Cheers!
Hello and welcome to Ferris Sports Update.
I'm your host Rob Bentley and thanks for tuning in.
On today's show we'll recap you on a busy home weekend for the Ferris State Bulldogs
as we check in with Bulldog Football, Hockey and Volleyball.
We'll start first though with Bulldog Football and joined by Offensive Line Coach and a former
television alum here at Ferris State University, Sam Parker and Sam, welcome back to the show.
It's great to be here, really humbling experience and come be happier.
Before we get into this past week's game, just talk about what it's been like for you
to come back to Ferris State as an alum, working with the Offensive Line here for the Bulldogs.
Yeah, it's been a real honor, like I haven't been to many places that have felt like home
like Ferris State has.
I've been to Washington DC and Baltimore in my time since graduating and worked at Davenport
and to be back here at Ferris State is really humbling and it's really like being with my
family again.
As we go to this past week's game, obviously a big challenge as you took on the Tiffin
Dragons, a team that came in with a very good record at four and one and a team that had
been playing well.
Yeah, they had actually won the last 12 out of 16 games and they were one of the top teams
in the GLIAC.
From my perspective, coaching the Offensive Line, we like to stop people from getting
to our quarterback and these guys were the best in the league at doing so.
They had the most sacks and the most turnovers, so it was a really, really good defense that
we were going against and the score shows.
As we go to some of the highlights of the game, you mentioned that a defensive battle.
It seemed like points were hard to come by here in this contest.
Yeah, absolutely.
Our guys played pretty hard and worked very hard, but it's a quality T-vents and a quality
ball club, but you look at the first play here, we really rattled one off.
I guys think that we're going to be rolling, but you got to humble yourself and you got
to really remember that this is one of the best teams in our conference, top GLIAC team
when we play them.
Certainly with some of the offensive struggles, it was nice to see a big performance from
the defense.
Oh my gosh.
That's one of the things that has been incredible this year is how well our defense has played.
They held them to, what, 40 yards rushing?
I mean, you don't see those kinds of statistics too often, so our defense played lights out
and really bailed us offensively out of a hole.
We'll see Tiff in here on their one scoring drive of the day as you break up the pass
here near the goal line, held them to a field goal here in the opening quarter.
Yeah, I mean, they started off and you think that it's going to be, you know, a high scoring
game with the way the offenses were moving down the field in the first two series and
then our defense just, you know, starts getting tackles in the backfield and really holding
their own.
It was a really terrific performance.
Got a back and forth here in the first half.
Neither offense are really able to do a whole lot.
You mentioned moving the football a few times, but you'll finally get some points here in
the second quarter on a field goal.
Oh yeah, for sure.
I think that's been one of the most underrated things aside from our defensive line killing
it as our PAP field goal.
We just had our guy Wyatt Ford named Special Teams Player of the Week at the conference
and mainly because he's only missed one kick this whole year and that was a 50-plus yarder
at Ashland.
So he's been lights out.
You mentioned the Special Teams, obviously you pin them back there, Tiff will break a
big play here, but when the defense needed to, they certainly came up and made some huge
stops for you.
Absolutely.
And the main thing is, they always say iron sharpens iron and I think it's credit to our
guys competing in practice, but the willingness to fight and play through broken plays, you
look at this one.
I mean the old line is blocking for seven seconds on this and managed to get off a great
play there.
Travis Russell, for staying with that play and then here he finds Malik Taylor is you
get down here in the third quarter and start to move the football as you go into the third
quarter and you'll finally get a touchdown.
Yeah, a lot of that credit is due to, you know, our offensive line senior captain Jake
Doherty at center really holds his own and really has played exceptional the last two
weeks.
He's been that kind of guy that has been the poster child, which is really rare for an
offensive lineman to be that kind of guy, but he really played outstanding the last
two games.
376 yards of total offense, a big play here to be on Earl's that will set up a field goal
here to account for the final scoring at 13-3.
