Flyers Return 10 Starters On Offense
DAYTON — The University of Dayton football team opens its 114th season of varsity football by visiting Robert Morris.
Flyer head coach Rick Chamberlin is one win away from becoming the 16th active FCS coach with 100 wins. Chamberlin, in his 48th season in the program as a player, assistant coach and head coach, is 99-45 in 13 seasons.
When Chamberlin joins the 100-win club, he will be just the third D-I coach (out of 429 with 100 career wins) to play for his alma mater, immediately join the coaching staff, and then become the head coach while only doing all at one school.
The first two were Knute Rockne, and the man who succeeded John Heisman at Georgia Tech, William A. Alexander.
GOOD NEWS WORTH REPEATING
The Flyers entered the season with the fifth-best winning percentage (.727, 168-63) in FCS football since 2000 AND have produced the most football Academic All-Americans (35) in Division I in the same time frame. The top five in winning percentage are North Dakota State (.808), Harvard (.756), Montana (.754), San Diego (.736) and Dayton (.727).
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.
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 129-45 record is the best in PFL history.
• The Flyers’ 12 league championships are the most in PFL history. San Diego also has 12.
CAPTAINS, MY CAPTAINS
• The Flyer co-captains for the 2022 season are senior running back Jake Chisholm, graduate linebacker Ben Schmiesing and senior offensive guard Brian Stevens.
• Senior wideout Derek Willits is this year’s special teams captain.
CHISHOLM EARNS PRESEASON HONORS
• Co-captain Jake Chisholm is on the Stats Perform Walter Payton Award Watch List. The Payton award goes annually to the FCS offensive player of the year. This is the third consecutive Flyer season a Dayton player is on the watch list (Adam Trautman, Jack Cook). Chisholm is one of 10 Payton finalists from last returning to the list this season.
• Chisholm is also on the Stats Perform and HERO Sports Preseason All-America Second Teams as an all-purpose runner.
UP NEXT
• Dayton is at Youngstown State on Sept. 10 at 2 p.m. ET.
• UD’s home opener is Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. ET against Kentucky State.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
