When looking ahead to his college years, Tony DeRiggi sought personal attention, a worthwhile degree and a whole lot of wins.

He found all three.

The 2004 Seneca Valley graduate recently completed his second consecutive national championship football season at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. He's majoring in elementary education and plans to use that degree to get into coaching one day.

A junior inside linebacker with the Purple Raiders, DeRiggi particularly enjoys the attention he receives academically.

"I was easily distracted in high school,"he said. "If I was going to make it in college, I was going to need a lot of personal attention to keep me focused.

"There's only about 20 students in each class and my professors are flexible. It's worked out perfectly for me."

And DeRiggi has worked out perfectly for Mount Union.

As a sophomore, he backed up Mike Gibbons at inside linebacker as the Purple Raiders switched from a 43 defense to a 42. Gibbons wound up being named the Ohio Athletic Conference's Most Valuable Player on defense.

DeRiggi saw action in all 15 games of Mount Union's 2005 championship season, but he didn't start. His most productive performance was a four-tackle game against Ohio Northern.

"Had we stayed with the 43, I likely would have started," he said. "When we switched to a 42, we had three capable starters for two linebacking positions.

"The coaches were honest about the situation. They sat me down and took the time to explain it. My playing time wasn't going to be full time and I was understanding about that. The coaches were trying to set up for the future. They always do that."

That might be why Mount Union has won nine NCAADivision IIInational titles since 1993.

And for DeRiggi, the future arrived this year.

The 6-foot-2, 235-pounder finished second on the team with 62 total tackles — 31 solo and 31 assisted — and produced 12Z\x tackles for loss, 4Z\x quarterback sacks and three interceptions.

Mount Union's defense returned only three starters from 2005, but it allowed an average of only eight points per game during the regular season.

"Our most improved defensive player this season was Tony DeRiggi," Mount Union coach Larry Kehres said. "He was significantly better than a year ago.

"He was one of our most consistent performers from the first game through the last game."

The last game was a 35-16 triumph over Wisconsin-Whitewater Dec. 16 in the Division IIItitle game, a win that polished off a 15-0 season.

"Tony made two key stops on third down for us in that game,"Kehres said. "They ran a stretch handoff on third-and-4 that looked like it was going to break open for them. Tony shot across the line and nailed the guy two yards short of the sticks.

"He forced them to punt at a key point in that game."

Seneca Valley finished 3-7 during DeRiggi's sophomore year. The Raiders reached the second round of the WPIALplayoffs his junior year before falling to a 2-8 record his senior season.

"It bothered me, going out with a record like that,"DeRiggi admitted. "I didn't want to lose in college."

He hasn't. Mount Union has lost only two games in the past three seasons and Kehres' .920 career winning percentage in 21 years as the program's head coach is the highest in all of college football.

Mount Union's defense lacked experience going into this season. It was the most consistent phase of the team at season's end.

"Tony was a big part of that,"Kehres said. "Next year, we have a slew of starters returning on defense. You play out the season, get through finals, go home for three weeks, come back and start over.

"Come Jan. 8, these guys will be ready to begin focusing on next year."

DeRiggi insists there is never any outside pressure placed upon Mount Union's football team to continue winning national championships.

"The only pressure put on us is from us,"he said. "My best friends are on this team. We all feel that way. We don't want to let each other down. You gain incredible motivation from that."

Here are some notes on Mount Union College's NCAADivision IIIfootball dynasty:• The Purple Raiders have won nine national championships since 1993.• The team has won 148 of 150 regular season games since 1992.• With 216 victories, the team has the most wins in all of college football.• Mount Union has won 62 consecutive road games in the regular season.• Coach Larry Kehres is 246-20 in 21 years at Mount Union, his .920 winning percentage leads all of college football.• The Purple Raiders are 52-9 in Division III playoff games.• The 2006 Mount Union squad outscored the opposition 497-80 during the regular season and 162-47 during the playoffs.