Findlay Hosts Lindenwood in Final Non-Conference Game of Season
The Game
Lindenwood University, out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) will be making the 466-mile trip from St. Louis, Missouri to take on the Oilers in Donnell Stadium on Saturday, Sep. 25 at 12:00 pm. The contest will be the fifth all-time meeting between the two schools and is Findlay's final non-conference game of the 2021 regular season.Media
Video streaming of the contest will be produced by UFTV and will broadcast on the Great Midwest Digital Network.
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Head Coach Rob Keys
Head coach Rob Keys will enter his 11th season at the helm of the Oilers football program in 2021. He has recorded a 69-40 record with the program as a head coach, which includes a 34-26 mark in GLIAC games and a 21-7 mark in G-MAC games.
For Findlay's 2021 coaching staff, please click on the following link:
The Series
Findlay is 4-0 all-time against Lindenwood, although the two have not played since 1995. In total, the Oilers have outscored the Lions 201-11 in four games played.
Findlay Oilers (2-1, 0-0 G-MAC)
After a tough opening season loss, Findlay has built some momentum with back-to-back wins including a 62-41 victory on the road last week against Southwest Baptist. The Oilers have been putting up strong offensive numbers, especially on the ground, this season. Findlay is tops in the G-MAC in scoring at 36.7 points per game and also leads the league in rushing yards per game with 261, almost 80 more yards per game that the next best team. However, the Oilers' defense has been allowing 41 points per game which ranks second-to-last in the G-MAC, an anomaly that no doubt has been addressed heading into the fourth week of the season.Quarterback Matt Winzeler did not throw an interception against Southwest Baptist, the first game this season that has happened. To date, Winzeler is 51-for-89 for 731 yards and a leading leading eight touchdowns. He has been climbing the career record books, as well, and now ranks fifth in total yards (4,341), third in career touchdowns (46), and is tied for fifth in pass completions (337).
On the ground, Findlay has featured a trio of backs this season. Junior Derek Lynch leads the league in rushing, all because of his ridiculous 303-yard performance against UNC-Pembroke in week two. Lynch has 364 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns this season. Josh Booker and Garret Clark also have more than 100 yards on the ground this season, amassing 166 and 131 yards, respectively. Clark is coming off a 117 -yard, three touchdown performance against Southwest Baptist.
Defensively, Grey Brancifort and Marqis Stokes lead the team with 30 tackles, but the big disrupter has been junior Ervin Besingi who is tops in the G-MAC with 4.5 sacks this season.
2021 Season Statistics
2021 Roster
Lindenwood (1-2, 0-0 GLVC)
The Lindenwood Lions, ranked 21st in the AFCA Preseason DII Poll, are a program that feels like it is ready to make some noise. The program is young, just 31 years old to be exact as they first played football at LU in 1990. There have been glimpses of success as they have put together nine seasons with at least eight wins, but the overall record of the program remains in the negative. However, with a location just outside of St. Louis, Missouri and a 6,000 seat stadium, built in 1976 as a training camp facility for the St. Louis Cardinals football team, Lindenwood has the potential to be a force in Division II football.
Since joining NCAA Division II as a provisional member in 2011, Lindenwood is 54-60 (.474) and has just four winning seasons. However, after leaving the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAA) for the GLVC in 2019, the Lions have a record of 10-6 including a 9-4 record and GLCA championship in the only full season as a member of the conference. That 2019 season included a trip to the NCAA DII Playoffs where the Lions defeated #5 Ouachita Baptist 41-38 before being dispatched by #10 Northwest Missouri St. by a score of 63-7 in the second round.
After 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19, Lindenwood came into the 2021 season ranked 21st in the country before losing the first two games of the season. LU's first win came last Saturday against Kentucky Wesleyan when, despite the Panthers hanging tough early, the Lions pulled away to pick up a comfortable 22-point victory.
The Lions have plenty of talent taking the field and are led by a pair of standtouts, one on each side of the ball. Quarterback Cade Brister (pictured above) and linebacker Drew Seers were named GLVC Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, respectively, and each earned preseason all-American honors by D2football.com.
Brister, an honorable mention all-American in 2019, is a dual-threat QB with 8,000 yards of total offense in his career (6,788 passing and 1,212 rushing). At almost 300 yards of total offense per game in his career, it's no secret that the Lions' offense relies on their junior quarterback to make it run efficiently.
Seers, a first team all-American in 2019, is coming off a GLVC Defensive Player of the Week performance against Kentucky Wesleyan last week in which he made 14 tackles, had a half tackle-for-loss, and had an interception, his second in three games this season. In his career, Seers has 370 tackles including 36.5 tackles-for-loss and has five interceptions. In 2019, Seers set a program record with 17.0 TFL.
Links
NCAA Division II Stats
NCAA
NCAA Division II Football
American Football Coaches Association
D2Football.com
Great Midwest