Football 10/18/2017 8:03:00 AM

NOTES: TrumanFootball Heads To Liberty For Battle With William Jewell

The William Jewell Game

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On the road again, the Truman Football team will travel to William Jewell College on Saturday evening for a Great Lakes Valley Conference game against the Cardinals.

Both teams will be searching for their second win of the season and second in the GLVC.

Truman punched back after #7 Grand Valley State scored on their opening possession. The Bulldogs took their first drive of the game and marched 78 yards in nine plays to tie the game at seven apiece. However, the Lakers quarterback Bart Williams completed his first 15 passes for 270 yards in the first half as Grand Valley turned on the jets to win 42-7 on Saturday.

The Cardinals fumbled away the football on their opening drive against Southwest Baptist and it was an omen of things to come. Jewell turned the ball over four times in the first half and trailed 24-7 at the break in a 52-29 loss to Southwest Baptist in their last outing. Cardinal QB Brad Strauss completed 20-of-34 for 178 yards and rushed for 136 yards on 12 attempts but tossed four of the team's five interceptions. Jewell had six turnovers on the game.

The Bulldogs have won three of the last four against William Jewell including last year's 31-24 win at Stokes Stadium. The game started with a bang as Anthony Mullins returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a Cardinals touchdown. Jaden Barr and Drew Slager connected on the Bulldogs first drive for the equalizer and Barr ended the day with 270 yards passing, three touchdowns through the air and another rushing.

Truman held the Cardinals to 58 yards rushing and outgained Jewell 419 to 296 in total offense. Isaiah Hinton and Sam Reeves notched two of the three quarterback sacks in the Homecoming win for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs hold an 8-7-2 all-time lead over the Cardinals in a series that started in 1903. Twelve of the 17 games took place prior to 1923 and 4 of the Cardinals seven victories are over 100 years old.

For the season, Jordan Salima is leading the Bulldogs in rushing with 608 yards and six touchdowns, averaging 86.9 yards per game. Barr has completed 58% of his passes for 1044 yards and six scores. Salima also leads the team in receptions with 24 while Jordan Jorgenson has the most receiving yards with 310. Slager (158), Jake Ellis (147) and Dante Ruffin (111) all have over 100 receiving yards for the season. Linebackers Justin Mikeworth (55) and Bryan Edwards (54) lead the defense in tackles and defensive end Sam Reeves is among the national leaders in sacks with 6.5 for 43 yards.

COACHES…Truman is led by Gregg Nesbitt in his eighth year at his alma mater and has a 39-44 overall record. Nesbitt is fifth on the all-time victories list at Truman and is the sixth Bulldog taskmaster to have also played and lettered for the team he now leads. Shawn Weigel is in his third season as the head coach of William Jewell and served the offensive coordinator for the nine years previous to getting the top job at Jewell. He is 6-22 in his three years.

SCOUTING THE CARDINALS…Jewell started the season will losses in their first five games before breaking through with a 45-28 win at Quincy on October 7…they were defeated 52-29 at Bolivar last week and will be returning home for their first game in Liberty this week…the Cardinals are last in the GLVC in points allowed at 45.3 per game, last in total defense at 502.6 per game with 207 yards allowed on the ground and 295 yards through the air…Jewell has also allowed opponents to convert on third down nearly 50% of the time…the offense has thrown 17 interceptions and the team as a whole has a -11 turnover margin…quarterback Brad Strauss is second in the GLVC in total offense at 297.0 per game, he is third in passing yards (232.9/g) and sixth in rushing (64.1/g)…Quayde Bauman is tied for fifth in the conference averaging 10.1 tackles per game.

GRAND VALLEY POSTGAME TIDBITS

Grand Valley racked up 398 of their 450 yards in the first half. They were 15-of-15 passing for 290 yards and had 20 rushes for 108 yards.
Ben Chaney had 10 of his single-game career high 13 tackles in the first half. Bryan Edwards added 10 total stops and Justin Mikeworth added nine.
The Bulldogs had only their second fumble of the season and first lost. The fumble occurred during a kickoff return and led to the Lakers' final touchdown of the half. The last two fumbles lost have been on special teams.
The rushing touchdown by Jordan Salima was his 11^th of his career and eclipsed his freshman season total of five. His 67 yards on the day pulled him to within 100 yards of his 2016 rushing total of 696 yards.
Malique Robbins led the Bulldogs with 131 all-purpose yards. He accumulated 124 of those yards on five kickoff returns. Robbins is now averaging 25.8 yards per return, which is tops in the GLVC.
The touchdown by the Bulldogs on their opening drive was the second surrendered on a first possession by the Grand Valley State defense in the past 19 games.
It was the third time this season that the Bulldogs had scored points on their first possession of a game.
Jordan Jorgenson had his longest punt return of the season at 18 yards. He had a 26-yard return at Lincoln negated due to a flag.
The offense was called for two holding penalties after going the past two games without a holding call against. The Bulldogs also had their first accepted pass interference call against them this season.
The Bulldogs had two pass plays for over 20 yards, both occurred on the opening drive resulting in a touchdown.