Yeah, and at this point, you know, we're about to, we're driving to kick the field goal
and as soon as, you know, our PAT and field goal team came out on the field, it felt almost
automatic with the momentum and how well they've played.
Here in the late in the contest, you had some big stops and we'll see one here near the
goal line, a big fourth down play here by the defense.
And Jaleel Canty, Sam right there sprints into the backfield and makes a heck of a play
and really stones these guys.
It was a terrific stop.
It's one of the best defensive performances I've ever been a part of or seen, I mean,
to hold a team down fourth and one on the one yard line and to only limit one field
goal.
It was a really terrific day out there, man.
Really good.
Certainly, maybe offensively not the performance you wanted at times, but always nice to come
away with a win as you move to four and one on the year.
I think the biggest thing from that game offensively that you take away is we didn't turn the ball
over.
You look at the Ashland game where we turned the ball over three times and the outcome
was we gave them 17 points.
So this week, our credit to our running backs, Jahan Brown and Robert Thomas and those other
guys that touched the ball a lot, they haven't fumbled.
They've done a great job of ball security and making sure that we at least pump the ball
to the other team instead of throwing an interception or a fumble.
This week back on the road, one home game in the month of October as you traveled to
Saginaw Valley to just talk about going to Saginaw Valley and what it's going to be like
this Saturday.
Yeah.
I think the really cool thing about our conference is in October every week, like last week against
Tiffin, it was a top team matchup.
It was the top team in the GLIAC versus the second top team in the GLIAC.
And now the next week, it's rivalry week.
It's an interstate game, Saginaw Valley versus Ferris State.
They've always played us tough.
We've always had great matchups in this game.
You look all the way back through the 90s and plus.
It's always been a historic event.
So October football in the GLIAC is pretty awesome that we get to see those matchups
every week.
Coming back after playing on the offensive line here for Ferris State, how have you tried
to take those experiences and help the guys that are playing up front right now?
Yeah.
My job is easy because I just reflect on the mistakes I made in college all the way through
everything I did and tried to educate my guys.
The biggest thing is nutrition and taking care of your body.
I did not do that successfully in my time here.
Since getting done with football, I've really made an effort for that.
So I really try to instill that on my guys.
Some of them, like my left tackle, Bo Johnson, he's a really big guy, really heavy dude,
so it's really tough to make sure that he's eating appropriately and working out appropriately.
My undersized guys and my younger guys, we just played two redshirt freshmen that game,
Jake Boonstern, Dylan Pasquale.
So the quicker, the better you can educate those guys on how to do things right and the
mistakes I made, the better our offensive line is going to be.
You mentioned some of those younger guys.
Obviously, injuries always play a factor in football and you've had some up front.
How have those younger guys stepped up and made some key plays for you?
Incredible.
Incredible.
Last week, we played one guy that's going to graduate for us.
That means there's a lot of underclassmen.
When you have that, and most teams, that's a death sentence for us, our guys rose to
the occasion only five times and somebody even touched the quarterback in that game.
We threw the ball 35 times.
So that's an incredible statistic that those guys should be happy about.
And the fact that you're playing down three projected starters from camp, and those guys
just to be on the next man up, I'm going to do my job and do it the best I can.
It's incredible.
It's really awe-inspiring.
Sam, certainly congratulations on the win, best of luck this week, and I hope it's been
fun being back on the TV set here today.
It's been, this is awesome, the best moment of my life right now, man.
We're looking forward to continue to work here with the Bulldogs.
Thank you.
We'll be back with more Ferris Sports Update right after this.
The need for experienced educators is greater than ever.
Ferris State University's School of Education is here to fulfill that need.
At Ferris, students have the opportunity to choose from over 20 focuses while gaining
first-hand field experience.
Ferris State University, preparing the next generation of teachers will shape the young
minds of the future.
For more information, go to ferris.edu.
Wow, you can get a 14-inch pizza with one topping for only $5.99 at Man City.
