Wabash begins its final four weeks of the regular season on Saturday with a Family Day home football game against the Fighting Scots from the College of Wooster.
 
The Little Giants (5-1, 4-1 NCAC) sit in a three-way tie for second place in the North Coast Athletic Conference standings with DePauw (5-1, 4-1 NCAC) and Wittenberg (5-1, 4-1 NCAC). The Ohio-based Tigers saw their unbeaten season end last Saturday night to conference leader Denison (6-0, 5-0). The Big Red are one of the four remaining opponents on the Wabash schedule.
 
Regardless of what remains to be played, the Little Giants may have a long afternoon Saturday when the Scots come calling. Wooster (2-4, 2-3 NCAC) presents the league's best passing offense, averaging 319.7 yards per game. Starting quarterback Gary Muntean has completed 63 percent of his passes this season (152-of-242) and has thrown six touchdown passes versus three interceptions.
 
Nine different players have caught ten or more passes this year for Wooster, led by co-captain Nate Huwar with 22 receptions for 195 yards. Nick Cummings tops the team statistics with 349 yards on 18 catches with two touchdown receptions.
 
"Wooster leads the conference in passing yards per game and they like to throw it a ton." Wabash head coach Don Morel said. "Saturday could be a long afternoon with all the passing attempts. This is a 'pack your lunch box' game.  That's the way Wabash football games will probably look like for the next four weeks. We would like to establish the run. Wooster would like to throw it every snap. We need to be sharp and cover their receivers in a similar fashion to the way we covered Kenyon Saturday."
 
The Little Giants' rushing attack could be poised for a big game. Wabash ranks 27^th in the nation in rushing by averaging 244.3 yards per contest. Shamir Johnson leads the team with a 65.8 yards-per-game average, followed closely by Matt Penola with an average of 53.8 yards over six contests. Countering the Wabash ground game will be a Wooster defense that enters the game ranked 190^th among Division III schools versus the run, allowing 200.8 yards per game.
 
"Wooster's defense shows a light box, so I expect we will have some opportunities to run the ball against them," Johnson said. "But our main focus is just getting better at the small things — technique, running hard and making sure our effort is there on every run regardless of who we're playing.
 
"We've been a successful group of running backs because of the hard work of our offensive line. They bust their butts day in and day out. They make it easy for the running backs. All we have to do is find the hole they've created. Then it goes back to running hard with maximum effort. That's on us as a group."
 
The Scots' numbers against the rush may not be strong on paper, but a tough group of defenders will be ready to line up against the Wabash offense. Marcus Bowers is the leading tackler for Wooster with 59 total tackles and 4-1/2 tackles for losses totaling 10 yards. He earned a place on the D3football.com team of the week after making a career-high 17 tackles to help the Scots defeat Oberlin last week 34-30.  Wooster has made an impressive 43 tackles for losses, the fifth-highest total in the NCAC. Aaron Roberson and Kevin Komara each have recorded 8-1/2 tackles for a combined 72 yards lost.
 
Kickoff will take place at 1:30 p.m. at Hollett Little Giant Stadium. Tickets are available at sports.wabash.edu/tickets at $6 for adults and $4 for children and students. Wabash students must have their school-issued ID for free entry to Saturday's game. Those unable to attend can follow the action online at www.wabash.edu/live or on the radio on WNDY (91.3 FM). Live statistics will be available at www.sidearmstats.com/wabash/football.