TOUGHEST SCHEDULE…The Bulldogs have had one of the toughest schedules in Division II. Not counting NAIA opponent Morningside (7-0), Truman past opposition has a 60.6% winning percentage, ranking 19^th in Division II. That ranks as the number one toughest schedule in the GLVC.

HOLDING ON TO THE ROCK…The Bulldogs were the last Division II team that had not lost a fumble prior to Saturday's game. They are now one of six schools that have lost one this year following the fumble lost on the kick return. The last two fumbles lost have both been on special teams and the last fumble lost during an offensive drive came in week two of 2016 against Malone, 1,109 offensive plays since. The Bulldogs lost just three fumbles last season to finish ranked fourth in Division II.

AGAINST THE GLVC…Truman is 22-13 all-time in GLVC games and 12-6 in conference road games since joining the league in 2013. The Bulldogs have outscored GLVC member by nearly 250 points in the 35 games played.

RETURNING ALL-GLVC…The Bulldogs placed 15 players on the All-GLVC list last season, the most by the team since the 1990 season. Of the 15 players, returning will be first team members, sophomore Sam Reeves and junior Ben Wellman. Second team returners are sophomore Jaden Barr, sophomore Jordan Salima, junior Nick Verbeck, senior Jordan Brown, sophomore Bryan Edwards and honorable mention choices sophomore Drew Slager, senior Isaiah Hinton and junior Brock Rohler.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS…The Bulldogs had 42 players named to the GLVC All-Academic team last season, up from 29 the previous two years. To earn Academic All-GLVC, a player must have a 3.3 cumulative GPA or a 3.4 GPA over the academic year. The team had a team GPA last year of 2.94 and is ranked among the top public schools in the NCAA Academic Success Rate.

SETTING THE BARR…Quarterback Jaden Barr is 9-7 as a starter. He has thrown for 2,949 yards with 23 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions. He will become just the 14^th Truman signal caller to throw for over 3,000 yards in a career. His single game high in passing is 275 yards against Southwest Baptist this year and rushing is 116 yards against Michigan Tech this year. Barr has accounted for 37 touchdowns in his career.

A "TRUMAN"…Running back Jordan Salima is a graduate of Truman High School in Kansas City and led the Bulldogs in rushing and all-purpose yards last season. Salima has four career 100+yard rushing games with a high of 147 against Lincoln in 2017. He is 19^th on the Truman career-rushing list with 1,304 yards. Salima is first on the team with 24 receptions and has 202 yards. He has 56 receptions for his career for 435 yards. Salima has 2,206 all-purpose yards.

OFFENSIVE QUICK HITS…The Bulldogs have had 15 rushes from scrimmage go for over 15 yards and 22 pass plays go for over 20 yards…Truman is second in the GLVC in tackles for loss allowed per game at 6.20 and second in sacks allowed with 1 per game or six total this year…Jordan Jorgenson leads the receiving corps with 22 catches for 310 yards and freshman Jake Ellis has 12 catches for 147…Truman is averaging 4.8 yards per play and 142.7 rushing and 168.4 passing yards per game.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN…Kick returner Malique Robbins is 36th in Division II and first in the GLVC with 551 kick return yards this season. Robbins is averaging 25.8 yards per return and has three of his 15 go for over 40 yards.

SACKMASTER…Sophomore Sam Reeves has 17 sacks in two seasons as a Bulldog which is one shy of the career top 10 at Truman. Reeves is 16th in Division II this year with 6.5 and leads the GLVC with 1.5 per game. Reeves has 6.5 of the 12 Truman sacks this season.

NOSE FOR THE BALL…Sophomore Bryan Edwards leads Division II with four fumbles recovered. Two other Division II players have recovered four this season. Edwards is second on the team in tackles with 54, one back of leader Justin Mikeworth.

BRINGIN THE HEAT…The Bulldog defense set a school record last year with 90 TFLs. Five of the top six years on the record books have been set by a Bulldog defense coached by Defensive Coordinator Kellen Nesbitt. Truman has averaged 6.8 tackles for loss per game since 2010. This year, Truman has 41 tackles for loss for 117 yards through seven games and has 12 sacks for 76 yards lost.

