FOOTBALL: Huge Game Coming Up For Bulldogs

BIG RAPIDS - Winning on the road in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is no easy task in football.

Even the team at the bottom of the conference, Tiffin, has given visiting opponents headaches in Frost-Kalnow Stadium (ask Ferris State University after last year's season opener there).

This makes Ferris' road game this weekend, at the University of Findlay, all the more important for head coach Jeff Pierce and his squad (coming off a 44-23 home loss to nationally-ranked Ashland University). In the simplest of terms, the Bulldogs must find ways to win road games to make this season a winning one. Winning on the road begins this weekend at Donnell Stadium in Ohio as the Bulldogs take on the Oilers.

You can throw preseason polls out the window with regard to this matchup. Findlay is a good football team and the Oilers will compete hard on their home turf. Ferris has to bounce back from a decisive home loss to the Eagles last weekend and find a way to win on the road against a solid team.

Ferris has to find a way to control the line of scrimmage and run the football well (the formula that worked against Tiffin). But, Findlay is a much better team than Tiffin so the Bulldogs will need to step it up quite a bit to get their second win of the season.

There are not a lot of road win opportunities out there for Ferris.

Here are Ferris' road games this season:

Sept. 12 at Findlay (a solid team that is 2-0, confident and will play well at home)
Sept. 26 at Northern Michigan (always a tough place to play)
Oct. 17 at Wayne State (a good team that plays well at home)
Oct. 24 at Northwood (always a tough place to play with a unique offense)
Nov. 7 at Saginaw Valley State (a nationally-ranked team and a tough place to play)

All these opponents are either very good or solid. All will play well and put up a formidable challenge at home against road opposition.

Going on the road (against a solid Findlay team) will test these Bulldogs in a way they have not been tested having played their first two games at home.

Game time, early Saturday afternoon, will tell us if Ferris is ready to win on the road in the GLIAC.

Photo of Kyle Parrish was taken by Ed Hyde