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Truman State University Athletics

18FBTS08

Football

Bulldogs & Bearcats Renew Spirits Saturday

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Two teams that got pretty acquainted with another last season will meet for the third time in 12 months when the Truman Bulldogs head to Bolivar, Missouri to face Southwest Baptist University on Saturday at 2 p.m. 
 
The teams split last years games, both played in Kirksville. The Bearcats won the conference game 21-17 snapping an eight-game streak to the Bulldogs however four weeks later Truman restored order with a 28-12 win. The second game last season was a result of an open date in the schedule that occurred when Saint Joseph's (Ind.) College closed due to financial reasons earlier in 2017. 
 
Coming into Saturday's game, Truman is riding a four-game winning streak after taking down Lincoln (Mo.) University 20-13 on homecoming. The Bulldogs led 20-0 and had held the Blue Tigers to 43 offensive yards through the first three quarters until Lincoln picked up 153 yards on three long pass plays midway through the fourth quarter. The seven-point win was the smallest margin of victory by the Bulldogs over the Blue Tigers during the course of their 23-game winning streak in the series. 
 
Jaden Barr recorded his fourth 100-yard rushing game of the season and had a career-high 165 yards on the ground. Truman ran for 351 on the day with Jordan Salima picking up his second straight 100-yard game with 105 and Andy Satulla added 82. The "triple-threat" have rushed for nearly 1,200 yards in the past four games (296.0/game), all of which were wins. 
 
Sam Reeves picked up the Great Lakes Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week award with two of the team's five sacks against Lincoln. Reeves moved to within two career sacks of the Truman record and took over the top spot in tackles for loss with 43. He is fifth among active NCAA players in quarterback sacks with 30 and is the only junior among the top 10 active leaders in quarterback sacks. Reeves leads the GLVC with eight this season and has 11 tackles for loss. 
 
Southwest Baptist is 0-6 this year and 0-4 in the GLVC but lost in overtime to McKendree 26-23 at home last Saturday. The Bearcats have been road warriors during the first part of the year with four of their first six games played on the road. SBU led 17-0 over McKendree before a 1-yard run just before half gave the Bearcats from Illinois life. Jalyn Williams reeled in a 24-yard pass for McKendree to tie the game in the final minute. After holding SBU to a field goal in their overtime possession, McKendree ran the ball five times to reach the endzone and clinch the win.
 
Truman leads the all-time series with SBU 25-4 with three of the four losses coming in Bolivar. The last meeting on foreign soil was a 26-16 Truman win in 2016. That victory eventually led to the teams tying for the GLVC championship that season. The last Bulldog loss in Bolivar occurred in 2005 when SBU downed the Bulldogs 38-36. 

Bulldog Four-Game Winning Streak…
This is the third straight year that Truman has won four games in succession. The Bulldogs won five straight in 2016 before losing to #2 Grand Valley State on the road and had a stretch of eight wins in nine games. They finished 2017 on a four-game winning streak.

The largest margin of victory was 14 at Valparaiso 34-20 to start the streak. Truman has averaged 295 yards on the ground and 407 yards of total offense. 

The Bulldogs have had only two other five-game winning streaks under Coach Nesbitt, in 2013 they won their first five GLVC games before setbacks against Saint Joseph's (Ind.) and Indianapolis and the five-game stretch in the 2016 GLVC championship season.

