PREVIEW: Top-Ranked Dawgs Aim For School-Record 20th Consecutive Win This Saturday

Ferris State – Tony Annese (Alma, 1983), 13th season, 142-21-0 (.871) – 10-0 vs Wayne State).  Annese recorded a 195-41 (.826) mark as a head coach in four stops at the high school level before totaling a 30-4 (.882) record in three years as the head coach at Grand Rapids Community College.  His overall career mark at all levels is 367-66 (.848) to date and includes three prep state championships and two national JUCO crowns along with three D2 National Championships. He claimed his 300th win in 2018 with a national semifinal win at Minnesota State. The Bulldogs are 73-10 at home and 64-10 on the road under Annese in his tenure.

 

Wayne State - Tyrone Wheatley (Michigan), 3rd season (career 5th), 5-22-0 (.185) (career 10-40 (.200) - (0-2-0 vs. FSU). A former Michigan standout, Wheatley is a 18-year coaching veteran, including five years in the National Football League.  He most recently served as the running backs coach for the Denver Broncos before taking over at WSU in 2023. Prior to joining the Broncos, Wheatley served as Morgan State's head coach for three seasons from 2019-21.  During his tenure, he led the program to five wins despite the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's cancelation of the 2020 fall football season (COVID-19). He's also spent time on coaching staffs with the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Januars along with Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Syracuse and Ohio Northern along with Detroit Robichaud High School. As a player, he spent 10 years in the NFL.

 

Ferris State head coach Tony Annese is unbeaten in his career against the Warriors with a perfect 10-0 record to date. Overall, FSU leads the all-time series 34-22 to date and beat Wayne State 27-14 during a weather-delayed game on Oct. 12-13 a year ago. The Bulldogs scored a 69-13 in the 2023 regular-season finale in Big Rapids. FSU won the 2022 regular-season finale in Detroit by a 40-14 score following a 35-13 victory in 2021 in Big Rapids. 

 

Ferris State made its first trip to face Wayne State in Detroit since Tony Annese's initial Bulldog campaign back in 2012 six years ago, scoring an impressive 59-13 road win in Detroit (10/12/19). Prior to the 2019 meeting, the two teams had met each of the previous three years in Big Rapids with the Bulldogs prevailing each time. In 2018, FSU scored a 38-28 win at Top Taggart Field (10/27/18), which followed wins of 59-17 (9/30/17) and 42-20 (10/29/16) home the previous two years. The 2016 meeting was the first since 2013 when FSU posted a 41-10 home win. The two teams have only met 10 times since 2009. In Annese's initial Bulldog campaign in 2012, FSU rallied from a 21-point hole to win 35-24 in the Motor City.

 

Redshirt freshman quarterback Wyatt Bower garnered the GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week honor while junior kicker Eddie Jewett was tabbed as the GLIAC Special Teams Player of the Week after the win over Roosevelt. Bower led the top-ranked Bulldogs, accounting for six touchdowns in the win. He tossed five touchdown passes and ran for a score as FSU rolled up a school-record 788 yards of total offense in the victory. The standout signal caller threw TD passes of 51, 50 and 40 yards to senior Cam Underwood on Ferris State's first three offensive possessions. For the game, Bower completed 20-of-28 passes for 371 yards and he averaged nine yards per carry as the Bulldogs tied a school record with their 19th consecutive win overall dating back to last year.

 

Jewett also had a big afternoon as the top-ranked Bulldogs rolled past Roosevelt in their first-ever trip to Arlington Heights. The placekicker accounted for 12 total points of his own in the win. He went nine-of-nine in PAT attempts and added a 23-yard field goal in the victory. 

 

Under head coach Tony Annese, the Bulldogs have lost only six regular-season games over the past 10 years on the field dating back to mid-October of 2013. Two of the setbacks came in 2016 when the Bulldogs eventually made their deepest postseason run at the time with a trip to the NCAA-II National Semifinals. Since the middle part of the 2013 season, FSU has only lost three times to Grand Valley State and twice to Ashland in regular-season action along with a close setback last season at FCS member Montana and last year's game at Pitt State. The Bulldogs own a 108-7 (.939) regular-season mark since closing the 2013 season by winning their final four games.

