PELLA—It's a first-ever meeting for the Central College football team but a familiar location for coach Jeff McMartin when the Dutch travel to Illinois Wesleyan University for another non-conference road game Saturday.
           
Game time is 1 p.m. at Tucci Stadium in Bloomington, Illinois.
           
It's the season opener for Illinois Wesleyan while Central is 1-0 after prevailing at St. Olaf College (Minn.), 34-24 last Saturday. This week's contest is the second of six road games for the Dutch, who open at home Sept. 16 with an American Rivers contest against Loras College.
           
On the air and online—The Voice of the Dutch, Trevor Castle, calls the action on KRLS-FM (92.1), with Pella mayor and retired Central defensive coordinator Don DeWaard providing the color. The KRLS pregame show will air at 12:35 p.m. The broadcast can be accessed through www.kniakrls.com or directly at rdo.to/krls. It's also accessible via mobile device with the KRLS app available through iTunes and other outlets.
           
Where it started—McMartin's first full-time coaching job was at Illinois Wesleyan University where he served as defensive line coach from 1992-93 after a stint as a graduate assistant at Wake Forest University following his graduation from Central in 1990. McMartin coached under current Illinois Wesleyan head coach Norm Eash, who is starting his 37th season there now.
           
"It was a great opportunity," McMartin said. "I was a hall director so we lived on campus. We really enjoyed the people that we worked with in residential life and student life and I got a chance to work with Coach Eash on a really good team. It was just a super experience."
           
The coaches—Eash has compiled a 225-121-1 record at his alma mater. He ranks second in career victories among active NCAA Division III coaches. McMartin's old boss is the longest-serving head coach in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. He's piloted the Titans to nine CCIW championships and six Division III playoff berths.
           
It's the 20th year at the helm for McMartin. A 1990 Central grad, McMartin ranks seventh among active NCAA Division III coaches in winning percentage and tied for 10th in career victories with a 148-46 (.761) record. He was the 2021 AFCA Division III Coach of the Year and has piloted Central to six of the program's 32 conference championships.
           
The Titans—Competing in the powerful CCIW, which includes last year's NCAA Division III champion North Central College (Ill.) as well as perennial power Wheaton College (Ill.), Illinois Wesleyan was picked to tie for fourth place in the conference in a preseason coaches poll. The Titans were 6-4 overall last year.
           
Among the team's returnees is quarterback Jay Lemenager, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound junior. He shared time at the position last year, completing 98-of-175 passes (.560) for 1,161 yards and 10 touchdowns with two interceptions.
           
Illinois Wesleyan has five co-captains. Senior running back Seth Albin led the Titans with 556 yards rushing on 138 carries last year. Senior Joel Baer, a 6-0, 285-pound defensive tackle, made 48 tackles, including 17 solos, with 6.5 tackles for loss. Senior tight end Kevin Graham had 10 receptions for 176 yards and three touchdowns but had his season cut short by injury. Senior linebacker Joshua Klein had 74 tackles last season, ranking second on the team, with 11 tackles for loss and five sacks. Senior Connor Sweeny leads an offensive line that helped the Titans generate 27.3 points per game last year.
           
It's still a young squad, with just six seniors—three on offense and three on defense-- listed in this week's projected starting lineup. But there are 14 junior starters listed and the only freshmen in the team's two-deep roster are kicker Kaden Junge and punter Bryce Reece.
           
McMartin said Eash's squads have similar characteristics.
           
"They're really well coached and very sound," he said. "They're very physical teams. Traditionally they run the ball well but they're a very balanced team. They always have good size and good athletes."
           
Since Saturday's game is the Illinois Wesleyan debut, the Dutch won't have much of a scouting report on this year's squad beyond what's on paper.
           
"They have a lot of returners and they're an experienced football team," McMartin said. "They'll have a great crowd and it will be a really good atmosphere for a college football game."
           
Hoffman makes starting debut—Central used two quarterbacks Saturday in Minnesota and will likely do so again. Sophomore Hunter Hoffman (Pecatonica, Ill.) is again tabbed as the starter this week with sophomore Keegan Glover (Benton, Ill.) also expected to see action. Hoffman completed 12-of-24 passes for 128 yards and a TD while Glover was the team's top rusher with 113 yards on 14 carries.
           