About The Bulldogs…
  • Jaden Barr is in his third year as the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs. Barr has started 27 games and is inching up the Truman career passing lists. He is 12thin yards completed with 4,342, eighth in completions with 404 and sixth in total offense with 5,970.
  • Barr has 691 rushing yards this season to lead Truman with four, 100-yard running games. He has already eclipsed last year's running total of 598 yards. 
  • Barr is third in the GLVC in rushing yards per game at 98.7 and sixth in passing yards at 127.9. He is fourth in the conference in total offense at 226.6 yards per game.
  • Jordan Salima has gone over 2,200 career rushing yards and is 11thon the Bulldog career list. He is sixth in career rushing attempts with 569 and is closing in on the top 10 in Truman all-purpose yards with 3,274. Salima has a team-high 114 rushing attempts this season for 465 yards and five touchdowns. He has rushed for over 100 yards in consecutive weeks.
  • Andy Satulla went over 1,000 career rushing yards earlier this season and has 371 yards and two game winning touchdowns. Satulla has 1,174 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. 
  • Barr has used 14 different receivers this season on his 99 completions. Dante Ruffin has the most catches with 17 for 139 yards, Brass Woods has 13 catches for 142 and Mitch Nichols has the most yards receiving with 173 on 10 grabs.
  • Sam Reeves has 30 career quarterback sacks, eight coming this season and is in second place in the career rankings. He is two back of Ernie Myerson's 1984-87 total of 32. Myerson is the father of current Bulldog and defensive mate of Reeves' Travis Myerson. 
  • Reeves has 43.0 tackles for loss, which took over the top spot from Nic Abbate (2010-14). He has 11 TFLs this season. 
  • The Bulldog defense has been balanced with eight players with over 30 tackles through seven games. Wyatt Fishel leads the pack with 48 and Bryan Edwards is second with 45. Edwards and Jordan Siegel have 5.5 tackles for loss. Edwards is the active career leader on the defense with 175 stops in 29 games played. 
  • Lawrence Woods is a two-time GLVC Special Teams Player of the Week. Woods has returned three kicks for touchdowns this season, a Truman single-season record, and leads all of the NCAA in kickoff return average at 47.6 yards per return. The Truman single-season record is 37.2 per return held by Tremaine Millender in 2013. Millender had 10 returns for 372 yards while Woods this season has 10 returns for 476 yards.
  • Woods is one return touchdown away from tying the NCAA Division II season record of four held by Stephan Neville (Stonehill) in 2010 and Andrew Jackson (Merrimack) in 2005. Woods' has four career returns for score that matches the Truman record held by Mike Laususe (1974-77).
  • The Bulldogs are second in the NCAA Division II in kick return average at 28.8 as a team. They are also atop the GLVC with Missouri S&T right on their heels at 28.5 yards per return.
  • Brock Rohler has the Bulldogs second in the GLVC statistics in Net Punting. Rohler is averaging 39.9 yards per punt with a long of 55. He has had 12 of his 30 punts fair caught, 10 inside the 20 and two touchbacks. The Bulldogs have allowed seven punt returns this season for a total of 18 yards (2.6/return).
  • Josh Scheiderer leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 51 points making 11-of-14 field goals and 18-of-19 extra point attempts. Scheiderer's long is 46 yards coming against McKendree.
  • The Bulldogs continue to be one of the least penalized teams in the nation. Truman averages 4.14 flags accepted per game for a total of 39 yards per game. Those numbers are first in the GLVC and sixth in Division II. 
 
Behind Enemy Lines…
  • SBU is last in the GLVC in scoring, rushing and total offense. The Bearcats average 14.2 points per game and gain 98.2 yards on the ground and 250.3 overall this season.
  • They are seventh in rushing defense allowing 211.2 yards per game.
  • The Bearcats have excelled in kick coverage with returns by opponents averaging 19.8 yards per return with a long of 33. They have had 10 touchbacks called by opposing teams.
  • SBU has some different names in key positions this season with Eric Knight leading the rushers with 370 yards on 122 carries. Knight is a redshirt freshman.
  • Bryse Salik has completed 79 of 158 passes for 755 yards in his first season behind center. Salik is a true freshman on the SBU roster. He is replacing T.J. Edwards that threw for 2,730 yards last year.
  • Salik's top target has been Connor Ratcliff with 21 catches for 219 yards and three scores. Ratcliff made only five catches in five games last year for 54 yards. The top five receivers from a year ago are no longer on the SBU roster.
  • De'Shawn Tone is second on the team in tackles with 44 but has 10.5 tackles for loss and six quarterback sacks. He has also forced four fumbles. 
  • The Bearcats have forced 10 fumbles, recovering seven of them.
  • In the second and third quarters, SBU has been outscored 134-43.
  • Southwest Baptist was 5-5 last year and 4-3 in the GLVC.
 
Truman vs. The GLVC:
The Bulldogs are 28-13 all-time in the Great Lakes Valley Conference since joining the league in 2013. They are 15-6 in conference home games and 13-7 in road tilts.
Truman has averaged 167.0 yards per conference game on the ground, while allowing 101.1 yards rushing. They have recorded 115 sacks in the 41 conference games (2.8/g) while allowing 61 (1.5/g). 
 
Inside The Numbers (Lincoln)
  • The Bulldogs had consecutive 300 yard rushing games and 400 yards of total offense this season for the first time. 
  • It was the seventh time since 2010 that Truman had rushed for 300 or more yards in a game, winning the last six.
  • It was the first back-to-back 400 yard total offense games since the 2014 season. Truman has not had three straight 400-yard games since 2010.
  • The Bulldogs had four drives over 10 plays and five drives that lasted longer than four minutes. They finished with 37:55 of possession time.
  • The defense, after being on the field for 85 snaps the week before at McKendree, had a light workout of 47 plays this week. Truman ran 34 more plays from scrimmage than Lincoln.
  • The 12 net rushing yards by the Blue Tigers were the fewest by an opposing team since Truman held Kentucky Wesleyan to a -10 yards rushing in 2013. It was the seventh game out of the last 11 that an opponent failed to rush for 100 yards as a team. Of course, the week before at McKendree, the Bearcats ran for 248, the most allowed since Truman played Indianapolis (334) in 2014.
  • Lincoln had three plays that accounted for 72% of their total offensive yards. All passes to Blake Tibbs. The first was a 77-yard TD pass and the other two were for 41 and 35 yards as Lincoln started their final drive at their own two before going 98 yards for the touchdown with five seconds left to play.
  • The Bulldog offensive line allowed no quarterback sacks for the second straight week and the offense did not have a single "three-and-out".
  • Jake Floyd was tops among Truman defenders with seven total tackles on the afternoon. The defense had five quarterback sacks and 10 tackles for loss totaling 32 yards.
  • Truman had a season-high 83 penalty yards against them. 
  • The game did not have a turnover for either team.
  • Dan Zeigler made his first appearance for the Bulldogs behind center. He had to take one snap after Jaden Barr lost his helmet in the third quarter and took over for a drive in the fourth quarter. Zeigler did not attempt a pass and had one rush for one yard.
 
