It starts with a home game against the University of Chicago, of the University Athletic Association, at 1 p.m. today.
“I think right now there are some wounded egos,” Wittenberg coach Joe Fincham said, “like there are always are with a loss. You play at such an emotional high in those games. It can be a challenge to get yourself ready to go for the next week, whether you win or lose. But nobody has hit the panic button. We still feel if we’re fortunate enough to win out, there could still be good things at the end of this for us.”
The Tigers are 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the NCAC, tied with Wabash and looking up at Ohio Wesleyan (3-0 NCAC), Allegheny (2-0) and Kenyon (2-0).
There’s a long way to go, but if Wittenberg wins at Allegheny on Oct. 20, there could be a three-way tie between Wabash, Wittenberg and Allegheny.
“If it’s a three-way tie with all of us, the way I understand it is Wabash will get the automatic qualifier through the tiebreaker deal,” Fincham said. “Who knows what happens. The main thing that has to happen for us is we’ve got to win out.”
This is the last season of the NCAC-UAA’s five-year scheduling agreement. Wittenberg is 8-1 in those games against Washington, Carnegie Mellon and Case Western. Its only loss was in 2008 against Washington at home.
Chicago blanked Allegheny 10-0 last week.
“They’ve got some special players,” Fincham said. “They’ve got an NFL prospect at receiver (Dee Brizzolara: 19 receptions for 407 yards). He’s also their return guy. On defense, they’ve got six players who are as good as we’ll play all year.”
“With the exception of our fumble to start the second half, special teams played pretty well,” Fincham said. “It certainly wasn’t that one play that wrecked our game. You could pick seven plays that wrecked the game for us.”
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