Photo courtesy of Michigan Tech University Michigan Tech wide receiver Ethan Champney looks to his right prior to an offensive play during a game against Northern Michigan Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, at the Superior Dome in Marquette.

HOUGHTON — Coming into last spring, there was a major unknown in the Michigan Tech Huskies passing game for their football team. Then-junior quarterback Alex Fries was a relative unknown outside the Huskies’ locker room, so there were questions about how well the team would perform offensively without the services of former starter Will Ark.

Fries battled early season injuries, but eventually settled into the role as the season went along, and it showed. After a season-low performance against Davenport, where he went 9-for-25 for a completion percentage of 36.0% in the team’s fourth game, he was never less than 50.0% in the team’s remaining six games.

As Fries became more comfortable in game situations, the Huskies’ receiving corps proved capable of finding ways to earn yards, giving Michigan Tech a chance to be in games. A big part of that was the effort of junior wide receiver Darius Willis, known affectionately as “DWill” to his teammates and coaches. DWill finished his final season in Black and Gold with 55 receptions for 635 yards, which led the Huskies in both categories.

As good as DWill has been for the past three years for the Huskies, at some point, they were going to have to move on from him. He has decided to forgo his final year of eligibility, electing to focus on graduate studies, rather than playing football, which left a hole in the offense that coach Dan Mettlach and his staff looked to the spring practices to find the next guy to step into that role.

“I love DWill, obviously,” said Mettlach. “With what we did from an offensive standpoint, I think everybody that ever watched us play knows what we thought about him.”

That being said, Mettlach liked a lot of what he saw late last season and in the spring from a certain young wide receiver.

“Nick Nora is going to jump into that role and do an incredible job,” Mettlach said. “I think it’s probably unfair to say, ‘Hey, go do exactly what DWill did.’ Nick is going to be very good in that role by the time it’s all said and done.”

At the same time, Mettlach is the first to admit that the transition will not happen overnight, but, at the same time, he believes his young receiver can carve out a solid career for himself.

“I think he’s that type of guy that, if he can stay healthy, and keep going on the path he’s going, in three years from now, we’re going to be saying, how do you replace Nick Nora?” Mettlach quipped. “So, you don’t replace a guy like DWill.

“You don’t replace Sam Kinne, Michael Bates Jr., (or) Will Marano. Those guys are guys that we’re all unique to their own deal of what they did. But, we’ve got guys in our locker room right now. They’re going to be jumping into those positions that, through time, I think, are going to be talked about in the same breath. So, I’m excited about what Nora is going to do.”

What sticks out, in Mettlach’s mind, is how hard Nora works.

“His work ethic is incredible,” Mettlach said. “He’s pound-for-pound one of the strongest guys we have on our team. You don’t ever question that his intentions are to be that next great one.

“He’s incredible in the locker room, works his butt off.”

Working hard is half the battle.

“Football smarts, he’s got that,” said Mettlach. “He understands why we’re telling him what to do and when we’re trying to do it. So, yeah, that is one spot right now that he’s still young, trying to understand what’s going on Saturdays. He did figure it out towards the end of last year. The work ethic he has, and the want to be great, is already there, which is an awesome thing.”

As football fans know, teams cannot just have one receiver, because opponents will work hard to find ways to shut him down. Last season, Huskies fans had a chance to see the beginnings of another important connection, one between Fries and wide receiver Ethan Champney. Champney and Fries share a connection that goes back to their high school days at Swan Valley High School in Saginaw, where the two played together.

Mettlach likes what he sees out of Champney in terms of being a leader in the locker room.

“I think Ethan is our guy in that room,” Mettlach said. “He’s the leader in that room, talented, makes a ton of plays. He’s competitive as hell.”

Champney started last season with two strong games to start the year, where he collected seven catches for 148 yards against Hillsdale in the season opener, and then followed that up with 11 catches for 143 yards at Wisconsin-Platteville. However, after that, teams found ways to slow him down.

The question this season is can Mettlach and his staff find ways to help him become a more consistent threat.

“To get him more consistent, I feel like we, as a staff need to better at not waiting until somebody shuts him down to start moving him in different positions and whatever,” said Mettlach “I think we had that conversation after Davenport last year when they locked him up on the boundary, and then it was, ‘OK, the light bulb goes off. We have to start formation and doing some different things, and, at that point, it was too late.

“So that is on us to help him out, too.”

What Champney has is size and strength, so Mettlach and his staff are working with him on how to use those to his advantage.

“It’s not going to be every weekend he can just go be 6-foot-3, and better than the guy across from him,” Mettlach said. “With the teams we play, they’ve got athletes as well. So, we have to do some things to try to free him up, and we will.”

Mettlach does not place any blame on anyone else for Champney’s dropoff after the second game last season, but he is working to make sure that it does not happen again this fall.

“I don’t want to throw that on anybody else,” he said. “Learned that the hard way last year in terms of he was so productive in the first two weeks, three weeks, that let’s just let him do what he’s doing. Then, we kind of put him in an unfair situation, so we’ll help him out with that.

“He’s had a great winter, as well. I think the success that he had last year, he’s got a little taste in his mouth. Let’s go see where we can take this. He’s another kid that works his butt off, wants to be a guy, and knows he can be.”

Mettlach is confident that he has a pair of talented receivers that can wreak havoc on opponents this fall.