Football 9/21/2016 7:52:00 AM

NOTES: Bulldogs Entertain Lincoln On Saturday Night

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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Bulldog Football team will be back under the lights at Stokes Stadium for the Great Lakes Valley Conference home opener as they host Lincoln (Mo.) University at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.

It will be the 27^th meeting all-time between Truman and Lincoln on the gridiron with the Bulldogs dominating the series 21-4-1. Truman has won the last 20 games played between the two schools with Lincoln's last win coming 43 years ago in 1973. They have played four times since 2011 with the Blue Tigers falling by their closest margin of defeat, nine points in their last visit to Kirksville in 2014 (29-20).

The Bulldogs are riding high after an impressive 44-20 win over Missouri S&T last week. Truman scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams and limited the Miners 72 yards rushing. Freshman Jordan Salima was named the GLVC Special Teams Player of the Week after putting up 267 all-purpose yards. Salima returned four kicks, including a 76-yard return for 173 yards, ran the ball 28 times for 83 yards and caught one pass for 11 to put up the second most all-purpose yardage in a game since 1997.

Ben Chaney sent the Bulldogs flying into the locker room at halftime with a 97-yard interception return for a touchdown on the final play. It was the second longest return in both Truman and GLVC history.

Lincoln gave up the first 40 points of the game and lost to Quincy 40-14 in the conference opener for both teams. Lincoln struggled running the ball as they were a -38 yards rushing on the day.

The Blue Tigers are 0-3 on the season and 1-16 in the GLVC since joining the league as an associate member in 2014. Their one win came in their second league game ever against Quincy on September 20, 2014.

Lincoln has mustered 239.3 yards per game of total offense and have given up 12 sacks for 66 yards. Will Randolph is their leading rusher with 162 yards on 29 carries and two touchdowns and quarterback Dennis Vinson has completed 20 passes for 326 yards and four touchdowns.

Last year, Truman led 28-0 at half and rolled with a 31-14 win. The Bulldogs ran the ball 64 times for 263 yards and held Lincoln to 11 rushing yards on 31 attempts.

UP NEXT:
A showdown with four-time defending league champion, the University of Indianapolis awaits the Bulldogs next Saturday at home for Family Night. The Greyhounds are 0-3, 0-1 GLVC to start the season and will play a non-conference game at Kentucky Wesleyan on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

YOUNG PUPS:
The Bulldogs have had seven true freshmen make their debuts through the first three games. They are running back Jordan Salima, receivers Drew Slager and Cam Nisbet, full back Hayden Holt, offensive lineman James Mitchell and defensive backs Lawrence Woods and Jordan Siegel.

Truman has 18 freshmen or redshirt freshmen listed on the two-deep.

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 558 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 558-400-34 (.580).

MILESTONE WATCHES:
Senior defensive back Austin Zoda should crack into the all-time career tackles list Top 20 on Saturday. Zoda has 261 stops and sits three behind 19^th place Jason Douglas, Bob Robinson and Dan Shelby. To get to the top 10, he will need 304 tackles.

Senior Joey Schenck caught his 100^th pass on Saturday against Missouri S&T and is approaching 1,000 receiving yards. Schenck's career line is 100 receptions for 959 yards and eight touchdowns.

TARGETING:
Schenck has been targeted 17 times by Bulldog quarterbacks making 12 catches for 214 yards. Drew Slager has been thrown to 14 times; making 10 catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns.

A total of 15 receivers and backs have had passes their direction this season with 13 making receptions, the same total from all 11 games of last season.

GLVC GAMES:
Truman is 15-9 since joining the GLVC in 2013 and have outscored opponents 576-411 (+165). The Bulldogs have held opponents to 72 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 213 points (368-144) and have only allowed 40 first quarter points in the 24 league games (1.4 points per quarter).

THIRD DOWNS:
This season, Truman has converted on third downs 49% of the time, up from 35% last season. In the first quarter of games, the success rate is 62% (10-of-16) while opponents in the first quarter is at 20% (2-of-10).

OTHER NUMBERS:

Truman is ranked 11^th in Division II in Kickoff Returns (28.5/return).
Truman is ranked 13^th in Tackles for loss/game (9.7).
Through four games, the Bulldogs are averaging 317.3 yards of total offense (180 passing, 137 rushing) while allowing 378 yards on defense (227 passing, 150 rushing).
Quarterback Jaden Barr had completed 63.4% for 489 yards and six 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 32 games). Last year, Bubba Jenkins of Southwest Baptist has the most by an opposing back with 125 yards.
Place kicker Nick Dolezal is 14-of-17 for his career in field goal attempts and 37-of-43 in point after attempts. His 14 makes is ninth on the Truman career field goal list.
Under Gregg Nesbitt the Bulldogs are 11-1 when they rush for over 200 yards in a game, they were 2-0 last season. In addition, Truman is 19-9 overall and 4-1 last year when winning the time of possession stat.
After playing seven road games last season and travelling over 5,000 miles (the equivalent of going from Kirksville to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Bulldogs will play six times in front of the home crowd. The road schedule in 2016 is kinder as the total miles scheduled to travel is roughly 3,000 round trip or driving to Las Vegas and back.

Missouri S&T Post Scripts:

The Bulldog quarterbacks and receivers continued their strong start as five of seven passes were completed in the first quarter. This season, Truman has completed 19-of-25 passes (76%) in the first 15 minutes.
Joey Schenck caught three passes and now has 100 receptions for his career. He will enter the Bulldog top 10 in receptions with 19 more catches.
Truman continued their domination of GLVC teams in the first quarter of games. The Bulldogs lead 10-0 after one and in all GLVC games played since 2013 have outscored their opponents 166-40 (+126) in the opening quarter.
Drew Slager was targeted four times and made all four catches for 83 yards. On the season, Slager has been thrown to 14 times and has made 10 catches.
The seventh Bulldog true-freshman made his debut on Saturday night with receiver Cam Nisbet catching his first Bulldog pass, for four yards in the second half.
Brock Rohler averaged 44 yards per punt with a career long 61. Rohler had two of his four punts inside the 20 and one other for a touchback.
The Bulldogs were a +2 in turnovers to move their season mark back to even.
Jordan Brown, Austin Zoda and Bryan Edwards tied for game-high honors with nine tackles each and Truman had four sacks and seven tackles for loss.
The 44 points scored was the most by the team since putting up 52 in a 2014 game at Southwest Baptist (16 games).
Truman improved to 52-23-4 all-time against Missouri S&T and won their 11st straight road game dating back to 1985 in Rolla.