"It's happening a lot in college football where you have multiple quarterbacks in the game, playing to their strengths and attacking defenses differently," McMartin said. "Right now, that's where we are and it doesn't mean that we'll be in a two-quarterback system all year but this is how we're operating. I thought it was effective. Both of them brought some different things to the table and did some good things."
           
McMartin wants the passing game to continue to develop.
           
"There are always things you can improve on, execution-wise, but the guys we have out there we are really confident in and know they can do it. We want to finish plays, finish drives and take care of the football. We had two turnovers, which is not what you want, and we'd like to improve in the red zone. We didn't always execute the way that we wanted to in that area."
           
Senior Jordan Rusch (Johnston) gained 77 yards on 11 carries in his first start at running back.
           
"I thought Jordan ran the ball really well," McMartin said.
           
Receivers step up—Central is still without injured first-team American Rivers all-conference receiver Logan Mont (senior, Aurora, Ill., West Aurora HS) but junior Jack Johnson (Mount Pleasant) filled in and had five catches for 48 yards in his first collegiate start.
           
"Jack had a really nice camp and played well in our scrimmages, and Collin Swantz (junior, Mount Vernon) has as well," McMartin said. "They're two guys that maybe haven't played a lot of varsity football but are both make use of their opportunities and have done a really nice job."
           
Swantz had two catches for 12 yards.
           
Defensive progress—Linebacker Reid Pakkebier (junior, Cedar Rapids, Kennedy HS) and free safety Reece Miller (senior, Center Point, Center Point-Urbana HS) shared tackling honors with 10 each Saturday. The Dutch surrendered 422 yards of total offense, although 150 yards came in the final 4:10 of the game.
           
"We did some things better than we did a year ago against St. Olaf and that was encouraging," McMartin said. "We have good team speed and we utilize that. I think the things that we didn't do the way we wanted to are correctable."
           
He saw several other defenders make improvement.
           
"I was happy to see (defensive linemen) Derrick Voss (5th-year, Cedar Rapids, Xavier HS) and Hunter Olson (5th-year, Peoria, Ariz., Sunrise Mountain HS) play very consistently up front," McMartin said. "And I thought Cole Clark (junior, Lisbon) and Cale Fiederlein (junior, West Branch) played really well at linebacker. Some of those guys played last year, their roles increased as the year went on and then they played a lot on Saturday, so that was good to see."
           
Central was up 34-10 but St. Olaf struck twice in the final 2:33. That's not the way McMartin wanted to finish the game, but he didn't view it as cause for alarm.
           
"There were three onside kicks and we only got one of them when we had a chance to get all three," McMartin said. "Had we gone three-for-three, then it's a whole different end of the game. But it's good for us to have these opportunities to practice and get better at them and correct some things so that if we get in a situation like that again, we are successful."
           
Notes—McMartin is two wins shy of the 150-win mark for his career. He's already the second-winningest coach in Central history behind AFCA Hall of Fame coach Ron Schipper, who posted a 287-67-3 record (.808) over 36 seasons, which ranks third on the all-time NCAA Division III coaching wins list…This is the second time McMartin has returned to a campus where he previously coached. He took the Dutch to Greencastle, Indiana in 2018 where they defeated DePauw University (Ind.) in a downpour. Central also defeated DePauw in Pella the following year, 35-19. McMartin was the DePauw offensive coordinator and offensive line coach from 2000-03 before returning to Central in 2004…This is the first time McMartin has faced a coach who he previously coached under…McMartin has warm feelings about his time at Illinois Wesleyan but not about Central's last trip to Illinois, when the Dutch were overwhelmed at Wheaton College 49-13 in the first round of the 2019 Division III playoffs. But Central came back with a memorable 30-28 walk-off win over the Thunder in a second-round game at Pella in 2021. Central's last regular-season game in Illinois was a 45-17 victory over Augustana College (Ill.) in 2016. McMartin's teams are 6-1 overall in games played in Illinois…Before his injury, Mont was penciled in as Central's punt returner. Hunter Wilkinson (senior, Jensen Beach, Fla.) is taking over those duties.