Ferris football is gearing up for the playoffs so now it’s time for the Bulldogs to graze the pastures.
The Bulldogs have landed the No. 2 seed and will take on the No. 7 seed Midwestern State Mustangs in the first round of the Div. 2 playoffs.
The Dawgs finished the regular season at 9-2, with a third consecutive playoff berth. Ferris has been knocked out in the first and second round the past two years. But the Bulldogs are ready, and they have been preparing for this opportunity all season.
Senior center Jake Daugherty said the offensive line has a motto about putting in work every day.
“The motto has always been ‘the cows gotta eat the grass’,” Daugherty said. “Grinding every day in practice is our grass.”
The Bulldogs feast on the daily work they put in to survive the trials of the season. The work they’ve put in has payed dividends at the end of the week so far.
Daugherty said: “It helps at the end of the week when the hay is in the barn and the works done and we can come into Saturday feeling prepared.”
Heading into the playoffs, Head Coach Tony Annese believes the Bulldogs have done the work and are now ready to reap the benefits of this third playoff run opportunity.
Annese said: “We need to focus on the things this team can do this year. We’ve played well our last five games. It was a battle for us to be the team we need to be. We found our groove now, and I feel good about where we are.”
This mentality of eating the grass every day is also a day-by-day mentality. The work can’t be done tomorrow if you don’t put the work in today. That work has shown itself through in the Dawgs’ dominant offense.
Daugherty is a critical part of the Ferris rushing attack, which is second in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Atheltic Conference (GLIAC) with 267.4 yards per game. The Bulldogs’ heavily quarterback-run-centered offense has been gashing the GLIAC all season long. Junior transfer quarterback Reggie Bell uses his agility to flash to the outside while junior running back Jahaan Brown has been taking the majority of the carries up the middle.
Brown has improved his game greatly from last season. Brown ran for 572 yards and three touchdowns in 2015. This year, Brown has run for 824 yards and seven touchdowns with games still to play. His ability to make cuts behind the line of scrimmage and hit the creases between the tackles has complemented Bell’s scat-back running style.
“Jahaan is like the shepherd of the cows, if you will,” Daugherty said. “We do all the dirty work so he can get the touchdowns. It’s great when we got a shepherd like that and a bunch of cows up front getting it done.”
The Bulldog defense has been a great compliment to the offense as the best rush defense in the GLIAC allowing only 105.6 rush yards per game. This is the consequence of a defense that treats every set of downs like an individual drive. On Saturday, Nov. 13, the Bulldogs beat the Cardinals 51-17, holding the Cardinals to five of 18 on third down.
As for now, there’s still more pasture to graze for the Bulldogs on the way to the playoffs. Ferris will take on Midwestern State 12 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at Top Taggart Field.