Football 10/25/2017 8:37:00 AM

NOTES: Truman & Quincy Renew Pleasantries Saturday

The Quincy Game

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The final road game of the 2017 season will also be the closest road game of the year. Truman takes the short trip across northeast Missouri and the Mississippi River to Quincy for a showdown with the Hawks on Saturday night.

The Bulldogs recorded six quarterback sacks, four coming from defensive end Sam Reeves and Jordan Salima rushed for 133 yards on 31 carries in Truman's 24-14 win over William Jewell on Saturday.

Quincy travelled to Miami, Oklahoma for a neutral site contest against the University of Texas-Permian Basin. UTPB scored 35 unanswered points after the Hawks had tied the game at seven for a 42-7 victory. The Falcons rushed for 373 yards on Quincy and ran up 551 yards of total offense. Quincy's Andrew Rund completed 11-of-20 for 109 yards and ran for 71 yards and the only Hawks touchdown.

This will be the Bulldogs second trip to QU Stadium after it was refurbished in 2015. That season, the Hawks scored 10 points in the final two minutes and 17 points total in the fourth quarter to stun the Bulldogs 23-19. Last year in Kirksville, the Bulldogs jumped out to a 28-14 lead at half and held on to a 38-28 win. Truman is 5-2 overall against the Hawks and 3-1 in GLVC games played.

For the season, Jordan Salima is leading the Bulldogs in rushing with 741 yards and seven touchdowns, averaging 92.6 yards per game. Barr has completed 58% of his passes for 1162 yards and six scores. Salima also leads the team in receptions with 25 while Jordan Jorgenson has the most receiving yards with 349. Jake Ellis (198), Drew Slager (180) and Dante Ruffin (111) all have over 100 receiving yards for the season.

Linebackers Bryan Edwards (60) and Justin Mikeworth (59) lead the defense in tackles and defensive end Sam Reeves is among the national leaders in sacks with 10.5 for 67 yards. Reeves is already seventh on the Truman career sacks list with 21 and has matched his 2016 total which is 1.5 shy of the single-season record.

COACHES…Truman is led by Gregg Nesbitt in his eighth year at his alma mater and has a 40-44 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. Gary Bass is the interim Head Coach at Quincy having replaced Tom Pajic over the summer. Bass is in his sixth season overall with the QU program serving as offensive line and offensive coordinator.

SCOUTING THE HAWKS…Quincy has tasted victory once in the last five games and are currently on a three-game loosing skid. They are 3-1 in home games this year and this will be their final game at QU Stadium for the 2017 season. The Hawks are 9-6 since moving back on campus. Quincy allows 36 points and over 478 yards offense per game with nearly 250 yards rushing and 229 yards through the air. Offensively, the Hawks manage just 16 points per game with 274 yards of total offense. The Hawks have lost 11 of the 17 fumbles this year and have allowed touchdowns in 25 out of 33 opponent red zone opportunities. Chris Harris leads the Hawks in rushing with 478 yards and six touchdowns, he did not play in last week's game at UT-Permian Basin. Andrew Rund has thrown for 997 yards and five scores with top targets being Kody Wood (21-345) and Owen Schoenenberger (17-213).

WILLIAM JEWELL POSTGAME TIDBITS

The Bulldogs topped 50 rushing attempts for the first time this season and had a season-high 243 yards on the ground. Truman rushed for over 50 times in three games last season.
The 243 yards were the most by a Bulldog team in 26 games, 263 yards against Lincoln in 2015.
Jordan Salima's 31 rush attempts were the first time since 2003 a Bulldog had over 30 attempts in a game. He finished with 133 yards, his fourth 100-yard game this season and fifth for his career.
Malique Robbins had his first rushing touchdown of the season and third for his career and Hayden Holt had his first career rushing touchdown.
Truman had a single-game high six sacks for 35 yards. The Bulldog record for sacks is nine set against Quincy in 2013.
Sam Reeves' four sacks were a new single-game record by a Bulldog. The previous record was three held by Reeves (against Saint Joseph's in 2016) and Nic Abbate (against Southwest Baptist in 2011). Reeves was credited with a career-high nine tackles.
William Jewell's Brad Strauss had a opposing QB high of 340 yards passing against the Bulldogs. Strauss was 27-of-38 with a pair of scores.
Wyatt Miller's 70-yard TD reception was the longest pass play against Truman this year.
Of the 34 offensive plays run by the Bulldogs in the second half, 28 of them were running plays.
Truman had a season-high 34:37 of possession time and converted on seven of 14 third downs as well.
The Bulldogs had a season-low nine offensive possessions but five of them had over 10 plays per drive. Truman had four straight drives with over 10 with the final drive consuming nearly nine minutes off the fourth quarter clock. Truman had just one three and out and a season-low two punts.
The defense kept William Jewell to a season-low 51 rushing yards and it was the fourth straight game against the Cardinals that Truman held Jewell to under 60 team rushing yards.

