Michael Witheblock

Michael Witheblock

No. 84 – Sarasota Sailfish
Position:	Wide Receiver
Personal information
Born:	(2014-11-16)November 16, 2014 (aged 48) Freistadt, Upper Austria, Austria
Height:	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight:	200 lb (91 kg)
Career information
College:	University of Applied Science Hagenberg
ISFL Draft:	2037  / Round: 3 / Pick: 36
DSFL Draft:	2036  / Round: 7 / Pick: 53
Career history
Kansas City Coyotes (2036 (S21)-2037 (S22)) Sarasota Sailfish (2037 (S22))
Roster status:	Active
Career ISFL statistics as of 2038
Total touchdowns: 12 Receptions: 145 Receiving yards: 2353 Yards per reception: 12.7 Receiving touchdowns: 12
Career DSFL statistics
Total touchdowns: 4 Receptions: 31 Receiving yards: 392 Yards per reception: 12.6 Receiving touchdowns: 4

Michael Witheblock (born November 16, 2014) is an American football wide receiver for the Sarasota Sailfish of the National Simulation Football League (NSFL).

Early years

Michael Witheblock was born in Freistadt, Austria. He changed his name due to difficulties in understandings for English speaking guys in the league - in a partly proper translation - to Whiteblock. He grew up on a farm in Lichtenau, Upper Austria, Austria.

He soon gained some national attention in winning some athletics competition. After spending some years in training athletics, he changed with the age of 13 to his local hobby Football team, the Lichtenau Graders. There he learned the basics of American Football and gained experience in different positions. With his athletic background, he could play various positions (QB, WR) extraordinary good. He gained some experience in mostly friendly junior games, as there is no professional junior league in Austria. By joining the Graders, he could learn from some of the best Austrian Quarterbacks and wideouts on the hobby sports level, which can - by far - not be compared to some professional sports. But his interest in the NFL rose, so he made up the lack of experience with watching many games and especially film of some of his favorite players.

College career

He chose the University of Applied Science of Hagenberg as his college. He enrolled in the program of Mobile Computing.

His first year for the Hagenberg Hunters he played as Quarterback. In his freshman year, he racked up more rushing yards as receiving yards but impressed doing so. The Hagenberg Hunters won the Austrian College Bowl. After his first successful year in college, he switched position to Wide Receiver, as he saw far more potential for himself playing the position of Wide Receiver on the higher level. Looking at his stats in his sophomore year, the position change was a fine decision. He broke the Austrian College Football receiving yards record with 1565 yards and 19 Touchdowns. In his junior year he racked up even higher numbers with 1673 yards and 21 Touchdowns. After finishing his program with the Bachelor of Science in Engineering, he decided to go to the NSFL in the S22 draft class.

College career statistics

Use this page to get the stats table template.

Professional career

DSFL career

Drafted by the Kansas City Coyotes, Witheblock came in as the second receiver after being picked as the second Wide Receiver for the Coyotes after Eddie Jeeta. Kansas City continued to draft a third receiver in Tan Johnson. After the first trainings, Johnson got the starting job over Witheblock due to better performance and agility. This circumstance let Witheblock see the field in his first games only sparsely, but not really regularly. He played in all DSFL games though. The first pass that went in his direction was also his first career touchdown. He caught the ball in Week 4 against the Dallas Birddogs in a stellar 46-14 victory of the Coyotes. In this game, he noted 2 catches for 51 yards and the already mentiond touchdown. In the next two games, he was again mainly used in special teams. After a remarkable increase in agility noticed in training, Witheblock leaped Johnson in the depth chart and was WR2 for the rest of the season. As the new starter, he had a top performance in week 7 against the Minnesota Grey Ducks. He caught 6 catches for 75 yards and a touchdown in a 23-16 victory on the road. The following week, a tough loss against Myrtle Beach, he had 2 catches for only 8 yards, but recorded another touchdown. Witheblock continued his touchdown streak in the following week against Norfolk. The rest of the regular season he continuously racked up yardage, but another score wasn't to be seen on his agenda. The Coyotes finished the regular season with a 9-5 record on top of the NFC North. In the Champoinship Game they hosted the Portland Pythons for the battle of the North. Kansas City went out as the winner in a stellar 31-7 victory. Witheblock was a big factor in this game again, finishing with 5 catches for 58 yards and scoring the first touchdown for his team. In the Ultimini, Witheblock was the main target with 6 receptions, racking up 49 yards, but stayed scoreless in the tough 10-27 loss against the Myrtle Beach Buccaneers.

