maly, too: Drake Travels To Dayton, Hopes To Stay Unbeaten In League

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Drake Travels To Dayton, Hopes To Stay Unbeaten In League

DRAKE Bulldogs (6-2/5-0 PFL)

Head Coach: Chris Creighton (Kenyon, 1991)

Career Record: 131-40 (16th season), at Drake: 36-16 (5th season), vs. Dayton: 1-3

Dayton Flyers (4-5/3-3 PFL)

Head Coach: Rick Chamberlin (Dayton, 1980)

Career Record: 105-107-1 (21st season), at Dayton: 38-16 (5th season), vs. Drake: 3-1

Date Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012

Kickoff Noon CDT

Site Dayton, Ohio

Stadium Welcome Stadium (11,000)

Radio KRNT 1350 AM

Live Stats/Audio www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com

Live Video www.GoDrakeBulldogs.com

Twitter Updates @DUBulldogs

Game Hashtag #DUvsUD

Series

First Meeting Sept. 27, 1952 - L, 34-13

Last Meeting Nov. 12, 2011 - W, 37-14

Streak Drake, 1

Last Drake Victory 2011

The Game

• Drake's football team returns to action following the bye week with another critical Pioneer Football League game at Dayton.

• Saturday’s game features two of the most storied programs in PFL history as Dayton and Drake have combined to win 16 championships in the 19-year history of the league. In the last decade alone, the two have laid claim to seven titles.

• The Bulldogs aim to improve their already perfect PFL record as they enter Saturday’s contest at 5-0 in the PFL and 6-2 overall after rallying back from a 27-3 deficit to defeat Marist, 34-27 in overtime, in their last outing.

• Dayton is 4-5 on the season and 3-3 in the PFL after falling, 41-9, at San Diego last weekend. Prior to that loss, the Flyers had rattled off three straight wins.

• Drake enters the stretch run of its season with a passing offense that ranks seventh in the nation at 304.3 yards per game. Leading that charge is fifth-year senior quarterback Mike Piatkowski who ranks seventh nationally in passing as well.

• Already entrenched as Drake’s all-time leader in career passing yards, Piatkowski added another jewel to his crown as his two touchdown passes against Marist set the Drake career record at 68 touchdown passes.

• He finished that game with a season-high 373 yards on 32-of-54 passing.

• Drake’s defense has forced seven turnovers in its last three games and ranks 25th nationally with 17 turnovers this season. Of those 17, 10 have resulted in points for Drake while another ended a game.

• The defense has only allowed 19.9 points per game to rank second in the PFL and 24th nationally.

• John Hugunin leads the defense with 82 tackles this season while Brandon Coleman has a team-high 10.5 tackles for loss.

A VICTORY would ...

• Make Drake 7-2 this season and 6-0 in PFL action.

• Be Drake’s 10th straight PFL victory and 17th in its last 20 PFL games.

• Make Drake 6-23 against Dayton all-time.

• Be Chris Creighton’s 37th win at Drake and 132nd career win.

• Be the program’s 579th all-time victory.

• Make Drake 6-0 in the PFL standings for the first time since 2004.

• Be Drake’s first win at Dayton since 2006.

• Make Chris Creighton 2-3 against Dayton during his tenure at Drake.

• Be Drake’s second straight win in the series, marking the first time the Bulldogs have won consecutive meetings in the series.

A loss would ...

• Be Drake’s first PFL loss since Oct. 15, 2011.

• Snap Drake’s PFL winning streak at nine games.

• Make Dayton 5-24 all-time against Drake.

• Be Drake’s third straight loss at Welcome Stadium.

Drake Scores 31 Straight to Stay Perfect

• With less than 21 minutes left in the game against Marist, Drake’s chances of improving to 5-0 in the PFL to stay at the top of the conference standings looked dim as the Bulldogs faced a 27-3 deficit.

• However, an 82-yard scoring drive on Drake’s next possession quickly changed momentum as the Bulldogs rattled off 24 straight points to force overtime.

• Gary Scott, Jr. scored on a 2-yard touchdown run in overtime.

• Marist drove to the 1-yard line on its overtime possession, but a pair of sacks from Brandon Coleman, John Hugunin and Tyler Moorehead ended the contest.

• Moorehead’s sack marked the second time this season he made a defensive play to end a game. Against Morehead State, he intercepted a pass in the final minute as MSU was driving to preserve the Drake win.

Piatkowski adds another record

• Already Drake’s career leader in passing yards and completions, quarterback Mike Piatkowski also became Drake’s all-time leader in career touchdown passes as his two scores against Marist gave him 68 in his career.

• He is also second among active passers in the nation in career touchdown passes and fifth in PFL history.

PFL Career Passing Touchdowns Leaders

1. 116 Josh McGregor, JU 2008-11

2. 113 Josh Johnson, SD 2004-07

3. 75 Eric Rasmussen, SD 2001-03

4. 72 Ryan Alexander, DC 2005-08

5. 68 Mike Piatkowski, DU 2009-Pres.

Bulldogs pick up the pace

• In the win over Marist, Drake picked up the offensive pace by running a season high 93 plays from scrimmage.

• Even without the overtime period, Drake still ran 87 plays in the win, just the second time Drake has run 80 or more plays in a game this season.

• Prior to the Marist game, Drake had averaged 75 plays per game.

• Drake also had 516 yards of total offense in the game, its most this season and most in Chris Creighton’s five seasons at Drake.

Among the League Unbeatens

• Of the 246 Division I football programs in the nation (FBS, FCS), Drake is one of just 22 that remain unbeaten in conference play.

• In the FCS ranks alone, Drake is one of just eight programs that have navigated their conference schedule to date without a loss.

About the Losses ...

• Drake has only suffered two losses this season, both to nationally ranked opponents.

• Drake’s first loss this season came at the hands of then No. 4 Montana State by a 34-24 margin. The Bobcats checked in at No. 3 in this week’s poll with a 7-1 record and have outscored their opponents by an average of 16 points per game.

• Drake’s second loss came to then No. 22 Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind., by a 28-10 margin. ISU is currently in first place in the Missouri Valley Football Conference with a 7-2 record and is ranked 14th.

[This story was written for Ron Maly by Ty Patton, Drake's assistant athletic director for communications]

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.