DAYTON – The University of Dayton, 5-5 overall and 4-3 in the Pioneer Football League, plays its final regular season game of 2017 Saturday at Valparaiso.  The Crusaders are also 5-5 and 4-3.  

Dayton coach Rick Chamberlin is completing his 10th season as UD's head coach. With the win at Drake, he became the winningest coach in PFL history.  He now has 59 PFL wins.

QB Alex Jeske, LB Jack Crain and DE Nick Surges are the Flyer football captains this year.  Christian Searles, an All-America kick returner, is UD's special teams captain.

At Dayton's last home game, senior wide receiver Matt Tunnacliffe was named this year's winner of the Lt. Andy Zulli Memorial Trophy, a character-driven honor that is regarded as the most prestigious award in the Flyer football program.

GOOD NEWS WORTH REPEATING
The Flyers entered the season with the third-best winning percentage (.761, 143-45) in FCS football since 2000 AND have produced the most football Academic All-Americans (26) at any level of competition in the same time frame.  The top five in winning percentage are Harvard (.799), North Dakota State (.761), Dayton (.757), Montana (.755), and San Diego (.719).

STREAKING
UD has not been shut out in a school-record 464 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 25th 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 114-36 record is the best in PFL history.

SCOUTING THE CRUSADERS
• Valparaiso's five wins match the most wins for the school since 2003.
• Placekicker Dimitrios Latsonas is the reigning PFL Special Teams Player of the Week after kicking three field goals and three PATs in last week's win over Butler.  On the year, Latsonas has converted a Valpo record 35 PAT and is 11 of 13 field goals.
• Sophomore quarterback Jimmy Seewald is already seventh in career passing yards at VU.  This season he is second in the PFL in passing efficiency (150.9) and third in passing yards per game (248.3).  He has completed 167 of 275 passes (.607) for 2,483 yards and 18 touchdowns. 
• Ten different Crusaders have caught a touchdown pass, led by freshman Donny Navarro's five.  Navarro leads the team in receiving (32 catches for a 16.8 yards per catch average).
• Linebacker Drew Snouffer is second in the PFL in tackles per game (9.5).  He also leads Valparaiso in solo tackles (38) is second in tackles for a loss (5.0).

THE MAN AT THE TOP
• Rick Chamberlin is now in his 10th season in charge of the Flyer football program. His record is 79-32.
• He is third all-time in wins at Dayton, behind two members of the College Football Hall of Fame -- Mike Kelly (246 wins) and Harry Baujan (124).
• Chamberlin is also in his 43rd season as part of the Flyer football program.  A Flyer All-American linebacker in his playing days, he has been a part of 373 of UD's 663 wins – 26 as a player, 268 as an assistant coach, and 79 as a head coach.  He has also been a part of 481 of UD's 1,066 games.
• The Springfield, Ohio native is the 23rd head football coach since the program began in 1905. He is the first of the 11 modern era coaches to have lettered for the Flyers, and the second to be a graduate of the University of Dayton (Pete Ankney was the first alum when he coached in 1963 and 1964).

THE MAN AT THE TOP IN THE PFL
• Rick Chamberlin is the winningest coach in Pioneer Football League history, with 59 wins.
 • He entered the season tied with his predecessor, Mike Kelly with 55.
• No other PFL coaches have 50 league wins.

SEARLES A PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
• Senior cornerback Christian Searles was named Second Team All-America cornerback by College Sports Madness.
• Searles is two-time First Team All-PFL.
• In 2016, he was tied for second in the PFL in interceptions (5) and was third in passes defended (16). The two-time First Team All-PFL cornerback was in on 36 tackles, with 25 of the solo variety.  His three interceptions at Jacksonville last year tied the Flyer single-game record.
• An outstanding kick returner as well (he has career return averages of  9.9 for punts and 22.2 for kicks,  and is second in the PFL in both this year -- 8.4 and 24.2), he is this year's Special Teams Captain.
• He was named PFL Special Teams POtW after a 71-yd. punt return TD vs. Duquesne.
• Remarkably, Searles leads UD with 10 passes broken up this season.  (Remarkable because of how few passes are being thrown to his side of the field.)

JUST IN TIME JESKE
• Two-year starting quarterback Alex Jeske suffered a broken foot before camp and did not play until Drake. 
• He was 12 of 22 for 197 yards in his season debut. Against Campbell, he was 27 of 48 passes for 228 yards.  At Davidson, he was 15 of 22 for 223 yards with two touchdowns.  In the Butler win, he was 13 of 27 passing (172 yards) and was UD's leading rusher with 69 yards on the ground.  He was 16 of 27 for a career-high 300 yards vs. Marist.
• In the Campbell game, the 48 pass attempts were a career high and the 27 completions matched his career high.
• Jeske took over as the Flyer QB as a redshirt freshman and guided the Flyers to 10 straight wins, a PFL championship and UD's first-ever appearance in the FCS playoffs. 
• He followed that up with an MVP season. Jeske completed 56.2% of his passes (149 of 256) and led UD in rushing (676 yards, 5.6 avg., 14 TD's).
• Jeske led the PFL in TDs responsible for (29), was second in scoring (90 points) and was fourth in total offense (2,623). 
• After just two seasons and five games, he is already third at UD in career completions (426), third in passing yards (5,108) and total offense (6,055).  The yardage records are held by his position coach, Kevin Hoyng (8,852 passing, 9,528 total offense), who played 2004 to 2007.
• As a starter, Jeske has a 22-4 record.

