The Waynesburg University football team is looking at the positives heading into its Week Three contest against the Bethany College Bison.

For starters, several key players that were banged up with injuries in the past couple of weeks are on the upswing. One of those players is senior defensive back Justin Willkow, who suffered a stinger in a preseason scrimmage against Frostburg State.

“[Justin] Willkow is still day-to-day, but we’re hopeful that he’ll be back this week,” said head coach Chris Smithley. “We thought that he could play Saturday but the doctor thought that it would be smarter to hold off a little bit longer just to be safe.”

Willkow, who was a second-team all-PAC defensive back a year ago, missed the first two games of the season and the secondary has struggled, surrendering the second-most passing yards defensively in the conference.

However, Bethany is primarily a running team, averaging just under 200 rushing yards and is led by dual-threat quarterback Carlin Bason and second-team all-PAC all-purpose back Raekwon Wright.

“They might be the two fastest guys in the PAC,” said Smithley. “We’ve got to press them, make them feel stressed and get them to the ground. When they break tackles, that is when they make big plays.”

Luckily for the offense, Waynesburg seems to have the quarterback situation mostly figured out. Senior Jake Dougherty is the tentative starting quarterback heading into week three, a position that he doesn’t feel he has completely won yet.

“I think it still has to be won,” said Dougherty. “We’ve got to watch the film. I didn’t play very well, I take blame for the loss as the quarterback. I didn’t really know that I was going to play since I knew that Tyler [Perone] was starting, but I was shocked and really excited about the opportunity.”

Dougherty and Perone have different playing styles, but both offer certain strengths that give them an advantage when they’re at the helm. Perone has been described as having a fantastic arm while Dougherty claims he doesn’t have as much strength, so he has developed a run game as quarterback.

“[Dougherty’s] ability to create something positive out of a play that could be a negative can’t be taught,” Smithley said. “For the same reasons Ben Roethlisberger has success, not that I would compare anybody to [Roethlisberger], [Dougherty] has some of those same instincts he can do where he can make people miss in the pocket and make a play.”

Smithley has also stated that the starting spot is Dougherty’s job for now, and feels confident going up against a Bethany defense that is much simpler to adjust to compared to Westminster’s.

“They’re going to be either a three-man or four-man front, playing a cover three or cover one,” said Smithley. “They’re not going to give you a bunch of different looks on defense and they’re very sound. It’s good for them, but when we watch film we know what we’re going to get from them.”

The Yellow Jackets will travel to Bethany to face the Bison with kick off scheduled at 7 p.m.