Game Preview: Drake

The Jackrabbits square off with the Drake Bulldogs on Saturday at 1pm in The Dana.  This is third time the Jacks have faced the Bulldogs since 2016.  SDSU was victorious in the previous two matchups and I'd expect much of the same on Saturday.  Drake is 0-2 on the season and appears to have a senior laden roster but is light on experience after graduating a strong senior class that helped them to a strong 2018 campaign.  Drake's two losses were to UND and D2 Truman State.

Todd Stepsis is the new headcoach for Drake after serving as the defensive coordinator for the past five seasons.  Stepsis called his defense with an aggresive approach so it will be interesting to see how he pushes the overall direction of the program.

Offense
The Drake offense is still finding its stride through the first two weeks of the season.  They have scored a touchdown in both contests and have punted the ball 15 times.  They also turned the ball over four times; 2 fumbles and 2 interceptions.  The offense has just 260 yards passsing and 109 yards rushing total through two weeks of football.  Definetely an offense still looking to get it going.

The quarterback for Drake is freshman #9 Ian Corwin.  Corwin has completed 44% of his passes for 260 yards and 2 TD so far this season.  He has gained 25 yards on the ground (before sacks).  However, he has been sacked 9 (yes, nine) times in two games.  It has to truly be a challenge when you have been hit that many times in the first two weeks.

#20 Drew Lauer (5-10, 196) is a nice player that I remember seeing in our previous matchups.  He had a nice run out of the backfield in 2016 and returned a kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown in that same matchup.  Now a senior, through two games this season he has 160 yards rushing on a 3.3 ypc average.  Lauer is also a threat out of the backfield where he has 3 receptions for 16 yards and a TD.  #25 Cross Robinson (6-1, 222) is a junior and has 5 attempts for 19 yards with a long of 16 yards.

The tight end group is paced by #1 Devin Cates (6-5, 240) who has 92 yards and a TD off 7 receptions.  The senior moves well and is a decent in line blocker.  Outside of him, junior #87 Harrison Murray (6-6, 248) is the only player with a statistic in 2019 (1 rec, 3 yards).

The wide receiver group is a very experienced group with six seniors on the roster.  #81 Steven Doran (6-3, 218) is the leading receiver with 5 receptions for 63 yards.  He lead the team in catches in 2018 with 52 and yardswith 918.  He also had a big year in 2017 with 790 yards and 8 TD off of just 39 receptions.  He is explosive and has good size so I expect Drake to attempt to get him the ball.  #22 Mitch McFarlane (6-4, 198) is another senior pass catcher for the Bulldogs. He has 3 receptions for 40 yards on the year but has played in 17 career games and has 64 catches for 869 yards.  The third leading pass catcher is #83 Shane Feller (6-6, 221) who has 2 receptions for 33 yards.  If you're not paying attention I'll make it clear.  This is a HUGE trio of wide receivers.  Factor in the two tight ends and you would have a pretty good sized basketball squad.  So far the production hasn't been there in 2019 but they are breaking in a new quarterback who appears to be running for his life.

From let to right the offensive line has been #74 Chris Evans (6-6, 289), #75 Zack Clark (6-5, 291), #61 Isaiah Kent-Schneider (6-5, 290) , #77 Jacob Bacon (6-6, 320), and #70 Tyler Barrett (6-5, 295).  This is a vetran group with four seniors and a junior and they have decent size but there is only 22 starts between the five of them with Kent-Schneider and Bacon owning 19 of them.  Hopefully this week is not the week they figure it out.

Defense
The Drake defense had a really bad game against UND giving up 47 points (35 in the second half) but tightened up this past week against Truman allowing just 3 points (Truman's lone touchdown came on a kick return).  Against UND they really struggled against the pass and allowed UND to go off for 295 yards and 3 TD.  UND also scampered for 136 yards on the ground but it was on 28 attempts and they had a long of 45.  Drake did hold Truman to under 100 yards in both rushing and passing.

The defensive line for Drake is undersized but very experienced. #32 Erin Morgan (6-3, 225) #52 Victor Jergens (6-2, 274), #8 Gavin Dineen, and #94 Jacob Hardy (6-5, 248) are your starters. Morgan appears the most active with 6 tackles and 1.5 TFL. This group hasn't generated alot of pass rush so far this year with zero sacks or quarterback hits betweent them.  #90 Jacob Mury (6-5, 277) is another big body that rotates in and he has 6 tackles and a blocked kick on the season.

The linebacking corp is light on experience heading into the season but has been productive so far.  #54 Zac Rujawitz is the second leading tackler on the team with 12 stops and 1.5 TFL.  He is flanked by #38 Andrew Shafis who has 7 stops of his own and #35 Will Kulick who has 6 tackles and a pass break up.  Rujawitz is the most experienced but has been in and out of the lineup the past few years because of injuries.

The secondary again has plenty of experience but has yet to really make the splash plays; so far they have zero interceptions.  The cornerbacks #4 Collin Seymore (6-0, 182) and #33 Danny Morales (5-10, 172) are both top 5 in tackles.  Morales has 10 tackles and a sack while Seymore has 7 tackles and a PBU.  #11 Jeran Proctor (5-11, 164) has experience and has 9 stops on the season.  The safety tandom of #9 Alex Rogers and #21 Will Warner are experienced.  Warner doesn't have any stats yet in 2019 but had 45 stops and 8 interceptions last season and was named to the All-Pioneer Football League squad.  I'm not sure if he has been injured and hasn't played yet or what the deal is.  Rogers has gotten off to a fast start and leads the team with 13 total tackles and a TFL. 

Special Teams
#10 Ross Kennedy handles the punting and field goal duties for the bulldogs.  So far he is 0-1 on his field goals attemps but has converted both of his XP attempts.  Kennedy has a 38 yard averaged on his 15 punts with a long of 50.  He has forced 6 punts to be fair caught and has landed 7 inside the 20.  Kennedy was very good the past two years for Drake and will be looking to cap off a good career.  He has had both a kick and punt blocked already this season.  Watch for that on Saturday as the Jacks were very close several times against LIU.  Handling the kickoffs for Drake is freshman #99 Nathan DeBruin who has 5 kicks for 226 yards or a 45.2 average.  Look for the Jacks to return one on Saturday.   

The kick return duties have been handled by Isaiah Skinner, Drew Lauer and Danny Morales.  As I shared earlier, Lauer had the 87 yard kick return in 2016.  We'll see if he can work some more magic this season.

Prediction: Jacks 31-0.

Go Jacks!
Matt