Another school from the north will be venturing down to take on third-ranked Winston-Salem State at Bowman Gray Stadium.
This time it will be Wayne State, the Cinderella school of the Division II playoffs. Wayne State, in Detroit, has a student body of around 32,000.
The Warriors (11-3) were the sixth seed in the Super Region III and are in the playoffs for the first time. What they've done so far — winning all three playoff games on the road — has been quite impressive.
These "road warriors" are coached by Paul Winters, who is in his eighth season. The 11 victories are a school record.
"We've got a determined group and they are very close-knit," said Winters, a former star running back with Akron in the late 1970s. "We've got some breaks along the way, but it's been a great ride."
The Warriors hope to keep riding all the way to Florence, Ala., the site of the Division II national championship on Dec. 17. The Warriors, who aren't ranked in the AFCA coaches poll, will face the Rams on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Bowman Gray Stadium in a semifinal.
The Warriors finished second in their division of the Great Lakes Conference, which is considered one of the toughest Division II conferences in the country.
The Warriors are 7-1 on the road this season with their only road loss coming on Oct. 15 — 20-17 to Ashland on a last-second, 43-yard field goal.
Winters said his team seems to be more focused when they hit the road. Game time is at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
"We don't even know where our home field is," he said. "We've played some tough road games and when we lost to Ashland, it was a tough, physical game."
The Warriors beat St. Cloud State 48-38 in their first-round playoff game, and then beat second-seeded Nebraska-Kearney 38-26. Last Saturday, in the quarterfinals, they won 31-25 at Minnesota-Duluth, the defending national champion. All three opponents were ranked in the top 15.
Not only have the Warriors won on the road, they also have done it in some poor weather conditions. At St. Cloud State, in Minnesota, the game was played in near-blizzard conditions. The next week there were winds in the 40-mph range, and last week the temperature was in the low 30s.
"Actually, last week was kind of nice when you consider what we've played in earlier," said Jeff Weiss, the school's sports information director.
Saturday's game at Bowman Gray Stadium is scheduled for 2 p.m. and the forecast is for sunny skies and a temperature of around 50 degrees.
"We can handle 50 degrees," Winters said with a laugh.
The Warriors practice outdoors despite the harsh fall and winters in Detroit; Winters said that his players stopped complaining about the weather a long time ago.
"Our first game, I think it was 110 degrees," he said about a 69-24 win against Urbana on Sept. 3 in Detroit. "And lately it's been awful, because we've had two games in Minnesota and that's not fun, but you just deal with it."
The Warriors are averaging 36.3 points a game and are allowing 23.8 a game. They have two 1,000-yard rushers in Toney Davis (1,340 yards and 20 touchdowns) and Josh Renel (1,262 yards and 14 touchdowns).
The Warriors are just as effective when they pass. Quarterback Mickey Mohner has completed 166 of 296 passes for 2,584 yards with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions. Mohner's top target is wide receiver Troy Burrell, a 5-foot-10, 185-pound senior who has 82 catches (fourth best in Division II) for 1,545 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Safety Jeremy Jones, a 5-10 and 189-pound senior, has nine interceptions and was the defensive back of the year in the Great Lakes Conference.
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