Max Gruber wanted to touch the ball with more than just his feet. Occidental athletics photo by Bob Palermini

It seems like if the Occidental football team needs something, the Tigers simply turn to Max Gruber to take care of it.

Gruber is a jack-of-all-trades for the Tigers’ special teams units – handling kickoffs as well as returning kicks. Plus, this season, he’ll play a larger role on offense.

Maybe if he has any extra time – in between chemistry labs as he preps to be a pediatric neurosurgeon – he’ll drive the bus to road games, cook team meals and take care of the postgame laundry. He could probably handle it.

“He’s quite an athlete,” Occidental head coach Doug Semones said. “The kid’s squared away, hard-working, self-motivated, all those things. That’s what we get at Oxy. He’s a pleasure to coach.”

While playing high school football, Gruber originally aspired to be a kicker at the Division I level. But by his junior year, he realized he rather be involved in other facets of the game too and turned his attention to the Division III level.

“When I got here, I just kind of fell into my niche,” the 6-foot, 200-pound junior said. “And my niche ended up being a kick returner at the same time as kicking off.”

Gruber also takes care of the team’s tiger-punt, which is a rugby-style kick inside of 50 yards. He can either try to pin opponents deep or run for the first down.

This year’s he’s playing slot back too.

Semones said they recruited Gruber out of high school. Gruber spent one year at RPI before transferring to Oxy. (RPI had a pretty good kicker whom you may have seen in uniform for the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.) When Gruber arrived on campus, he filled the Tigers’ need for a kicker.

“We don’t really have this specialist, so we’ve had to go to the roster to find guys that can do those things,” Semones explained. “Max has a big leg and he’s going to handle all the kickoff duties for us.”

Because he kicks and returns, Gruber understands the strategy of both positions. He uses that insight to his advantage.

“In the sense of kickoff return, knowing that a good kicker is probably going to place the ball outside between the hash and the numbers with a hang time of around 4 seconds, knowing that really helps understand where the blocks are coming down and where the snipers are going to end up on the outside,” he said. “In the frame of kickoff, I want it to be in the air as long as I can or I want it to be a line drive out of the end zone.”

Gruber does not prefer one area of special teams over the other, noting both are necessary. However, he said returning kicks is more challenging.

“Kicking is simply putting your weight into the ball and following through, as opposed to kickoff return where you have to follow the blocks with your eyes, make moves and stuff like that,” he explained.

After serving as a backup running back last year, Gruber will play slot back this season.

“He’s an offensive guy. He can run with the football and he can catch the football. Skill-wise, he’s a really good athlete. He’s really fast and he’s big. We’re trying to find ways to get the ball in his hands,” Semones said. “He didn’t play enough last year, I felt like. He’s such a talented kid, we don’t want him on the bench waiting for something to happen. We need to get him in the game and get him the ball.”

Gruber said he is always excited to play more and does not believe his increased role on offense will have an influence on his performance on special teams.

“I just try not to concentrate too hard on one focus, and just let it all come naturally,” Gruber said.

Practice can be challenging, but Gruber balances his responsibilities well. He explained that in a normal scenario, special teams practice separately. But that’s not an option for Oxy’s utility player.

“Most of the time I’m pretty much with the offense, and when (Semones) calls special teams, I just run up and do my job,” Gruber said. “I’m just the tool, he tells me where to hammer.”

Max Gruber had some success in limited action as a placekicker for the Tigers last season. Occidental athletics photo by Bob Palermini

Gruber has always been able to balance responsibilities. He was a three sport athlete in high school – and is thinking about throwing javelin for Occidental’s track team this spring. And he is a chemistry major with aspirations to be a doctor, which sometimes requires leaving practice early to attend labs.

“He’s one of those kids that takes care of his business,” Semones said. “He’s on point. I never worry about him not being able to take care of his responsibilities. He knows what he has to do (and) he time-manages.”

Occidental won its season opener at Puget Sound, 46-41, Saturday. Gruber caught two of Bryan Scott’s five touchdown passes, finishing with three catches and 71 yards receiving.

Gruber averaged 62.3 yards on eight kickoffs with one touchback, and he returned three kicks for 71 yards, including a long of 34. He added a solo tackle as well.

The win allowed the Tigers to complete their goal of winning an out-of-state road trip. Oxy hopes it can meet other goals this season – most notably, winning the SCIAC title.

“We’re going to try and win SCIAC,” Semones said. “We finished third the last two years. We want to move up on that.”

