The Great Lakes Men’s DII Conference has come down to this weekend, as Grand Valley State takes on Oakland University.

GVSU is normally the favored team in this conference, and in fact did very well last year, winning the Great Lakes, beating Northern Iowa in the first round of the playoffs, and losing to eventual national champs Minnesota-Duluth 24-3 - a very creditable scoreline.

But Oakland has other ideas for this season. OU has been dominant in conference play so far, matching GVSU result for result. Both are 4-0. GVSU is averaging a score of 67 to 4; Oakland 61 to 7, and that includes a wet, muddy 14-3 win over Ferris State. Matt Grecky, Ehron Enyedy, and TJ Grappin have scored 19 tries between them, but others have contributed, as well on an Oakland team that doesn’t back down.

For Grand Valley, they know it will be a tough one.

“We have all the pieces this season but we really have not meshed well yet,” said Head Coach John Mullett. “Even with a couple of lopsided wins we never looked like we were playing with any continuity.  “I am hoping we see it smooth out this weekend, but that may be difficult, given our opponent.” 

Grand Valley worked hard this weekend, and Mullett said he wanted to nail down his squad’s set piece and tight forward play.

“I have seen Oakland play and they play with intensity and physicality,” said Mullett. “They improve every year, and that is impressive given some of the really good and important players they graduated last year. Our hope is to slow it down early and let our fitness and depth create opportunities as the game progresses.” 

GVSU will be without Garrett Daniel, who leads the backline in scoring. But, added Mullett, maybe that will inspire everyone else to take up more of the load.

Louis Ricard, Dylan Heyvaert, and Cameron Maher continue to play well for GVSU. But also helpful is that they are coming off a 58-28 loss to University of Notre Dame. A loss can often teach you more than a win. 

“We needed that,” said Mullett. “They showed us what will happen if we do not support at the breakdown, tackle well, run the ball into support and maintain our work rate. We know that teams like Duluth, Rowan and others will do that. We have experienced it up close. So there is still plenty of work to be done.”