Reilly, CWU play Grand Valley St.
Lakers won 4 of last 5 national titles
Most college football fans have heard of his next opponent.
Former Flathead High School quarterback Mike Reilly has been beating up on teams most fans have never heard of in NCAA Division II football, but he and his Central Washington Wildcats go up against a very well-known team on Saturday: Grand Valley State.
With two playoff victories under their belts, the Wildcats travel to Allendale, Mich., for an 11 a.m. quarterfinal playoff game kickoff.
Winners of four of the last five D-II national championships, Grand Valley State has won 39 straight games. The Lakers have 97 victories this century. That's more than any other D-I, I-AA, or D-II school. Only Mount Union (D-III) has more victories this century, with 108. (Coincidentally, the Montana Grizzlies are third on that list with 91; Boise State is fourth with 86.)
The game on Saturday is also the Northwest Regional championship, pitting the fourth-seeded Wildcats (10-2) against the second-seeded Lakers (11-0). Reilly's Wildcats upset top seed Nebraska-Omaha last weekend, 20-17, with two touchdowns in the game's final 2 minutes, 49 seconds. They avenged a 59-21 loss to UNO two weeks prior.
"Man, that was a wild game," Reilly said. "It's hard to beat a team twice. They came at us with the same stuff and we kept the things that worked and threw out the things that didn't."
It'll be a battle of Harlon Hill Trophy candidates (the D-II player of the year) in quarterbacks Brad Iciek and Reilly. Iciek has thrown for 2,401 yards and 27 touchdowns. Reilly has thrown for 3,111 yards and 27 touchdowns.
The bad news for Reilly is the Lakers' defense allows just 136 yards passing and 12 points per game. They've allowed just five passing touchdowns.
"It's funny because you look and see those numbers and expect to see a juggernaut, but on film they aren't very big," Reilly said. "Their defensive line is about 250 (pounds) across the board and their linebackers are about 210 to 220 pounds. But they fly around. They have great team speed and they don't make mistakes and they don't try to do too much.
"We'll just have to take what they give us and hope it will happen a lot."
The Lakers run a base 4-3 defense with a lot of cover-2 and cover-3.
"We've been seeing a lot of 3-man fronts this season so we've had to change some of our protection schemes a little bit," Reilly said.
Running an offense similar to the St. Louis Rams and Washington State Cougars, CWU's rushing game has taken some pressure off of Reilly. Running back Johnny Lopez has rushed for 1,329 yards (102 yards per game) and 13 touchdowns. Reilly's favorite receiver is Johnny Spevak, who has 82 catches for 1,076 yards and 13 touchdowns.
The Lakers' Lubbers Stadium is one of the best in D-II. Complete with lights and a video display on the scoreboard, GVSU averages a little less than 12,000 fans per home game.
"I don't know if it's the best stadium out there, but with the natural grass and the fans the atmosphere has got to be up there as the best," Reilly said. "All this week, I've gotten about 30 or 40 of their students sending me messages, trying to get into my head. It shows their team spirit. We're a little jealous of that.
"But we're not nervous. This just gets us more excited. We like being the underdog. We loved going up and playing North Dakota in the dome with loud fans.
"A lot of teams go into Grand Valley without confidence. But we've got it. I'm fully expecting us to go out there and win.
"I had a quote taken out of context out here, basically predicting a win, and a lot of their fans took it personally. I hope all those fans are screaming their heads off and yelling my name to try and get me to mess up."
A victory would plant Central Washington into the national semifinals, which will be televised on ESPN.
"If that's not motivation enough, I don't know what is," Reilly said.