Hi, I'm Tony Presomoli from Tony's Basement Pizza Rear, and our pizza is not that terrible.
We may not have a 14-inch for $5.99, or great daily specials like a grinder combo for $6.99
with chips and a drink, or a small calzone combo.
I also can't compete with the 10% discount that Ferris students have.
You know what?
I quit.
If you want quality food, call Man City.
Visit Ferris State University, be a provider, be an investigator, what do you want to be?
Welcome back to Ferris Sports Update, time to talk Bulldog Hockey, with his head coach
Bob Daniels.
Coach, welcome to the show.
Hey, good to be here, Ron.
This past weekend, the Bulldogs kicked off the season, you played your first action, maybe
not the start you wanted, but certainly you got a great finish to the weekend as you earned
the split against Western Michigan.
Yeah, interesting in the first game, the 6-1 loss to Western.
I walked out of the ring feeling pretty good for a team that had lost 6-1.
I thought we had played a fairly inspired game early on, it was 1-0 at the end of 1.
It was 2-0 early in the second, that was one that really hurt us on a turnover.
But we had created a lot of opportunities for our bet game, we could have easily been
up in that game, and at the end of the night, they scored four power play goals.
Well, I know our penalty kill is going to be good.
Coach Kaufman's in charge of it, two of the power play goals he scored were on line rushes.
After we had a great chance to score a short handed goal, they were easy fixes, in other
words.
So, while we lost 6-1 on the bus ride home, I'm thinking, hey, we're going to be okay
here, we got a good chance of winning tomorrow night, and of course we did.
So, it wasn't the start we necessarily wanted, but I certainly wasn't deflated like I normally
would be in a game where you lose 6-1 to start the season.
As we go to the highlights, we'll start with Friday's game down in Kalamazoo, and always
a tough place to play at Los Anisos Arena.
It is, it's a very difficult place, and the two teams are pretty equal, realistically.
The split was probably the right outcome on the weekend, because the two teams are pretty
close.
Even though we're no longer in the same conference with them, it's a rivalry that's been going
on for 40 years, and it's, you know, it's important for both teams to win.
Justin Kappmaster had a tough night here.
I think he made a lot of really, really good saves, but his rebound control wasn't up to
what we have seen, and certainly, you know, it didn't help that they did get four power
play goals against us.
Just the one goal, but you had some opportunities, obviously the shots were close, and you had
a big advantage in the third period.
Yeah, the shots were close, and we hit a couple goal posts early in the game, where in that
way, it could have been a completely different outcome.
Now, we did get, you know, one of the things to break spot, I thought two of the, not only
the weekend, but certainly this game, was the play of some freshmen that we got in there.
I thought Lucas Finner, and Cole Norris, and Marshall Moyes, three forwards for us.
It's been a while since we've had freshmen step in and see the minutes that they played
on the weekend, and some important minutes, and they were productive minutes for us.
As you came back to Saturday's game, what were some of the keys you felt going into
Saturday's contest to try to get the split on the weekend?
Yeah, Rob, you know what, probably the number one thing was that we had to do a better job
of penalty killing.
In part of the problem we had is, the guys were very anxious to score.
It was almost like we were too offensive minded, and you know, on a penalty kill, if you can
get a short hand and go wonderful, but the number one objective is, let's get this thing
killed.
And, you know, I think they were four for six on Friday night, on their power plays,
and then we turned around and held them, I believe, one for ten on Saturday.
There's the difference.
As we go to Saturday's highlights, obviously a great crowd here for the home opener, and
always nice to play in front of the home fans.
Rob, I'm glad you brought that up.
You know, you can see the pep band in the corner, and you know, what people sometimes
don't realize is, you know, those guys played earlier in the afternoon at the football game,
and now here they are at the hockey game, as well as people like yourself and then our
fans.
I mean, it was, you know, between volleyball, football, hockey, it was all happening.
