By Clyde Hughes
D3sports.com
Mike Leonard confessed that he saw the signs of Chad Rupp's greatness in high school at Evansville Memorial when he ran a football camp to teach that coaching staff his offensive schemes.
Rupp was a junior-to-be at Memorial, but Leonard said he liked what he saw out of the youngster and was more than happy that he chose to attend Franklin when he graduated.
But near the end of his freshman year, Rupp thought about giving up football, or least at Franklin. Leonard said it was Rupp's father, Pete, who intervened and told his son to stick it out.
Franklin, ranked No. 18 in the country and making its second consecutive playoff appearance, almost certainly would not be the same team without him. Rupp as the Grizzlies travel to suburban Columbus, Ohio Saturday for the first round playoff against Ohio Athletic Conference runners-up Otterbein (9-1).
Rupp, now a senior, has been rewarded for sticking it out at Franklin. He was a third-team All-American last year and on the verge of etching his name into the Grizzlies record books even more.
Leonard said he first had to get his star quarterback through his freshman season.
"He's a classic example of a talented freshman talented but behind couple of upper classsmen," Leonard said. "By all rights he could have been playing as a freshman, but we kept him on ice. He almost gave it up. His father told him to tough it out and give it a chance."
Rupp showed promise with a big game against Hanover the end of his first year. The next season, after Rupp played a pivotal part of the Grizzlies' upset over nationally-ranked Wabash in the second game of the 2006 season, there was no keeping him off the field.
Rupp said he is happy things turned out the way it did, particularly the decision about staying at Franklin.
"Looking back now I couldn't be more happy and excited," Rupp said. "I have lifelong friends that I will always have and we've had a lot of success on the football field. It's been a lot of fun and I wouldn't change it for anything."
Reece Mann's career at Franklin, 1987-90, has long been the gold standard for Franklin quarterbacks, but Rupp is on the verge of wiping his name from several places in the Grizzlies' annals.
Rupp's 90 career touchdown passes has already obliterated Mann's record of 79. He's on the verge of also shattering Reece's career completion percentage mark of 57.6. Rupp career percentage is currently at 67.4.
Mann's career passing yardage and completion marks are also under assault by Rupp. Rupp needs 11 more completions to tie Mann's career mark of 626 and needs 156 more yards to equal Mann's 8,735-yard total.
Rupp said despite all the success, the thing that he treasures the most about his experience has been his teammates.
"I will have a lot of great memories with these guys, whether it's in the game or just hanging out." Rupp said.
To reach those record marks, though, Rupp will have to do it against an outstanding Otterbein Cardinal team that has been impressive on both sides of the ball all season long. Rupp carries not only the hope of his team, but the conference on his shoulders.
The HCAC is 1-10 in the playoffs since 1999, the lone win coming in 2000 when Hanover beat Hope from the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Conference 20-3. Rupp said a Franklin playoff win is the one thing that's missing from a record he would like to have.
"The senior class has won a lot of good things here," Rupp said. "We've got that first taste of playoffs last year (44-42 loss to North Central in the first round) and lost a tough one at the wire. I know I can speak for the rest of team when I say this is a big game and we want this one really bad. Otterbein is a great team and we really will have to battle but we really want it."
Leonard said Rupp's experience and play will be a key factor in the game on Saturday.
"Chad and his experience is extremely valuable to us," Leonard said. "As a team, we're more familiar with the playoffs. We have a very good opponent in Otterbein. I think is probably the toughest draw we could have gotten. Chad's experience will suit him well for this game in Columbus."
Rupp is 25-4 as a starter for Franklin. The combined point difference of those losses is 11 points. In short, Franklin had every opportunity to be perfect with Rupp as the signal caller.
"We've always been darn close with him," Leonard said. "He brings a competitiveness and a determined desire to win. That's what he brings to our team and the players respond to that."
Rupp will give it one last shot to win some big games in the postseason.
North Central trying to prove itself on new level
North Central (10-0) found itself at the end of the season in the place usually reserved for the Division III titans like UW-Whitewater, or a Mary Hardin-Baylor -- among the top two ranked teams in the country next to powerful Mount Union.
The ranking helped the Cardinals win a No. 1 regional playoff seed for the first time in school history and home field advantage through regional play. North Central coach John Thorne said now comes the hard part -- proving the Cardinals deserve it.
"We're happy for the fans and students that we get a chance to be at home," said Thorne, whose team successfully defending its College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin title this year. "Now we have to go out and prove that we deserve that No. 1 ranking, so we have a lot of work to do."
Thomas More (8-2) won't make it easy on them. More went undefeated in the tough Presidents' Athletic Conference, averaging nearly 250 yards a game on the ground.
"They are a lot faster than we thought they would be," Thorne said. "They have good size and like to spread things out. We've got to stop the run first and control the ball ourselves and get some points on the board."
Thorne said one of the things he hopes is to his advantage was the competitiveness of the CCIW this year. North Central scored big wins over No. 25 Wheaton, and fought off challenges from Carthage and Elmhurst to stay undefeated in CCIW play.
"The last five games we played teams with good winning percentages and had to play hard each week," Thorne said. "I think our guys are ready for the contact level that always happens when you're in the playoffs.
"I think it helps a great deal when you have to work hard week after week and have to play four quarters. If you get too many games where get ahead you're not use to not working hard four quarters, it gets hard to just turn that on in the playoffs. We're hoping being in a competitive conference helps us a great deal."
Thorne said even though many of his players are nursing injuries from those competitive games, he said all of his key starters will be suited up and ready for action Saturday.
Other Midwest teams in the playoffs
Monmouth (10-0) and Aurora (9-1) will have a chance to score an important victory for its respective conferences on Saturday. Monmouth, who replaces St. Norbert as the Midwest Conference champions, will be trying to win that conference's first playoff game since 2003, when St. Norbert beat Simpson 26-20 in two overtimes in the opening round.
Aurora, whose old conference (Illini-Badger Football Conference) struggled with win playoff games, will be trying to score the first playoff win for the new Northern Athletic Conference.
Both are somewhat surprise entries. St. Norbert was expected to win the Midwest Conference before Monmouth snapped the Green Knights' 29-game conference winning streak earlier this year.
Aurora was picked to finish no better than third place behind Concordia (Wis.) and Lakeland, the top teams in the IBC a year ago, but managed to run the table in the NathC to become that conference's first playoff representative.
Wheaton, the CCIW's second team, will travel to Angola, Ind., to take on the probably one of surprise teams in the country in nationally ranked Trine (formerly Tri-State, if you didn't remember). Wheaton was nationally ranked before its losses to North Central (not a surprise) and Elmhurst (surprise).
Trine has beaten HCAC champion Franklin and won the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Conference going away.
