Football Returns Home to Face Ohio Wesleyan

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Carnegie Mellon University's football team returns home to Gesling Stadium Saturday, October 8, when it will face Ohio Wesleyan University.  The Tartans, victors in their past two games, welcome the 1-4 Battling Bishops to Pittsburgh for a 6:00 p.m. kickoff on the Carnegie Mellon campus.

Ohio Wesleyan's offense has struggled this season, as the Bishops have averaged 10.6 points per game.  A lot of their offensive struggles can be placed upon their one-dimensional offense.  Ohio Wesleyan is averaging 268.6 offensive yards per game with 235.2 of those yards coming through the air.

The rushing attack for the host Tartans has been stellar for head coach Rich Lackner.  Carnegie Mellon's triple threat of senior Chris Garcia (Albuquerque, N.M./Valley), junior Jake Nardone (Beaver, Penn./Beaver Area), and junior Patrick Blanks (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller) ran for 300 yards against Hiram during the Tartans' 24-7 defeat of Hiram last weekend.  That was the second straight game that the Cardinal and Gray's ground attack tallied more than 300 or more yards.  With the past two weeks high rushing totals, Carnegie Mellon is now ranked 16th nationally in rushing offense, averaging 258.8 yards per game.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Tartans forced six turnovers in Saturday's win over of Hiram.  The last time Carnegie Mellon forced six turnovers in a game was November 10, 2007 against Washington & Lee.  Since the start of the 2006 season, they are 27-4 when forcing more turnovers than the opponent.

The Tartans hold an all-time series advantage over Ohio Wesleyan, 6-2.  The Bishops only victories came in 1962 and 1963.  Since then, Carnegie Mellon has won five straight, including last year's 35-23 victory in Delaware, Ohio.

Coach Lackner sat down to discuss his team's road victory over Hiram and how the Tartans plan to go about picking up their third straight victory on Saturday.