Mount Union to open NCAA football playoffs vs. Salisbury (Md.)
For the University of Mount Union football program the NCAA Division III playoff football pairings are not much different than a youngster having a good idea of what he or she is going to receive on Christmas.
They just don’t know the particulars.
For instance, the kid knows he’s going to find a football under the tree. He just doesn’t know what make.
Wilson? Nike? Adidas?
So it goes with second-ranked Mount Union and the first round of the Division III playoffs, which begin nationwide on Saturday.
Just as it has for the 31 of the last 33 years ― not counting 2020 when the tournament was canceled due to COVID and 2016 when Mount Union did not win the Ohio Athletic Conference title ― it knew it knew an automatic bid was assured on Saturday the instant wide receiver Wayne Ruby caught a 48-yard pass and tiptoed into the end zone as time expired to beat Baldwin Wallace on a Hail Mary pass that bounced off a defender's helmet.
All that remained was the name of the opponent and if the undefeated Purple Raiders would host a game or be forced to travel. Speculation ran from Mount St. Joseph to Carnegie Mellon to Susquehanna. Consensus was Mount Union would host a first-round game.
The answers came Sunday a little bit after 5 p.m. when it was announced on the Division III selection show on ncaa.com that Mount Union will play Salisbury (Md.) at noon in Kehres Stadium.
Salisbury won its fourth straight New Jersey Athletic Conference championship on Saturday by beating Christopher Newport, 36-33, to earn its automatic bid.
The Seagulls (9-1, 6-0) were not ranked in the Top 25 of the D3football.com ratings but were 25th in last week’s American Football Coaches Assn. poll.
Mount Union and Salisbury have never played.
This will be Salisbury’s 13th NCAA appearance. It lost in the first round to Johns Hopkins, 45-20, last year, and Mount eliminated Johns Hopkins the following week, 45-35.
“We don’t know much about them,” Mount Union coach Geoff Dartt said. “We just got the film and from what we can see they tend to run the ball more than throw it.”
The Seagulls scored an average of 36.6 points while allowing 14.6. It rolled up 3,521 yards rushing but only 650 passing. Quarterback Ben Hutchins only attempted 52 passes — completing 22 — for 409 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions. Running back Joey Bildstein carried the ball 178 times for 1,215 yards and 15 touchdowns and two other backs combined for 115 carries, 1,019 yards and 12 touchdowns.
That should be good news for Mount Union, which had the second-best run defense in the nation, according to NCAA statistics. Opponents ran 290 times in 10 games and gained just 450 yards or 45 yards per game.
If the Purple Raiders win Saturday they will advance to play the winner between Susquehanna (10-0) and Utica (9-1). Other first-round games in the Raiders’ quarter-bracket include Randoph-Macon (10-0) vs. SUNY-Cortland (9-1) and Delaware Valley (9-1) vs. Gallaudet (7-2).
Susquehanna, located in Pennsylvania, is ranked 11th in the D3football.com poll. Delaware Valley (Pa.) is 14th, Randolph-Macon (Va.) is 16th and SUNY-Cortland (NY.) is 17th. Unranked Gallaudet, located in Washington, D.C., is a research university for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing.
Mount Union has qualified for its 33rd NCAA postseason and has won more national championships (13) than any other program. The Purple Raiders are 106-18 all-time in the NCAA playoffs, while Salisbury is 12-13.
The 2022 national championship game is December 16 at Navy Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, Md.
This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Mount Union football hosts Salisbury (Md.) in NCAA Division III
