Photo Courtesy of Big Rapids PioneerPressing On: Tailback Tyler Thomas bursts through an open­ing dur­ing a scrim­mage on August 21^st.

On paper, Ferris State will be field­ing a much dif­fer­ent team in 2009 com­pared to the one that took the field in bur­gundy and gold in 2008.

With an inex­pe­ri­enced offense, the Bulldogs were able to lean on their defense in route to a 6–5 (5−5 GLIAC) record. However, this year will be a 180 degree turn-a-round from last season’s squad as this sea­son kicks off.

Ferris is ranked sev­enth over­all in the GLIAC Football Coaches Preseason Poll. In order to prove that pre­dic­tion wrong and improve on the 2008 record of 6–5, Ferris will need sev­eral new faces to step up and play beyond expec­ta­tions on defense as they replace the seven lost starters. The offense will have to use last years expe­ri­ence and take advan­tage of the return­ing nucleus in order to take large strides in the upcom­ing year.

Heading into the 2009 sea­son there are many new faces amongst the Bulldog’s defense hav­ing lost seven starters from the 2008 team. The only return­ing starters are Kory Deering (DT), Angelo Williams (CB), and C.J. Lee (FS). Defensive cap­tain Chad Wilson (SS) tore his ACL in prac­tice and will be out for the year.

That leaves very notice­able holes in the front seven as they have lost all three start­ing line­back­ers and three-time All-American defen­sive tackle Jake Visser. Jordan Morgan who was red-shirted as a fresh­man is hav­ing an excel­lent camp and is expected to start at DE.

Even though they lost all three line­back­ers, defen­sive coor­di­na­tor Duane Wilson said there should not be much drop off from last year at the posi­tion since they have sev­eral fourth year and fifth year seniors at the position.

Ferris has also brought in four­teen recruits on the defen­sive side of the ball, which should bring a lot of com­pe­ti­tion to the seven open spots.0

“We may not be as big as we were last year, but we are very ath­letic and quick so expect an aggres­sive defense,” said Coach Wilson.

Another thing to watch for on the defen­sive side of the ball is the pos­si­bil­ity of see­ing a 3–4 scheme at times this year. Coach Wilson said they will be stick­ing with their basic 4–3 scheme but since they have quite a few line­back­ers that can run, they may imple­ment the 3–4 at cer­tain times through­out the year. If teams start try­ing to spread the Bulldog defense out, keep an eye open for a pos­si­ble change of strat­egy on defense.

The offense will be return­ing seven starters includ­ing two wide receivers, four offen­sive line­men, and quarterback’s Tom Schneider and Kyle Parrish. Schneider and Parrish will be bat­tling for play­ing time and there is also the pos­si­bil­ity of both of them being on the field at the same time.

The biggest dif­fer­ence maker on offense should not be a par­tic­u­lar player but the expe­ri­ence that they gained from last year, which in turn should make this year’s offense a much more con­sis­tent force. Ferris will be look­ing to improve its average16.5 points per game, which ranked last in the GLIAC. Last year the Bulldogs strug­gled notably in the first and third quar­ters in which they were outscored 56 — 105. Lack of expe­ri­ence and con­sis­tency is what Coach Pierce believes was the main cul­prit to the Bulldogs offen­sive woes.

A big fac­tor last year which hurt the team was their inef­fi­ciency once they got the ball within the red zone. They were able to score thir­teen touch­downs on 31 trips within the opponent’s twenty-yard line. This year Coach Pierce believes that with the expe­ri­ence they gained from last sea­son the offense will be able to develop more of a com­fort zone and have the abil­ity to keep teams more on their heels.

“Our team will be very com­pet­i­tive, show a lot of pas­sion to be suc­cess­ful, and will play with high energy,” said Coach Pierce.

The key games this year will include a “home” game against Michigan Tech (Oct. 3) which will be held at Fifth Third Ball Park in nearby Comstock Park. The “Battle at the Ballpark” will serve as a fundraiser and give Ferris a unique and excit­ing stage to show­case their pro­gram. Though the field is not setup for foot­ball, Coach Pierce believes fans should look for­ward to see­ing their Bulldogs in a dif­fer­ent and more excit­ing atmosphere.

Another key match-up will be when Ferris hosts four time defend­ing league cham­pion and pre-season favorite Grand Valley State (Sep. 9). The Bulldogs will be open­ing their 101^st sea­son on Aug. 29 when they host Tiffin University in the sea­son opener.