Now that they've flushed the flu bug out of their system, Wabash College offensive players have worked to build their chemistry back up.
With senior quarterback Matt Hudson still out, the Little Giants enter their second week with junior Josh Miracle at the helm.
After missing the first two days of practice with the flu, Miracle returned mid-week. He'll start for this week's key game against North Coast Athletic Conference rival Wooster.
Whether they'll have their rhythm back, though, remains to be seen.
"We're trying to get as much work in as we can to build as much chemistry up," said junior wide receiver Kody LeMond, who caught the team's only touchdown pass last weekend in a 10-7 loss to No. 21-ranked Wittenberg. "I think we have a good amount of chemistry already built up. Everything hinges on if we can move the ball with our running game. We'd like to take shots deep. But we have to get our running game established first, which we failed to do last weekend."
No. 18 Wabash (5-1, 3-1 NCAC) will travel to Wooster (4-2, 3-0 NCAC) for today's 1 p.m. game in Wooster, Ohio.
Wooster, along with conference rival and Wittenberg (6-0, 4-0 NCAC) are atop the conference, with Wabash a game back.
Miracle, along with senior defensive end Matt Whyde (19 tackles, 6 1/2 tackles for loss, 4 sacks), missed part of this week with the flu. Miracle returned to practice Wednesday and Whyde came back later this week. Both are expected to start and play in Saturday's game.
Wabash will need those two starters, along with its running game, to have
Last weekend, Wittenberg held Wabash to just 29 yards on 28 carries - an average of a little more than one yard per attempt. And junior running back Tommy Mambourg had his streak of five-straight games with 100 yards or more rushing stopped.
"I'm disappointed we didn't have any success running the ball," second-year Little Giants' coach Erik Raeburn said. "I feel like we have a talented, veteran offensive line. We have talented returning running backs. But we just didn't play well. We produced nothing in the running game."
As concerned as Raeburn is about their running game, he's just as worried about stopping Wooster senior quarterback and dangerous dual-threat Austin Holter.
Holter has thrown for 1,368 yards (228 yards-per-game average), 14 touchdowns and four interceptions this season. He also leads the Scots in rushing, with 523 yards on 77 attempts. He's scored a team-high five rushing touchdowns and averages 87.2 rushing yards per game.
In fact, Holter was just named the conference's offensive player of the week last week for his performance in a 24-20 win over Washington University in St. Louis.
He rushed for a career-high 137 yards, threw for another 272 and finished with 409 yards of total offense. Holter also set a school record with his .765 completion percentage (26-of-34, minimum of 25 passing attempts).
Last year, he threw for 286 yards and rushed for another 66 against Wabash. But he also threw four interceptions in their 45-24 loss.
Raeburn hopes to limit Holter's ability to net big gains.
"I felt we gave up way too many explosive plays last year," Raeburn said. "We need to keep him from ripping off that 30-yard run or 40-yard pass like he seemed to do a year ago. The key last year was takeaways."
With the Little Giants' chances of earning a fifth-straight conference title and automatic NCAA Division III playoff berth extremely slim, they need to win out.
Wabash needs to record victories in its last three conference games (at Wooster, at Oberlin and against Hiram) and then knock off in-state rival DePauw in the Monon Bell game to have a chance at earning an at-large selection.
"It's going to be an uphill battle to get into the playoffs," LeMond said. "There's no doubt in my mind we'll give it all we've got."
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