A total of 652 days will have passed between the Wabash football team's last game at North Central in 2019 and Saturday's kickoff of the 2021 season at Rose-Hulman.
 
To say the Little Giants are ready to take the field would be an understatement.
 
"I've been pleased with the level of commitment to football by our players," Wabash head coach Don Morel said. Morel, the North Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2019, begins his fifth season of competition at the helm of the Little Giant program.
 
"Spring football in 2021 was critical for us. We had about 12 practices. We got to put on helmets and shoulder pads in the spring and that was so important to prepare us for the fall season. It was critical to our team's growth. Our current sophomore players who missed their freshman fall season matured quickly. That got us ready for camp. We had a good camp despite some weather challenges with thunderstorms and heat."
 
Wabash returns ten starters on offense and defense from its 2019 NCAC championship and NCAA playoff qualifying team. Five starters from the playoff game against North Central are back, including NCAC Newcomer of the Year and Second Team All-NCAC selection Liam Thompson at quarterback. Thompson threw for 1,997 yards and 14 touchdowns as a freshman and ran for 252 yards and another five TDs. Wide receiver Cooper Sullivan also earned Second Team All-NCAC honors in 2019 after hauling in a team-best 38 passes for 584 yards and five TDs. Nick Hamman made 29 catches for 422 yards and three TDs. Heisman Skeens played in seven games in 2019, catching four passes for 42 yards. Hamman and Skeens are both expected to be in the starting lineup at wide receiver in 2021.
 
The Little Giants lost both Ike James and Isaac Avant, who combined for 1,500 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns in 2019. Sophomores Donovan Snyder and Cade Campbell are expected to carry the rushing attack for Wabash in the opener against Rose-Hulman.
 
Veteran offensive lineman Dane Smith, an All-NCAC selection in 2019, and Thomas Bolen will anchor the Wabash front. They will be joined by Joe Mullin, Nathan Pairitz, and Brandon English. Tight end Jackson Clayborne caught three passes for 21 yards and one touchdown in five games as a sophomore and has earned the starting position in 2021.
 
Five starters are back from the 2019 Wabash group that limited opposing teams to an average of 16.8 points and 129 rushing yards per game. Seth Buresh, Kenny Coleman, and David Marsh combined for 55 tackles and 15-1/2 tackles for losses. Buresh led Wabash with 9-1/2 tackles for losses and 7-1/2 sacks accounting for 77 yards in 2019.
 
Josh Myers and Casey Crozier both played in over half of the games in 2019 at linebacker for Wabash. Each recorded five tackles and will now hold down starting jobs in 2021.
 
Two-time all-conference selection and 2018 NCAC Newcomer of the Year Jose Franco has started every game of his career at cornerback for the Little Giants. He was among the Division III leaders in pass breakups with 11 in 2019 to go with one interception and 39 tackles. Kamron Ferguson played in 10 games in 2019 and made two interceptions. He will start at one of the safety spots this season. Johnny Lamb, who played in five games and made six tackles in 2019, will start opposite Franco at cornerback.
 
Joey Annee and Jacob Handley are special teams veterans for Wabash. Annee was a 2019 D3football.com Honorable Mention All-America selection and earned 2021 Preseason First Team All-America honors. Annee averaged 41.2 yards per punt two years ago. Handley connected on 36-of-37 extra points in 2019.
 
Wabash will face a Rose-Hulman team that played five games in the spring of 2021. The Fightin' Engineers finished 4-1 in the abbreviated schedule and averaged 407 yards of offense and 35.2 points per game. Senior running back Shane Welshans was named to the 2021 D3football.com Preseason All-America Third Team as well as receiving Second Team Preseason All-America honors from Lindy's College Football Preview. Welshans ran for 682 yards and six touchdowns in Rose-Hulman's spring season, including a career-best 236 yards against Bluffton. Welshans also caught 12 passes for 149 yards and another five touchdowns. Senior quarterback Andrew Dion threw for 989 yards and 10 TDs in the spring while completing 55 percent of his passes (79-143-5). Dion also ran for 138 yards and one score. Jailen Hobbs returns after catching 15 passes for 89 yards as a freshman in the spring.

Rose limited its five opponents to nine TDs and 68 total points in the spring. Senior linebacker Michael Stevens paced the Engineers' defense with 51 tackles, four sacks, and 6-1/2 tackles for losses totaling 34 yards. He also picked off two passes. Junior defensive back Rashard Brown made a team-high five interceptions in the spring to go with four pass breakups and 26 tackles.
 
Even with the spring workouts for Wabash and the five-game schedule for Rose-Hulman, Morel is not convinced that anyone is certain how teams will come out for Saturday's 7 p.m. kickoff in Terre Haute.

"No one really knows what any opponents are doing on offense or defense this first week because of the cancellation of the 2020 season due to COVID. You don't know what players are back or what kind of talent some of the sophomores have because you haven't seen them on the field. From a game standpoint, turnovers will be key in this first game. I think there will be turnovers because players haven't been hit in over a year. I think there will be the other mistakes you see in a first game --- only ten players on the field in a key situation or a penalty on a decisive play. Those are the usual kinds of mistakes in a first game but I think they will be compounded by not playing in over a year."
 
Tickets for Saturday evening's game are available online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rose-hulman-vs-wabash-college-football-game-tickets-tickets-167643136133. The game will be streamed online at https://boxcast.tv/view/fb-rose-hulman-vs-wabash-456303. Wabash audio can also be heard online at https://team1sports.com/Wabash and on the radio at 91.3 FM (WNDY).