Lakeland Mirror

Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Beau Markut Whitewater running back Justin Beaver breaks a tackle in the opening home game of the year. The Muskies would go on to lose to the #2 ranked Warhawks, 41-7.

After a rough non-conference struggle, the Lakeland football team intends to rebound strong in their conference games ahead. The 0-3 Muskies have struggled on both sides of the ball and failed to put points on the board. This poor performance is largely due to the strength of the schedule thus far.

The combined records of Carthage, UW-Oshkosh, and UW-Whitewater is 7-1. The lone loss was merited to number two ranked, Whitewater in a bout against a Division II team. "We have had an extremely difficult non-conference schedule," said head coach, Kevin Doherty. "It is really kinda hard, mindset-wise, to play these top-tier teams, but in retrospect, is it getting us ready for our conference play? Probably."

Last year the Muskies started out with the same record going to into conference, but the team picked up the pace and contended for a championship. There are many detrimental effects of a winless record that take tolls on the mentality of a club. "It's all confidence," said Doherty. "You worry about your confidence level when you are 0-3 and you are entering conference play."

Quarterback Brad Wilk has been an incredible asset on offense due to a struggling rushing game. The senior has compiled 521 passing yards in only three games and has thrown for two of the Muskies' four total touchdowns on the year. He has also been gaining prowess with his feet with 14 rushing attempts and another touchdown on the ground.

Despite Wilk's great addition to the team his statistics have suffered against some good defenses. He has a dismal 37.9 completion percentage and a quarterback rating of 78.28. In addition, six of his completed passes have been marked up in the interception category.

"The level of our competition has a lot to do with our completion percentage," said Doherty. "There is a little skew in the statistics against Carthage because of the type of defense they play. Because they blitz so much, we had to throw a higher percentage of low-percentage passing. Long balls or vertical balls are caught at a lower percentage than a shorter pass, but because they are playing man coverage, we couldn't throw that many short balls."

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools