DAYTON -- The University of Dayton football team goes back on the road, traveling to Indianapolis to play their nearest geographical PFL rival, Butler, on Saturday.  

Dayton is 3-5 overall and 2-3 in the Pioneer Football League.  Butler is 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the PFL.  

Both teams are looking to grab some momentum as the season is coming down the home stretch.  The Bulldogs have lost three straight, while the Flyers are looking for their first road win of the year.  UD plays two of its last three away from home. 

A pair of  Flyer receivers -- tight end Adam Trautman and speedy wideout Ryan Skibinski -- could go over 100 receptions for their careers.  Trautman has 98 in 30 career games, Skibinski has 96 in 29.  

Flyer QB Jack Cook has been named to the watch list of the STATS Jerry Rice Award, which goes to the top FCS freshman.  


The Flyers entered the season with the fourth-best winning percentage (.744, 148-51) in FCS football since 2000 AND have produced the most football Academic All-Americans (29) at any level of competition in the same time frame.  The top five in winning percentage are Harvard (.782), North Dakota State (.778), Montana (.753), Dayton (.744), and San Diego (.741).

UD has not been shut out in a school-record 473 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.

The Pioneer Football League is in its 26th 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 116-40 record is the best in PFL history.   The Flyers' 12 league championships are three more than any other PFL team.  

Rick Chamberlin is now in his 11th season in charge of the Flyer football program. His record is 82-38.  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). 

In his 44th season with the program as a player, assistant and head coach, UD's winning percentage with Chamberlin involved in some capacity is .767, without him it is a still-respectable .562. Chamberlin is the winningest coach in Pioneer Football League history, with 61 wins. No other PFL coaches have 50 league wins.

Redshirt senior running back Tucker Yinger has 3,068 career yards.  He is the 12th player in PFL history to reach 3,000 career yards, and the fourth active FCS player.  He is second in career rushing at UD, behind only his former teammate Connor Kacsor, who ran for 3,581 yards from 2012 to 2015.

Dayton's top three yards-per-catch averages belong to running backs.   The first two are admittedly from small sample sizes -- Sean Prophit (2 catches, 23.0) and Jake Chisholm (1 catch, 20.0) -- but the third is Yinger (18 for 19.0).  UD's top four receivers -- Adam Trautman (31, 14.1), Ryan Skibinski (27, 12.7) Kyle Butz (25, 12.7), and Matt Tunnacliffe (21, 15.8) -- all average better than 12.0 yards a catch.

Dayton is off on Nov. 3, but returns home Nov. 10 when the Flyers play Morehead State on Senior Day.  At halftime of that game, one member of UD's senior class will be named the 2018 winner of Lt. Andy Zulli Memorial Trophy.  The Zulli award is a character-based award that is regarded among the most prestigious in the program.  The Flyers finish the season at Jacksonville on Nov. 17.