IWC homestand continues with No. 23 Grand View

Iowa Wesleyan College will face its fourth ranked opponent of the season when the Tigers host No. 23-ranked Grand View University Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Mapleleaf Stadium in Mid-States Football Association Midwest League play.

Wesleyan will once again attempt to get a win over a ranked opponent for the first time since 1984, and also will be seeking to bounce back after a 52-31 loss to Olivet Nazarene last week. The Tigers led much of the way and held a 31-24 lead late in the third quarter, but ONU scored the game?s final 28 points to pull away. Kevin McConnell threw for 310 yards and Ridge Hobbs had another big game receiving with six catches for 161 yards, but IWC lost five fumbles and also gave up 10 sacks.

The Tigers will be facing a Grand View team coming off its biggest win of the season, as the Vikings defeated then No. 9-ranked St. Francis (Ill.) 24-21 last week.

Grand View has clinched its third straight winning season and its third winning season in the program?s four-year existence. In its short time the Vikings have built an identity as a team with a powerful running game on offense and an attacking, physical defense.

This is the fourth meeting between IWC and Grand View. The Vikings lead the series 2-1, with Wesleyan?s lone win coming in the first meeting, which was in 2008. The Tigers defeated the Vikings 36-24 in that game. Grand View won last year?s game 73-6, scoring 42 points in the first half and rushing for six touchdowns in an easy win.

Iowa Wesleyan has not defeated a ranked team in over 27 years. The last time the Tigers beat a ranked opponent was Sept. 29, 1984, when IWC picked up a 43-28 win over Benedictine (Kan.) at Mapleleaf Stadium. Benedictine came into that game ranked No. 7 in NAIA Division I, back when NAIA football was split into two divisions.

But Hobbs continues to put up huge numbers this season for the Tigers, and his statistics now have him in the conversation among the NAIA?s top receivers and certainly its top deep threats. The sophomore leads the entire MSFA in receiving yards (780), receiving yards per game (97.5) and touchdown receptions (nine). He also is now ranked sixth in the NAIA in receiving yards per game and eighth in total yards.

The NAIA doesn?t officially track leaders for average yards per reception, but a glance at the national statistics shows that no player with at least 10 catches this season is averaging more than Hobbs?s 25.2 yards per catch. His single-season yardage total already ranks ninth in school history, and with 220 yards in the final two regular season games he can become just the fourth player in school history to post 1,000 yards receiving in a season.

It?s not quite the ?Air Raid? offense used by former coaches Hal Mumme and Mike Leach in IWC?s passing hayday from 1989-91, but Wesleyan leads the Midwest League and is second in the entire MSFA in passing offense, averaging 252.0 yards per game.

A number of different receivers have been part of the passing game, and eight different players, including Hobbs, LiMichael Peeples, Buddy Guastella, Matthew Vidales, Kenyon Morgan, Daniel Veal, Brandon Harris and Chase Taylor, have all caught at least 13 passes this year, the most by any team in the MSFA.

The closest to Wesleyan is none other than St. Xavier, the top-ranked team in the NAIA which has a total of nine receivers with 10 catches or more, including seven with 16 receptions or more. The Cougars also lead the MSFA and are second in the NAIA in passing yards, averaging 363.9 yards per game.