When Michigan Tech announced that Dan Mettlach was going to be the next head coach of the football program, I, for one, was very excited, not just because I know Mettlach on a personal level, but also because I have always felt like he had this vibe, for lack of a better word, that he would make a good coach.

I can’t say whether it was because he was a quarterback, or it was because of the way he carried himself as an assistant coach both at Finlandia and at Michigan Tech, but I always felt like it was there.

Mettlach’s task is, by no means, easy. The Huskies play in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which is a very difficult conference to gain traction in. The GLIAC features teams like Ferris State, who ranks No. 1 in the country, according to d2football.com. Grand Valley State sits at No. 4. In the Super Region 3 rankings, Ferris State and Grand Valley are in the top two spots, and Saginaw Valley State sits in 10th.

Bemidji State, whom the Huskies took on to open the season in non-conference play, is 7-3 and sit seventh in the Super Region 4 rankings.

Mettlach talks week in and week out about the quality of the GLIAC, and how competitive the conference is. He often comments that it is the toughest conference in Division II, and he is probably right, given how strong both the Bulldogs and the Lakers tend to be every year. Add to that the way the Cardinals and the Davenport Panthers can push the top teams and you can see quickly how hard it really is to gain ground. He mentions that wins in the conference are hard to come by every weekend, and he is not wrong.

At the same time, he has expectations for his players and his staff. He wants them to carry themselves, both on campus, and on the field, the same way that a Grand Valley or a Ferris State does. He wants his players to expect to win, no matter the opponent they are facing.

In fact, those words, which I have paraphrased here, are up in a permanent spot on a white board in the video room near the SDC Gym.

Saturday was a great example of this. The Huskies faced the then-No.5 Lakers, and while they did not find a way to get much going offensively, they held Grand Valley to just 20 points.

Mettlach felt that his team showed an awful lot, despite the loss.

“The way our defense played, to be honest with you, I thought our effort, toughness, physicality everywhere was great to see,” he said. “I don’t think our guys backed down or looked like they didn’t belong. Defensively, that was an effort that was good enough to win (Saturday), and, unfortunately, we just didn’t put it all together with the other side.”

The other side he was referring to was the offense, which managed 100 yards on the afternoon. However, despite that, the Huskies had every chance to upset the Lakers, and Mettlach believed they gave away that chance.

“Jake (Rueff) ran hard,” he said. “The ‘O’ line played really well. I give them a ton of credit. We talked about them for the last couple weeks. We have new guys playing in certain spots, and against that defensive front and that box to play with. The effort and toughness that they played with is a good sign for things moving forward.

“If you’re going to beat that team, be in a situation where it’s competitive, it’s got to be consistent execution, pass game, run game, the whole deal. And, we just weren’t able to do it.”

At the same time, I also asked Mettlach about whether he could take a moral victory away from the game, and just like in every other conversation I have with him on the record, he would rather not accept it, even if I am offering it to him.

” You know, it is my opinion, the opinion of our guys in our locker room, we are a better football team to take a moral victory against anybody,” he said. “There’s some guys that are hurting right now, a bunch of guys that are hurting, that we felt like, going into this, when we had a chance to knock this team off at home, the whole deal, and to not make it competitive. That part is tough for our guys to handle.

“So, very proud of the effort, the toughness, physicality that we played with. But again, it gets back to the execution part. I think we have too much talent offensively to put up zero points or really not move the football at all, especially in the second half.”

Mettlach really believes that his team is better than its 6-4 record. When you consider that they could easily be 8-2 with losses just to Ferris State and Grand Valley at this point, he is not wrong. While I would like to enjoy the fact that the Huskies just held the Lakers to 20 points, their coach is also right that it is not enough. There is still more they can accomplish as they head out to face Saginaw Valley on Saturday.