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Dave Whilding enters his 32nd season at UD, marking his 28th coaching the quarterbacks and his 26th as offensive coordinator. In the entire time Whilding has been with the Flyers, no Dayton team has been shut out. With Whilding directing the UD attack, three different Dayton quarterbacks led their respective NCAA divisions in passing efficiency in a five-year period in the early 1990's. In 2007, Whilding's offense re-wrote the record books, setting records in net offense, first downs, passing yardage, completions, and touchdowns passing, to name a few. The re-vamped spread offense completed 95 more passes for 798 more yards. Record-setting quarterback Kevin Hoyng has graduated, with senior captain Rob Florian expected to replace him. Florian enters the 2008 campaign with 90 career passes under his belt. That's a lot compared to what Whilding has had to work with in the past. In the 1990's, three different quarterbacks took over the starting role with less than 12 career passes to their credit. The results? Steve Keller had 11 career passes when he took control of the Flyer offense in 1991. All he did was lead the Flyers to the Division III championship game, become Division III's passing leader and set three career records. In 1995, Brian Kadel, had 12 career passes entering his senior year. He led NCAA Division I-AA in passing efficiency. In 1996, Kevin Johns had 11 passes in his career before starting. He led the Flyers to a perfect 11-0 record, set four records and was named the Football Gazette NCAA Division I-AA Non-Scholarship Offensive Player of the Year. And in 2004, Brandon Staley took over without ever throwing a varsity pass, and he rolled to the fourth-best (now seventh-best) single-season total offense number (1,961 yards) in UD history. Staley's successor, Kevin Hoyng, set the school total offense record (2,547 yards) in his first season as a starter in 2005, and had the second-best mark (2,471) in nine games in 2006, and then blew his previous marks out of the water with 3,957 yards in 2007. One quarterback developing so fast? A fluke, perhaps. A couple? A trend. Five? A tradition, and it's a tradition nurtured under Whilding's guidance. Further proof is the fact that the top eight Flyer signal callers in career passing efficiency and the seven of the top eight in total offense are Whilding QB's. Hailing from Xenia, Ohio, Whilding earned his bachelor's degree in Physical Education from Earlham College in 1971. He received his Master's from UD in 1984. While at Earlham, Whilding played quarterback under Rick Carter, who later came to Dayton to coach. As a senior, Whilding was co-captain and MVP. After graduation, Whilding spent six seasons coaching at Tecumseh High School before joining Carter's staff at UD in 1977. Dave and his wife Evie live in Jamestown. Their daughter Amy graduated from UD in 1995. |
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