NSFL career

Pre-draft measurables

Ht	Wt	40‑yd dash	20‑ss	3‑cone	Vert jump	Broad	BP	Wonderlic
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	4.32 s	4.03 s	7.06 s	27.6 in (0.70 m)	11 ft 0.5 in (3.37 m)	10 reps	12

2037 Season (S22)

Prior to the S22 NSFL draft, expansion happened. The Honolulu Hahalua and Sarasota Sailfish were presented as the new franchises in the leauge. This changed the draft, as not 10 but 12 teams were to select the players. Michael Witheblock, one of the top WR prospects, fell to the end of the 3rd round, where he was picked up by the Sarasota Sailfish. He was the third WR taken, after Eddie Jeeta and William Lim were selected only a few picks before him. In the Sailfish organization, Witheblock found his new home. They just had a very good expansion draft, where they could pick up some pillars for future success. With GM Rayne Gordon and #1 expansion pick Dexter Banks II as clear WR2 and WR1, Witheblock started as WR3 into the season. Their inaugural game, an away game at Baltimore, Sarasota pulled out a 17-13 win. Witheblock recorded his first two catches for 10 yards. The next two games were away games at Yellowknife and Colorado, which they lost both. Their first home game vs the Philadelphia Liberty, they could win, and also against the Chicago Butchers they showed a solid performance. In this 4 matches, Witheblock showed his talent and was a reliable target, finishing 2 of them as second most targeted receiver. In a 3 game losing streak, Witheblock recorded his first touchdown in the NSFL against the Orange County Otters. After this 3 game stretch, the Sailfish traded for QB Rose Jenkins to make a push at playoffs. In week 9, Witheblock recorded his season high of 99 yards with only 4 receptions. The Sailfish made the playoffs with a solid finish to the season. In the WC game, the Sailfish lost 14-36 to the later winners Colorado Yeti. Witheblock recorded 3 catches for 29 yards to finish the season.

2038 Season (S23)

The second year in Sarasota was an exciting one for the team. What made it so exciting was the position switch of former WR Dexter Banks II to QB. Banks brought hope to a young Sarasota team, that was until then without a clear #1 QB. After S22, the Sailfish lost some players due to retirement, and started therefore into the season with a totally revamped defensive line, consisting of three rookies. The shift from Banks to QB opened up WR2 for Witheblock, but he had to split reps with called up TE James Angler, who was partly used at WR. The Sailfish started into the season with a record of 2-3 after the first stretch of conference games. Witheblock didn‘t have many receptions or yards, most of the time somewhere between 30-50 yards. His first score of the season he caught in week 6 in a win against Honolulu Hahalua, but he has only 14 yards in total in that game. This down phase continued, as in the next matchup he didn‘t even have a single reception. In week 8 he seemed to be a bit more involved in the game again, and had his first game with 60+ yards. In week 9 and 10 he also had good amount of yardage and a touchdown each. This was the best stretch of games for Witheblock in the season, as he declined again in yardage in the following games and wasn‘t able to score another touchdown in the last few games. Sarasota finished at a record of 8-8, which didn‘t get them into playoffs, so the season was over for Witheblock and the fish gang.

2039 Season (S24)

In his third year in Sarasota, Witheblock played his – by far – best season. He more than doubled his stats from a season ago and finished 6th in receiving yards league-wide with 1312 yards. He recorded the best yard per catch with 20.8, which is by far the best value in the league. Second in this category is Rayne Gordon, his WR partner with 19.0 yards per catch. Witheblock was second in receiving yards behind FB James Angler on the Sarasota Sailfish, who racked up 1381 yards. They both share most receiving touchdowns on the team with each catching 8 touchdowns, which is the tied third place in the league. Witheblock started rather slow into the season, not scoring more than 70 yards until week 4. He recorded three touchdowns though. In week 4 against the Wraiths he had his first game with over 100 yards. After cooling down a bit through mid season, he started racking up big yardage again. From week 10 to week 14 Witheblock had only games with over 100 receiving yards. In fact, he recorded 580 yards over those 5 games. The Sailfish had an amazing season finishing 12-4 and securing the #2 spot behind the Colorado Yeti. In the Wildcard Game, Sarasota hosted the Chicago Butchers, where they won 24-17. In the Championship Game they headed to Colorado. In a tough fight they finally lost 24-20. Witheblock recorded 121 yards that game, which is playoff receiving yardage record. Witheblock made the ballot for Wide Reciever of the year and finished 2nd in it behind William Lim. With his stellar season and doubling his yards and touchdowns, Witheblock won Outbreak Player of the Year.

Professional career statistics

DSFL stats

			Receiving
Season	Team	GP	Rec	Yds	Avg	Long	TD
2036 (S21)	Coyotes	14	31	392	12.6	34	4

NSFL stats

			Receiving
Season	Team	GP	Rec	Yds	Avg	Long	TD
2037 (S22)	Sailfish	13	32	427	13.3	57	1
2038 (S23)	Sailfish	16	50	614	12.3	44	3
2039 (S24)	Sailfish	16	63	1312	20.8	58	8

Achievements and records

Individual

• DSFL Pro Bowl Selection (1): 2036