Football 9/13/2017 8:05:00 AM

NOTES: Curtain Rises On Conference Title Defense

The Missouri S&T Game
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The much awaited home debut of the 2017 Truman Football team will be Saturday night as the Bulldogs raise the curtain on the Great Lakes Valley Conference season against Missouri S&T.

Dating back to last season, the Bulldogs have played their last four games on foreign soil and are 1-3 including losses to Michigan Tech and Morningside this year. The Bulldogs rally came up short on Saturday against the fourth-ranked Mustangs as they lost 35-30. Truman put up 442 yards of total offense, the most in 17 games and had their second straight 100-yard rusher in Jordan Salima and a 100-yard receiver in Jordan Jorgenson.

The Miners will also be searching for their first victory of 2017 having lost home games to West Florida and Northwood (Mich.). S&T lost their opener to West Florida 20-16 then fell in a shootout with Northwood 47-34.

The two old rivals will be playing for the 80^th time dating back to 1909. The Bulldogs have a commanding 52-23-4 record against the Miners but each team has won on their opponents field in the last two games. S&T spoiled the home opener for the Bulldogs in 2015 with a 10-7 win at Stokes Stadium and Truman returned the favor last year with a 44-20 victory in Rolla.

Truman is led their trio of J's, Jordan Salima, Jordan Jorgenson and Jaden Barr. Salima is fourth in the league in rushing yards and on Saturday ran for a score, caught a touchdown pass and threw a touchdown pass. Jorgenson is second in receiving yards and is coming off a 12-catch, 199-yard outing against Morningside. Barr threw for 239 yards and a pair of scores Saturday and has the other 100-yard rushing game for the Bulldogs after going for 116 against Michigan Tech in week one.

The Bulldogs will contend with the S&T ariel attack. Quarterback Tyler Swart is tops in the GLVC in passing at over 360 per game and has three of the top four receivers in the conference through the first two weeks. Braxton Graham has 15 catches for 343 yards, Spencer Elrod has 14 for 169 and Justin Vaughn has six for 138. Graham is the leader in the GLVC in all-purpose yardage with Elrod fourth.

COACHES…Truman is led by Gregg Nesbitt in his eighth year at his alma mater and has a 38-40 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. Tyler Fenwick is in his fifth season as head coach of Missouri S&T and the 19^th head coach in Miners' history. He has a 20-23 overall record and 17-14 in GLVC league games.

IN FAMILY DAY/NIGHT GAMES…The Bulldogs are 13-11 in games played on designated "Family Day" games at Truman. They have won four of their last five with all of those occurring under the lights. This is the ninth straight night game on Family Day.

NIGHT GAMES AT STOKES…Since the lights were reinstalled in 2009, the Bulldogs have played 18 night games and are 10-8. They have won their last three night games at home and five of their last seven.

HOME OPENERS…The Bulldogs are 4-3 in home openers under Head Coach Gregg Nesbitt. They are 20-18 in all homes games since 2010.

MORNINGSIDE POSTGAME TIDBITS

It was only the third time in the Gregg Nesbitt era at Truman that the Bulldogs lost despite scoring 30 or more points in a game (19-3).
Only the fifth time since 2010 that Truman lost despite gaining over 400 yards of total offense in a game (13-5).
The 294 passing yards by the Bulldogs were the most since they threw for 333 against McKendree in 2013 (37 games). It was the seventh highest single-game passing total since 2010.
The 442 yards of total offense is the most in 17 games for the Bulldogs (vs. Southwest Baptist, 444 in 2015).
Jordan Salima was one rush shy of becoming the first Bulldog since 2003 (Jerard Leverson) to rush the football 30 or more times in a game. Salima had 29.
The Bulldogs completed eight passes over 20 yards and three for over 30 in the game.
The Bulldogs have had back-to-back 100-yard rushers for the first time since 2015.
That 2015 season was the last time Truman had 100 yard rusher and receiver in the same game (vs. William Jewell, Andy Satulla and Joey Schenck). It was only the 10^th time since 2000 and the fourth time since 2005 that has happened.
The Bulldogs have allowed three straight opposing running backs to rush for over 100 yards for the first time since the 2012 season.
The last non-quarterback to throw a touchdown for the Bulldogs was Phil Kenney against Pittsburg State in 2009.
Truman had just one, three and out against Morningside and had no punts in the second half. The only punt formation for Truman turned into a fake and converted first down on a pass from Brock Rohler to Wyatt Fishel for a gain of 24 yards.
Bryan Edwards had a career high 11 tackles. He previous best was nine stops against Missouri S&T last season.

AGAINST THE GLVC…The Bulldogs are 21-10 in GLVC games since joining the league in 2013. They have averaged nearly 30 points offensively while giving up 18.6 per league game. Truman has doubled the number of rushing yards as their league foes with 164.9 per game to 85.5 yards by opponents.

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.

