KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Bulldog Football team will look to bounce back after suffering their first loss of the season last Saturday to Lindenwood 31-21. Truman heads to Rolla, Missouri to face another team looking to rebound after the first weekend of conference play. The Missouri S&T Miners fell on the road to Quincy University 31-28.

Truman jumped out to a 14-0 lead over Lindenwood on Saturday but costly turnovers late in the first half proved too much to overcome. A fumble at midfield set the Lions up to tie the game with 2:21 left to go then an interception on the next drive allowed Lindenwood to go into the locker room up 17-14. 

Lindenwood would score 31 straight points before Matt Hall caught a 17-yard pass from Nolan Hair in the fourth quarter.

Cody Schrader continued his string of 100-yard rushing games with 132 yards on 25 carries. Schrader has rushed for over 100 yards in three straight games and six of his last eight games. Schrader is averaging 153 in the five games this season and has netted 766 yards with nine touchdowns.

The Miners had two fourth quarter turnovers that led to their demise against the Hawks on Saturday. An interception early in the fourth halted one drive and a fumble at the QU goalline stopped another. S&T had one final chance but a 40-yard field goal was missed with 20 seconds left.

Saturday's matchup will feature the top rushing offense (Missouri S&T) against the #2 rushing defense (Truman) in the GLVC. The Miners enter the game averaging 206 yards on the ground as a team lead by back Aaron Moya with 79.2 yards per game. S&T has the top overall offense in the conference at 512 yards per night with quarterbacks Brennan Simms and
Luke Hertzler sharing snaps and each throwing for over 230 yards per game.

This will be the 84^th meeting between Truman and Missouri S&T. The Bulldogs lead the all-time series 54-25-4 and have won the last two games, most recently a 46-27 Truman win in Rolla back in April. 

In that spring contest, the Bulldogs exploded for 19 points over a span of just three minutes in the fourth quarter to go from being down 18-16 to up 35-18. Schrader ran for 123 yards and three touchdowns for Truman while Moya rushed for 104 yards with one score for S&T. Nolan Hair was 17-of-27 for 139 yards and two scores. 

With the loss on Saturday, Truman did drop out of the top 25 of the American Football Coaches Association poll but still received votes in the survey. Truman is the only GLVC squad mentioned in the coaches' poll having garnered 23 votes. 
 
About the Bulldogs: 
Truman has averaged 31 points scoring in their first five games this season while allowing 22.6. The team has scored over 20 points in 19 straight games dating back to a 10-7 in the 2019 season opener at Drake. 

While the headlines have featured the two-time GLVC Offensive Player of the Week Cody Schrader and his rushing prowess, the Bulldogs have been a balanced offensive attack this season. Of the 93 first downs achieved, 45 have come via rushing and 46 via passing, the other two by yellow flags. The team has 21 touchdowns with 10 rushing and nine passing, two others coming from kick returns.

Quarterback Nolan Hair completed 62% of his passes for 866 yards. He has spread the ball to 11 different receivers this year. Dante Ruffin has been the target for 22 receptions for 234 yards while Matt Hall is second with 14. Schrader had nabbed 13 balls out of the backfield for 138 yards. Ruffin has caught 102 career passes for 1150 yards. He can crack the top 10 in receptions at Truman with 19 more. Jake Ellis is the active leader in receiving yards with 1,154 and is currently tied for the career record in touchdown receptions with 22. 

Schrader leads the GLVC in rushing attempts with 129 and has lost just 14 yards out of the 780 he has gained thus far. Schrader has been stopped behind the line of scrimmage only seven times (5%) of the handoffs and been held for no gain on 12 rushing plays. Schrader is third among all Division II running backs is rushing yards and second in the conference behind UINDY's Toriano Clinton. Jordan Terrell of Barton leads DII with 936 yards (187.2/g).

Josh Scheiderer is two points shy of tying Garrett White and Mickey Masucci for sixth place on the career points chart. Scheiderer has 226 points on 35 field goals and 119 extra points. All three field goals made this season have been over 40 yards.

Truman is ninth nationally in kick return defense, allowing just over 13 yards per kick return.

Punter Taylor Cornish is atop the GLVC in punting average and is the only punter in the league over 40 yards. Cornish has a mark of 41.6 on 22 boots and a long of 54 yards. For his career at Truman, Cornish has 84 punts for an average of 39.8 yards and a long of 64.

Jaylen Jefferson is the Division II leader in kickoff returns with an average of 39.8 and two touchdowns. Only one player in the NCAA FCS Division and one player in the NCAA Division III have an average higher than Jefferson. Only seven players, including Jefferson across all NCAA divisions have two kick return touchdowns this season.

The Bulldog defense is 14^th in Division II and second in the GLVC against the run at 79.6 yards allowed per game. They are third in the conference in total defense.
Six defenders have over 20 tackles made through five games and 11 have more than 10. Ben Thomas leads the unit with 41 stops (30 solo) and has eight pass breakups. Ulysses
Ross has 7.5 tackles for loss totaling 33 yards among his 32 total stops. 

Nine different players have been involved in quarterback sacks with Ross and Bennett Swope accounting for two each. Freshman Jack Marth has 3.5 TFLs and was an earlier GLVC Defensive Player of the Week winner. 

Peyton Carr, Ryan Olivas and Kendall Hutchinson have the three interceptions for the Bulldogs this year.

Of the 12 listed potential starters on the defensive 2-deep, no seniors and two juniors are listed (Robert Greco and Bennett Swope). Ten players are either sophomores, redshirt freshmen or true freshman. In 2019, nine of the 11 listed starters were seniors or juniors. 

Truman is 38-18 since joining the GLVC in 2013.
 
Up Next:
The Bulldogs will remain on the road for a conference game at Southwest Baptist next Saturday in Bolivar. The Bearcats feature one of the top passing quarterbacks in the country in Cooper Callis but SBU has started out 1-4 on the season. They will be at William Jewell (0-5) on Saturday.