This year, the Wayne State football team had t-shirts printed up. “Climbing the Mountain,” they read — and that’s entirely indicative of what the Warriors started to do in 2008. Now, climbing a mountain isn’t supposed to be easy, let alone quick.
If they wanted to set a goal of being undefeated, they should have used the slogan “taking the elevator.” One, because the elevator never makes it all the way to the top without stopping, and two, it would have been too much talk and not enough action.
Still, the 8-3 mark put forward by WSU was its most wins in a season since 1976, though it wasn’t enough to get the Warriors into the playoffs. But the rapid improvement was more than almost anyone predicted.
“Obviously, we were picked ninth [in the preseason coaches’ poll], so not a lot of people thought we’d finish 8-3,” coach Paul Winters, the 2008 GLIAC Coach of the Year, said.
“We, as a football team, thought we would finish in a position to make the playoffs.”
They did finish in a position to make the playoffs. In fact, heading into the final week of the regular season, WSU was just a single spot out of the postseason picture.
It easily could have felt like a colossal disappointment, after working themselves into a prime position only to fall in the regular season’s waning moments.
But the all-around success ultimately outweighed the final disappointment.
“Overall, it was one of the best seasons we’ve ever had here, but our expectations were set higher,” junior running back and all-time leading GLIAC scorer Joique Bell said.
“Don’t get me wrong, it was a complete turnaround from last season, from a 3-8 (2007) season to an 8-3 season.”
But next year will be different, starting with the pressures of proving the five-game progression wasn’t just a fluke.
What’s even more important, the Warriors will have to do it with a reloaded defense that loses eight outgoing seniors.
But where it may seem like a point of decline, the Warriors insist it is anything but.
“They’ll be ready by next year,” senior safety and GLIAC Defensive Back of the Year Dante Dunn said of the young core of players, which consists of Raleigh Ross, Jeremy Jones and Myles McNichols, just to name a few.
“They still have spring ball, summer camp and all that to go through.
“I think a lot of those guys could have started this year if they didn’t have seniors starting at those positions.”
That’s a lofty amount of weight to put on such young shoulders, especially considering this year’s defense was seventh in the nation (14.6 points per game) in scoring defense.
On the other side of the ball, not nearly as many starters will depart, with the exception of running back Daryl Graham and offensive linemen Chris Ostosh and Ryan Cue.
Another position — the quarterback spot — will be open competition as well.
“The three of them [Kevin Smith, Mick Mohner and Branko Hamilton] — to say one is going to be the franchise guy and the other two are going to be forgotten or they are backups is a joke because whoever wants it the most of those three is going to be the starting quarterback,” Winters said.
“It’s going to be an open competition in the winter.”
Winters also said that soon-to-be redshirt junior Zach George, who missed most of the season due to injury, could also be in the mix.
Whoever it is under center come next August will be expected to lead the team up the next crevasse of the proverbial mountain and propel the Warriors to someplace they’ve never been — the playoffs.
Hey, nobody ever said ever said climbing a mountain was easy.
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