Gruber will do whatever is necessary to help Occidental reach that goal, whether that means kicking the ball, returning kicks or catching passes.

“It’s up to Coach Semones,” Gruber joked. “I’m always down to play some safety or linebacker, if he needs it.”

Ranked teams square off

There were two games featuring Top 25 opponents from the West Region this week.

Wartburg defeated host Bethel, 24-14. For the Knights, it was the second straight close game against an opponent from the MIAC.

The Royals intercepted Logan Schrader twice and Bryce Marquardt caught a game-tying touchdown pass from Andrew Dzurik in the third quarter. However Wartburg took the lead with 4:38 to go on a Michael Bohlke 31-yard field goal, and Brandon Domeyer iced the game with a 16-yard touchdown – his second scoring run of the day.

In McMinnville, Linfield rolled by visiting Chapman, 52-14, in a rematch of 2014 playoff foes.

Chapman had the initial lead as Jeremiah McKibbins broke the school’s record with his 28th career touchdown run. However, the Wildcats racked up 45 straight points to take control of the game.

Linfield scored on a punt block return, an interception return and a punt return in the victory.

Number of the week

99 – as in the number of yards in Zach Martinelli’s school-record touchdown reception during Central’s comeback win over Monmouth. Martinelli became the 34th player in NCAA Division III history to record a 99-yard touchdown catch. The play sparked the Dutch, who then got a game-tying field goal from Taylor Cox as the final seconds of regulation expired and a 2-yard touchdown run from Adam Lindell in overtime to win, 23-17.

The rest of the West

UW-Oshkosh defeated startup program Finlandia, 86-0, Saturday. It’s the most points in the 121-year history of the Titans’ football program as 11 players scored touchdowns. ... George Fox surrendered 499 yards of total offense but rallied in the second half to defeat Redlands, 39-35. ... Nick Martin was a perfect 9-for-9 with three touchdown passes in St. John’s 56-7 victory over Buena Vista. ... The three-headed rushing attack of Christian Moore, Damon Stroup and Brady Letney combined for 297 yards and five touchdowns in Luther’s 34-16 win over St. Olaf. ... Ian Kolste completed 22 of 41 passes for 305 yards and five touchdowns to lead Whitworth to a 47-11 victory over Whittier. ... Kyle Johnson threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns, helping Hamline improve to 2-0 with a 27-10 win over Macalester. ... Claremont-Mudd-Scripps picked up its first win of the year, topping Lewis and Clark, 27-7. However, the Stags don’t play again until Oct. 3, so they’ll have to wait to try for their second victory. ... Jesse Addo, Steve Harrell and Anthony King-Foreman had two sacks each to help St. Thomas shut down UW-La Crosse. The Tommies ended the game with nine sacks and won 51-7. ... Trever Wood needed just three catches to total 136 yards receiving and two touchdowns as Cal Lutheran defeated Pacific Lutheran, 30-26. ... UW-Whitewater forced four turnovers and began its title defense with a 62-6 win at Belhaven, giving new head coach Kevin Bullis his first win. ... UMAC began conference play with Minnesota-Morris, Westminster (Mo.), Eureka, St. Scholastica and Northwestern (Minn.) earning victories. ... Hank Kujak passed for 418 yards and three touchdowns as UW-Stout won a shootout at Loras, 52-42. ... Coe amassed 729 yards of total offense in a 50-3 win over Cornell. ... Mitch Munda caught nine passes for 115 yards and a touchdown, and UW-Platteville cruised to a 31-7 win at Dubuque in the Battle for the Bridge.

Rank ’em

Eight teams in the West Region are ranked in this week’s Top 25 poll and three others received votes.

UW-Whitewater remains ranked No. 1, garnering 19 first place votes. Linfield collected two first place votes and is ranked No. 3.

Wartburg and St. John’s remained ranked in the top 10 at Nos. 6 and 8, respectively. St. Thomas will spend another week as the 12th-ranked team.

UW-Oshkosh rose four spots to No. 20 while rival UW-Platteville climbed three places to No. 22. After falling to Wartburg, Bethel slid four spots to No. 23.

Chapman fell out of the Top 25 following its loss to Linfield.

Concordia-Moorhead (17), Chapman (12) and Pacific (2) received votes in this week’s poll.

Be heard

Do you have a story idea for the Around the West column? Contact me about approaching milestones, broken records, break-out players or any other storylines in the Region. Or just drop me a note to let me know what you think of the column. All ideas and feedback are welcome. Email me at josh.smith@d3sports.com or follow me on Twitter @By_Josh_Smith.