DC Football Picked Sixth By HCAC Coaches

GREENWOOD, IND. - The Defiance College football team was picked to finish sixth in the 2016 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Preseason Football Poll as voted on by the nine HCAC head coaches.  [2016 HCAC Preseason Poll]

Defiance had 31 points to place sixth of nine schools.  Defending HCAC Champion, Franklin (Ind.) College, was again picked as the favorite to win a seventh-straight HCAC crown.  The Grizzlies garnered 78 points and six of nine first-place votes.  Rose-Hulman (Ind.) Institute of Technology was second with 68 points and one first-place vote and Mount St. Joseph University rounded out the top three with 66 points and one first-place vote. 

DC finished in a tie for sixth place last year with a 2-6 conference record and 2-8 overall.  DC had eight guys named to the Preseason Players to Watch list.  They are; Cody Wilson (McComb), Logan Scott (Curtice/Genoa), Kenny Jones (Toledo/Bowsher), Greg Ward, Jr. (Ypsilanti, Mich./Ypsilanti), Dan Delorieux (Tampa, Fla./East Bay), Matt DeVore (Van Buren), Monkell Moncrief (Detroit, Mich./Southfield Lathrup) and Corey Bennett.

The Yellow Jackets finished fourth in the conference in total defense a year ago, including finishing in a tie for third nationally in defensive touchdowns with five (three interceptions and two fumbles).  The Yellow Jackets were third overall in the HCAC in interceptions with 14 for the season.    

The Yellow Jackets will kick-off the 2016 season on the road at non-conference opponent Baldwin Wallace University on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. in Berea, Ohio.  It will be the first meeting between the two schools since the 1920 season and DC will go for its first program victory against BW.