DAYTON –– The University of Dayton football team remains home Saturday when Valparaiso visits Welcome Stadium.
Dayton is 5-2 on the season, and 3-1 in the Pioneer Football League after last Saturday’s 23-20 win at home vs. Stetson.
St. Thomas is the only undefeated team in conference play, with five teams (including Dayton and Valparaiso) with one league loss.
Saturday’s Valparaiso game will celebrate the memory of Matt Dahlinghaus. Dahlinghaus died as a result of injuries suffered in the Flyers’ game with Bowling Green in 1972. UD and his teammates are dedicating a new memorial to Dahlinghaus at Dayton’s Jerry Von Mohr Practice Facility this week during a reunion of the team.
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).
PLEDGING THE 700 CLUB
The Flyers are two wins away from becoming the ninth team playing at the FCS level to win 700 games. The previous eight members of the 700 Win Club are Yale, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, North Dakota State, Dartmouth, Delaware and Lehigh.
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 132-46 record is the best in PFL history.
• The Flyers’ 12 league championships are the most in PFL history. San Diego also has 12.
THE MAN AT THE TOP
• Rick Chamberlin is now in his 14th season in charge of Flyer football. His record is 104-477.
• He is the 16th active FCS coach with 100 career wins.
• Chamberlin is just the third D-I coach (out of 429 with 100 career wins) to play for his alma mater, immediately join (and never leave) 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.
• He is third all-time in wins at UD, behind two College Football Hall of Fame members– Mike Kelly (246 wins) and Harry Baujan (124).
• After coaching the Flyers to the FCS playoffs in 2015, Chamberlin was named the 2015 AFCA District Coach of the Year and the PFL Coach of the Year. He was the school’s first AFCA District Coach of the Year, and his PFL honor was the ninth for a Dayton coach.
• Chamberlin is also in his 48th season as part of the Flyer football program. A Flyer All-American linebacker in his playing days, he has been a part of 398 of UD’s 698 wins – 26 as a player, 268 as an assistant coach, and 104 as a head coach. He has also been a part of 519 of UD’s 1,112 games.
THE MAN AT THE TOP IN THE PFL
• Rick Chamberlin is the winningest coach in Pioneer Football League history, with 77 wins.
• No other PFL coach has 60 league wins.
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 NAMED NFF WILLIAM V. CAMPBELL TROPHY FINALIST
• The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame announced Wednesday that Jake Chisholm is one of 15 finalists for the 2022 William V. Campbell Trophy. The trophy, sometimes referred to as “the Academic Heisman,” recognizes the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation.
• Chisholm is the eighth UD football student-athlete to earn an NFF Post-Graduate Scholarship. Previous winners were Christopher Beaschler (2016), Brandon Cramer (2007), Leo Dillon (1970), Bob Heckman (1962), Mark Kasmer (2002), Steve Keller (1992) and Tim Quinn (1972).
CHISHOLM TRAIL
• Jake Chisholm 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 carries per game (23.5) and TD per game (1.8).
• In 2019, he led FCS in all-purpose yardage (204.3 yards a game) after carrying the ball 153 times for 1,129 yards (and eight touchdowns) while also catching 21 passes for 230 yards (and three touchdowns), and returning 29 kickoffs for a 23.6 yard average (with one 97-yard TD vs. Duquesne).
• He entered 2022 as the UD career all-purpose yardage record holder (now 4,798 yards). He is also sixth in career rushing (2,621). Next is Dave Jones (2,684).
• Last year, Chisholm became just the second Flyer to have back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons (Tucker Yinger was the first in 2017 and 2018.). Chisholm led the Pioneer Football League in rushing (103.3 yards per game in 10 games) and scoring (11.0 points per game), as well as all-purpose yardage in 2021. Chisholm also caught 30 passes for 361 yards, which was the second-most on the team.
• He is a two-time Stats Perform FCS Third Team All-American as an all-purpose runner.
CLASS ACT
• Not only is Jake Chisholm a multi-year All-American, he is a multi-year CoSIDA Academic All-American in the classroom.
• He was a second team Academic All-American in 2019, and first team in 2020 and 2021.
• He is the tenth University of Dayton football player to be named a First Team Academic All-American at least twice, dating back to UD’s first football Academic All-American in 1970. The others are Christopher Beaschler, Brandon Cramer, Greg French, Steve Lochow, Tim Quinn, Dan Rosenbaum, Brandon Wingeier and Tucker Yinger.
• Chisholm is also just the eighth Flyer student-athlete to earn any sort of Academic All-America recognition three times . The others are baseball’s Tom Beechem, cross country’s Amy Fleck, and football’s Cramer, Leisring, Rosenbaum, Wingeier and Yinger.
• No Dayton student-athlete has ever been named a four-time Academic All-American.
ARMS RACE
• Redshirt freshman Shane Hamm was 11-for-19 for 105 yards with a touchdown in his first career start at Marist.
• He completed his first five passes at Marist.
• He is 24 of 44 passing (.545) for 268 yards, this season, and 22 of 37 as a starter.
• He redshirted the 2021 season, and was Scout Team Offensive Player of the Year.
• He quarterbacked Archbishop Hoban to three state championships and had a 50-3 record as a four-year starter.
ON THE RECEIVING END
• Dayton returned five of the seven receivers who caught at least 10 passes in 2021, including the team’s top four targets.
• In addition to Sam Bubonics (34 catches) and Jake Chisholm, (30), Joey Swanson caught 25 passes and Kyle Hazell had 19.
• All four averaged at least 12 yards per catch.
• Luke Brenner led UD in yards per catch in 2021 (11 receptions for 24.7 yards per catch).
• This season, six Flyers already have at least 10 catches. Chisholm leads with 17, Brenner has 16, Swanson has 15, Bubonics has 12, Derek Willits has 11 and Hazell has 10.
SCHMEISING, SCHMEISING
• Defensive captain Ben Schmeising is enjoying a second college football career.
• A former Buckeye walk-on from Piqua, he graduated with honors from Ohio State in three years and pursuing his MBA at Dayton.
• Despite not starting until the fifth game of the season, he was third on the team in tackles in 2021 (74).
• He had 19 tackles in the Davidson win.
• He was Second Team All-PFL and First Team CoSIDA Academic All-District.
• At Robert Morris, his first career interception set up the eventual game-winning TD.
• He had 11 tackles and two red-zone PBU in the Drake win.
• Schmiesing leads the team in tackles (57). He also has three PBU, a pick and a sack.
KING ME
• Senior linebacker Nathan Arthur had 10 tackles at Marist, with a fumble forced, a fumble recovered and a sack.
• He leads the PFL with three fumbles forced.
• He is second for UD in tackles (43).
UP NEXT
• Dayton is on the road next week, making its first trip to Presbyterian on Saturday, Nov. 5.
• The Flyers are back home for Senior Day against Morehead State on Nov. 12.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
