SYRACUSE, NY - After opening its 88th season of intercollegiate football with a 40-23 wire-to-wire win over Division II power Bowie State last Thursday, Wagner College steps up in class this week by taking on FBS and ACC member Syracuse at the Carrier Dome on Saturday in a 3:30 p.m. start.
WAGNER-SYRACUSE: THE SERIES
This will mark the second meeting between these two New York-based institutions separated by 257 miles. The Seahawks and the Orange met back on September 14, 2013 at the Carrier Dome with Syracuse coming away with a 54-0 win.
ABOUT WAGNER
Wagner is an FCS program that entered the season having won two Northeast Conference (NEC) championships in the last six years (2012 and regular season title in 2014), scored points in all three phases of the game in the win over Bowie State in the 2018 lid-lifter. The Seahawks, who jumped out to a 17-0 lead, recorded a safety, blocked a punt for a touchdown and received three rushing touchdowns from
Ryan Fulse who rushed for an FCS-best 271 yards on 20 carries. The Seahawks return 17 of 22 overall starters, including 10 of 11 returnees on the defensive side of the ball and seven of 11 on offense. All told, Wagner returns 62 letterwinners from last season's 4-7 team, and welcomes 58 newcomers. At quarterback, senior
Luke Massei, who completed 58.4 percent of his passes for 1,371 yards seven touchdowns while starting eight of the final nine games of the 2017 season, won the starting job in preseason camp and completed 8-of-16 passes for 134 yards in the season-opening win over Bowie State.
RYAN FULSE NAMED NEC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK;
EARNS NATIONAL HONORABLE MENTION HONORSWagner senior running back
Ryan Fulse was named Northeast Conference (NEC) Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts in leading the Seahawks to a season-opening 40-23 victory over Division II national power Bowie State on Thursday night. In addition to picking up the fourth weekly honor from the NEC in his 12-game Seahawk career, Fulse was also named NEC Offensive Player of the Week by CollegeFootballMadness, as well as honorable mention recognition by StatsFCSFootball and College Football Performance Award (CFPA) honorable mention recognition. Seahawk junior outside linebacker,
Cam Gill, who scored eight points vs. Bowie State, returning his own blocked punt for a first-half touchdown before recording a late safety, was named an NEC PrimePerformer. In the win over Bowie State, Fulse rushed for a career-high 271 yards and three touchdowns, highlighted by a pair of 77-yard scoring runs. The fourth-leading rusher in the FCS last year with 1,386 yards, Fulse scored his second TD of the game on a four-yard jaunt early in the second quarter, set up by his own 46-yard scamper, before his first 77-yard TD of the game, with 8:26 left in the halftime, gave Wagner a 31-3 lead. After the Bulldogs scored 10 straight points to make it a 31-13 game at halftime, Bowie State scored two first touchdowns of the second half to make it a one-possession game at 31-23 early in the fourth quarter. Fulse then went back to work, bouncing around the left side and racing up the sideline for his second 77-yard TD run of the game, a near carbon copy of his previous 77-yarder, to put Wagner in front, 38-23, and the Seahawks never looked back. Fulse's 271-yard effort, which eclipsed his previous career-best 228-yard game at Bryant last season, came on 20 rushing attempts, which computes to a gaudy 13.6-yard average. The 5-11, 195-pound speedster, who played two seasons at Monroe College before transferring to Wagner in 2017, has now rushed for 100 or more yards in five straight games dating back to last season.
FULSE'S 271-YARD GAME TOP RUSHING DAY IN FCS LAST WEEK;
SETS WAGNER DIVISION I ERA RECORD
The 271-yard rushing game by
Ryan Fulse was not only the top rushing mark in the FCS for week one, it was the only 200-yard game. Additionally, Fulse's 271-yard effort is a Wagner single-game record in the Division I era (since 1993), surpassing the previous Wagner D-I record held by Jason Butler who had 269 yards on 26 carries vs La Salle on October 3, 2007. Wagner's overall single-game mark is 363 yards by Terry Underwood vs. Hofstra on October 15, 1988.
SEAHAWKS NAME FIVE CAPTAINS
The five Seahawk captains this season will include running back
Ryan Fulse, offensive lineman
Brady Hudik, defensive lineman
Charbel Dabire, linebacker
Santoni Graham, and defensive back
Sterling Lowry. "These five young men are proven leaders and productive performers, each of whom have earned the respect of their teammates and coaches alike," said Wagner fourth-year head coach
Jason Houghtaling. All five captains are members of the senior class, though Graham, who has one season of eligibility remaining following the 2018 season, is listed as a redshirt-junior. For Graham and Lowry, this marks the second straight season that they will serve as team captains.
WAGNER HEAD COACH JASON HOUGHTALINGFormer Wagner associate head coach/offensive coordinator
Jason Houghtaling (hO - Tail- Ling), grew up in Windsor, NY, about an hour and a half drive south from Syracuse on Route 81, was elevated to head football coach on November 25, 2014 and enter his fourth season at the helm of the Seahawk program in 2018. In his three seasons on Grymes Hill, Houghtaling is 11-23, highlighted by a 6-5 season in 2016, which included a 4-2 mark in the Northeast Conference (NEC). That season, the Seahawks had the distinction of being the only NEC team to defeat eventual NEC Champion Saint Francis U. Under Houghtaling's tutelage, offensive lineman
Greg Senat developed into a sixth-round pick of the 2018 NFL Draft when he went in the sixth round to the Baltimore Ravens, becoming just the third Seahawk in program history to be drafted by the NFL. Houghtaling took over for
Walt Hameline, who served in the dual role as Seahawk athletic director and head football coach for 34 years, before announcing that he is stepping down from his role as head coach. Hameline remains as Wagner's athletic director. Prior to his appointment as head coach, Houghtaling spent seven seasons on the Wagner sidelines, serving as offensive coordinator during Wagner's 2012 and 2014 Northeast Conference (NEC) title runs, while in-between, spending the 2013 season as offensive coordinator at Cornell.
Houghtaling on Playing Syracuse at the Carrier Dome"It's going to be a thrill for our guys to play Syracuse in the dome, no question. I grew up going to SU games and played there in high school. I guess there's no one on the roster from the last time we were there in 2013, so it will be a new experience for sure. Our team is excited. Obviously it's a huge challenge, playing an ACC school on the road. They're big, fast and loaded with athletes. I'm looking for our players to compete whistle to whistle, and am hopeful that this game will help prepare us for our Northeast Conference schedule. Here at Wagner, we are always striving for ways to enhance the college experience for our student-athletes, and playing games like this is a part of that. I know our former players, which include a couple current guys in the NFL (five-year veteran LB Julian Stanford of the Bills and 2018 6th-round OL draft pick Greg Senat of the Ravens), have really enjoyed the challenge of playing FBS schools."
SYRACUSE HEAD COACH DINO BABERS
A proven winner and respected mentor, Dino Babers was named the 30th head football coach at Syracuse University on Dec. 5, 2015. He entered the season with a 45-32 (.584) career head coaching record and boasts more than 30 years of experience in the profession. Known for his innovative, ultra-fast offense, Babers is in his third season on the Syracuse sideline. So far, his Orange tenure has featured record-setting offensive production and notable wins against some of the nation's best teams. Syracuse posted two of the top three total offense figures in program history (2016 - 5,290 yards; 2017 - 5,476 yards) in Babers' first two seasons. The Orange have also defeated two of ranked opponents on his watch, including reigning national champion Clemson in 2017.
