New faces will debut on the field and the sidelines as the new-look Wabash College roster squares off against a similarly unfamiliar opponent. You might be wondering, “Who even is St. Norbert College, and why are we playing them on opening day?”
The last three years have seen some sizeable changes to the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) lineup, with Allegheny’s departure after the 2021 season, the announcement of John Carroll’s arrival in 2025 and the report that Hiram would be following Allegheny out of the conference.
“Non-conference football scheduling at Wabash College is a challenge,” Athletic Director Matt Tanney ’05 said.
Further compounding the issue of conference mobility is Wabash’s competitiveness in football.
“When you are routinely a top-40-type team, the rest of the division isn’t excited to come to Crawfordsville on a Saturday afternoon,” said Tanney.
Since we watch Wabash beatdown on teams like Oberlin and Kenyon every year in football, us Wallies have probably been presented with a skewed view of Division III football. The majority of the three hundred-odd teams in the country play on a closer level to that of Hiram College.
Some of the top-flight teams in the country experience a similar problem with getting teams to play them, but teams like Mary Hardin Baylor, North Central and some satellite schools of the University of Wisconsin have a much more extensive travel budget.
However, Wabash doesn’t quite have the same resources for sending schools around the country. So, the question is, how will Wabash find teams to play?
“These games develop in a couple of ways: one is through conversations with coaches and administrators, and knowing people at different institutions that have a need. Sometimes your needs match up,” said Tanney.
And ultimately, the scheduling isn’t much more complicated than that. Tanney even described the opportunity to play Butler during the 2023 season as a one-off that was available because of Allegheny’s absence, and Butler needed an extra game.
But Tanney expressed that Wabash won’t take just anyone in a non-conference game, and this is something that Head Coach Don Morel expressed as well.
“We would love to play a team equal to us,” said Morel. “Beating somebody 62 to nothing doesn’t get you anything.”
For Coach Morel, the primary goal is to get off to a great start with a win against a high-quality team, and Morel thinks we’ve lucked out with scheduling a couple of games with St. Norbert.
“I think St. Norbert and Wabash is a really good matchup,” said Morel. “And it will make us better for next week when we play a conference team. They’re well-coached, and they’re going to be a good football team.”
With that, Morel said it has been tough to get a great read on the team in preparation.
“The biggest challenge we’re facing is we don’t know what they’re going to do. It’s game one, so…you end up trying to prepare for everything.”
Wabash’s almost entirely new offense hopes to retain some of last year’s production going into their season opener. It will be hard to replace last year’s high-powered offense, after losing almost the entirety of the offense’s skill position groups. But the new Wabash offense, led by quarterback Blake White ’25, will need to show out against St. Norbert’s defense.
Last year St. Norbert allowed 17.3 points per game, allowing only two teams to score over 21 points against them, one of which was #16 ranked Aurora University. With nearly a guaranteed decline incoming from Wabash’s 41 points and 493 total yards per game, there is cause for concern about how Wabash’s new guard will be able to handle St. Norbert’s stout defense.
Blake White and the entirely new receiving core will have to be the driving force for the Little Giants’ offense against the Green Knights; last year the Green Knights held their opponents to a measly 2.7 yards per carry and 96.5 rushing yards per game. However, St. Norbert’s defensive secondary tended to falter more than not, allowing 7.1 yards per attempt.
Although the Little Giants’ offense is highly unpredictable due to the lack of continuity, there is an upside to the Little Giants’ defense: they only lost one starting defensive player. With an entire extra year of growth and chemistry built up, there should be a sizable, expected jump in defensive production this season for Wabash football. The defensive front seven was the major strength of the Wabash defense last season, and with fifth-year senior Steven Thomas ’25 returning for his last season to work the inside with other fifth-year Will Olive ’25, opposing tailbacks should be wary this season.
Although St. Norbert’s rushing attack was incredibly strong last year, boasting 163 rushing yards per game and 26 touchdowns on the ground, they graduated both of their starting running backs, who had a combined total of 1,620 yards and 20 touchdowns across 332 combined attempts.
With a potentially depleted rushing attack, the Green Knights will have to rely on their junior quarterback Peyton Lyon, who passed for 1,908 yards, 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, and boasted a 56% completion percentage last season. Less than stellar numbers last year for Lyon, but he retained his three primary receivers from last season. Although, Wabash’s secondary was by far the Little Giants’ greatest weakness last season, giving up 7.15 yards in the air per attempt, they retained almost their entire starting unit, so the continuity and coaching of new defensive coordinator Jake Gilbert ’98 will most likely lead to a huge boost in defensive production.
With a lot up in the air for the upcoming matchup, Wabash will have a chance to test itself against a quality opponent before opening up NCAC play on September 14 at home against Ohio Wesleyan. However, there’s still a lot more to find out, so make sure you pack Little Giant Stadium on Saturday to get a real taste of who St. Norbert is and how the new look Little Giants will perform this season.