UW-Whitewater notebook: Warhawks ready for bye before WIAC play starts

David Vantress, The Janesville Gazette, Wis.
·2 min read

Sep. 21—WHITEWATER — Any football fan can recite the four seasons from memory.

The preseason, the regular season, the postseason and the offseason.

College teams are more apt to divide the regular season into two parts: Nonconference and conference.

With last Saturday's 39-7 win over 27th-ranked Berry (Georgia), the third-ranked UW-Whitewater Warhawks are done with the nonconference portion of their 2021 season. They finished 3-0 and have a bye this week before starting the chase for what would be their 13th WIAC title since 2005 with a home game against UW-Stout on Saturday, Oct. 2.

According to Warhawks coach Kevin Bullis, the practice schedule for the bye week will be pretty much the same as a normal week, with the first-team offense squaring off with the first-team defense.

Bullis and his staff call this concept "good on good."

"That, to me, is when you can see a lot of growth," Bullis said.

Warhawks senior quarterback Max Meylor continued his hot start to 2021, completing 16 of 26 passes against Berry for 256 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

Through three games Meylor is 45-of-66 for 723 yards with nine TDs.

And perhaps most importantly, zero interceptions.

Meylor credits much of his early success in 2021, and that of the entire team, on the play of the Warhawk defense.

"They're putting us in position to score quickly," Meylor said. "Starting out on the plus side of the field always helps."

How quickly, you ask? On Saturday, the Warhawks took control against Berry by scoring two touchdowns in a span of 23 seconds during the second quarter, following Vikings fumbles forced by the Whitewater defense.

Stingy defense

So far in 2021, the Warhawks' defense is surrendering just 9.3 points per game. The offense, meanwhile, is scoring 38.7 points per game.

Senior defensive back Mark McGrath said that all starts with the big guys up front.

"This is the best defensive line I've ever played with," McGrath said. "At the end of the first half on Saturday, after we got that first fumble, the whole defense was saying, 'Let's go get another one!"