Once upon a time in Indiana there was a man named Steward Faught. Steward preferred to be called Red and Red played quarterback for the Indiana State Sycamores. About ten years after he graduated, Red joined the faculty at Franklin College where he became the face of Grizzlies football. Red served as Franklin’s Head Coach for 29 years, instituting an aggressive passing attack during his tenure.

Though Red passed away, two parts of the Franklin football program bear his legacy. One is the field’s name — Steward “Red” Faught Stadium. The other is the tradition of a strong passing offense now overseen by Head Coach Mike Leonard.

This year Franklin leads the HCAC in passing yards per game and Grizzlies Quarterback Chad Rupp leads the conference in total offense. Rupp has put up 1,182 yards and 12 TDs to only 2 interceptions for the Grizzlies (5-0, 3-0 HCAC). On Saturday Franklin faces their most important test as two-time defending conference champion Mt. St. Joseph (5-0, 3-0) comes to Red Faught Stadium. Powered by senior running back Mike Lovell (124.4 ypg, 9 TDs), the Lions are close to breaking into the Top 25. A win over Franklin might put them into the Top 25 for the first time since 2004. It definitely would put them in the driver’s seat in the HCAC.

D3football’s Wes Anderson and Steve Powell will be at Franklin to bring you the action live starting at 1:15 PM for our first broadcast of an HCAC football game.

Elsewhere…

Wish you were here:We’ll have lots of people at Saturday’s battle between No. 2 UW-Whitewater and No. 6 UW-La Crosse. K-Mack is kicking off his Run to the Playoffs Tour with this WIAC showdown while Ryan Coleman and his photography phriends do their thing.

Just to be different, if I could go anywhere this weekend, I’d head to Ada, Ohio where No. 17 Ohio Northern hosts No. 4 Capital. In most years the game between the OAC’s second and third best teams has been a de facto playoff game with Mount Union providing the crippling second loss to whichever team loses this game, effectively quashing their postseason hopes. Since the OAC put a second team in the playoffs at 8-2 last year, the situation may not be quite as dire now. But ONU needs to bounce back off the 49-7 thrashing they took in Alliance last weekend. I’d love to be on hand to see if they could do it.

Don’t sleep on this one: Sticking with the North Region, the NCAC also has a big game as Wittenberg (3-2, 2-0 NCAC) hosts Wabash (4-1, 3-0 NCAC). After losing their first two games, the Tigers will try to knock off NCAC contenders Wooster and Wabash in consecutive weeks. But Wabash knows they need a win here, particularly after dropping their opener to Franklin.

Super Ridiculous Pick of the Week: Two weeks ago I made the following predictions for the Major League Baseball Playoffs.

Dodgers over Mets in 5
Padres over Cards in 4
Twins over As in 4
Yankees over Tigers in 3

Um, not so much. I hereby place myself on a one week suspension from making any more predictions.

Most likely Top 25 team to lose: Since I’m suspended, you can play this game without me. Remember, you can’t pick a team who is playing another Top 25 team. That still leaves some intriguing prospects — No. 16 Cortland State at Western Connecticut, No. 19 Wheaton (Ill.) at Augustana, Brockport at No. 22 Springfield.

And finally…

It’s not Browns-Steelers, but it should still be fun Undefeated Carnegie Mellon plays 3-2 Case Western Reserve as the UAA opens conference play.