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Pregame show begins at 11:10 p.m.
Aug. 25, 2010 – The Truman State University Bulldogs will open up the 2010 college football season on Saturday on the road at St. Joseph's College (Ind.) with a noon kickoff.
Game Preview:
Two programs with two new head coaches will begin the 2010 season in Rensselaer, Indiana on Saturday. The Truman Bulldogs (2-9 in 2009) will be under the direction of
Gregg Nesbitt while the St. Joseph's College Pumas (5-6 in 2009) will be led by first-year head coach A.J. Ricker.
Nesbitt returns to his alma mater and to lead the Truman Bulldogs after spending the past three seasons as Co-Defensive coordinator at the University of Central Missouri. Nesbitt was the DC at Truman back in the early 90s as the Bulldogs made two trips to the NCAA Division II playoffs and played for the Bulldogs in the late 70s.
Ricker was promoted to head coach of the Pumas after serving as the team's offensive line coach last year. Ricker, who played and started as center at the University of Missouri, takes over the program after a 5-6 record in 2009 and winners of two of their final three games.
The Pumas averaged 24.3 points per game with the majority of their yards coming from the ground in running back Jashon Banks while the Bulldogs averaged just 17.3 points per game but return quarterback Phillip Davis, who missed four games last season due to injury.
On the defensive side, St. Joseph's allowed 25.8 points a contest with a respectable 332.4 yards allowed. Truman should be improved the defensive side of the ball as the Bulldogs allowed 33.7 points and over 417 yards of total offense per game last season.
This is the first of two non-conference games for the Bulldogs with the other one coming at home on Sept. 4th against Southwest Baptist University.
Truman is looking to break an eight-game road loosing streak with their last road win coming on Sept. 27, 2008 at Fort Hays State.
Players to Watch (Truman):
Phil Davis begins his senior season as the Bulldog quarterback and led the team in total offense last season despite missing four games. Davis averaged 180.6 yards per game with 1035 through the air and another 229 on the ground.
Harnish Ayora has emerged from fall camp as the Bulldogs top tailback. Ayora has played in 17 games during his Truman career with 73 carries for 245 yards. Ayora is one of a host of Bulldogs with backfield experience as Truman's depth at the position may be very valuable. Senior Anton Bernard (644 yards), sophomore Will Mosquera and redshirt freshmen Wes Allen and Tracy Milo could also contribute this season.
Ayora and Davis will also have a veteran offensive line to work behind. Senior Shea Carr was an honorable mention all-MIAA performer at left tackle while the 'Dogs also return starters at the other line positions.
Junior Michael Elliott was named to the defensive second team all-American preseason by Lindy's this spring after finishing second on the Bulldogs last year with 101 tackles and three interceptions.
Players to Watch (St. Joseph's)
The Pumas feature the Great Lakes Football Conference Offensive Player of the Year in Jashon Banks in their backfield. Banks averaged 94 yards per game in going over 1,000 yards (1087) last season. Banks carried the ball 161 times and added nine touchdowns.
Junior quarterback Mike Hladik threw for 1,512 yards last season and completed 57% of his passes. Hladik started 10 of 11 games as a sophomore and had eight touchdown passes.
Ben Gomes is the team's top returning defensive player at safety. Gomes had 76 tackles and two fumble recoveries.
Series History:
This will be just the third meeting between the two schools. The Pumas and Bulldogs played a home-and-home series with Truman, then Northeast Missouri, winning both games in 1959 and 1960. The 'Dogs won 18-16 in Kirksville then shutout the Pumas 20-0 in Rensselear.
Opening Games:
Truman was 6-4 in season openers during the 2000s. The Bulldogs lost last year's opener to Minnesota State-Mankato 31-13 at home.
Truman has won 233 non-conference games and has a non-conference record of 233-184-14 in 102 years of football.
All-Time Records:
· The Bulldogs have played 924 games all-time. The Bulldogs are 526-364-34 (.588) all time.
· Truman is 4-2 in overtime games. All six games have been played at Stokes Stadium with the last being on Oct. 24, 2009 against Emporia State (Truman lost 30-24).
· The Bulldogs have finished .500 or above in 70 of the 102 seasons of football played at the University and have had five wins or more in 62 seasons.
· Truman is the winningest NCAA program all-time in the state of Missouri with the .588 win percentage. The University of Missouri has the most wins with 607 with the Bulldogs second with 526.
About the Bulldogs (Offense):
The Bulldog offense, under new offensive coordinator
Jay Davis, will look to rebound after struggling in 2009.
