For the first time this season, the Waynesburg University football team will go into a game without worrying about getting its first win. 

Last Saturday, the Jackets [1-4, 1-3] hung on for a 14-13 win over Thiel breaking a six-game losing streak dating back to last season. Although Waynesburg no longer has that monkey on its back going into week six at Carnegie Mellon, the team has a much stiffer challenge ahead of it. The Jackets will go from playing Thiel, who is in last place in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, to one of the league’s best teams in Carnegie Mellon.

Although the Tartans [4-1, 3-1] are coming off their first loss, a 29-26 double overtime thriller at Grove City, Carnegie Mellon has been flawless overwise, with a 20-13 win over Washington & Jefferson in week three, a feather in their cap. The game will be unique in that it’s under the lights, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.

 

Consistency 

Carnegie Mellon is a perennial winner in the PAC under the direction of head coach Rich Lackner, who has been in charge of the program since 1986.

“Coach Lackner’s a really good football coach,” Waynesburg head coach Chris Smithley said. “He’s been there for a long time. He has an established program.”

Carnegie Mellon has won its three games by an average of more than 21 points, and unlike in previous years, the Tartans have had success through the air, as Carnegie Mellon is fourth in the conference in passing yardage. Quarterback JD Dayhuff has thrown for 1,023 yards through four games with eight touchdowns. 

For Smithley, the Tartans won’t take Waynesburg lightly because they aren’t a team that gets too high, or too low. 

“They just stay consistent right down the middle,” he said. “I think that makes them a very big challenge, because they’re going to be in the game. They’re going to do what it takes as a team. They’re going to possess the football on offense. They play really good team football.”

Senior linebacker Tyler Smith echoed his coach’s sentiments. 

“They’re sound,” he said. “They’re doing their jobs. They’re always in the right place at the right time. So we just have to make sure that we’re going out there and just doing our jobs too.”

Under pressure 

Defensively, Smithley noted that Carnegie Mellon has gotten more aggressive. Of the 10 teams in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, the Tartans rank second with 18 sacks. 

“They’ve been a lot more aggressive this year defensively and offensively,” Smithley said. “I think that that’s a challenge. They’re a little bit different of a team than they’ve been in the past.”

 

Building off last week

For Smithley, last week’s win over Thiel gives Waynesburg a fresh dose of confidence going into this week at Carnegie Mellon.

“I think that’s huge,” he said. “I think that changes everything. It helps these guys to believe in the process, because they get rewarded with a win. I think that morale [has] changed.”

As refreshing as the first triumph was, Smithley said the team is ready to move past it and try to get another one in Pittsburgh.

“We already enjoyed it, now we’re ready to go back to work,” he said.