HOLDING ON TO THE ROCK…The Bulldogs are one of four Division II teams with just one fumble lost this season. 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, 1,167 offensive plays since. The Bulldogs lost just three fumbles last season to finish ranked fourth in Division II.

AGAINST THE GLVC…Truman is 23-13 all-time in GLVC games and 13-6 in conference road games since joining the league in 2013. The Bulldogs have outscored GLVC member by nearly 250 points in the 36 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 10-7 as a starter. He has thrown for 3,045 yards with 23 touchdown passes and 16 interceptions. He has 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.

CHASING 1,000…Running back Jordan Salima is a graduate of Truman High School in Kansas City and is in his second year of leading the Bulldogs in rushing and all-purpose yardage. He has 741 yards this season and is looking to become the 20^th 1,000 yard rusher in Truman history. He would be only the third one since 2000.

Salima has five 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 1,437 yards. Salima is first on the team with 25 receptions and has 194 yards. He has 57 receptions for his career for 427 yards. Salima has 2,331 all-purpose yards.

OFFENSIVE QUICK HITS…The Bulldogs have had 18 rushes from scrimmage go for over 15 yards and 25 pass plays go for over 20 yards…Truman number one in the GLVC and 19^th in Division II in redzone offense at 91%…Jordan Jorgenson leads the receiving corps with 24 catches for 349 yards and freshman Jake Ellis has 16 catches for 198…Truman is averaging 4.8 yards per play and 155.2 rushing and 165.8 passing yards per game.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN…Kick returner Malique Robbins is 40th in Division II and second in the GLVC with 544 kick return yards this season. Robbins is averaging 25.9 yards per return and has three of his 15 go for over 40 yards.

SACKMASTER…Sophomore Sam Reeves has 21 sacks in two seasons as a Bulldog which is seventh on the Bulldog career charts. Reeves is second in Division II this year with 10.5 and leads the GLVC with 1.38 per game. He is second in Division II sacks trailing Dennis Gardeck of Sioux Falls by 1.5. Reeves has 10.5 of the 16 Truman sacks this season.

NOSE FOR THE BALL…Sophomore Bryan Edwards is second in Division II with four fumbles recovered. KJ Reid of Arkansas Tech has five and Avery Taylor of Merrimack also has four. Edwards leads the team in tackles with 60, one ahead of 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 50 tackles for loss for 117 yards through eight games and has 18 sacks for 76 yards lost.

DEFENSIVE QUICK HITS…Jordan Brown has gone over 200 career tackles (213) and is the Bulldogs active leader in stops…Brown has 43 this season and four 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 28.1 points per game and 375.0 yards of total offense…they have allowed 146 rushing yards per game and 228 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 169.0 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 36.9 yards per punt with seven of his 42 inside the opponents 20, he is averaging 56.9 yards on kickoffs with eight touchbacks…Danny Spencer has made six of 10 field goal attempts with a long of 42, he is 17-of-18 on extra point attempts…Jordan Jorgenson has returned 15 punts for 104 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…Indianapolis can clinch a share of their fifth GLVC championship with a win at William Jewell this week. The Greyhounds are 5-0 and 8-0 overall while garnering the number six national ranking in the AFCA Coaches Poll. McKendree knocked Missouri S&T from the conference undefeated ranks with a 39-31 win at home over the Miners. They are both at 3-1.

UP NEXT…Southwest Baptist number two will be played at Stokes Stadium next Saturday at noon. The Bulldogs will look to avenge a 21-17 loss on October 7 to the Bearcats. SBU will be at Missouri S&T this week.

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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

#42 Hayden Holt: FB; 5' 9"; Sophomore

#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

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

#42 Hayden Holt
: 5' 9"; Sophomore
: FB

#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