“Don’t turn one loss into two.”

That is the message being preached by head coach Matt Mitchell to his team, as the Grand Valley State
University football team looks to pick up the pieces this Saturday when it hosts Michigan
Technological University.

No. 25 GVSU (3-1, 1-1 GLIAC) suffered one of its biggest losses in history last weekend, as the Lakers
were outplayed in a 57-14 defeat at the hands of Ohio Dominican University.

If GVSU wants to turn it around this Saturday, it will start with trying to contain one of the best
quarterbacks in the GLIAC: Michigan Tech’s (2-1, 2-1 GLIAC) Tyler Scarlett.

“Tyler Scarlett is arguably one of the best quarterbacks in our conference and has played well against
us the last couple of years,” Mitchell said. “The best thing Michigan Tech does is protect their
quarterback. They do a great job of play action and moving the pocket and keeping him clean and
giving him some windows to throw the ball. He’s very accurate when he throws the ball.”

Scarlett enters this weekend’s game averaging the second most passing yards per game in the GLIAC,
averaging 279 yards per contest. On the year, Scarlett has completed 56 of his 103 pass attempt for
837 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions.

“We gotta get them into some obvious passing situations,” Mitchell said. “We gotta get them to third
and eight plus, and I’m hoping at that point, we can do enough with the coverage and mixing up the
looks he’s getting and the pressure to try to confuse him. If you show it and play, he’s too good. He’ll
pick you apart.”

Michigan Tech also boasts one of the top running games in the conference. Junior running back
Charlie Leffingwell averages 139.3 rushing yards a game—third best in the conference.

“Just like any game, stopping the run is important,” senior linebacker Charles Hill said. “We have to be
gap sound and get in there and stop the run. We just need to execute our game plan and fly around.”

GVSU will look to get its own run game going this weekend after it wasn’t able to do so against Ohio
Dominican. The Lakers found themselves in an early 17-0 hole and weren’t able to establish any sort
of a running game.

“Offensively, we gotta get back to running the ball,” Mitchell said. “We did a poor job of running the
ball against Ohio Dominican. We have to get back to running the ball and getting the ball to some of
our best players.”

The GVSU quarterback situation remains up in the air at this point. With Heath Parling making
progress with his shoulder injury, the competition between him and Isiah Grimes will come down to
this week’s practices to determine who will be under center for the Lakers.

“He’s getting closer, there’s no doubt about that,” Mitchell said about Parling. “I think it’s no longer a
health issue. It’s going to come down to Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday what quarterback gives us
the best chance to beat Michigan Tech, so we’re in that process now. He’s out here throwing so we
have to go and evaluate the throws and make sure he’s back to where he was before. If he’s not back
to where he was before from a performance standpoint, then it’s going to be Grimes. If he’s getting
back to where he was, then it’s probably going to be Parling.”

The good news for GVSU is that it still controls its own destiny. Saturday’s matchup with Michigan
Tech is the first of seven games GVSU will play against GLIAC North opponents.

“This next game against Michigan Tech is the most important game,” senior center Matt Armstrong
said. “We have to have a short memory. We watched the film on Sunday and looked at our mistakes
and are trying to correct them this week.”

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