SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – It's Viking Days as the No. 24 Augustana football team hosts Wayne State Saturday at 1 p.m. inside Kirkeby-Over Stadium.
Tickets to the contest are available at GoAugie.com/Tickets. Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app. The app can be downloaded in the app store or Google Play.
About the Game
It's a battle of two of the best teams in the NSIC as both squads own a 5-1 record, both lost on the same Saturday and are coming off bounce-back wins.
In a battle on homecoming, Augustana owns a 9-3 record on Viking Days games played inside Kirkeby-Over Stadium.
About the Wildcats
Wayne State is back on the winning track after a 31-33 toppling of Minnesota State. The term back to winning is because Wayne State, 5-1 on the year, suffered its only loss of the season on Oct. 1 at Winona State, 38-14. Against MSU, the Wildcats racked up 550 yards of total offense with 279 on the ground and 271 through the air. By comparison, they gave up 541 yards of total offense. WSC holds two of the three reigning NSIC Players of the Week with linebacker Alex Kowalczyk earning the honor after 18 tackles. Alex Powders, the kicker and punter, earned the special teams honor with a pair of field goals and 5-of-5 PAT attempts.
For the season, Anthony Watkins and Nick Bohn provided a 1-2 punch at running back with 73.2 and 65.3 yards per game, respectively. Bohn, listed as QB 1, has tossed for 10 touchdowns and 1,223 yards against just two interceptions. His top target is Lee Mason with 18 receptions for 343 yards. Jadon Johnson is the top receiver by yards at 368 and the top receiver in touchdowns with four.
Wayne State averages 33 points a game while giving up 22.6 points. A high-powered offense, WSC totals 432.3 yards per game while the defense limits its opponents to 346.5 yards per outing.
About the Vikings
Augustana, 5-1 on the season and 1-1 in the NSIC South, earned a 31-14 win at Upper Iowa this past week to vault back into the AFCA Top-25. The Vikings racked up 435 yards of total offense in the game while holding the Peacocks to 285 yards and just 55 yards rushing. Augustana ran for 256 yards on the ground with 135 from the feet of Isaiah Huber and 94 from David Addo. The duo recorded three of AU's four touchdowns on the day.
For the season, Addo is the team leader with 75 rushing attempts and 349 yards rushing. Huber, who made his debut at running back at UIU, has rushed nine times for the 135 yards. Receiving, Jack Fisher owns four touchdowns on 288 yards while Devon Jones has three touchdowns with 199 yards receiving.
Defensively, T.J. Liggett leads AU with 43 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss. Grayson Diepenbrock set the program record for career sacks this past week with 23.5 while he has 10 tackles for loss in 2022.
The defense continues to dominate the line of scrimmage ranking 11th in NCAA Division II by allowing just 70.7 yards rushing per game. In all, the Vikings give up 326 yards of offense while compiling 374.7 yards themselves. Augustana also controls time of possession ranking 10th in the nation with an average of 33:26 per game.
Who to Watch for
Eli Weber, the NSIC South Division Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, ranks 22nd in NCAA Division II with three interceptions. That puts him second in the NSIC with his average of essentially an interception every other game. In addition, Weber is ninth in the NSIC with his one pass defended per game when you combine his pass breakups and interceptions.
100th Season Tidbit
Augustana first had a Homecoming celebration in 1924 with the Vikings prevailing 32-0 over Dakota State. The official name of Viking Days came in 1929, an 18-0 win over USD Springfield. The next year? Augustana played a night game for Viking Days, marking the first nighttime celebration of homecoming.
Since then, Viking Days has taken many forms but the football game has remained constant. In Viking Days contests played inside K-O, AU is 9-3 and winners of three straight.
One Last Thing
Diepenbrock can truly call himself the sack king when he records his next sack. Already the owner of the career-sack record at Augustana with 23.5, he has tied the single-season sack record at 8.0. The single-season record has been tied many times, but never broken. Initially set by Devon Bartscher in 1985, the record of 8.0 sacks has been tied by Tony Adkins (1986), Lee Pulse (1992 & 1993) and Jamal Samaha (2015) and now Diepenbrock (2022).
--GoAugie.com--