It was wonderful because the campus is alive.
The people put in a lot of hours, and we're very appreciative of the pep band, as well
as our students.
They support all the different teams, and that's wonderful.
You got off to a good start, Andrew Durrani, with the early goal, and then you took a one-to-nothing
lead going into the second period.
Yeah, we did.
We had a one-nothing lead.
Thought it could have been more.
You know, we had some great chances here.
They were pressing us, and then we, a great feed by Drew, our, yeah, Drew Durrani, Tyler's
brother, to Mitch Bologna, and, you know, the other thing we did was kind of challenge
our seniors, because some of their better players the night before had big games.
Offensively, it was good to see our guys play through, and some of our uncoop top-line players
have some offensive night production that night.
Took a two-to-one lead after Western Michigan with a late goal there in the second, but
you had a big performance from Darren Smith in that.
Yeah, he played well.
I had both goals played exceptionally well.
I thought both goal-turners, beyond just making good changes.
By the way, here's Cole Norris' first career goal, game winner, and really a great second-effort
goal for him.
Like I said, the freshman had a lot to do with it, but both goal-turners stands that
question.
They played terrific in this game.
Certainly, Darren Smith had to make some key saves for you here down the stretch.
Yeah, he did.
He made key saves, and his crease maintenance was good.
He killed a lot of pucks, meaning he smothered pucks when we knew it was times, and we were
stuck in our own zone.
Here's one that squeaked by him.
I know he'd like to have that back, but he played so well.
Just like that, he gloved it, he got the whistle, and there was time.
This is about four seconds to go where you're short-handed.
A really good play out right there by Drew Mayer to force the guy to cough up the puck.
3-2, the final score, and two games this weekend that really help prepare you for WCHA play,
which starts this week.
Yeah, you're right.
We're facing a northern Michigan team with a coaching change, and there's going to be
some energy there.
They split with Lake Superior State on the weekend.
They've got two lines that are probably as offensive and as good as any two we'll see
in our conference play.
This should be a good challenge again, and I really appreciate the games against Western
Michigan, because hopefully we did the same for them.
They were so hard fought for two games to start the year.
It was good for both teams.
Did you take on northern Michigan this weekend here at home?
Talk about some keys going in against the Wildcats.
Yeah.
I think we want to see continued improvement on our penalty kill, and we will see that.
We certainly want to see improvement in our power play.
Now, we were held over the weekend, and that's not good enough.
So that's an area that we need to improve upon.
Part of the issue with that is it takes time for the power plays to sometimes come together.
Cory Macken had limited practice because he was coming off of surgery.
He wasn't even really scheduled to play this weekend, but he recovered so quickly from
that surgery.
We were able to play him, but he's a big part of the power play.
So it's going to take a little while for that all to come together, but it's something
that needs to improve, though, because it's tough in college hockey to score a lot of
goals five on five.
How important is it here to have these two games at home this weekend with a long road
stretch coming up after that?
Yeah.
We're going to be some road warriors, so we've got to take advantage of the two games here
at home.
With that said, though, northern Michigan is going to come up with a different game plan,
but we do get a little left.
You can tell the student section, their crowd on Saturday night was terrific, and it gave
us a big lift, and we would expect to get the same this weekend.
You hope going into this second weekend that a lot of your freshmen that saw their first
action continue to grow as you move forward?
Yeah, I do, and we've got some players that didn't dress this weekend.
Some due to injuries, we don't want to force them in the lineup, but we've got some pretty
good players in reserve, too, so we're a deep team right now.
I think within, you know, give us 10 games, and I'll have a real good feel of how far
this team can go, but I would say early indicators to me say that we've got the potential to
be a pretty darn good team this year, Rob.
Well, Coach, congratulations again on the win Saturday night.
Best of luck this weekend at home against northern Michigan on Friday and Saturday.
Thank you very much.
We'll be back with more Ferris Sports Update right after this.
