By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Norm Eash has a problem as he begins his 31st season as Illinois Wesleyan’s head football coach.
Senior and two year-starter Jack Warner is set to return after missing the entire 2016 season due to complications from knee surgery.
So who starts?
In Warner’s absence, freshman Brandon Bauer laid claim to the starting job tossing for 1,446 yards and 16 touchdowns in leading IWU to a 7-2 record.
“It’s a great problem to have,” Eash said. “It’s interesting because both of them lead a team very well. Both of them are playmaking and our team responds to both of them.”
For their parts, Bauer and Warner won’t let their battle for the top spot create a wedge in their friendship.
“(Bauer) looked to me for some advice and a little bit of coaching early on, but he’s a smart quarterback too,” Warner said. “There’s no grudges or anything of that nature.”
Bauer figures whoever ends up taking most of the snaps this season, the offense’s focus will likely be on the quarterback more this season, after Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore rushed for 1,143 yards and nine touchdowns as a senior in 2016.
“We are going to get the passing game more involved then we did last year because we have a ton of playmakers on the outside at wide receiver,” Bauer said.
The biggest question on defense will likely be at linebacker, where the Titans lost three of their top tacklers. One of Wesleyan’s top defensive returnees is Brinton Wilkey Jr. who will be moved from defensive back to linebacker, though he doesn’t see it as much of a change.
“The title is changing, I’m pretty much doing the same thing,” Wilkey said referring to his role as a safety who often lined up with the linebackers. “They knew I was big and fast to they wanted me out the outside to contain, but they knew I was fast enough to cover receivers.”
IWU will open the season on Sept. 2 hosting No. 3-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater. That’s the first of three matchups against the NCAA Top 10 teams in September.
“I’m telling the kids it’s the toughest Division 3 football schedules in the country,” Warner said. “I think it is. I don’t know if anybody else is playing these type of teams in the first five weeks.”
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
