Coach Morel: '135 years of football tradition? It’s adjunct to the Wabash experience'

First published in The Bachelor, September 2, 2022.

BENJAMIN BULLOCK '23 | Sports Editor • Sitting down with Head Football Coach Don Morel this week, it is hard to ignore the ethereal buzz of quiet confidence around this year’s football team. On the training field, in the football office and all across campus, one can sense the gentle hum of excitement that lingers on the eve of every new season.

Don Morel joined the Little Giants in 2016.

That buzz, says Morel, is not only that of contemporary expectation. Sure, we as fans have come to expect big things from the Little Giants. Success is, and always will be, the chief motivator of Wabash’s football program. But the heavier weight on the shoulders of this Little Giants team is not what tomorrow’s papers might say about them. It’s history.

“What do you expect from your new players this season,” I asked Morel, “and what can they expect from you and this program?”

“It’s not just me,” he responded. “It's 135 years of football tradition. It's an adjunct to the Wabash experience. In the world we live today, young men really don't get much of a physical challenge. But we present a rigorous physical challenge with football here. It’s the cherry on top of the sundae.”

Rigorous is perhaps the only way to describe Morel’s model. His team began their preseason preparations way back in January with a host of early morning gym sessions. But the real hard work started in earnest last month with the return of football players for preseason training camp.

A highly influential part of the Little Giants’ preparations has been new defensive coordinator Mike Ridings. Ridings joined Wabash this January from Keiser University where his defensive unit allowed an average of just 18 points per game. Prior to his time at Keiser, he spent four years at Marian University in Indianapolis where, in 2019, he was named American Football Coaches Association NAIA Assistant Coach of the Year.

“I think Mike [Ridings] is going to bring a new look to our defense,” said Morel. “We've looked good in practice. Our players are enthusiastic and we're looking for a completely new level of energy from the defense. Our fans are passionate, and they want to know how the defense is going to be, but I think you're going to get a good taste of it on Saturday.”

If a “good taste” of Wabash’s new-look defense is what Morel wants, he couldn’t have asked for better opening day opponents than Hampden-Sydney. The Tigers, by Morel’s own admission, have two star players on offense, namely quarterback Tanner Bernard and wide receiver Braeden Bowling. There is no doubt that the Little Giants defense will be pushed to its absolute max, the perfect test of Ridings’ fresh system. But Hampden-Sydney’s strengths do not end with Bernard and Bowling.

“Yes, Hampton-Sydney have a very talented quarterback and wide receiver,” said Morel. “We're going to have our hands full there. But defensively too, they have a number of players returning. So, I think Saturday is going to be a real challenge.”

Despite a disappointing 2021 season, expectations are high going into the new year. In a preseason poll of NCAC coaches, Wabash was picked to finish in second place, behind rivals DePauw. But the season, as Morel sees it, is a marathon, not a sprint.

“You have to take the season in daily bites,” said Morel. “It is one day at a time for the next 11 weeks. And if you looked at the enormity of it all, it would be overwhelming. So, I don't lend much credence to that [NCAC coaches] poll. I'm happy where we are, and we'll let the chips fall where they may.”

But despite Morel’s efforts not to focus too much on preseason hype, there is no escaping first day nerves.

“Every college football coach is terrified of the first game because they're full of the unknown unknowns,” added Morel. “We are going to have some guy run the wrong way. There is going to be a silly turnover and a stupid penalty. It's the nature of the first game. You just hope it's not a critical mistake. Hopefully we've worked those out.”

Morel’s team takes to the field for the first time in 2022 tomorrow at 1pm. Prior to kickoff, the team will celebrate the accomplishments of its senior class for senior day. But while there may be more than 135 years of football tradition on the shoulders of these Little Giants, beginning tomorrow they have the chance to write their own history.