The Wabash College football defense will have to be ready to make adjustments on the fly
when Hiram College comes to Byron P. Hollett Little Giant Stadium for a 1 p.m. kickoff Saturday. The Terriers might have an 0-8 record, but Wabash second-year coach Erik Raeburn said defending Hiram’s offense can be difficult.
Hiram might be in a four wide receiver, spread formation one offensive series. The following
series, the Terriers will come out in a two tight end set.
Hiram also at times has gone into a Wildcat formation with junior wide receiver Glenn
Campbell taking the snaps.
“They are pretty diverse on offense,” Raeburn said. “Defensively, we just can’t make mistakes. When they shift gears on offense, we have to shift gears defensively.”
When he’s not quarterbacking, Campbell is out catching balls from quarterback
Brendan Rehor.
Campbell leads the Terriers with 41 catches for 432 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 54
receiving yards per game. Kyle Callari complements Campbell with 30 catches for 357 yards.
The Little Giants (7-1) also have to contend with the North Coast Athletic Conference’s second-leading pass defense. The Terriers have limited teams to 129.9 passing yards per game while
allowing just 10 passing touchdowns.
Wabash comes into the contest with a depleted wide receiver corps, as junior Kody LeMond
will be sidelined with an ankle injury suffered during Monday’s practice.
LeMond leads the conference in reception yardage per game, catching 50 passes for 864 yards and 13 touchdowns.
“The strength of Hiram is their pass defense,” Raeburn said. “The good thing about it is that we have an experienced quarterback that can go through the progressions and find an open player even without Kody in there.”
The Little Giants will have back junior wide receiver Wes Chamblee, who missed last Saturday’s 41-9 victory over Oberlin because of a slight knee injury.
Wabash also will have senior quarterback Matt Hudson back, who after missing two games returned for the Oberlin contest. Hudson was 24-for-32 for 320 yards and three
touchdowns against the Yeomen.
“Going 24-for-32 is a pretty darn good day,” Raeburn said. “We didn’t really know what to expect from him because he had taken a couple of games off because of that injury, but after he threw no interceptions in Thursday’s practice we had a really good clue that he was anxious to get back on the field.”
Despite Hudson’s performance, Wabash and Oberlin were scoreless after one quarter and the Little Giants went into halftime with a 7-3 lead. Wabash exploded for a 27-
point third quarter en route to outscoring Oberlin 34-6 in the second half.
Wabash had nine penalties for 90 yards in the opening half. “Those nine penalties just killed our drives,” Raeburn said. “But as frustrated as I was with the first half, I was equally as happy with our third quarter. We played hard and mistake free, and were able to bounce back.”
While Hiram is second in the conference in pass defense, the Terriers are last in rushing defense by allowing teams 242.9 ground yards per game.
Wabash has provided more of a balanced run game the past two weeks. Six different Little Giant running backs carried the football against Oberlin, with Kyle Stevens leading the way with 10 carries for 48 yards. Stevens has led the Little Giants in rushing
the last two games.
Derrick Yoder had four carries for 17 yards. Yoder missed the first
five games because of an injury during the Red/White preseason scrimmage.
“Kyle for two straight games has run the ball hard and I’m happy with
the way he’s progressed the last couple of weeks,” Raeburn said. “And Derrick Yoder has run the ball well these last two games, so he seems to be back on the mend and close to 100 percent.”
The Little Giants will honor their seniors before Saturday’s final regular
season home game.