DAYTON – The University of Dayton football team moves into Pioneer Football League play Saturday when the Flyers travel to Morehead, Kentucky, to face Morehead State.  Game time at Jayne Stadium is 1 p.m. ET.

Both Dayton and Morehead are 1-2 during non-conference play. Like most teams in the PFL, which is the nation's only Division I non-scholarship football league, the Flyers played "up" in their first three games. UD squared off against teams that offer a combined total of 173 scholarship equivalencies.

• Dayton coach Rick Chamberlin is in his 10th season as UD's head coach.
• Quarterback Alex Jeske, linebacker Jack Crain and defensive end Nick Surges are the Flyer football captains this year. 
• Christian Searles, a preseason All-America kick returner, is UD's special teams captain.
• Searles was named Pioneer Football League Special Teams Player of the Week in last week's 28-23 loss to Duquesne.  He had 117 yards on seven kick returns, including a 71-yard punt return for a touchdown.
• With a hotly-contested non-conference schedule behind them (UD was 8 points away from being 3-0, and 2 points away from being 0-3), the 1-2 Flyers begin PFL play, seeking their 13th league title in this, the 25th season of PFL football.

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 457 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 110-33 record is the best in PFL history.

SCOUTING THE EAGLES
• Morehead State once again boasts a potent passing offense.  MSU is second in the PFL, averaging 273.3 yards a game.
• QB Lawson Page, a first-year starter, leads the PFL in completion percentage (64.5%, 49-76). Interestingly, Page was a short-yardage situational quarterback last year and did not attempt a pass.
• Page has a deep threat he can turn to in Jarin Higginbotham.  Higginbotham leads the PFL in yards per catch (28.8) by almost 10 yards (9.6 to be exact).
• Higginbotham's four receiving TD's are the most TD's by anyone in the PFL so far this season, and he is fifth in FCS football in receiving TDs.
• Linebacker Jerome Brooks and defensive back Jaunyea Tarver lead the Eagles in total tackles (18), but safety Sayyid Kanu leads in solo hits (11).
• MSU's kicking game has some length.  Punter Bradley Boone is fourth in FCS with a 45.5 yard average.  Placekicker Andre Foster's first collegiate field goal was a 53-yarder in week 2.  All of his attempts this season have come from 40 yards or longer.

THE MAN AT THE TOP
• Rick Chamberlin is now in his tenth season in charge of the Flyer football program. His record is 75-29.
• 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).
• 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 43rd season as part of the Flyer football program.  A Flyer All-American linebacker in his playing days, he has been a part of 369 of UD's 659 wins – 26 as a player, 268 as an assistant coach, and 75 as a head coach.  He has also been a part of 474 of UD's 1,059 games.

DOUBLE NICKEL COACHES
• Dayton's 110 Pioneer Football League wins are split evenly between Rick Chamberlin and his predecessor, Mike Kelly.
• No other PFL coaches have 50 league wins.

CAPTAINS FROM THE FLIGHT DECK
• The Flyer co-captains for the 2017 season are linebacker Jack Crain, quarterback Alex Jeske and defensive end Nick Surges.
• Crain has played in every game for the last three years (34 games) for the Flyers. In that time he has accumulated 216 tackles.  He was Second Team All-PFL Selection in 2016.
• Jeske was UD's 2016 White-Allen Most Valuable Player. He was a dual-threat weapon on offense in his second season as a starter, leading the Flyers in rushing yards (676), passing yards (1,936), and touchdowns (29).  These numbers helped Jeske lead the PFL in TDS responsible for (29), finish fourth in total offense (2,623), and finish second in scoring (90 points). Jeske was Second-Team All-PFL.
• Surges was also Second Team All-PFL and Second Team Academic All-PFL in 2016.  He led the Flyers in sacks (8.5), QB hurries (8, tied) and fumbles forced (2).  He was also second in tackles for loss (12.0).

UP NEXT
• The Flyers return home on Saturday, Sept. 30 in a matchup of the teams picked 1-2 in the PFL preseason poll.  San Diego, the defending champion and preseason favorite visits Welcome Stadium for a special 12 noon ET kickoff.
• The San Diego game is UD football's annual alumni recognition game. Special guests for that game will be members of Dayton's 2007 team that won the Flyers' ninth PFL title, defeated Albany in the Gridiron Classic and was named the Division I-AA Mid-Major National Champion.