At Ferris State University, be a designer, be an informer, be a maker, be a full-time.
We'll see you next time on Ferris Sports Update.
Come rise with us.
For more information, visit FerrisStateBulldogs.com.
At Ferris State University, we're more than our students' faculty ratio.
More than our variety of programs, our internship rate, or our number of student organizations.
Here, you're never just a number.
You can be yourself and be focused on your goals.
Be inspired every day and be ready for tomorrow.
Be a Bulldog.
Go to Ferris.edu.
Welcome back to Ferris Sports Update.
Time to talk Bulldog volleyball.
With us, head coach, Tia Brando Wilhelm.
Coach, welcome to the show.
Great.
Thanks for having us here.
A tough weekend this past weekend for you as you took on the top two teams in the Glee
Act South and certainly a highly competitive weekend of volleyball.
It sure was, our student turned out exactly the way we wanted it to, but it was a lot
of good volleyball, for sure.
Certainly got up to a great start on Friday night, taking on Grand Valley State.
Always a lot of energy and momentum goes into that rivalry match against the Lakers.
Yeah, it's unusual because we've been travel partners with Grand Valley for as long as
I've been at Ferris.
So, it's just a little bit unusual to play them, you know, not during the week as part
of another weekend.
So, that was a little bit different for both teams, I think, to get used to that different
scheduling.
As we go to some of the highlights of Friday's match, a great crowd on hand and obviously
a nice performance by your team to open the weekend against the Lakers.
Yeah, I thought the crowd was great.
We had, you know, tons of student athletes were there, you know, it was very full stands,
lots of people from the community and very enthusiastic crowd, you know.
They were definitely watching the game and excited about the different parts of the game.
Talk about the challenges of playing Grand Valley, a team that likes to utilize a lot
of different players.
They do.
They have a very deep team and they're very aggressive at the net.
They're very aggressive blocking hands with their offense.
So, every time you make a switch with a player, you have to really switch up your mindset
and how you're going to be defending that player.
So, it definitely is a big challenge.
You get the 3-0 sweep before it's all said and done, but some tight matches here and
some tight sets here in this match.
Yeah, it was definitely tighter than a 3-0 looks.
Just with the offense that they're bringing, I felt like they at times really had a lot
of opportunity to, you know, just swing away at a less than form defense, but, you know,
over time though, I thought that our defensive performance definitely played well and was
able to kind of mold them into and help them.
I guess mold them into maybe hitting some of the things that we were ready to defend.
Speaking of the defense, Lauren Remingo with 26 digs, a nice performance from her.
Yeah, that was pretty key.
I thought that, and I thought our serving was pretty strong, so that definitely was able
to take them out of their offense a little bit at times, too.
Maria Krooner right there with the kills.
She had 14 kills, kind of leading the way for you up front.
Yeah, Maria's been working really hard to, you know, just be up and available as a middle
hitter and the first temple hitter, and definitely been consistently performing through us through
the year.
You get the victory here over Grand Valley State 25-17 in the first set, and then a couple
of close ones, 25-20, both in the second and third frames.
How nice was it to get out of there in three sets?
Oh, for sure.
We were glad to come out in three.
It was, you know, I could have gone either way in the middle of a couple of those sets,
and again, I think our serving was really aggressive, and that was able to kind of push them out
of their comfort zone a little bit, and then, you know, just the fact that we were able to
be in a better ball coming back and transitioning back at them.
You mentioned a little bit different with Grand Valley State as you get ready to play
the next match, not used to playing somebody maybe after you've taken on the Lakers.
Yeah, for sure.
I think that was different.
And to play the number one and number two teams in the South the same weekend, I thought
we were, you know, definitely ready for Wayne State when they came in.
We just didn't necessarily execute the things that we wanted to execute.
As we go into the highlights of the Wayne State match on Saturday, you mentioned Wayne
State, a team that was coming in off a hard loss the night before.
Yeah, they did.
