Witt benefits from spring experience
Tigers practiced 17 times in preparation for 2021 fall season.
By the time the Wittenberg Tigers open the 2021 season in September, almost 22 months will have passed since the team last played outside competition.
Wittenberg ended the 2019 season on Nov. 16 with a 38-20 victory against Ohio Wesleyan. The pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 fall season. Unlike some Division III conferences, the North Coast Athletic Conference decided not to play in the spring. Wittenberg proceeded with a typical spring practice season but had three scrimmages canceled because of COVID-19 issues within the program.
“We got 13 practices in, and then we were set to scrimmage Denison,” Wittenberg coach Joe
Fincham said Monday, “and then we had a positive (test) and were shut down for two weeks. So we lost the Denison and the Dayton opportunities. We came back and found a game with Taylor, which was supposed to be this past Saturday. We came back and practiced four times and had two positives and lost that one.”
In all, Wittenberg practiced 17 times but didn’t get to test itself against another team.
“We felt like we were very productive with our 17 practices,” Fincham said. “It wasn’t wasn’t quite what we wanted. But we still feel like we came out with with a lot of gains.”
Still, it wasn’t easy seeing football being played at other schools. The Ohio Athletic Conference, for example, played a four-game season, and Mount Union won the championship by beating Heidelberg 64-14 on Friday.
“I don’t know how well we’re
accepting it right now,” Fincham said, “because it’s still pretty raw. Let’s be honest. It’s difficult to see the high schools and the junior highs and all these people playing around you and you’re not able to. That’s really hard. But it’s a situation that’s outside our control. We abide by the policies of our university and our doctors in the training room. That’s who controls whether we get to play. We do the best with what we’ve got. It was unfortunate we had a couple of positives and weren’t able to play, but the sun still came up and we still get the fall.”
Fincham said Wittenberg is committed to playing a fall season. A schedule has not been posted, and it hasn’t been decided if the one nonconference game against Cortland State will be played in Springfield or Cortland, N.Y.
When the games that count do return for Wittenberg, they will have extra meaning because of the long gap between the end of the 2019 season and start of the 2021 season.
“One of the things that I really noticed this spring in the practices that we had is that our guys really took advantage of them,” Fincham said. “I’m not saying that we didn’t have a couple of practices where we went out and they were tired because we all have those, but I think that they really took advantage of their opportunities. They hadn’t played in a long time. What’s the old saying: You don’t appreciate what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. I think a lot of our guys really appreciated it. Hopefully we’ll get the same response come fall.”
The lost season gave coaches more time with the freshman class this spring.
“It was fun to teach them football and to see them improve,” Fincham said. “We had some practices in the fall, but they were pretty limited. What we got to do in the spring was much more beneficial and watching those guys grow through 17 practices was fun. I think we have some pretty good young players on our team right now. Hopefully they’ll take the next four months and continue to grow.”
About 10 to 12 players who would have played their senior seasons last fall will return this fall, and about five or six seniors will not be back.
The quarterback competition will continue when preseason practices begin in August. Senior Bobby Froelich has the lead in the race, Fincham said, because he was the starter in 2019.
“Griffin Veil certainly has shown he’s a capable guy,” Fincham said, “and freshman Collin Brown, from Mason, is another guy who has a lot of potential. All three took a lot of reps through the spring. It’ll be a fun competition.”