Mike DuFrane is the fourth coach to try to kick-start the football program at Finlandia, which started in 2015 and has won just five games. In his second year, DuFrane, who won a Stagg Bowl as a Warhawk defensive lineman, is beginning to see the growth at D-III's smallest school with a football program.
The young program at Finlandia has almost had more head coaches than wins in its five-season tenure, but the fourth head coach in the program's history is Mike DuFrane, who started on a national title team at Whitewater and has coached at Carthage, Dubuque and Marietta among others.
With the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference facing the potential loss of its automatic bid, the conference has turned to Finlandia. The program has won just two countable games in the past four seasons, including two winless seasons in the MIAA.
Typically schools in their fourth year of football get to celebrate a large senior class and often experience a lot of success. But Finlandia played just four countable games last year, has had constant roster turnover and went through two coaches this offseason alone. Brian Lester catches up with a work in progress.
Finlandia, which has struggled to get its Division III football program off the ground, has changed coaches for the second time this offseason, as Robert Boss is out and Travis Wiltzius has been named to the role on an interim basis.
Division III football came to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the first time when Finlandia took the field on Saturday. And after a shutout loss to Alma, the Lions have some work to do. Here's a look at the scene and coach Tim Driscoll's postgame reaction.
Cortland has definitely put last year's early-season struggles behind it, while Alma got off to a fast start at Finlandia, Western New England beat a crosstown rival and Illinois Wesleyan appears on the upswing. The Week 1 roundup.