By Packy Moore
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2024/10/16/Notes_Butler_Web.pdf
DAYTON — The University of Dayton football team goes back on the road Saturday, visiting Butler. Dayton is one of three teams undefeated in the Pioneer Football League. Drake is in first place with a 3-0 PFL slate, with UD and St. Thomas a half-game back at 2-0.
The Flyers improved to 4-1 overall on the year last week with a 16-14 win over Davidson. Dayton blocked four kicks in the game, while holding the Wildcats 28 points and 187 yards below their season averages in scoring and total offense. Mason Hackett led the offense with a career-high 218 yards rushing.
Linebacker Gideon Lampron blocked two of those kicks (both field goal attempts) and was named PFL Special Teams Player of the Week and Stat Perform FCS National Special Teams Player of the Week. It was his third PFL and second national weekly honor of the year. He is the only player to have three PFL, as well as two national honors this season.
UD leads the PFL in total defense (213.8 yards per game) pass efficiency defense (90.46), passing yards allowed (89.8 yards per game), opponent third down conversion rate (16.9%) and opponent first downs (11.2 per game).
Butler is 5-1 overall, and 1-1 in the PFL. BU dropped its first game of the year last week, 27-17, at Drake.
One of Butler’s quarterbacks, Reagan Andrew, is the only two-time PFL Offensive Player of the Week so far this season. He leads the league in passing efficiency (155.53).
The Bulldogs lead the league in scoring (38.7 points per game), scoring defense (9.5 points per game), first downs (24.0 per game), passing efficiency (162.42), third down conversion rate (58.9%) and rushing defense (110.7 yards per game).
The Flyers entered the season with the fifth-best winning percentage (.711, 180-73) in FCS football since 2000 AND have produced the most football Academic All-Americans (36) in Division I in the same time frame. The top five in winning percentage are North Dakota State (.804), Montana (.766), Harvard (.751), San Diego (.712) and Dayton (.711).
The Flyers are one of 11 FCS teams to win 700 games. The first eight members of the FCS 700 Win Club were Yale, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, North Dakota State, Dartmouth, Delaware and Lehigh. Dayton was the ninth. Northern Iowa and Lafayette joined the 700 win club last season.
The Pioneer Football League is in its 31st 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. The Flyers’ 140-52 record is the best in PFL history.
UD’s 12 league championships are tied for the most in PFL history. San Diego also has 12.
Trevor Andrews was named the University of Dayton’s head football coach on Dec. 12, 2022. A 1998 Dayton graduate, he brought 25 years of college coaching experience back home to his alma mater. Andrews was a three-year letterwinner at defensive back for the Flyers.
He was a member of three Pioneer Football League championship teams that had Mike Kelly as the head coach, and Andrews’ predecessor at Dayton , Rick Chamberlin, as the then-defensive coordinator.
The Flyer co-captains for the 2024 season are senior safety Ca’ron Coleman and redshirt senior center Dylan Demaison. Coleman was UD’s 2023 White Allen MVP. He was Honorable Mention All-PFL after finishing third on the team in tackles (77), solos (34) and TFL (8).
DeMaison has started all 35 games of his Dayton career, and is a two-time First Team All-PFL selection. He is also a semifinalist for the National Football Foundation’s Campbell Trophy.
UD returns home to play Morehead State on Saturday, Oct. 26. The Morehead game will be the Flyers’ annual Alumni Game, and will also be the Breast Cancer Awareness Game. Kickoff is 12 Noon ET.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
