DAYTON -- The University of Dayton football team opens its 115th season of varsity football, and the first under coach Trevor Andrews, on Saturday at Illinois State.

Andrews is a 1998 Dayton grad, and was a three-year letterwinner at UD.  He brings 25 years of college coaching experience as an assistant at Illinois Wesleyan, Randolph Macon, William & Mary and Western Michigan.

The Flyers were 8-3 and 6-2 in the Pioneer Football League in 2022, finishing tied for second in the PFL.

UD returns 13 starters (six offense, seven defense) from the 2022 season.  On special teams, the primary kickoff and punt returners are back, along with both long snappers and kicker Sam Webster.

GOOD NEWS WORTH REPEATING
The Flyers enter the season with the fourth-best winning percentage (.7273, 176-66) in FCS football since 2000 AND have produced the most football Academic All-Americans (36) in Division I in the same time frame.  The top five in winning percentage are North Dakota State (.807), Harvard (.749), Montana (.748), Dayton (.7273) and San Diego (.7269) 

700 CLUB
The Flyers are one of nine FCS teams to win 700 games.  The previous eight members of the FCS 700 Win Club are Yale, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, North Dakota State, Dartmouth, Delaware and Lehigh.

PFL POWER
• The Pioneer Football League is in its 30th 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.  
• The Flyers' 136-46 record is the best in PFL history. 
• UD's 12 league championships are the most in PFL history.  San Diego also has 12.

FLYER AT THE HELM
• Trevor Andrews was named the University of Dayton's head football coach on Dec. 12, 2022.  
• A 1998 Dayton graduate, he brings 25 years of college coaching experience to his alma mater.
• Andrews was a three-year letterwinner at defensive back for the Flyers.  
• He was a member of three Pioneer Football League championship teams that had Mike Kelly as the head coach, and Andrews' predecessor at Dayton , Rick Chamberlin, as the then-defensive coordinator.  
• The Flyers were a combined 37-5 over Andrews' four years.  That includes Dayton's undefeated (11-0) team in 1996.  
• Andrews brings a wealth of college coaching successes back to The Hilltop.  
• He returns to Dayton from Western Michigan, where he coached the Bronco linebackers for four seasons.  
• Prior to that, he was at William & Mary for 18 years, including six as Associate Head Coach, five as defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator for nine years.  
• He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Illinois Wesleyan in 1999 and coached one season at Randolph-Macon before moving to William & Mary.
 • Over his coaching career, Andrews has coached 23 all-conference players, three league defensive players of the year and six NFL players.
• The Nappanee, Ind. native is the 24th head football coach at UD since the program began in 1905. He is the second of the 11 modern era coaches to have lettered for the Flyers (his immediate predecessor, Rick Chamberlin, was the first), 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).

CAPTAINS, MY CAPTAINS
• The Flyer co-captains for the 2023 season are redshirt senior linebacker Nathan Arthur, graduate safety Matt Lenti, graduate offensive guard David Tkatch and redshirt senior wideout Derek Willits.

WATCH WEBSTER
• Grad placekicker Sam Webster is one of 34 placekickers on the preseason Watch List for the Fred Mitchell Award, which goes to the top kicking specialist at the FCS, NCAA Division II, Division III and NAIA levels.
• Webster made 13 of 17 field goals and 29 of 31 PAT in 2022 for a total of 68 points in 2022.
• He enters 2023 among the top kickers in Dayton history.  He is 10th in career scoring (all positions) with 213 points, fifth in FG accuracy (75%, 30-40), fourth in PAT accuracy (96.1%, 123-128), fourth in career field goals (30) and third in kick scoring.  
• He is completing his eligibility as a grad student, after graduating Cum Laude from UD last spring.

UP NEXT
• Dayton hosts Central  State in this season's home opener on Saturday, Sept. 9.
• Game time is 1 p.m. ET.