WAYNE – With less than a month until the Wayne State College football team opens their season, the 2021 NSIC Preseason Coaches’ Poll is out.
According to a release from the league office in Burnsville, Minnesota, WSC was tabbed fifth in the South Division with 15 points and 10th overall in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference with 60 points.
Minnesota State-Mankato was selected as the top of the South Division with 35 points and five first place votes and received 12 of the 14 overall votes with 168 points to be this year’s favorite. Augustana and Winona State followed the Mavericks each receiving a first-place vote in the South Division and an overall first place vote at third and fifth respectively. Sioux Falls, who is tied for third in the South Division with Winona State sits fourth in the preseason poll.
Minnesota Duluth is being picked to win the North Division with 36 points and six of the seven first place votes (teams can’t vote for themselves) with Bemidji State following in second with the remaining first place vote. UMD is second in the overall preseason standings with 144 points.
This year’s Wildcat Players to watch are senior Ryan Kennedy from Norwalk, Iowa and senior Kevin Ransom from Port Allen, Louisiana.
Kennedy, a 6’0, 280-pound center earned 2019 All-NSIC South Division honorable mention honors and is a two-year starter at center. Along with being an NSIC All-Academic selection, he is the only returning Wildcat with All-NSIC honors.
Ransom, a 6’0, 205-pound safety is a two-year starter. He tied for third on the team in the 2019 season with 57 tackles while posting a team-high six pass break-ups and had a career-high 16 tackles at Winona State on September 7, 2019.
The Wildcat football team will also return their top two receivers in junior Wayne native Mason Lee (32 catches, 464 yards, 5 TD’s) and senior Taurean Grady from Chicago, Illinois (27 catches for 406 yards and 5 TD’s). Sophomore quarterback Tavian Willis (Ferguson, Missouri) returns and will vie for the starting spot along with transfers senior Matt Romero (New Mexico State/Oceanside, CA) and freshman Nick Bohn (Central Missouri/Bennington, NE).
The Wildcat defense showcases the team’s top returning tackler from 2019 in junior linebacker Nicholas Joynt from Garner, IA (92 tackles). Junior Ryan Parker (McCook Lake, SD) and senior Josh Taylor (Norfolk, NE) will anchor the defensive line while Ransom and junior J’Von France (Tarpon Springs, FL) are returning starters in the secondary.
Second year head coach John McMenamin will look to officially coach his first game on Thursday, September 2 when WSC hosts University of Mary under the lights at Bob Cunningham Field on the campus of Wayne State College at 6 p.m. WSC finished 4-7 in the 2019 season and won both their scrimmages earlier this spring by hosting Nebraska-Kearney (14-7) and at Chadron State (12-3).
The NSIC South Division Preseason Offensive Player of the Year is senior quarterback Kyle Saddler from Augustana University while the NSIC South Division Preseason Defensive Player of the Year is senior safety Cam Gavin from Winona State University.
NSIC football will consist of 14 teams divided into two divisions (north/south) as both St. Cloud State and Minnesota Crookston have ended their football programs. Concordia-St. Paul will move to the north division in 2021 as each team will play 11 conference games that will count towards the NSIC Overall Championship as well as six divisional games that will count towards the NSIC North/South Division Championships. In all, three league champions will be awarded (Overall Champion, North Division Champion, South Division Champion). Ties will not be broken for overall or division champions. The first four weeks will be cross divisional contests, with the final cross divisional contest taking place randomly during the remainder of the season.
