Three straight wins. Sixty-five points allowed all season. A crowd of scarlet-clad alumni pouring back into Crawfordsville for one Saturday a year. If you’re looking for the moment Wabash’s 2026 season stops being a promising start and starts being a genuine statement, Homecoming against the College of Wooster is as good a stage as any.
The Little Giants roll in at 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the NCAC, riding a three-game win streak that’s been less “nail-biter” and more “systematic dismantling.” They opened with a 29-20 comeback win over Hampden-Sydney in the Gentlemen’s Classic, then turned the defense loose in back-to-back conference blowouts including a 31-0 shutout of Wittenberg and a 34-7 throttling of Oberlin on the road last weekend. That’s 27 points allowed in three games. Wabash was picked to finish third in this year’s preseason NCAC coaches’ poll, but through three weeks the Little Giants are playing like a team with a grudge against that ranking.
Wooster, meanwhile, arrives at 1-2 (1-1 NCAC) and looking for footing. The Fighting Scots opened with a heartbreaking 19-22 loss to Wilmington, bounced back with a thrilling 26-19 win at Kenyon which was capped by a game-sealing interception in the final seconds. They then got run off their field in their own Homecoming loss to Denison, 0-38, this past Saturday. Wooster knows exactly what it feels like to have a Homecoming crowd go silent, and they’d very much like to make that happen to Wabash this weekend.
Put the two teams’ first three weeks side by side and the gap is stark. Wabash is averaging 31.3 points per game while allowing just 9.0, achieving a scoring margin of plus-22.3 per contest. Wooster, by contrast, is averaging 15.0 points per game while giving up 26.3, a margin of minus-11.3. That’s roughly a 34-point per-game swing between the two teams’ seasons to date, and it lines up with the eye test: Wabash has looked progressively more dominant each week (20 points allowed to Hampden-Sydney, then 0, then 7), while Wooster’s defense has trended the wrong direction, going from a competitive 22 points allowed against Wilmington to a 38-0 shellacking at the hands of Denison.
If there’s a script here, it’s a familiar one. Wabash’s defense has been the story of the season. They have been stingy against the run, opportunistic in the passing game and getting stronger as the non-conference tune-ups give way to conference grinders. There defensive front has looked especially powerful, controlling the line of scrimmage in every game they have played thus far.
“We have a very solid group of guys on the defensvie-line that are able to hold their gaps and stop the run,” said Samuel Poriah ’28. “If we can hold our gaps then our linebackers can hit their gaps and if everyone does their job then the result is very few yardage and few or no points.”
Wooster’s offense has shown real flashes (that Kenyon win didn’t happen by accident), but the Denison game exposed just how quickly things can unravel when a defense like Wabash’s — playing downhill, swarming to the ball — gets rolling. If the Little Giants bring anything close to what they showed against Wittenberg and Oberlin, this has the look of a slaughter by the fourth quarter.
“Our defensive players have really developed,” said Head Football Coach Jake Gilbert ’98. “We are in our third year in the scheme and starting a bunch of juniors, so that helps a lot. We are playing confident and fast and can really dominate up front, which makes the entire defense look better.”
Wooster’s counter has to be establishing tempo early with a quick, athletic quarterback that is as competent on the ground as he is through the air.
“Wooster’s QB is very athletic and a good runner,” said Jake Gilbert. “He can scramble and make plays with his legs. That always concerns me.”
Stealing a possession or two on special teams and hoping the Homecoming atmosphere works against Wabash instead of for it would be the recipe for sucess against the Little Giants. It’s a tall order, though, against a defense that hasn’t allowed a team to find a rhythm all season, save perhaps in the first half of their opening game against Hampden-Sydney, but that didn’t last long. Watch for how Wooster’s offensive line handles Wabash’s front — if the Scots can’t protect long enough to hit the kind of deep shots that troubled Kenyon’s secondary, this game could get out of hand early, the same way Wittenberg and Oberlin did.
On the other side of the ball, Wabash’s offense has been humming through three weeks, averaging 369 total yards and 31.3 points per game. They use a unique two-quarterback attack: Brand Campbell ‘27 has handled the bulk of the workload (27-of-48 passing for 363 yards and two touchdowns), while Jackson Gilbert ’28 has come in as a change-of-pace weapon for every third drive and has been nearly unstoppable when he does, completing 17-of-21 passes for 254 yards and two more scores. Between them, Wabash is completing more than 62 percent of its passes at 8.47 yards-per-pass.
The workhorse, though, is running back Cole Dickerson ’28, who’s turned into the offense’s engine early this season. Taking 45 carries for 270 yards and four rushing touchdowns, plus nine catches for 89 yards and another score through the air, he is punching defenses in the teeth every chance he gets. Dickerson leads the team with 30 points scored on his own. Nick Witte ’28 and Luke Adams ’28 have led the receiving game with 161 and 120 receiving yards, respectively.
Expect more of the same here. Wooster’s defense has already shown it can be had for chunks of yardage, and a Wabash offense firing on all cylinders like this will have every incentive to just keep feeding Dickerson and letting Campbell and Gilbert pick their spots through the air.
Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. at Little Giant Stadium, and if history is any guide, the stands will be full well before then. Homecoming football at Wabash dates back to 1920, and the Little Giants have made a habit of treating the day like a formality. Wabash is a staggering 67-27-8 all-time in Homecoming games.
Add it all up, and this looks like exactly the kind of game a 3-0 team wants heading into October: a chance to stay unbeaten, keep the defense’s hot streak alive and send a packed Homecoming crowd home happy before the road trip to Denison next week. Old Wabash will be echoing across the Mall well after the final whistle — and if the last three weeks are any indication, it’ll be for a Little Giants win.