While the top of the GLIAC has the usual suspects in Ferris State and Grand Valley State sporting unblemished records through five weeks, the lone other undefeated team in the league is not one many, if any, predicted when the season began.

Picked last by all but one coach in the preseason poll, the Davenport Panthers are the early-season surprise in the league, at 4-0 after topping Michigan Tech last week in its GLIAC opener.

While starting 4-0 maybe isn’t the biggest shock in the world, it’s how the Panthers have done it that is even more surprising.

Flashback to 2021 when the Panthers were dismal on offense, to put it mildly.

Over the course of 11 games, Davenport averaged 9.5 points per game, 104 total points on the season, scoring only 12 touchdowns all season. By every major offensive metric, the Panthers ranked in the nation’s bottom 10 just a year ago.

Davenport used five different quarterbacks and topped 20 points just once. The team’s leading receiver had 348 yards. Those offensive questions remained entering the season, with just one receiver back who caught double-digit passes in 2021.

If there was a culprit in the struggles offensively, it was the passing game. While the Panthers rushed for a respectable 1,371 yards combined a year ago, the passing offense did not follow. Their five quarterbacks combined for just 1,166 yards and five touchdowns against 13 interceptions.

And this was not from an option-style offense that didn’t throw the ball often or only in urgent, late-game situations prone to turnovers. Panthers passers averaged just a tick under 25 attempts per game.

Add it all up, and it was a minor miracle that Davenport won three games, a testament to the strength of a defense behind top-half finishes in each of the past three GLIAC season.

Davenport is again in the upper-half of the GLIAC, but this time with a completely reinvented offensive out. The Panthers are 13th nationally in scoring at 38.5 points per game, scoring 154 points in those four games, including 52 last week at Michigan Tech, and 51 the week before against former GLIAC member Northwood.

So what’s changed for the Panthers on offense? To start, they’ve found their quarterback in graduate transfer Jason Whittaker.

After sitting and coming on in relief in the first two games of the season, Whittaker, originally a four-star recruit out of high school who played parts of two season at quarterback for Big Ten Northwestern, before eventually moving to tight end for the Wildcats in 2021, got the nod two weeks ago against Northwood, and the offense hasn’t looked back.

Whittaker, who played his high school football at nearby Rockford, has tossed 12 touchdowns in essentially two games of work, is completing nearly 65 percent of his throws, and with one more decent game, could top last season’s five quarterback’s passing yardage.

Add in that he’s thrown one interception in 91 attempts, and Whittaker has suddenly turned the Panthers into a high-powered scoring machine.

Those first two starts saw him throw five touchdown passes in each win, while adding another two scores on the ground, one in each game for a school-record six touchdowns in consecutive games, and winning back-to-back GLIAC Player of the Week honors.

It’s early, and just one league game into the schedule, and two starts into his Davenport career, but Whittaker has put himself into the conversation for the league’s Players of the Year race.

Congratulations to Jason Whittaker on his GLIAC Player of the Week, Offensive Player Selection! #DUFB22 🐾 | #WIN pic.twitter.com/HbO27z2QDX

— Davenport Football (@DU_Football) October 4, 2022

It hasn’t been just Whittaker producing, as the receiving corps has also stepped up. Despite returning just one pass-catcher with more than 10 balls caught last year, three are already at 15 or more.

Preston Smith is the big play threat, averaging over 16 yards a grab, Sy Barnett leads the team with 26 catches, and Roy Livingstone, the only receiver back with significant experience, has been a touchdown machine, turning six of his 15 grabs on the season into scores.

Expect the numbers for those three to skyrocket over the course of the season with Whittaker fully entrenched as the starter now.

And give credit to the offensive line too, who have conceded just six sacks four games into the season.

The big question now becomes, how long can the Panthers keep it going?

They face a Northern Michigan team Saturday they put up 31 against early this season in a non-conference meeting, then draw a struggling defense in Wayne State. A 7-0 start is very much in play before Davenport closes out the year with a daunting stretch against the league’s top-ranked teams – including No. 1 and No. 2.

With those top-ranked championship hopefuls Ferris State and Grand Valley, as well as surprise Saginaw Valley still on the docket, the Panthers will be tested down the stretch.

But for Davenport, picked to finish last by nearly everyone in the league, they’re already playing with house money. As the stakes rise, perhaps Jason Whittaker and his trio of receivers can shake up the GLIAC and assert Davenport among the league’s elite.