Junior Garrett Cora, right, has been a mainstay in the Franklin College backfield since his freshman year.
Submitted photo
Perhaps more than in any other sport, success in college football is dictated primarily by roster management and balance. As a coach, you need year-to-year depth across every position, and even one down year of recruiting can bring a premature end your career.
Case in point: Charlie Weis arrived at Notre Dame in the winter of 2005 and inherited a roster that was heavy on A-list upperclassmen but light on depth after two subpar recruiting efforts in a row. Weis was able to ride those veteran stars to BCS bowl appearances in his first two seasons, but the Fighting Irish’s lack of depth was exposed in bowl losses to Ohio State and LSU.
Once the starters on those first two teams graduated, the bottom fell out. Dragged down by those two weaker recruiting classes, Notre Dame won just three games in 2007.
Weis was out of a job two years later.
Fast forward a decade to December of 2019, when Alan Hensell took over as Franklin College’s head coach and inherited a roster with just seven seniors and 19 juniors on it. Because of that imbalance, the Grizzlies have had to throw a lot of freshmen and sophomores straight into the starting lineup over Hensell’s first three seasons — and the results haven’t always been pretty. Franklin College went 4-6 last fall, its first losing season since 2003.
As he enters his fourth year, though, Hensell believes that the Grizzlies have weathered the storm and the roster has been rebalanced. He’s never had more than 30 upperclassmen on the squad; this fall, he’s got 48 (21 seniors, 27 juniors).
Just as importantly, he’s got experience. Many of those who were thrown into the fire as 18- and 19-year-old rookies are now fully grown young men with dozens of collegiate games under their belts.
“Experience is a huge part of it,” said junior running back Garrett Cora, one of several third-year starters coming back this season. “Just having those games played, whether it’s wins or losses, is huge — because during this upcoming season situations will play out that we’ve dealt with before, and I think we’ll be better equipped. When adversity strikes, we’ve gone through it.”
“We have a lot of guys on our team that have played a lot of football for us,” Hensell added.
Cora, a Tri-West graduate, had to come in and shoulder a heavy workload right away. Ditto for his best friend, junior quarterback Kai Ross, and numerous others. When there aren’t enough upperclassmen on the team to fill out a starting lineup, that’s the way it is.
Or the way it was. Now, there are no freshmen and only one sophomore in the starting lineup, and only a handful of underclassmen anywhere on the two-deep. Among the few exceptions are a trio of local second-stringers — offensive linemen Will Hagan and Zach Yaryan (Whiteland) and wide receiver Owen Wright (Center Grove).
The difference isn’t that these incoming players aren’t good enough to play. It’s that the Grizzlies are finally deep enough again that they won’t have to.
“I am really excited about our freshman class,” Hensell said. “It’s talented, they have tremendous work ethic; they’ve really done a good job during training camp. They’re just walking into a different situation than what our roster was two or three years ago.”
Franklin College has gotten deeper across the board, and that has also enabled Hensell to move some players around to fill holes. Derek Thompson, the team’s leading rusher as a freshman in the spring of 2021, is now on the depth chart solely as a kick returner. Fellow senior Spencer Wright, who split time at quarterback his first two seasons, has settled in as a starting receiver. Wideout Dylan McKinney, likewise, is a four-year regular, while Ross and Cora are both seasoned third-year starters.
On the other side of the ball, Hensell has three All-HCAC defensive line starters back in Jireh Ojata, Shay McRath and Isaac Lawrence. In all, nine of the top 11 tacklers from last year’s defense return, a group that includes junior safety Michael Loper, a Greenwood grad.
Finally having that sort of experience and depth, Hensell says, is a natural by-product of filling out and balancing the roster over the last three and a half years.
“This will be our deepest team that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” the coach said, “and the positional competition, all that does is make your team better. We feel we have that at about every position.”
And they’ll need it to survive what is again a gauntlet of a nonconference schedule. Olivet (Michigan), Aurora (Illinois) and Trine all beat the Grizzlies a year ago and are back on the slate again. On the plus side, the first two games will be at home this time around.
“It definitely provides us an advantage, because we always have a great crowd at Faught Stadium,” Cora said. “Having those first two games at home versus very good opponents is going to be good for us, because I know everyone’s ready to play. … Playing at Faught Stadium, there’s nothing like it.”
The Aurora game in particular should serve as a meaningful barometer — the Spartans beat Franklin 49-16 last fall before advancing all the way to the NCAA Division III quarterfinals.
Franklin College hasn’t made an NCAA appearance since 2017, but the current Grizzlies feel that they’re capable of making it back there this year.
“We have what it takes,” Cora said. “We just have to execute and play like we know we can, and I feel like we can make a run just like (Aurora) did.”
Hensell, a 2005 Franklin College graduate, is well versed on the school’s proud football history, and he’s ready to add his own chapter to it.
