Football 10/12/2016 8:35:00 AM

NOTES: Bulldogs Face Midterm Test Against #2 Grand Valley State

Fans can watch this week's game on ESPN3 (link) free of charge. The audio will be provided by Grand Valley State University. As always, Bulldog fans can listen online and on the air at 104.7 FM KRES and at CentralMoInfo.com

(PDF Notes)

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Midterms are here and the Truman Bulldog Football team will face their toughest test of the season when they travel to #2 Grand Valley State in Allendale, Michigan on Saturday afternoon.

Both Truman and Grand Valley State sit atop their respective conferences. The Bulldogs are 5-1 overall and 4-0 in the Great Lakes Valley and the Lakers are 6-0 with all their games taking place in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Bulldogs only loss has come against the now #4 team in Division II in Midwestern (Texas) State in the season opener in Kirksville.

Truman knocked off #20 Southwest Baptist in a showdown for the outright league lead last Saturday. The Bulldogs controlled the clock and built up a 26-0 lead through nearly three quarters. The Bearcats scored with 2:17 left in the third and again with 4:44 left in the fourth but the Bulldog defense came up with stops during crunch time.

This is the first 5-1 start by a Truman team since the 2001 season. That year, the Bulldogs finished 8-3. The Bulldogs are ninth in Division II in scoring defense after allowing 14.5 points per game through the first six. The offense is averaging 30.8 points per game after averaging 17.5 last season.

Special teams have been a big part of this year's success. Truman is 10^th in Division II in kick return defense, 16^th in punt return defense, have blocked three punts and are second and third in the GLVC in kick returns and punt returns.

The Lakers led 28-6 at half in their rivalry game with #14 Ferris State last Saturday at home. Ferris clawed back to within 28-23 with 8:32 left to play but the Lakers responded when needed and got a 39-yd TD pass from Bart Williams to Nick Dodson to close it out late.

Ferris rolled up 570 yards of total offense on the highly touted Lakers defense with 201 yards rushing and 369 passing. Grand Valley got a defensive fumble recovery for a touchdown and held the Bulldogs to only one touchdown out of seven redzone opportunities.

This will be Truman's second trip to Grand Valley State in three years. The two teams played in 2013 with the Lakers winning 31-15. The two teams met to open both the 1987 and 1988 seasons and the Bulldogs won both.

UP NEXT:
The Bulldogs will host William Jewell College for Homecoming on Saturday, October 22. The Cardinals enter this week with an 0-6 record and will host Southwest Baptist. Kickoff from Stokes Stadium is slated for 2 p.m.

POLL WATCH: (AFCA Poll)
Truman picked up nine votes in this week's AFCA Division II Coaches Poll. They are the first votes garnered by the team since the 2014 preseason poll.

YOUNG PUPS:
The Bulldogs have had eight true freshmen make their debuts this season. They are running back Jordan Salima, receivers Drew Slager and Cam Nisbet, full back Hayden Holt, offensive lineman James Mitchell, defensive lineman Jake Floyd and defensive backs Lawrence Woods and Jordan Siegel.

The top four leaders in total offense, Barr, Salima Andy Satulla and Malique Robbins and five of the seven all-purpose yardage leaders are in either their first or second year playing.

Of the 63 players that have taken the field this season 60% or 38 are listed as true freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores.

COUNTDOWN TO 1,000:
The final game of the 2016 season at McKendree will be the 1,000^th game in Truman Football history. The Bulldogs began playing football in 1900 and have won 561 games, second most of any NCAA school in the state of Missouri and 10^th among all Division II schools in wins. Truman's overall record is 561-400-34 (.580).

BALL SECURITY:
The Bulldogs are third in Division II in turnovers lost with four this season (two fumbles and two interceptions) and 23^rd overall in Turnover margin (0.83) or +5 this season.

Truman has not had a turnover since the third quarter of week 2 against Malone.

MILESTONE WATCHES:
Senior defensive back Austin Zoda is 14^th in career tackles (285) having past Jesse Cooper, Tameem Yehyawi, Garry Geisz, Tony Ippolito and Pete Grathwohl with 10 in the win over Southwest Baptist. To get to the top 10, he will need 304 tackles. Zoda averages 7.4 tackles per game.

