By Quincy Burns
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2024/10/9/Notes_Davidson_Web.pdf
DAYTON — The University of Dayton football team returns home on Saturday, Oct. 12 when the Flyers host Davidson. After two byes in the first five weeks of the year, Dayton will have a game on the next seven Saturdays.
Dayton is 3-1, after opening PFL play on Sept. 28 with a 47-14 win at Marist on Sept. 28. UD scored the last 34 points of the game.
QB Drew VanVleet was the PFL Offensive Player of the Week as well as the Stats Perform National FCS Freshman of the Week after Marist. He was 23 of 35 passing for a career-best 323 yards, with five TD passes and one interception at Marist. The five TD passes are the second-most in a game for a Flyer QB, and the most by a freshman.
Gideon Lampron was named the PFL Defensive Player of the Week after both of Dayton’s first two games. The Flyer linebacker, whose middle name is ESPN, leads FCS football in TFL (2.6 per game). He leads the PFL in forced fumbles (0.5) is second in tackles (9.5) and sacks (0.9).
Davidson boasts FCS football’s top rushing offense (368.60 yards per game). There is plenty of season left, but the Wildcats are gunning for to lead FCS is rushing for the fifth straight time.
Running backs Mari Adams (7.8) and Mason Sheron (5.7) are 1-2 in the PFL in yards per carry. Davidson has three of the top four scorers in the PFL — Adams (9.6 ppg), Sheron (8.4), and kicker Adam Zuoagui (6.2).
Coach Scott Abell set the Davidson coaching win record (45) last week vs. Marist.
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’ 139-52 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, and 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 Flyers travel to Butler next Saturday. UD’s next home game will be on Saturday, Oct. 26 against Morehead State at 12 Noon.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
