Ferris State Football Listed Among Sporting News Preseason Top 25 Teams For Third-Straight Year
Big Rapids, Mich. - For the third consecutive year, the Ferris State University football squad is ranked among the preseason top 25 teams in the nation as the Bulldogs are listed 17th in the Sporting News Preseason Division II Rankings found in the annual college football preview issue on newsstands now.
The Bulldogs, who were the preseason number two team in the same poll a year ago, are among three teams from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) in the top 20 of the rankings. The poll is the first preseason Division II poll announced this year. FSU is the two-time defending league champion.
Along with the preseason ranking, Ferris State junior center Jake Daugherty (Big Rapids) was also tabbed as a Preaseason All-American for the Bulldogs. He was one of only two players from the GLIAC on the preseason squad.
The Bulldogs, under two-time reigning GLIAC Coach of the Year Tony Annese, have posted the best overall record of all collegiate programs in the state of Michigan over the past four years and presently own a 25-game regular season unbeaten streak.
FSU will begin its 108th season of varsity competition this coming fall with its sights set on repeating as GLIAC Champions for the third-straight year and making a return trip to the NCAA Division II Playoffs yet again.
Ferris State is coming off another historic campaign as the Bulldogs recorded a second-straight unbeaten regular-season en route to claiming a second consecutive GLIAC Championship in 2015. The Bulldogs also claimed the school's first NCAA Playoff win in 19 years and stretched their current regular-season win streak to 25-straight games.
Last fall, the Bulldog football squad finished 2015 with an 11-1 overall record for the second-straight year. Under Head Coach Tony Annese's direction, the Bulldogs also led the country with four Academic All-Americans and senior quarterback Jason Vander Laan claimed his second consecutive Harlon Hill Trophy as the nation's top NCAA Division II player. FSU was ranked among the nation's top 10 teams all season, including the school's highest ever national rankings at #1 in the D2Football.com poll along with #2 in the American Football Coaches Association rankings.
Since his arrival at Ferris State, Annese has turned the Bulldogs into a national power on the Division II level. The veteran coach has posted a 37-9 overall mark in four seasons at the FSU helm and has been the mastermind behind a Bulldog turnaround leading to 22 wins in the program's past 24 games overall. FSU has posted the GLIAC's best league record over the past four seasons (34-6) and the squad owns the top overall four-year record of all 21 collegiate programs in Michigan (37-9).
Overall, Annese has won 83% of his games as a head coach on the collegiate and prep levels and owns 262 wins to date, which is the most of any current GLIAC member head coach at all levels.
Ferris State, which will return upwards of 50 letterwinners for the 2016 campaign, opens the 2016 schedule this fall at home against Ohio Dominican in Big Rapids.
PRESEASON TOP 25 POLL
1. Northwest Missouri
2. Grand Valley
3. West Georgia
4. Indiana, PA
5. Shepherd
6. Colorado Mines
7. Humboldt State
8. Ashland
9. Slippery Rock
10. Indianapolis
11. CSU-Pueblo
12. Henderson State
13. Tuskegee
14. North Alabama
15. Catawba
16. Minnesota State
17. Ferris State
18. Cal, PA
19. Bemidji State
20. Midwestern State
21. Florida Tech
22. Colorado Mesa
23. Augustana
24. Emporia State
25. Assumption
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAM
OFFENSE
QB – Justin Dvorak (Colorado Mines)
RB – Ja'Quan Gardner (Humboldt State)
RB – Austin Ekeler (Western State)
OL – Jake Daugherty (Ferris State)
OL – Joe LoSchiavo (Slippery Rock)
OL – Stephen Evans (North Alabama)
OL – Ethan Cooper (Indiana, Pa.)
OL – Jordan Morgan (Kutztown)
TE – Kenny Johnston (Florida Tech)
WR – Billy Brown (Shepherd)
WR – Matt Williams (Grand Valley State)
DEFENSE
DL – Collin Bevins (Northwest Missouri State)
DL – Marcus Martin (Slippery Rock)
DL – Dylan Donahue (West Georgia)
DL – Richard Nase Jr. (Shippensburg)
LB – Connor Harris (Lindenwood)
LB – Kyle Kitchens (Catawba)
LB – Jordan Herdman (Simon Fraser)
DB – Carlo Thomas (Johnson C. Smith)
DB – Kevin Berg (Northwest Missouri State)
DB – Aaron Terry (California, Pa.)
DB – Jonah McCutcheon (Tuskegee)
SPECIALISTS
K – Austin Morton (Emporia State)
P – Brett Benes (Charleston)