Pictured Above: LB Quintin Hampton (photo by Dave Saffran)
WAGNER-WESTERN MICHIGAN SCENE-SETTER
Kalamazoo, MI – The Wagner College football team will face its eighth BCS opponent in the last seven seasons when the Seahawks board a charter flight to Kalamazoo for Saturday's 7:00 p.m. kickoff against the Western Michigan University Broncos.
SEAHAWKS OFF TO 1-2 START
After opening the season with a 37-7 victory over Division II Saint Anselm on August 31, Wagner opened Northeast Conference (NEC) play with a 31-6 loss at defending league champion Saint Francis U. In the second quarter of this game, starting quarterback and Preseason All-NEC selection,
Alex Thomson (Keyport, NJ / Keyport) suffered an inujry that will sideline him indefinitely. With junior QB
Luke Massei (Cary, NC / Green Hope) making his first career start at Columbia last week, the Seahawks overcame a 14-0 second-half deficit to force a 14-14 tie before the Lions won it 17-14 on a last-second 29-yard field goal.
ABOUT WMU
Under first-year head coach and former Western Michigan quarterback and offensive coordinator, Tim Lester, who took over for current University of Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck, Western Michigan entered today's play with an 0-2 mark. Playing a tough early-season non-conference schedule, WMU lost at USC (49-31) and at Michigan State (28-14) before returning home to defeat Idaho tonight, 37-28. Last season, WMU recorded its best finish in school history. After claiming the MAC Championship, the Broncos took a 13-0 record into the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic where they battled Big 10 member Wisconsin to the wire before falling by a count of 24-16.
WAGNER VS. THE FBS
The Seahawks, who compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly 1-AA, are 0-7 all-time vs. BCS opponents. In 2016, the Seahawks played a pair of FBS foes in Boston College and UMass. Against BC, Wagner took an early 7-0 lead before falling, 42-10. Later in the season, the Seahawks dropped a 34-10 decision at UMass. The 2016 season marked the second consecutive year that the Green & White had played two BCS foes as Wagner traveled to Rice and BYU in 2015. Western Michigan is the lone BCS team on Wagner's 2017 season. The Seahawks' first-ever matchup vs. a BCS team came on August 31, 2012 when Wagner, which would go on to win the NEC title that year, dropped a 7-3 decision at Florida Atlantic (FAU). In 2018, Wagner will make its second-ever trip to the Carrier Dome to meet the Syracuse Orange.
FIRST MEETING
Wagner will be playing its first-ever game vs. Western Michigan and first vs. a Mid-American (MAC) Conference school as well.
PUNTER ERIC SILVESTER NAMED NEC ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
After his best performance of the season against Ivy League member Columbia on Saturday which included a career-long 64-yard punt, Wagner College freshman punter
Eric Silvester (Lincolndale, NY / Somers) has been named the Northeast Conference (NEC) Rookie of the Week, the league office announced today. The left-footed Silvester averaged 41.0 yards on six punts. With Wagner facing a 4th-and-1 from its own 34-yard line in the first quarter, the 5-11, 185-pound Silvester sailed his 64-yard launch that was downed at the Lions' two-yard line, one of two punts downed inside the Columbia 20 on the afternoon. None of his kicks went into the end zone and only one of his six punts was returned by Columbia, resulting in a four-yard gain. Two of the boots resulted in fair catches. The Lions' average drive start following ester's punts was inside of their own 25.
WAGNER-WESTERN MICHIGAN: SOME THINGS IN COMMON
Seahawk DL Gore is Michigan Native, Former Bronco
Wagner fifth-year senior defensive lineman
Christan Gore is not only the lone Michigan native on the Seahawk roster, but he also began his career at Western Michigan. Following a standout career at Dakota High School, where he helped lead the Cougars to the MAC Red Conference Championship, earning conference MVP honors along the way, Gore was a member of the 2013 Broncos' team before transferring to Wagner.
Western Michigan Grad Asst. Pearson is Former Seahawk OLCurrent Western Michigan graduate assistant Sean Pearson is a 2014 Wagner College graduate who performed on the Seahawk offensive line from 2009-2012 after spending one year at Temple University. The Scotch Plains, NJ native was a mainstay at right guard for the 2012 Wagner team that earned the program's first-ever Northeast Conference championship. A teammate of current Seahawk assistant coach
Steve Ciocci, Pearson helped pave the way for All-American running back Dominique Williams. That 2012 squad holds the distinction of being the only NEC team to ever win an NCAA FCS Playoff game, having knocked off Patriot League champion Colgate, 31-21 in the first round.
SANTONI GRAHAM, RYAN FULSE NAMED #NECPRIMEPERFORMERS
For their efforts at Columbia last week, redshirt-sophomore linebacker
Santoni Graham (Arlington, VA / Bishop O'Connell / Fork Union Military Academy had a game-high 11 tackles, including two tackles for loss, two sacks and one interception while junior running back
Ryan Fulse (Fort Meade, FL / Fort Meade/Monroe (NY) rushed for 153 yards and two touchdowns, including an 83-yarder, which is good for the single-season rushing high in the NEC so far this season.
Fulse's 83-yard TD jaunt is the longest rush by a Wagner player since Dom Williams who had an 81-yard TD run in a 12-3 win at Sacred Heart in 2012.
THE COACHES
JASON HOUTAGHLING - WAGNER
Jason Houghtaling (say it Ho-tal-ling) is in his third season as the head coach of the Seahawks and, at age 36, is the third-youngest head coach in the FCS. He took over for
Walt Hameline, who announced at the end of the 2014 season that he would be stepping down as head coach while remaining as Seahawk athletic director. Houghtaling (8-16), who guided Wagner to a 6-5 record (4-2 in the NEC, third place) in 2016, was the Seahawks' associate head coach and offensive coordinator when the Green & White claimed a share of the 2014 NEC title (with Sacred Heart), and overall, has spent seven years as a Wagner assistant. In his final three seasons as offensive coordinator (2011, 2012, 2014), the Seahawks amassed a 16-6 NEC record with league titles in two of those three years. In 2014, the Seahawks' offense ranked No. 4 nationally in time of possession and did not commit a turnover in the final three games of the season. Houghtaling served as offensive coordinator at Cornell in 2013 before returning to Grymes Hill as associate head coach/offensive coordinator.
TIM LESTER – WESTERN MICHIGAN
Tim Lester was named the 16th head football coach in school history on Friday, Jan. 13, 2017. Lester has risen through the coaching ranks after completing a Hall of Fame playing career at Western Michigan. Lester was a four-year starter at quarterback at WMU from 1996-99, leading the Broncos to a Mid-American Conference championship appearance his senior season. Lester also made a stop as an assistant coach at his alma mater during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Lester began his coaching career in 2003 and most recently was the quarterbacks coach at Purdue in 2016 where he mentored sophomore signal-caller David Blough. Blough threw for 25 touchdowns and 3,352 yards, averaging over 279 yards passing a game in 2016. Lester came to the Boilermakers from Syracuse, where he served as QBs coach from 2013 to 2015 and doubled as offensive coordinator in 2014 and 2015 as well. Prior to working at Syracuse, Lester was the head coach at Division III Elmhurst (Illinois) College from 2008 to 2012. Over five seasons, he posted a 33-19 record for a .635 winning percentage, second highest in school history. In his final season in 2012, he led the Blue Jays to a 10-2 record and a CCIW conference championship as well as Elmhurst's first-ever NCAA playoff appearance.
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