They had lost three in a row, actually, and were undefeated, leading the South, and then
by the time they got into the gym, they were tied for first in the South.
I think they're just, you know, they have a couple younger players, and they're just
trying to, you know, find their way.
Even in the losses, though, it was, you know, they're just trying to find their way a little
bit.
A very good team has known that since last year, that they would be a very good team
this year.
It was definitely, you know, what we expected was the offense and the defense that they
had coming against us.
Just a match that maybe for a coach, not quite so fun, but obviously for the fans, a tightly
contested match that was back and forth that went to five sets.
Yeah, going to five sets is great.
It was very back and forth, and none of the sets will really, you know, blow out to anything.
It was definitely a lot of back and forth in close games, so I think that would be exciting
for both, you know, for the fans, and for the players, too, to be in the match, so close
like that.
I think that the first set, 25-14, and then they'll take the next two sets, so what were
some of the keys going from that first set to the second set that you thought turned
around?
I thought our, you know, we stopped doing the things that we were trying to do in our
game plan.
I thought that was a really big part of it, and then, Wednesday, I felt like they were
their backstrips against the wall, and they just, you know, they were ready to swing,
and they just came out aggressively, and they were just going to do whatever they had
to do, and some of their, you know, they got some kills off of some pretty aggressive
swings in some pretty bad situations, and, you know, those are kind of 50-50 kills, sometimes
they're going to go out, sometimes they're going to land in, and, you know, they got
a couple that landed in, and I thought that really turned the momentum around for them.
Credit to your kids as well.
You trailed two to one, but you won a big fourth set, fourth and the fifth set right
here.
Yeah, I thought our team played hard the whole night, so even though the outcome wasn't what
we wanted, we were down in the game, we weren't playing our best, but we were still playing
hard, and, you know, that's really what you want to see in a team, because you know that
over time, over the course of the season, if you continue to play hard like that, most
games are going to go your way eventually, so, you know, we've got to really be excited
about that.
I know, obviously, the schedule doesn't get any easier this weekend.
You head to Aurora, Illinois for the Midwest Regional Crossover, the nation's largest
volleyball tournament.
Yeah.
Talk about what's going to take place this week.
It is just phenomenal.
It's such an amazing tournament.
You know, you have three conferences, all very strong, all three conferences have teams
in the national rankings, in the getting boats area, you know, that are really strong teams,
and you just, it's a seeded tournament, so the teams, you know, that the high seeds play
each other, the middle seeds play each other, and the lower seeds play each other, so it's
very competitive.
The games are, every game is a close game usually, and it's very exciting.
It's high stress, and high excitement all at the same time, so it's a great environment,
and it's a great weekend because we get to cheer for the Gliac, you know, you just, you're
hoping always that the other Gliac teams do well, and you're cheering for them for a change,
so it's kind of neat to see that.
Bulldogs are the number one seed out of the Gliac, facing three teams, Hillsdale, Indian
apolis, and then obviously another top ten team in the country, and Lewis, just talk
about the three opponents you'll see this weekend.
They're great, you know, really good teams.
Lewis is probably the number one team in the nation right now.
They are, you know, they just have offense coming from every corner of the courts, very,
very aggressive team, and then, you know, you have Hillsdale, who we obviously know quite
well from the years in the Gliac, and they have, you know, they've had a couple injuries
early on, but all their players are back and healthy, so that's going to be just another
great close match as it always is with them, so, and Indianapolis is a team that, you know,
they brought in a few transfers this year, and they just turned their whole team around,
you know, they just have such, you know, they're very fast paced and very aggressive in what
they're doing now, so it's going to be three really different matches and three really
tough opponents.
Well, Coach, best of luck to the Bulldogs this weekend as you take part in the Midwest Regional
Crossover.
Thank you.
That's going to do it for Ferris Sports Update.
No matter if you can follow all the action, get all the results online at FerrisStateBulldogs.com.
Have a great week.
