Zack Orr wasn’t happy, to say the least, when he learned he wasn’t invited to travel with North Central College to the Division III national championship game last year.
Disappointed, the Lincoln-Way Central graduate briefly considered leaving North Central or quitting football altogether. But after talking it over with his parents, Frank and Dawn, Orr changed his mindset.
“It was pretty upsetting, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “I just soaked it all in and tried to use it as motivation to get back out here and get on the roster.”
Orr, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound sophomore safety, definitely will be on the roster when the No. 1 Cardinals (14-0) take on Mount Union (14-0) in the Stagg Bowl for the national championship at 6 p.m. Friday. The game, which will be played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, will be broadcast on ESPNU.
Orr has 41 tackles, including two for loss; a team-high four interceptions, including one he returned for a touchdown; five pass breakups; a forced fumble; and a fumble recovery. So he’s happy he stuck with it.
“We just figured out that it was best to stay here, and I just put my head down and went to work,” he said. “I convinced myself this was the place to be, especially with (first-year coach Brad Spencer) taking over. That definitely gave me a little more motivation.”
Orr and a few other players who didn’t travel last year made the drive on a cold, rainy night to watch from the stands as North Central, the defending champion at the time, beat Mount Union 26-13 in the semifinals in Alliance, Ohio.
They got on the road again the next week and were back in the stands to see North Central lose 57-24 to Mary Hardin-Baylor in the national championship game in Canton, Ohio.
“It was a nice night but a terrible loss,” Orr said.
He’d like a nice win this time around, and North Central’s continued dominance on both sides of the ball makes that possible. The defense has allowed just 5.6 points and 203 yards per game, and the high-octane offense is averaging 54.1 points and 553.4 yards.
Orr said he looks forward to the battles between the units during practices.
“It’s certainly fun,” he said. “Playing against our offense is amazing. They make us better every single day. It’s always a pleasure going against the offense.”
Orr said he started playing football when he was 7 and played a little running back for two years. But the rest of his career has been spent on the defensive side.
“I was a defensive lineman when I was really young, and I kept working my way back,” he said. “I’ve moved to linebacker, and now I’m in the secondary. I’ve played pretty much everywhere on the defensive side.
“Defense is my home, but I always wanted to try out as a receiver and see what it’s like on the other side of the ball.”
Orr had just two interceptions during his high school career but played outside linebacker. Lincoln-Way Central coach Jeremy Cordell said Orr was valuable in other ways.
“He was a huge run-stopper and was very physical in high school,” Cordell said. “He was long and lean and super strong. He always knew he was going to pack muscle on and had a high ceiling going into college.
“He’s a young man now and really, really brings a physicality to college.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
