Four returning All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football selections -- wide receiver Tim Battaglia, cornerback Cash Langeness, and linebackers Dave Otto and Adam Skinner -- along with senior offensive guard Dan Soldner, will all serve as University of Minnesota-Duluth team captains for the 2003 season.
Battaglia, a native of Cloquet, MN, completed his third year of starting duty in 2002 by catching a career-high 55 passes for 1,166 yards and 19 touchdowns (both school records). A 2002 Football Gazette All-American honorable mention pick, Battaglia was fourth among all NCAA Division II wide receivers and 12th overall in scoring (9.7 points per game). Langeness, a native of Luck, WI, who's started in all 35 games the past three years, topped the 2002 Bulldogs in interceptions, pass breakups, kick returns and punt returns and holds UMD career marks for punt returns in a season (39 last fall) and kick return yardage in a career (1,710). Otto, a senior-to-be and native of Milltown, WI, was credited with the second highest tackle total (73) among all Bulldogs last fall while anchoring the top defensive unit in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Skinner, a Cumberland, WI, native who has earned All-NSIC honors each of his two years with the Bulldogs (second team in 2002 and honorable mention the previous year), placed first on the 2002 UMD defensive charts with a personal-best 79 total tackles, including 5.5 quarterback sacks and also recovered three fumbles. Soldner, a native of Cold Spring, MN, has been a regular on the Bulldog offensive front since transferring from Itasca Community College two years ago and cracked the starting lineup in each of UMD's 12 games in 2002.
UMD finished 2002 with an 11-1 overall record (which was Bulldog all-time high for wins) and a 9-0 NSIC mark (for its first league championship since 1996) and was ranked 11th in the final American Football Coaches Association Division II poll. The Bulldogs, who posted a perfect 11-0 regular season record for the first time in their 70-year history, fell to host Northwest Missouri State University 45-41 in their first-ever NCAA II playoff appearance on Nov. 23