Prior to 2023, the Bulldogs made four consecutive trips to the NCAA Division II National Semifinals and advanced to the final four five times in six seasons overall. FSU became the first program in GLIAC history to advance to four-straight semifinals, the fourth program ever and the first since Northwest Missouri State (2005-10) to accomplish the feat. The Bulldogs also advanced to three national championship games in four seasons of action on the field from 2018-22. The 2024 season marked FSU's sixth national semifinal berth in the last eight years.

 

The Bulldogs' 788 yards of total offense versus Roosevelt marked the highest figure in school history, topping the previous mark of 767 yards set in a home win over Tiffin in 2014. Additionally, it marked the sixth time in program history in which FSU totaled 700 plus yards in a game and all six efforts have come under current Bulldog head coach Tony Annese. Along with the previous mark, FSU also totaled 761 yards at McKendree (2014), 744 yards at American International (2024) along with 706 yards against Lake Erie (2014) and 705 yards versus Northern Michigan (2023). The 788 yards versus Roosevelt also represents the highest figure for any D2 school to date this year in a single contest.

 

Ferris State head coach Tony Annese became the Bulldogs' all-time winningest coach in 2022, surpassing former FSU head coaches such as Jeff Pierce and Keith Otterbein. Annese has posted a 142-21 (.871) mark in his Bulldog tenure to date, moving past Pierce (102-85) atop the all-time chart. Otterbein, who retired as the head coach at Hillsdale pror to last year, is third on the list with a 60-39 record during his Ferris State coaching career.

 

Two Ferris State University football standouts garnered preseason All-America mention as D2Football.com unveiled its 2025 Elite 100 Watch List. The D2Football.com Elite 100 Watch List was selected by the staff of D2Football.com with the input of small college draft expert Josh Buchanan. The Bulldogs had a second-team honoree in senior center Jarvis Windom along with a honorable mention choice in senior defensive back Justin Payoute.

 

Since the start of the 2014 season, the Bulldogs have the most wins of any NCAA Division II team in the country. The Bulldogs recorded back-to-back 11-1 seasons in 2014 and 2015 before a 12-3 mark in 2016 followed by an 11-2 showing in 2017 and a 15-1 mark in 2018 along with a 12-1 record in 2019. FSU then went 14-0 in 2021, 14-1 in 2022, 8-3 in 2023 and 14-1 in 2024 for a cumulative 127-14 record in the span.

 

The Bulldogs were the nation's only team to reach the NCAA Division II National Quarterfinals six-straight seasons from 2016-22. Ferris State claimed the Super Region Championship in 2016 with a decisive road win at rival Grand Valley State in the quarterfinals to reach the national semifinals for the second time in school history. In 2017, the Bulldogs also made it back to the national quarterfinals, but fell to Harding on a game-ending field goal at home in Big Rapids. FSU reached the national title game in 2018 and the national semifinals in 2019 before falling at home to eventual national champion West Florida prior to back-to-back national title campaigns in 2021 and 2022.

 

Ferris State finished as the last GLIAC school standing in the NCAA Division II Playoffs six consecutive years prior to 2023 and has accomplished the feat seven times in the last eight seasons overall. The Bulldogs reached the national semifinals in 2016 and the quarterfinals in 2017. In 2018, FSU avenged a setback to Harding in the 2017 Super Region Three Championship Game by beating the Bisons 21-19 at home in round one of the postseason on Nov. 17. FSU eventually went on to reach the national championship game for the first time in school history. The Bulldogs were the lone GLIAC school to make the field in 2019 and beat rival GVSU in the 2021 playoffs in the second round followed by a quarterfinal win over the Lakers in 2022.