Nov 21, 2014 4 min read

Ryan Torrance came to Washington & Jefferson College with dreams of being the next great running back on head coach Mike Sirianni’s football team. He arrived from Ligonier Valley High School two years ago after rushing for 1,481 yards and 27 touchdowns in his senior season.

Those plans to play tailback lasted until the first day of camp, not because he was not talented enough to play the position but because of needs at another spot.

“Coach Sirianni came up to me and said that they had a lot of running backs,” Torrance recalled. “He said they wanted to move me to linebacker. I thought about it, and said ‘OK.'”

So, Torrance reset his goals and began the climb over others to reach the starting position for the Presidents. It didn’t take long.

The 5-9, 210-pound sophomore will be a starting linebacker today when the Presidents take on Witttenberg in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs in Springfield, Ohio.

Kickoff is at noon.

Torrance is third on the team with 74 tackles, has an interception and forced a fumble. He’s helped the W&J defense to a No. 1 scoring defense in the Presdients’ Athletic Conference, allowing 18 points per game.

“I think playing linebacker on defense is easy,” said Torrance. “If you remember the fronts and the coverages, you’ll be fine.”

That might not be as simple as it sounds, considering the Presidents run an unorthodox 4-2-5 scheme.

“He’s played real well for us,” said Sirianni. “He’s gotten better as the year went on. He’s quick, he can run and he’s strong. We had a player who we thought would start there, but he didn’t come back. Ryan won the job. Sometimes, he gets overshadowed by others, but he’s a good player.”

Torrance came to W&J the old-fashioned way: He knew someone already on the team. This player was Anthony Tutino, a junior defensive back who was a year ahead of Torrance at Ligonier Valley.

“I was looking at all the other schools in the PAC,” Torrance said. “I played with Anthony in high school and I thought it would be cool to play with him again. He kind of recruited me. He swayed my decision. And it’s a great program and a great educational institution.”

Torrance did not play a down of varsity football last season, but he did get in junior varsity games. He said he is confident about the first playoff start of his college career.

“I’m excited,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a good game.”

The game, like many others, offers some interesting connections and relationships between the coaches and players.

Here are a few:

W&J quarterback Pete Coughlin played high school football at Upper St. Clair High School. His coach there was Jim Render, who was won two letters at Wittenberg in the early 1960s.

•In 2010, the Tigers practiced at Upper St. Clair the day before a game against Allegheny. The reason? Wittenberg center Jeremy Bloch was a graduate of USC and he knew a certain coach who …

• Wittenberg’s defensive coordinate Sean Ross is a graduate of Bentworth High School and Waynesburg University. He was on the coaching staff of Jeff Hand’s at Westminster when the Wittenberg job opened. Hand took the Westminster job after serving as head cooach at Waynesburg.

While the two schools are just three hours apart, Wittenberg and W&J have met just two times, the most recent being in 1930. The game ended in a 7-7 tie. The previous year, W&J shut out Wittenberg, 15-0. … Wittenberg coach Joe Fincham has not had a losing season in 19 years. Sirianni has not had one in his 12 seasons as head coach. … W&J has not won a playoff game in five years.