FLYER TUCK
• Tucker Yinger enters the Valparaiso game with 2,334 career yards and a career average of 5.9 yards-per carry average (the current UD record is 6.24).
• He carried the ball at least 24 times in four games this year, including a career-high 25 (for 129 yards) in the Marist win.
• He opened the season with 107 yards at RMU, and then had 141 vs. SEMO.  He added 104 yards at Morehead, 101 at Drake 113 vs. Campbell, and 135 (playing only one play in the second half) at Davidson.  103 of his 129 vs. Marist came in the second half.
• He is now sixth in career rushing at Dayton.  He is 206 yards away from William Peterson and fifth place.
• Yinger is currently third in rushing in the PFL (100.5 yards per game).
• In 2016, Yinger fought through injuries to play in six games, starting four.  He was second on the team in rushing (598 yards), first in yards per game (99.7) and his 7.0 yards per carry was the best in the PFL.

GOING THE DISTANCE
• Tucker Yinger has been able to start and finish just 15 of the 27 games he has played in his career, but in those he averages 119.9 yards per game.
• He has 21 runs of 25 yards or longer in his last 23 games.
• A Mechanical Engineering major, Yinger was a CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-American in 2016.  He is a two-time First Team Academic All-PFL selection. 
• He had a career-high 237 yards against Marist in 2015 (211 in the second half).

TO SERVE AND PROTECT
• On the Dayton O-line, tackle Ben Gauthier and guards Jim Hammontree and Wes Hegemann returned as starters from 2016.
• Gauthier started his very first game as a true freshman, and has 30 career starts.
• Gauthier was named UD's Offensive POtW in two consecutive weeks (Davidson and Butler).

TRAUT FISHING IN AMERICA
• Adam Trautman led UD in receptions in the first five games this year.  He had a career-high six for 45 yards at Morehead State, and matched it with six more for a career-high 133 yards in the Marist win.
• He leads UD with 41 receptions (11.9) in 2017.
• He was third on the team last year in receptions with 24 (9.9 avg.). 
• Those 24 catches were more than the previous freshman record (18), but had already been surpassed by Ryan Skibinski, who set a new record with 40.
• Trautman lined up at tight end, slot receiver, flanker and even as a wildcat QB in 2016.

SAFETY VALVE
• Junior safety David Leisring is second in the PFL in passes defensed (1.22). He leads UD in interceptions (4) and is third in PBU (7).
• Among active FCS players, he is sixth in career interceptions per game (0.33).
• Leisring was named PFL Defensive Player of the Week for the SEMO win after getting a then-career-high 13 tackles, with an interception.
• One week later, he upped his high to 15 (10 solo) against Duquesne.
• He owns team honors in tackles this season (78) and leads in solo hits (50).
• He was fourth in total hits (73), third in solo tackles (46) and second in PBU (7) in 2016.
• He was also a CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-American last year.

CRAIN IN ELITE COMPANY
• Jack Crain is one of just 954 football playing student-athletes (out of approximately 70,000 players) who has already earned his undergraduate degree.
• Crain graduated magna cum laude last spring with a double major in accounting and finance, and expects to earn his master's by this spring.

SPECIAL SPECIAL TEAMS
• Dayton has blocked a total of 23 kicks in the last four years (6 in 2014 and 2015, 5 in 2016).
• The Flyers already have six this season, third in FCS football behind SC State's nine.
• Dayton was tied for seventh in blocks last year.
• UD led the PFL in kickoff return average (23.7 yards) and kickoff coverage (16.5) in 2016.

BIG-FOOTED JUNIOR
• Sean Smith has led the PFL in punting the last two seasons, leads again this season (42.5) and his career average per punt is a Flyer-record 41.9 yards per punt.
• He was STATS FCS National Player of the Week at Drake after averaging 43.5 yards a punt with five of seven punts inside the 20.
• In 167 career punts, he has 59 inside the 20 against just 18 touchbacks.
• In 2016, he averaged 41.6 yards per punt.
• In 2015, Smith averaged 41.7 yards and was the only freshman named First Team All-PFL.

THE FIRST WALTZ
• Freshman placekicker Allan Waltz set the the Dayton single-game record for field goals in a game when he kicked five vs. Marist.
• The previous record of four had been done seven times.
• Waltz was named the PFL Special Teams Player of the Week after setting the record.

LEADING THE PFL
• UD leads the PFL in blocked kicks (6), net punting (37.5), turnover margin (+12) and in third down defense (33.8%).