At some point, Mount Union may be the measuring stick by which Wilmington College football is judged.

Now is not that time.

But that doesn’t mean WC head coach Bryan Moore doesn’t want to see his squad roll over for the nationally-ranked Purple Raiders.

“I want to see a team that is going to fight and compete for four quarters,” Moore said. “When you are playing elite teams, players tend to go one of two ways. Either they elevate their game to meet the challenge or the moment is too big for them and they shut down. I am proud of the fight this team has shown all year long and the leadership provided to keep things moving forward. I would expect nothing less than their best effort on Saturday.”

Mount Union (6-0, 5-0) will visit Townsend Field 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Ohio Athletic Conference action. The Purple Raiders are ranked No. 2 in the nation by d3football.com.

Wilmington is 2-4 on the season, 1-4 in the OAC.

Moore said his defensive backfield has been one of the unsung heroes of the 2017 version of WC football.

“Starting my first season with only one upper-classman defensive back on the roster was mind-blowing,” Moore said. “It was a position we knew that we were going to be starting at least three first year players. Not a very comfortable feeling if you’re coach Filli (defensive coordinator Corey Fillipovich), especially with the talent level of the receivers in this conference.

“But overall, those young kids in the secondary have competed extremely hard and come to work with a great attitude every day. Now the key is learning from both their success and failures, then getting them back here for their sophomore year.”

While Moore and his coaching staff are continually looking for victories on the football field this season, the recruiting process is ongoing as they build for the future. Despite struggling in past years, Moore said recruiting is a bright spot for his program.

“The recruiting aspect of this job has been the most pleasant surprise,” he said. “When I took the job, one of my main concerns was whether or not the Wilmington College football brand was too damaged to be able to successfully recruit our backyard. What I am finding out, is that there are plenty of kids in our main recruiting area that are excited about the direction our program is heading.

“Proof of that is in the amount of on-campus visits we have had already. We had 124 recruits visit our campus during our four junior visit days before the season started and we added an additional 63 first time visits at our three home games.”

With a solid recruiting class, Moore is confident the program is headed in the right direction.

“Our staff got here so late in the recruiting process that it was hard to get together a freshman class, especially coming off an 0-10 season,” Moore said. “But of the 50-plus freshmen that came here in August, most of them are still here. The majority of them don’t see a ton of playing time. They are still competing, still working hard and still believing that we can turn this around. This class believed in our vision for the future and they have given me everything they have.”