Is this when the last few years of patient rebuilding and balancing the roster pays off?
“You never know when that’s coming,” Hensell said. “You’ve just got to stay true to the process.”
2003 SCHEDULE
Date;Opponent;Time
Saturday;Olivet;1:30 p.m.
Sept. 9;Aurora;1:30 p.m.
Sept. 16;at Trine;1:30 p.m.
Sept. 30;Bluffton;1:30 p.m.
Oct. 7;at Anderson;1:30 p.m.
Oct. 14;at Defiance;1:30 p.m.
Oct. 21;Rose-Hulman;1:30 p.m.
Oct. 28;at Mount St. Joseph;1:30 p.m.
Nov. 4;Manchester;1:30 p.m.
Nov. 11;at Hanover;1:30 p.m.
SCOUTING THE GRIZZLIES
Coach: Alan Hensell
Last season: 4-6 (4-3 HCAC)
Players to watch: OT Ethan Corwin, K Gabe Crutchfield, OG Max Johnson, DT Isaac Lawrence, WR Dylan McKinney, DE Shay McRath, LB Charlie Moore, TE Ryus Moore, DT Owen Ogle, DE Jireh Ojata, S Darian Porter, QB Kai Ross, KR Derek Thompson and WR Spencer Wright, seniors; RB Garrett Cora, P Adam Guth, C Parker Hacker, LB Beau Hess, CB Kahari Jackson, WR Malachi Joy, LB Hayden Kermode, S Michael Loper, CB DeMarion Newell, Josh Sanders and Brock Veatch, juniors; LB Drew Servies, sophomore
Outlook: It’s been a bumpy entry for Hensell over his first three-plus years — not only has the Franklin College alum had to navigate a pandemic that postponed and shortened his debut season, but he’s also had to gradually beef up a roster that initially had just seven seniors on it. For the first time since his arrival, the Grizzlies look like they’re back on solid ground; this could be the year that the painstaking rebuild bears fruit.
Ross is firmly entrenched now as the starting quarterback, and he’s got leading rusher Cora back along with a veteran group of receivers led by McKinney and Wright. The offensive line is relatively young — freshmen Will Hagan and Zach Yaryan, both Whiteland grads, are on the two-deep — but there’s still enough experience in the starting group to clear the way for what should be a balanced and productive offense.
On D, it all starts with an all-senior front four that features three all-conference vets in Ojata, McRath and Lawrence; Newell, Porter and Greenwood grad Loper are among the familiar faces in the secondary, while Hess heads up the linebacking corps.
The nonconference schedule is tough, but if the Grizzlies can get through it healthy, then they should come into HCAC play more than ready for anything that’s going to hit them there. The league’s coaches picked Franklin fourth in the preseason poll, with everyone looking up at defending champion Mount St. Joseph. It’s quite conceivable that the Grizzlies could go into their Oct. 28 road game against the Lions with first place — and potentially the school’s first NCAA berth since 2017 — on the line.
IT’S GO TIME
A quick glance at Franklin College’s other fall sports teams:
Women’s volleyball
Seniors Chloe Holder and Sofia Helton, along with junior Miranda Wilson and sophomore Kaitlyn Lavy, will try to help the Grizzlies finish higher than the eighth-place preseason ranking bestowed upon them by the HCAC’s coaches. Those four head up a group of eight returning regulars for third-year coach Randi Garrett.
Men’s soccer
Picked seventh by the league’s coaches in the preseason rankings, the Grizzlies will try to climb the ladder behind returning seniors Jon Moore, Htoo Ray Moo and all-HCAC performer Eddy Yousak as well as Johnson County natives Colin Haveman (Franklin) and Ian Rowe (Center Grove) and Brazilian transfer Lucas Pereira.
Women’s soccer
Goalkeeper Makenna Mundy and defenders Kaitlyn Hewitt, Kinsey Price and Dianna Rollag are all back to anchor a squad that includes locals Maddie Alexander (Franklin) and Adex Bixler (Center Grove). The Grizzlies were eighth in the HCAC preseason coaches’ poll.
Men’s cross country
Junior John Asplund leads a group of five all-HCAC runners coming back from last year’s conference runner-up. The preseason coaches’ poll ranks the Grizzlies third coming into the season, trailing Rose-Hulman and Manchester. The team includes three Franklin grads (Eli Cochrane, Wyatt McCullough and Drew McGaha) and one former Greenwood runner (Noah McCracken).
Women’s cross country
All-conference returnees Haley Makowski, Ella Bashor and Greenwood grad Mallory Watson lead the way for the Grizzlies, who are being picked to finish third in the HCAC behind Hanover and Rose-Hulman in a closely packed coaches’ poll. Makowski and Bashor were both top-10 finishers at last year’s conference meet.
