Clark County natives lead Marietta College football to best start in school history and first national ranking

This season, through last weekend, Marietta was off to a 7-0 start for the first time in program history. It earned a national ranking for the first time, landing at No. 25 in the D3Football.com poll on Monday.

“We have a really special group of guys and a really good staff,” Waddle said. “The guys care about each other. The staff cares about each other. It’s a really special feeling — and I don’t know that you get it all the time — where the team is all on the same mission. It’s selfless. It’s special when you have one of those teams, and I think we have one of those right now.”

Marietta’s offense is led by another Clark County native. Reed Florence, a Southeastern graduate who played quarterback at Wittenberg when Waddle was the defensive coordinator on Joe Fincham’s staff, is in his sixth season on Waddle’s staff. He has been the offensive coordinator for the last five seasons. He also spent five seasons as the offensive coordinator at Wittenberg on Fincham’s staff.

Florence’s wife is having a big fall of her own at Marietta. Hadley Florence, also a Wittenberg graduate, is an assistant coach for the volleyball team, which is 21-0 and ranked 10th in the nation.

Waddle and Florence have not ignored their hometowns in recruiting. Greenon graduate Mason Vawter, a junior, is the starting long snapper and also is in the defensive line rotation.

“He’s one of the best long snappers in the country,” Waddle said. “He’s been perfect.

There are two Southeastern graduates on the roster as well: Jonah Asebrook, a freshman defensive back; and CJ Wilt, a freshman linebacker.

Florence’s offense is tied for 15th in NCAA Division III football in scoring offense (46.4 points per game). Quarterback Connor Vierstra, a fifth-year senior and four-year starter, has set career records for touchdown passes (73), passing yards (7,584) and pass completions (596) this season.

“Reed has done an awesome job with Connor,” Waddle said.

Vierstra earned the starting job as a sophomore in 2021 when Marietta finished 4-6. The Pioneers improved to 6-4 in 2022 and finished 8-2 last season, winning their last five games to post their best record since an 8-1-1 finish in 1995.

Marietta also improved its OAC record each of the last three seasons, improving from 4-5 in 2021 to 5-4 in 2022 and to 7-2 last season, its best record since a 7-1-1 mark in 1995.

Marietta, which plays Wilmington College on Saturday in its final home game, has now gone more than a year between losses. It has a 12-game winning streak.

“We returned almost the whole team from last year,” Waddle said. “We thought we had a good group. Probably for a couple of years, you could kind of be like that. You had a good group now. Now how we finish the season will really, you know, measure how good of a group this really is, but we’ve been good so far.”

Marietta’s two biggest tests come in the final weeks of the regular season, and it plays both games on the road. It plays D-III powerhouse Mount Union (7-0, 6-0), which ranks fourth in the nation, on Nov. 9 and John Carroll (5-2, 5-1) on Nov. 16.

Marietta has lost 44 straight games to Mount Union since a victory in 1977. Mount Union claims similar winning streaks against most of the OAC. It has lost only two conference games this century.

Marietta is 0-35-1 against John Carroll, though three of the last six games have been decided by three points or fewer.

“This is the first time we’ve ever had them both back to back in the last week of the season,” Waddle said. “In some respects, we returned a veteran unit and it would have been nice to go and play that early and hope that your veteran group was able to go out and get a win and maybe sneak up on somebody. In other respects, it’s nice because you continue to have your momentum building and some opportunities are out there still to really keep your guys focused.”

Marietta has won every game by at least 28 points this season. It opened the season with three 50-plus point performances. The defense has done its job as well, holding opponents to 7.1 points per game, the fourth-best mark in the country.

“We have probably the best player in the country on defense right now: Chance Knight,” Waddle said. “He’s second in the nation in sacks, and what’s crazy about that is he’s a defensive tackle. Usually, your defensive ends are the guys that are getting the sack, or maybe even linebackers. The tackles take on double teams and don’t have that skill set, but more than that they’re not positioned to get the one on ones or to to be able to rush the passer. You look across all levels of football, and it’s always the D-ends, but he’s doing it from D-tackle. He’s really good. We’ve got good players at every level around him.”

Waddle led the nation’s No. 1 defense in 2009 when he was the defensive coordinator at Wittenberg. He left Wittenberg in 2012 after seven seasons as defensive coordinator. The impact Fincham left on his career remains.

“We try to do a lot of things the way that Joe Fincham did them at Wittenberg,” Waddle said. “The model that he presented us is what we try to do down here, just in the way that we approach the game, being tough and playing good defense and being really solid offensively. More than that, the way that we handle things from top to bottom is very much in the mindset of the way that Joe did. Obviously, I learned a lot from him. Reed learned a lot from him. That’s what we’re striving to be like.”