Senior Joey Schenck caught his 100^th pass against Missouri S&T and went over 1,000 yards receiving against Indianapolis last Saturday. Schenck's caught 115 passes for 1,1106 yards and has 11 TDs receiving. Schenck is four receptions and three TD receptions away from cracking the top 10 in Truman history (Alphonso Pugh – 119, Larry Tisdale/Dallas Grier - 14).

TARGETING:
Schenck has been targeted 37 times by Bulldog quarterbacks making 25 catches for 253 yards. Drew Slager has been thrown to 28 times; making 21 catches for 413 yards and a touchdown.

A total of 15 receivers and backs have had passes their direction this season with 13 making receptions.

GLVC GAMES:
Truman is 18-9 since joining the GLVC in 2013 and has outscored opponents by 219 points. The Bulldogs have held opponents to 99.1 yards rushing per game and have had nearly 30 sacks more than opposing defenses.

In the first half of league games, Truman has outscored GLVC foes by 259 points (421-162) and has only allowed 40 first quarter points in the 27 league games (1.4 points per quarter).

THIRD DOWNS:
This season, Truman has converted on third downs 46% of the time, up from 35% last season. In the first quarter of games, the success rate is 56% (17-of-30) while opponents in the first quarter is at 22% (5-of-22).

The offense has had 14 "three and outs" through the first six weeks, last year through the same six week span, the Bulldogs had already had 28 three and outs.

SPECIAL TEAMS:
The Bulldogs are in the top 50 nationally in four special teams categories. They are 10^th in Kickoff Return defense, 16^th in Punt Return defense, 48^th in Kickoff Returns and 28^th in Punt Returns. Only eight of the 32 Truman punts have had a return this season for a total of 24 yards (3.0/return).

Punter Brock Rohler (39.6/punt) has had 16 of his 30 punts inside the 20 with 11 inside the 10.

OTHER NUMBERS:

Truman is ranked 18^th in Tackles for loss/game (8.8).
Through six games, the Bulldogs are averaging 341.7 yards of total offense (181 passing, 160 rushing) while allowing 347.0 yards on defense (254.7 passing, 93.2 rushing).
Quarterback Jaden Barr had completed 64.4% for 1038 yards and 11 touchdowns. Truman had a total of seven TD passes all of last season.

The Bulldog defense has allowed only five individual opponents to rush over 100 yards since joining the GLVC in 2013 (a span of 34 games). Last year, Bubba Jenkins of Southwest Baptist has the most by an opposing back with 125 yards.
Place kicker Nick Dolezal is 16-of-23 for his career in field goal attempts and 46-of-52 in point after attempts. His 16 makes is ninth on the Truman career field goal list.
Under Gregg Nesbitt the Bulldogs are 12-1 when they rush for over 200 yards in a game. In addition, Truman is 22-9 overall and 4-1 last year when winning the time of possession stat. All five wins this year, the Bulldogs have led the possession time stat.

SW Baptist Post Scripts:

The Bulldogs forced the prolific SBU offense into seven punting situations in their first nine possessions. One punt was blocked for a safety and the other two possessions ended on downs and a missed field goal.
Of the four other possessions for SBU, two were touchdowns and the other two fumbles.
It was the third straight game by the Bulldogs without a turnover. They have gained the last eight turnovers since an interception thrown in Week 3 at Missouri S&T.
Austin Zoda led Truman with 10 tackles and vaulted past five Bulldogs on the career tackles list.
Jaden Barr completed all five passes in the first quarter and was 10-of-14 in the first half before finishing 18-of-25 and matching his season high in 245 yards passing.
The Bulldogs were 4-of-7 in red zone opportunities while SBU had only two redzone possessions resulting in one touchdown.
Isaiah Hinton had two of the four quarterback sacks.
Sam Reeves finished with a season-high eight tackles with one sack and 1.5 tackles for loss.
The Bulldogs had a 2 to 1 margin in possession time in the second half. Truman had the ball for nearly 11 minutes in the third quarter and 9:17 in the fourth. They finished with 35:53 compared to the Bearcats 24:07.
The Bulldogs had only one drive of 10 or more plays (11) but four drives lasting more than four minutes.
SBU had 307 of their 413 yards on five of their 13 possessions.
Jordan Salima was 22 for 87 yards rushing including a season-best 35 yard run in the fourth quarter following an SBU fumble inside the Truman 10.
It was the Bulldogs' eighth straight wins over SBU and 24^th out of 27 games played between the two schools.