09 Players Have Reported To Begin Preparations For The 2022 Season

DAYTON – University of Dayton head football coach Rick Chamberlin and his staff have welcomed 109 players back to campus for their first practice which took place, Monday, August 8 as the Flyers prepare for the 2022 football season. 

UD returns 15 starters (10 offense, three defense, both kickers) from the 2021 season.  

The lone starting offensive vacancy is at quarterback, and heading into camp it looks to be a three-way battle between sophomore Dante Casciola, redshirt sophomore Cole Dow and sophomore Shane Hamm.

The Flyers enter the 2022 season on the hunt for two big milestones.  UD head coach Rick Chamberlin will start his 14th season as the Flyer head coach with 99 wins, and Dayton has scored in 497 consecutive games, dating back to the 1976 season.

Dayton was picked to finish fourth in the Pioneer Football League for the 2022 season in a preseason vote of the league’s coaches.  The Flyers have 12 league championships to its credit in the PFL’s 29 seasons.   UD was 6-4 overall and 5-3 in the PFL last year. Dayton won its last three games in 2021.

Captains Jake Chisholm, Ben Schmiesing and Brian Stevens will lead UD in 2022.  

Chisholm, a two-time team captain, is one of 35 FCS student-athletes named to the 2022 Stats Perform Preseason Walter Payton Award Watch List.  The two-time Flyer co-captain was a Second Team Stats Perform FCS All-American last year as an all-purpose runner after finishing second in FCS football in all-purpose yardage (163.9 yards per game).  He also led FCS in rushing attempts per game (23.5) and touchdowns per game (1.8).  He is also a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American. 

Schmeising joined the Flyers as a graduate transfer in 2021 after playing three years at Ohio State.  He played in 10 games with seven starts in 2021 and was third on the team with 74 tackles.  He was Second Team All-Pioneer Football League and First Team CoSIDA Academic All-District.  

Stevens started eight games last season at offensive tackle and was named UD’s Stan Kurdziel Outstanding Lineman.  He was the leader of a line that improved tremendously as the year went on.  They opened the holes for Chisholm to gain 502 yards and 13 touchdowns over the last three games, all Flyer wins.  Stevens was Honorable Mention All-PFL in 2021.

Along with Chisholm, Schmiesing and Stevens, wideout Sam Bubonics was also named Preseason All-Pioneer Football League.  

Bubonics was Dayton’s leading receiver in 2021, with 34 catches for 477 yards (14.0 avg.) and two touchdowns.  Twenty-three of his 34 catches came in the last five games of the season.  The Solon (OH) High School product was Honorable Mention All-PFL and named UD’s Most Improved Player.

Coach Chamberlin has guided UD to 99 wins in his first 13 seasons, including a record 75 Pioneer Football League wins.  A Flyer All-American linebacker in his playing days, Chamberlin has been a part of 393 of UD’s 703 wins – 26 as a player, 268 as an assistant coach, and 99 as a head coach.  

The Flyers open the 2022 season at Robert Morris on Saturday, Sept. 3.  After playing at Youngstown State on Sept. 10, the home opener will be Saturday, Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. ET against Kentucky State.

Streaking…UD has not been shut out in a school-record 497 straight games, the best such active string in all of college football. The last team to shut out the Flyers was Marshall, 9-0, on Oct. 16, 1976. That is also the all-time FCS record.

Success In The Classroom…In the last 22 years, the University of Dayton football program has produced 35 Academic All-Americans, the most of any college football team.  In the history of the Academic All-America program, UD football has had 65 Academic All-Americans.   Among schools playing Division I football, only Nebraska (107) and Penn State (66) have had more Academic All-Americans than Dayton’s 65.  Notre Dame (61), Ohio State (56) and Oklahoma (55) are next. The Flyers also had 70 players on the 2021 PFL Academic Honor Roll, the most in the PFL for the 15th consecutive year, and the 27th time in the 29-year history of the Pioneer Football League. UD is also one of two D-I schools (and the only one in the PFL) to have a Campbell Trophy semifinalist for 15 straight seasons.  The Campbell Trophy is the National Football Foundation’s award sometimes referred to as “the Academic Heisman.”

PFL Power…The Pioneer Football League is in its 30th season.  The original (and now the only) Division I strictly need-based football league began with charter members Butler, Dayton, Drake, Evansville, San Diego and Valparaiso.  UD’s 124-43 record is the best in PFL history.

Tickets Now On Sale…Season tickets are only $35 for the five-game regular season. Single game tickets are $10.00 for adults, and $5 for children high school age and younger.  Groups of 20 or more are $5 each.  UD students are admitted free with an ID.  Tickets can be purchased at daytonflyers.com/tickets or please call 937-229-4433 for more information.

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