GRIZZLIES BEGIN SEASON-ENDING HOMESTAND
Fresh off back-to-back road wins, Franklin football returns to the friendly confines of Faught Stadium for the final three games of the 2026 season, starting with Saturday's 1:30 p.m. clash against Ohio Athletic Conference foe Muskingum. The two teams met for the first time last year, with the Grizzlies rallying late to pull out a 34-33 road win.
 
TOP OF THE HEAP
Junior linebacker Brayden Baker was all over the place during last Saturday's 41-14 victory at Bluffton, making 12 tackles (including nine solo stops) while forcing a fumble, intercepting one pass and breaking up another. The Griz defense allowed just one scoring drive during his three quarters of play. For his efforts, Baker was named HCAC Defensive Player of the Week and chosen for the D3football.com Team of the Week. The Bedford, Indiana native leads the HCAC in solo tackles (37) and total tackles (62).
 
'TIS BETTER TO RECEIVE
Franklin has four receivers among the HCAC's top 14 in both receptions and receiving yards. Senior Owen Wright leads the way in both categories with 37 grabs for 681 yards, followed by Isaiah Miller (33 for 428), Brayden Wilkins (30 for 490) and Noah Lien (20 for 274). Quarterback Marshall Kmiecik leads the conference with 2,156 yards passing and went over the 5,000-yard mark for his career last week.
 
CLIMBING THE LADDER
With five touchdown passes last week, Kmiecik moved into ninth on the Grizzlies' all-time list with 51 for his career. The junior quarterback also ranks among the school's career top 10 in completion percentage and is now 15th in career passing yards with 5,174.
 
CATCH THE GRIZ ON INDIANA SRN
Indiana SRN is carrying all six Franklin College home games this season. Each game will be shown free of charge on HCAC.tv and IndianaSRN.org, and games will be archived upon completion so that fans can watch back at any time.
 
AROUND THE HCAC
While the Grizzlies are taking their turn outside of the conference this week, the rest of the HCAC is in action against one another. First-place Rose-Hulman, the lone remaining unbeaten in league play, hosts Manchester, while Bluffton travels to Hanover and Mount St. Joseph visits Anderson.