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"BIG RAPIDS – The success of his former players who have made it in the NFL has not been lost on Ferris coach Tony Annese. He couldn’t help but beam about this fact during the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference media day earlier this month. A total of seven Ferris State University football alums are slated to take the field this weekend as National Football League preseason action gets underway. The Bulldogs have seven former standouts currently midst NFL Preseason Camps heading into the 2021 campaign, which ranks among the most in the country for any NCAA Division II school in the nation. This weekend, Bulldog alum Justin Zimmer opened the action as a member of the Buffalo Bills on Friday (Aug. 13) night against the Detroit Lions in the Motor city. Meanwhile, on Saturday the remaining six FSU alums in the NFL will all hit the field for their first preseason action of the year, including: Zach Sieler (Dolphins) at Chicago, 1 p.m.; Jake Lampman (Saints) at Ravens, 7 p.m.; Tavierre Thomas (Texans) at Packers, 8 p.m; Malik Taylor (Packers) vs Texans, 8 p.m.; Austin Edwards (Chiefs) at 49ers, 8:30 p.m. Chris Okoye (Chargers) at Ram, 10 p.m. The NFL preseason camps feature a standard 90-man roster with three cut-down dates this year. Teams will be expected to reduce the roster to 85 individuals by Aug. 17 and down to 80 on Aug. 24 before finalizing the 53-man regular season rosters. The regular-season begins on Thursday, Sept. 9. Last season, a total of six Ferris State alums saw action in at least one NFL regular-season game and eight were with various NFL franchises, which were the most of any NCAA Division II school in the country and topped many current NCAA Division I institutions. The eight alums, which also included former linebacker Brady Sheldon and former two-time Harlon Hill Trophy winner Jason Vander Laan prior to Okoye's recent signing with the Chargers, have all played in at least one NFL regular-season game over the past four years, which is the most of any D2 school in the nation. Three former Bulldogs were part of team's that made the NFL Conference Championship Games a year ago in Taylor, Zimmer and Edwards. “It’s incredible,” Annese said. “To be in Division II…we focus on player development, we focus on young people to be around guys in any culture that expects greatness. That’s been kind of how we roll. It’s easier for us with Edwards who was GLIAC player of the year in 2019 to be kind of motivated because he watched Zach Sieler every day. And Zach Sieler watches Justin Zimmer every day. Our guys have extraordinarily high expectations for being the best. Everybody who comes to Ferris should be motivated to look at this. I ask our guys what kind of culture are you looking for? Are you looking for people who are growing in all aspects of life to be on a great team? With that being said we’re leaving something on the table all the time. We lost our last game in 141 5, 16 17, 18, 19. We were 27-2 in 2018 and 2019, we still went hungry. Our guys pursue the very best.” Annese’s Bulldogs play Findlay on Sept. 2 at home. It’s a team which played some spring games. Ferris has not played since the fall of 2019. “I’m scared to death,” Annese said of Findlay’s advantage. “I told my guys I hope it’s true you don’t get better playing games. You spend so much time in game preparation. We were able to focus on Ferris State and ourselves. I’ve told these guys the only team that can beat Ferris State is Ferris State.” Ferris State athletics contributed to this report."
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