CHAMPIONS AGAIN…Truman captured their first GLVC title last year as they shared the crown with Southwest Baptist. It was the 27^th overall league title for the Bulldogs dating back to 1912 and first since the 1988 season.

SETTING THE BARR…Quarterback Jaden Barr has started the last 12 games for the Bulldogs and is 8-4. He has completed nearly 60% of his passes in his career and now has thrown for 2,223 yards with 20 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. His single game high in passing is 270 yards against William Jewell in 2016 and rushing is 116 yards against Michigan Tech this year.

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 two career 100+yard rushing games with a high of 125 against Lincoln in 2016. He has had 245 career attempts for 843 yards and six touchdowns.

MONEY MAN…Freshman Drew Slager led the Bulldogs in receptions (39) and yards (625). Slager led the team with 27 receptions that resulted in either a first down or touchdown aka "Money Plays". Slager averaged 16 yards per catch and had a season high six receptions in two games and 90 yards receiving against Southwest Baptist on October 7.

DOUBLE J…Jordan Jorgenson broke a school record last season with 375 yards in punt returns (11.7 avg.). He is the team's leading receiver after two games with 13 catches for 204 yards, 199 came in the last game against Morningside on 12 catches. It was his first 100+yard receiving game.

BOOKENDS…Defensive ends Sam Reeves and Isaiah Hinton had a combine total of 25.5 tackles for loss a year ago and 18 of the teams 35 quarterback sacks. Reeves had 16 tackles for loss to rank third in Truman single season history, a half behind Nic Abbate and one behind Patrick Blackwell. His 10.5 sacks were tied for fourth in a Truman season.

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.

BRINGIN THE HEAT (II)…Truman also set a school record last year with 35 quarterback sacks breaking the previous mark of 28 set in 1998, 1997 and 2012. The defense was ranked seventh nationally in red zone at 62%, 17^th in sacks and 19^th in rushing defense at allowing 103 yards per game by an opponent.

DEFENSIVE QUICK HITS…The 940 yards rushing allowed last season was the sixth fewest in program history and the least since 1,072 yards allowed in 1982. The Bulldogs allowed only nine rushing touchdowns all season after only 10 allowed in 2015.

B(ROCK)'n ROHLER…Junior punter Brock Rohler was fifth in the GLVC in punting last year at 39.5 yards per punt. He put 25 of his 55 attempts inside the opponents 20 yardline and 12 of the 25 inside the 10. On kickoffs, Rohler averaged 56.3 yards and had six touchbacks. He was a GLVC and D2Football.com Special Teams Player of the Week after having all five of his punts downed inside the Lincoln 20, four of which were downed inside the 10.

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 on the first game 49-0 but were awarded a 1-0 win after the Bulldogs left the field in protest during the second game.

A GRAND SEASON…The first game of the 2017 season will be game 1001 in the Bulldog history books. Truman finished the first 1,000 games with a 564-402-34 (.581) record that ranks among the top NCAA Division II programs in wins and winning percentage and second among NCAA schools (all divisions) in the state of Missouri.

COACHES POLLS…Truman was picked second in the GLVC Preseason Coaches poll with 41 total votes and two first-place tallies. Southwest Baptist was picked first with 48 points and six first-place votes. The Bulldogs also received votes in the first American Football Coaches Association preseason Top 25 survey. In the week two AFCA Coaches Poll, Indianapolis made the big jump up to 18^th in the poll while SBU grabbed five votes. The Bulldogs did not garner any votes.

AROUND THE GLVC…Indianapolis remained perfect on the young season by getting a field goal at the buzzer to down Wayne St. (Mich.) 31-28 on Saturday…four of the five home teams defended their turf with only Missouri S&T falling at home to Northwood…Quincy's Chris Harris was the GLVC Offensive Player of the week after going for 18-for-155 and three touchdowns, McKendree's Tobias Cook had six tackles and a pick six to get the defensive player and Brad Schickel of UINDY was the special teams player after his 30-yd field goal to win for the Greyhounds.

UP NEXT…Two more road games are on tap for the Bulldogs but one of the shorter trips of the season is on the docket for next week. Truman will head south to Jefferson City to face the Lincoln Blue Tigers at 2 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

#15 Joey Schenck: WR; 6' 4"; Senior

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

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

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

#40 Wyatt Fishel: DB; 5' 7"; Redshirt Freshman

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

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

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

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

#2 Jordan Salima: RB; 5' 10"; Sophomore

#21 Andy Satulla: RB; 5' 7"; Junior

#80 Drew Slager: WR; 5' 9"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

#15 Joey Schenck
: 6' 4"; Senior
: WR

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

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

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

#40 Wyatt Fishel
: 5' 7"; Redshirt Freshman
: DB

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

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

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

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

#2 Jordan Salima
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: RB

#21 Andy Satulla
: 5' 7"; Junior
: RB

#80 Drew Slager
: 5' 9"; Sophomore
: WR