The 'Dogs averaged just 278 yards per game last season with just a 35% third-down conversion rate and only scored 67% of the time in the redzone.
Senior Phil Davis enters the season as the starting quarterback after starting seven games in 2009. Davis led the team in total offense and completed 53% of his passes for 1035 yards and seven touchdown passes. He was also a threat on the ground with 65 carries for 229 yards.
Junior Harnish Ayora and sophomore Will Mosquera are the top two Bulldogs listed at the tailback position. Ayora had 144 yards on 44 carries last season while Mosquera saw limited action on special teams.
Senior Anton Bernard will also see some time as he was third on the team in rushing with 249 yards last season.
Helping to open up more rushing holes will be the addition of fullbacks Justin Corcoran and Jeff Klott. Corcoran was a redshirt in 2009 while Klott played in 10 games on the defensive side during his redshirt freshman season.
Senior Kendrick Blue, junior Donald Harvey and true freshman Dallas Grier are on top of the depth chart in their respective receiver positions. Harvey has the most experience of the group with 40 catches for 260 yards in his first two seasons while also gaining 531 yards on the ground as a running back.
Blue has 38 career receptions for 507 yards while Grier had 941 receiving yards as a senior at Justin Wakeland High School in Frisco, Texas.
Sophomore Caleb Roberts, who played six games at quarterback last year, will lead the tight end position this year.
The offensive line is anchored by three seniors, a junior and a sophomore. Senior Shea Carr was an honorable mention all-MIAA performer at left tackle, Eric Ruzicka is in his third year of being the center and Chris Rimer has 17 games under his belt at right guard.
Junior Aaron Tjarks started all 11 games last year at right tackle and sophomore Blake Holland started the final five games last year at left guard.
Offensive Quick Hits:
- The Bulldogs recorded 168 first downs last season, 64 by passing, 78 by rushing and 26 by penalty.
- In 443 rushing attempts, Truman averaged 3.3 yards per carry.
- Truman gained 1463 yards in 2009 on the ground.
- With 133 pass completions, the Bulldogs had 1595 yards passing and a 12.0 yards per completion average.
- With 716 offensive plays, the Bulldogs amassed 3058 yards of total offense for a per play average of 4.3 yards.
- In their 36 trips to the redzone this season, the Bulldogs had 16 touchdowns, eight field goals.
- The Bulldogs were 59-of-169 (35%) on third down conversions. They were 31-of-94 in the first half and 32-of-74 in the second half.
- The longest third down conversion was a 3&13. A completed pass for 16 yards from Phillip Davis to Vanness Emokpae.
- Truman was 10-of-22 on fourth down conversions. The longest fourth down converted this season was a 4th&16 that went for a 31 yard touchdown pass from Phillip Davis to Jordan Flores.
- The offense was on the field 30:32 per game last season and has scored 164 points.
- The Bulldogs longest drive of 2009 was a 13-play 80-yard drive that consumed 6:52 and resulted in a touchdown. They finished the season with a 13-play 44-yard drive that ate of the final 7:34 in their victory over Pittsburg State.
- The last 1,000 yard rusher for the Bulldogs was Jerard Leverson (1012 yards) following the 2003 season.
About The Bulldogs (Defense):
A new base defense under co-defensive coordinators Kellen and
Gregg Nesbitt will look to improve a group that struggled against the run in 2009.
After playing a 3-4 the past few seasons, Truman will add another down linemen with senior all-MIAA performer Ryan Ploesser anchoring the group. Ploesser had 35 tackles a year ago in his first year as a starter. Senior Rashaad Barnett, junior Harold Lloyd and sophomore Patrick Blackwell will hope to control the line of scrimmage for the 'Dogs.
Senior Anthony Freeman will be at one linebacker position while junior Adam Reynolds will start at the other. Freeman had 2.5 sacks and 43 tackles a year ago while Reynolds was a back-up to Eric Sternberg. Reynolds had 16 stops with 3.5 going for loss in 09.
The secondary may be young but they are experienced with juniors Michael Elliott and Terrence Byrd and sophomores Tremaine Millender, Richie Schumacher and Robert Gayden. Four of the five played in all 11 games last season while one other (Millender) played in nine.
Elliott was a preseason second-team all-America choice by Lindy's Sports this offseason after finishing second on the team with 101 tackles and a team-high three interceptions.
Byrd, Millender and Schumacher also recorded over 50 tackles last season.
