Michigan Tech wide receiver Darius Willis escapes a tackle during a game against Wayne State on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, at Kearly Stadium in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — With an extra week to prepare, the Michigan Tech Huskies football team will finally hit the field with a chance to hit someone other than themselves as they host the Hillsdale Chargers Saturday at Kearly Stadium in Houghton.

First-year head coach Dan Mettlach likes where the team is at heading to Saturday.

“I like where our guys are at,” he said. “I think … it’s time to see a different team and actually play football. I mean, with what we try to do,, limiting our guys with contact, at the same time, trying to get them in some situations where they’ve got to be able to function. We haven’t had a whole ton of true live reps with our guys going to be playing on Saturday, as of late.

“(We’re) just trying to get guys healthy to that first one. So we’re excited about it. I’m looking forward to seeing our guys on the field.”

Given that Saturday will be the season debut for the Huskies, Mettlach understands that there will be technical challenges to the game for his group that will not likely be seen on the opposite side of the field.

“At the end of the day, there’s going to be some mistakes,” he said. “First game of the year, you always see the procedural penalties or lining up, not getting lined up, so we’ve got to limit that stuff.

“Obviously, they’ve got a game under their belt, so that’ll be all ironed out for them. We’ve got to do a job to limit the mental mistakes, especially early in the game, so we can get into a little bit of a flow, and then we’ll see where we’re at.”

The Chargers (0-1 overall) opened their season with a 39-20 loss on the road at Indianapolis last weekend, but Mettlach and his staff have not had a great chance to scout everything they will have to offer.

“With us not playing a game, they didn’t have to exchange with us,” he said. “We, like everybody else, streamed their game. Of course, there was an issue with the stream for the whole first half, so we didn’t see any of the first half of the game. We got a little bit of film off of what they had from the stream down in Indianapolis, but it’s not great.

“You can’t teach from a tight copy or anything like that, but you can kind of see what they’re standing in, and at least personnel. We got a little bit of that.”

No matter how much scouting the Huskies’ coaching staff was able to do, there is plenty that Mettlach wants his team to be concerned about on their own side of the football.

“First and foremost, we have to take care of the football,” he said. “You’re starting a new (quarterback), a bunch of new guys up front. We’ve got to be able to function without turning the football over.

“The biggest thing for us is we want to see our guys play with some energy, some aggression, some physicality. You may not see in practice during early camp, but multiple hats to the football on defense, guys sustaining blocks on offense, whether that be the (offensive) line or the skill on the outside edges. The basic fundamentals that we preach every single day, and the way we go about it, that’s the kind of stuff that we want to see show up on Saturday. What happens from there in the first game? Like I said, we’ll deal with those as they come.”

With such a lack of game experience on offense, Mettlach admits that his team will lean on its defensive experience, especially early in the season while junior quarterback Alex Fries gets up to game speed. That means that junior linebacker Marc Sippel, senior defensive lineman Samuel Kinney, junior defensive lineman Austin Schlicht, and senior defensive back Michael Bates Jr. will have to be leaders on the field and on the sidelines.

“Those guys understand the expectation over there, and we’ve made that very clear since last December with the bodies we have coming back there,” Mettlach said. “Obviously, at some point, you’ve got to get things rolling on offense. You cannot win games, especially in our league, at this level, without scoring points. But early on, your leadership of Sam Kinney, Schlitcht, Bates, and Sippel, and all those guys are on that side of the ball that have all the reps, and then the age, you’d like to think you can lean on those guys till we grow up a little bit up front.”

With Saturday being his first game as a head coach, Mettlach admits that things will be a little different, but he is ready for the challenge.

“The big difference, obviously, is going to be down on the field,” he said. “The emotion of the football game is going to be different being right in the mix, (rather) than when you’re up in the air-conditioned booth, or heated booth here in a couple of weeks, whatever it may be. I’m looking forward to being down in the mix with all the guys. I also do think, in the last year, the amount of work that our guys have put in the weight room in our offseason conditioning, we had 70 guys up here for the better part of the summer, I’m excited to see those guys finally get to let a rip and see where they’re at.”

SCOUTING THE CHARGERS

The Chargers are led by senior quarterback Garrit Aissen, who went 20-for-32 in their opener, for 213 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Senior tailback Michael Herzog ran well, racking up 148 yards on 19 rushes at a pace of 7.8 yards per carry.

Sophomore Sam Lee had a strong start to his season as the featured receiver, making six catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. He popped off for a 47-yard catch for his longest play during the afternoon. The Chargers also feature a senior tight end in Michael Harding, who made four catches for 46 yards.

On defense, junior defensive back Bart Bixler was good in the opening game, making seven tackles. Sophomore linebacker Carson Ingram made four solo tackles and assisted on two more.

GAME TIME

Opening kickoff between the Huskies and Chargers is set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Kearly Stadium in Houghton.