Football 9/8/2021 9:10:00 AM

Truman Football Heads To Motown To Clash With Warriors

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – After a successful first trip to the Wolverine State, the Bulldog Football heads back to Michigan and Detroit to face Wayne State on Saturday afternoon.

Truman upended Davenport University by a 31-14 score and rode the legs of Cody Schrader in the process. The Truman tailback rushed for a career high 217 yards and accounted for all four touchdowns. Josh Scheiderer's 42-yard field goal gave the Bulldogs a two-possession lead with 6:04 left in the game and Schrader would punctuate the victory with a three-yard run with 2:30 remaining. Schrader was named the GLVC Offensive Player of the Week.

Wayne State battled fifth-ranked Slippery Rock (Pa.) in their opener and fell 24-21 after being stopped inside the SRU five-yard line with under a minute to play on a failed fourth down conversion. The Warriors rushed for 247 yards with Avery Hall and Myren Harris each gaining over 80 yards apiece.

Truman hosted Wayne State in 2019 and won 35-12 at Stokes Stadium but lost 21-20 in Detroit in their last visit to the Motor City in 2015.

In the 2019 game, the Bulldog took a 3-0 lead on a 28-yard field goal by Josh Scheiderer on their opening drive then blitzed the Warriors for 24 points in the second quarter. The Warriors got their points late in the third on a three-yard run and late in the fourth on a four-yard run.

Wayne outgained the Bulldogs 306 to 292 but Truman turned three Warrior turnovers into points. Jordan Siegel had a 28-yard fumble recovery score, Bennett Swope had a fumble recovery that led to a short field goal and Ben Watson had an interception that led to a Jaden Barr touchdown.

Truman received votes in this week's American Football Coaches Association Division II poll but not enough to crack the top 25. The Bulldogs got 15 votes and were one of three GLVC schools listed in the poll. The University of Indianapolis was ranked 12^th after their 34-10 win over NAIA St. Xavier (Ill.) while Lindenwood University dropped out of the top 25 but earned a pair of votes after falling at home 40-20 to #22 Angelo (Texas) State in their opener.

About the Bulldogs:
The Bulldogs picked up their eighth straight non-conference win with their victory over Davenport and are now 20-5 dating back to September of 2018.  Truman also improved to 31-1 in games that they rush for 200 yards or more since the 2010 season.

Cody Schrader set career-highs with his 217 yards rushing on 35 carries and scored four touchdowns. Schrader now has seven games of 100-yards rusher or better in his 18 games played and has 1,227 career yards and 18 touchdowns scored.

Quarterback Nolan Hair improved to 4-1 as a starting quarterback with a manageable 11-of-20 for 78 yards passing against Davenport. Hair threw for over 300 yards in the spring in the GLVC title game against Indianapolis (316), which was only the second 300-yard passing game by a Truman quarterback in the GLVC-era (2013-present).

Hair's 11 completions was spread amongst six different receivers on Saturday. Dante Ruffin nabbed five catches for 46 yards while Jaylen Jefferson had two and one each for Matt Hall, Zach Zerwig, Schrader and Tate Crane. Tight end Jake Ellis is the active leader in receiving yards with 88 receptions for 1,114 yards. He is one touchdown shy of tying the school record for career TD receptions of 22 held by both Andrew Blakley (1999-02) and Lloyd Henry (1975-77). Ellis had made a reception in 15 straight games before Saturday's contest.

It was also the sixth straight non-conference game in which the defense had allowed 14 points or fewer on Saturday. The last time an non-conference opponent scored more than two touchdowns against the Bulldogs was Valparaiso in 2018 in a 34-20 win. Only once in the past three seasons has a non-conference team scored more than 21 points (35 – Morningside 2018).

The Truman "D" allowed only 24 rushing yards on 24 attempts and 200 yards of total offense for the game. The Panthers averaged only 3.4 yards per play but were successful on third downs seven of 16 attempts (43%).  Five of the seven conversions came on third downs of eight or greater yards to gain.

Peyton Carr and Ulysses Ross tied for game-high honors with eight tackles apiece. Carr added a tackle for loss and an interception while Ross added 2.5 tackles for loss. Bennett Swope picked up two sacks for 16 total yards loss and Jack Marth had 1.5 TFLS in his Bulldog debut.

The defense was credited with six quarterback hurries, nine tackles for loss and the two sacks.

All phases of the special teams were once again on display Saturday. Jaylen Jefferson returned a kick 81-yards after Davenport had tied the game led to the go-ahead touchdown late in the first half. Jefferson has had 30 kick returns in his career and has averaged 30.5/yards per return.

Taylor Cornish averaged 40.5 on six punts with four inside the Davenport 20 and two over 50 yards. Josh Scheiderer averaged 52.3 on kickoffs, was a perfect 4-for-4 on point-after attempts and drilled a 42-yard field goal to put Truman up by two possessions in the fourth quarter. In the punt return game, Ben Thomas and Landon Montgomery averaged 10.2 yards on four returns, two apiece but did have one muffed that led to a Davenport touchdown.

Head Coach Gregg Nesbitt tied legendary coach Don Faurot (1926-34) for second place on the Bulldog all-time wins list with his 63 coaching win on Saturday. Nesbitt is in his 12^th season on the sidelines for Truman, which moves him into second place in service time behind only the 16 seasons coached by Maurice "Red" Wade from 1951 through 1966. Faurot would leave Kirksville and head south to Columbia where he led the Missouri Tigers for 19 seasons and won 101 more games.

This will be Nesbitt's 19 season at Truman having served as Defensive Coordinator from 1990-93. Nesbitt is the sixth Truman coach to have also played for the school as he lettered in both 1978 and 1979.

Up Next:
Truman will play their first home game at Stokes Stadium next Saturday when they entertain Hillsdale (Mich.) College as part of the GLVC/GMAC scheduling alliance. The two conferences will have their schools play head-to-head in weeks three and four of the regular season to help alleviate scheduling difficulties.

Hillsdale will play three GLVC schools as they host Indianapolis this Saturday and Missouri S&T the week following the Truman game. The Chargers lost 14-10 at Michigan Tech to open the season.
Kickoff from Stokes Stadium will be at noon.

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Players Mentioned

#17 Peyton Carr: DB; 6' 0"; Freshman

#98 Taylor Cornish: P; 6' 4"; Junior

#88 Tate Crane: WR; 6' 3"; Freshman

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

#6 Nolan Hair: QB; 5' 10"; Redshirt Freshman

#10 Matt Hall: TE; 6' 3"; Sophomore

#4 Jaylen Jefferson: RB; 5' 9"; Senior; National Letter of Intent

#19 Landon Montgomery: WR; 5' 10"; Sophomore

#41 Ulysses Ross: LB; 5' 10"; Freshman

#11 Dante Ruffin: WR; 5' 11"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#17 Peyton Carr
: 6' 0"; Freshman
: DB

#98 Taylor Cornish
: 6' 4"; Junior
: P

#88 Tate Crane
: 6' 3"; Freshman
: WR

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

#6 Nolan Hair
: 5' 10"; Redshirt Freshman
: QB

#10 Matt Hall
: 6' 3"; Sophomore
: TE

#4 Jaylen Jefferson
: 5' 9"; Senior; National Letter of Intent
: RB

#19 Landon Montgomery
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: WR

#41 Ulysses Ross
: 5' 10"; Freshman
: LB

#11 Dante Ruffin
: 5' 11"; Senior
: WR