DEFENSIVE QUICK HITS…Jordan Brown has gone over 200 career tackles (210) and is the Bulldogs active leader in stops…Brown has 40 this season and three pass breakups…Ben Chaney has six career interceptions and has one of the three by the defense this season…A.J. Devecchi is second on the team with 5.5 tackles for loss as a redshirt freshman…the defense has allowed 30.1 points per game and 373.0 yards of total offense…they have allowed 160 rushing yards per game and 212.4 passing yards per game.

PITCH & CATCH…Opposing quarterback have completed 71% of their passes against the Bulldogs this season. That is the highest completion percentage against the Bulldogs in 59 seasons of statistics with only 11 other years teams completing 60% of their passes. The next highest season was 65% in 2005. Two of the top five single game opponent completion percentages all time have occurred this season. Morningside completed 89.5% (17-of-19) and Grand Valley State completed 82.6% (19-of-23). Only two games have had 90% or more success, Saint Joseph's College in 2014 (92.3%; 12-of-13) and Central Missouri in 2013 (90.3%; 28-of-31).

PITCH & CATCH II…Opponents have a passing efficiency rating of 170.24. The efficiency rating calculates completion percentage, yards per attempt, interceptions and touchdowns. The Bulldogs are in the bottom 10 of Division II in opponent efficiency and the current rating would be the highest by an opponent in school history. The previous high allowed by Truman was 163.43 set in 1991.

SPECIAL TEAM NOTEABLES… Brock Rohler has averaged 37.3 yards per punt with six of his 40 inside the opponents 20, he is averaging 57.7 yards on kickoffs with seven touchbacks…Danny Spencer has made five of eight field goal attempts with a long of 42, he is 13-of-14 on extra point attempts…Jordan Jorgenson has returned 14 punts for 99 yards (7.1) with a long of 18…Jorgenson set a Truman record last season with 375 punt return yards (11.7 average).

DOUBLE-DIP…With the closure of Saint Joseph's College in the GLVC, the Bulldogs were left with 10 games on the schedule. Fellow co-champion Southwest Baptist was left with nine games, one below the NCAA Division II minimum for qualification to the national tournament. The two teams had an open date on November 4 and agreed to play again. The Bulldogs have doubled up on an opponent three times in their history, against William Jewell in 1904 (split), Central Methodist in 1909 (Truman wins) and again against William Jewell in 1909. The 1909 games were marred with controversy as the Cardinals won the first game 49-0 but were awarded a 1-0 win after the Bulldogs left the field in protest during the second game.

AROUND THE GLVC…UINDY and Missouri S&T still the lone unbeaten teams in conference play…the Greyhounds are 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the GLVC while garnering a national ranking of six in the latest American Football Coaches Association poll. The Miners are 5-2 overall and 3-0 in the league.

UP NEXT…Truman renews their border war with Quincy University next Saturday evening. The Hawks are 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the GLVC. Kickoff from QU Stadium is slated for 6 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

#83 Jake Ellis: TE; 6' 7"; Freshman; National Letter of Intent

#15 Jaden Barr: QB; 5' 11"; Sophomore

#6 Jordan Brown: DB; 5' 7"; Senior

#19 Ben Chaney: DB; 6' 1"; Senior

#47 A.J. Devecchi: DL; 6' 0"; Redshirt Freshman

#48 Bryan Edwards: LB; 6' 0"; Sophomore

#7 Isaiah Hinton: DL; 5' 9"; Senior

#11 Jordan Jorgenson: WR; 5' 10"; Senior

#33 Justin Mikeworth: LB; 5' 11"; Junior

#9 Sam Reeves: DL; 5' 8"; Sophomore

#5 Malique Robbins: RB; 5' 8"; Junior

#88 Brock Rohler: P; 6' 1"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#83 Jake Ellis
: 6' 7"; Freshman; National Letter of Intent
: TE

#15 Jaden Barr
: 5' 11"; Sophomore
: QB

#6 Jordan Brown
: 5' 7"; Senior
: DB

#19 Ben Chaney
: 6' 1"; Senior
: DB

#47 A.J. Devecchi
: 6' 0"; Redshirt Freshman
: DL

#48 Bryan Edwards
: 6' 0"; Sophomore
: LB

#7 Isaiah Hinton
: 5' 9"; Senior
: DL

#11 Jordan Jorgenson
: 5' 10"; Senior
: WR

#33 Justin Mikeworth
: 5' 11"; Junior
: LB

#9 Sam Reeves
: 5' 8"; Sophomore
: DL

#5 Malique Robbins
: 5' 8"; Junior
: RB

#88 Brock Rohler
: 6' 1"; Junior
: P