University of St. Francis (III.)

Rarely did former CSF head baseball and football coach Gordie Gillespie make a mistake when it came to projecting personnel for certain positions upon watching their development. Mike Dilger was no exception. A tight end coming out of Mt. Carmel High School and during each of his first two seasons at St. Francis, Dilger was thought to be better suited at tackle by Gillespie, offensive coordinator Dan Sharp and line coach Paul Thomason entering the 1989 campaign. In the end, they got more than even they could have imagined. During that first year alone, with Dilger anchoring one side of the line, CSF re-established better than a dozen school records, while producing the seventh-best offensive unit in NAIA II for both total yardage (460.1 yards per game) and rushing yardage (305.2 yards per game) and the tenth-best scoring contingent (35.2 points per game). All of those figures represented school-bests as did so many others including the 6.4 yards gained per play by the offense. Despite those numbers, along with the program's best regular-season record (8-2), St. Francis was unfairly denied a post-season invitation by the raters. One fall later, Dilger lived up to his pre-season expectations, where he was tabbed as a pre-season all-american by both USA Today and College Football Preview. He and his teammates added to their portfolio by setting new school passing records including most yards in a season (172.9 yards per game) and highest completion percentage (50.2 percent). Dilger went on to claim both NAIA All-America First Team and all-district honors by season's end, while also being selected as a national scholar-athlete by College Football Preview. A brand manager for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Chicago, Dilger graduated with cum laude honors (3.53 grade point average) in 1991, earning his degree in Finance.