Around the GLVC…
Indianapolis (4-0) and Truman (3-0) are the lone unbeaten teams in the GLVC. Missouri S&T and McKendree both have one loss. Truman has both UINDY (home November 3) and Missouri S&T (away November 10) left on their schedule while the Greyhounds host McKendree this weekend and the trips to Bolivar and Kirksville in consecutive weeks. 
Indianapolis is ranked #16 in the latest American Football Coaches Association poll and are the number three scoring offense (29.3/g) and number one scoring defense (15.2/g) in the league. 
 
Returning All-Conference…
Defensive lineman Sam Reeves and kick return/running back Malique Robbins are returning first team all-Great Lakes Valley Conference performers. Reeves was ninth in Division II in quarterback sacks with 11.5 and 42ndin tackles for loss with 16. 
 
Backfield mates Jacob Morris and Jordan Salima were second team honorees last year while tight end C.J. Brown and linebacker Bryan Edwards were named honorable mention.
 
Brotherly Love…
The 2018 Bulldogs feature four sets of brothers on the team. Connor and Jack Borisenko, A.J. and Alec Devecchi, Brock and Cade Rohler and Bennett and Brayden Swope. 
 
Sportsmanship…
For the third straight year, the Bulldogs earned the GLVC Sportsmanship Award for Football. The award is voted upon by league coaches. Truman was one of the fewest penalized teams in Division II at sixth last year with just over four flags per game. They were third in Division II in penalty yards at 347 for the season or 31.5 per game. 
 
In addition to the Sportsmanship Award, Truman placed 33 players on the Academic All-GLVC team. To earn the award, players needed to average a 3.30 GPA for the academic year. 
 
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Players Mentioned

Nic Abbate

#92 Nic Abbate

DE
6' 2"
Junior
Tremaine Millender

#1 Tremaine Millender

DB
5' 10"
Graduate Student
Jack Borisenko

#61 Jack Borisenko

OL
6' 3"
Freshman
Cade Rohler

#98 Cade Rohler

DT
6' 2"
Freshman
Josh Scheiderer

#99 Josh Scheiderer

K/P
5' 11"
Freshman
Brayden Swope

#56 Brayden Swope

OT
6' 4"
Freshman
Jaden Barr

#15 Jaden Barr

QB
5' 11"
Junior
Bryan Edwards

#48 Bryan Edwards

LB
6' 0"
Junior
Wyatt Fishel

#7 Wyatt Fishel

DB
5' 7"
Sophomore
Jake Floyd

#93 Jake Floyd

DL
5' 10"
Junior
Jacob Morris

#30 Jacob Morris

FB
5' 8"
Sophomore
National Letter of Intent
Travis Myerson

#20 Travis Myerson

DB
6' 1"
Junior

Players Mentioned

Nic Abbate

#92 Nic Abbate

6' 2"
Junior
DE
Tremaine Millender

#1 Tremaine Millender

5' 10"
Graduate Student
DB
Jack Borisenko

#61 Jack Borisenko

6' 3"
Freshman
OL
Cade Rohler

#98 Cade Rohler

6' 2"
Freshman
DT
Josh Scheiderer

#99 Josh Scheiderer

5' 11"
Freshman
K/P
Brayden Swope

#56 Brayden Swope

6' 4"
Freshman
OT
Jaden Barr

#15 Jaden Barr

5' 11"
Junior
QB
Bryan Edwards

#48 Bryan Edwards

6' 0"
Junior
LB
Wyatt Fishel

#7 Wyatt Fishel

5' 7"
Sophomore
DB
Jake Floyd

#93 Jake Floyd

5' 10"
Junior
DL
Jacob Morris

#30 Jacob Morris

5' 8"
Sophomore
National Letter of Intent
FB
Travis Myerson

#20 Travis Myerson

6' 1"
Junior
DB