be a real good game for us to evaluate where we're at both depth-wise and personnel-wise," said Ernst. "We're still evaluating personnel and who the best players will be as we enter conference play the following week."
Even if this is an evaluation game, there's no denying how big a win this would be for the Ripon College football program. The Red Hawks have lost seven straight games to UW-Oshkosh, and have not defeated the Titans since October 1, 1921.
"This would be a big win for our program, playing against a state school. Being a much bigger school, they have a lot of advantages over us, so if we could come along and knock them off, that would be huge," said Ernst. "We're obviously the underdog on paper, but luckily these games aren't played on paper. We're just anxious to get the season going and to compete against great competition.
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