Defensive Quick Hits:
- The Bulldogs forced 21 turnovers last season (1.9 per game) with two being directly returned for touchdowns. Just five other forced turnovers were turned into points. In 2008, the Bulldogs forced 28 turnovers (2.5 per game) with half (14) being turned into points.
- In 478 rushes, Truman's defense allowed 2511 yards rushing for a 5.3 yards per carry average.
- In 153 pass completions for 2079 yards, opponents averaged 13.6 yards per completion.
- In 758 offensive plays, opposing teams averaged 6.1 yards per play.
- Opponents made 49 trips into Truman's redzone and come away with 29 touchdowns and 10 field goals.
- The Bulldog defense was on the field on average 29:28 minutes per game and allowed 336 points.
- Opponents converted on third down 46% of the time (69-of-150) with 31-of-70 in the first half and 38-of-80 in the second half.
- The longest third down converted was a 3&17 by both Central Missouri and Washburn.
- Opponents were 5-of-16 in fourth down conversions.
- The longest drive by the opposing team last season was 16 plays, 84 yards and took 7:01 off the clock. The result of the drive by Oklahoma Panhandle State was a turnover on downs at the Bulldog one-yard line. Northwest Missouri had the longest drive in terms of yards going 95 in 10 plays with a touchdown.
- In seven of the team's losses, the Bulldogs gave up a score with less than three minutes before the halftime gun. Five of the seven scores have come in the final minute.
About the Bulldogs (Special Teams):
Special teams will be another area with some different faces this season. With the graduation of four-year kicker Mickey Masucci, field goal and kick off duites will be spilt this year.
Redshirt freshman Derek Koon will handle field goals and extra points while true freshman Brian Rosser will handle kickoffs.
Koon was an all-conference high school kicker for two years and converted on 124 of 129 extra points and was 12-of-17 on field goal tries with a long of 42.
Rosser had 37 of his 41 kickoffs as a senior at last year go for touchbacks.
Sophomore Eric Phillips is the team's punter after averaging 38.8 yards/punt in 62 attempts a year ago. Phillips had seven punts go over 50 yards and 12 inside the opponents 20 yard line.
Two new kick/punt returners will be lining up for the Bulldogs in 2010. Juniors Donald Harvey and Michael Elliott will fill the shoes of graduated seniors Albert Coker and Phil Kenney.
The 'Dogs averaged just 10.2 yards on punt returns and 20.4 yards on kickoffs last season.
Special Teams Quick Hits:
- The Bulldogs were 8-of-13 on field goal attempts last season. The longest attempt was 47 yards (missed).
- Truman has converted on 55 straight point after kick.
- The Bulldogs were 1-for-1 on their only two-point conversion try (Vanness Emokpae rush).
- Opponents were 44-for-46 on extra point attempts and missed on their only two-point try (Emporia State). They were 13-for-15 on field goal attempts with the longest make being from 47 yards (Andrew Gassen – Missouri Southern).
- Truman averaged 59.6 yards per kickoff and 37.6 yards per punt.
- Opponents are averaging 58.5 per kickoff and 34.4 yards per punt.
- The Bulldogs averaged 20.4 yards per kick return and 10.2 per punt return.
- Opponents are averaging 24.5 yards per kick return and 15.6 per punt return.
- The Bulldogs blocked four punts last season, Minnesota State – Jordan Flores, Northwest Missouri – Richie Schumacher, Missouri Western – Luther Eta and Missouri Southern – Luther Eta.
- Truman had two punts blocked in 2009 (Northwest & Central Missouri).
- Truman allowed their first kick return for a touchdown since 1999 against Northwest Missouri. Tyler Shaw took the second half opening kickoff 92 yards for the touchdown. Kerry Byers went 100 yards for Missouri Southern back in 1999.
Up Next:
Truman will play in front of the home crowd for the first time in 2010 as they host non-conference opponent Southwest Baptist University at 7:00 p.m. next Saturday at Stokes Stadium.
It will be the final non-conference game for the Bulldogs for the foreseeable future as the 2011 slate has all 11 games being played in the MIAA and with the addition of teams in 2012 future non-conference schedules are in doubt.
It will be the first non-conference game played against SBU since they left the league in football only in 2007. Truman is 17-3 all-time against the Bearcats.
At halftime of the game, members of the Bulldog 1990 NCAA playoff team will be recognized as part of their reunion weekend. The '90 Bulldogs finished 9-2 with bookend losses to Pittsburg State while also going through the death of teammate Derringer Cade after he collapsed on the sidelines in Bolivar against Southwest Baptist.
