PFL Release In PDF Format
ST. LOUIS – The coaches of the Pioneer Football League have made their predictions, and the University of Dayton Flyers are expected to be one of the PFL’s top teams again in 2011.  UD is picked to finish second in the annual coaches’ poll.

Jacksonville, the team that Dayton shared the PFL championship with last season, was picked by the coaches to finish first this year with 80 votes and eight first-place votes.  UD had 69 votes (with one first-place vote).  Drake received the final first-place vote and was predicted to come in third (61 votes).

San Diego was picked fourth (59 votes), followed by Butler (47), Morehead State (38), Campbell (33), Marist (31), Davidson (23) and Valparaiso (9).

The Flyers have won or shared the Pioneer Football league title 11 times in the 18-year history of the league, including three of the last four.  Dayton tied Butler for first in 2009 and also shared the title with Jacksonville in 2010.  The Flyers were ranked 25th in the final 2010 AFCA and Sport Network national polls, marking the first time Dayton was ranked as a Division I team at the end of the season.

Fourth-year head coach Rick Chamberlin has guided UD to 28 wins in his first three seasons, going 9-3 overall in 2008, 9-2 in 2009 and 10-1 last year. That’s the best three-year start by any Flyer football coach.

Among the returnees are co-captains Devon Langhorst and Dan Prindle.  Both captains are fifth-year seniors.  Langhorst, a defensive end, was a First Team All-Pioneer Football League selection and Third Team FCS AP All-American in 2010.  The Sidney, Ohio native led the Flyers and was second nationally in sacks (14) and was second on the team in tackles (77).  Prindle, a Carroll High School graduate from Fairborn, is a three-year letterwinner and two-year starter at right tackle for the Flyers.  Off the field, he was a member of the 2010 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team.  

Dayton will open the season at Robert Morris on Saturday, Sept. 3.