HOW TO WATCH: The South Atlantic Conference has partnered with FloSports to bring all the SAC digital content to you. As a change from year's past, this is a subscription-based production which means you will need to first sign up for FloSports here. You can download the app once you signup and use your login credentials to get started. Once you are logged in, click the red Flosports logo in the top left hand corner of the app and choose football. From there, you can click schedule and scroll down to the Lenoir-Rhyne game. You can also download the app on your smart TVs and enjoy the live stream on the big screen. To view on a laptop, you can go to flofootball.com and (once logged in) you can click on schedule and navigate to the Lenoir-Rhyne contest. A direct link to the game can be found here.Â
In one of the biggest non-conference contests in LR Football history, the Bears welcome #1 and defending National Champion Ferris State between the bricks on Saturday. This is the first time in the history of the AFCA National Poll (since 2000), Lenoir-Rhyne takes on the No. 1 team in the nation. LR has twice taken on the No. 2 team in the nation, once in the 2013 National Championship game against Northwestern St. and the other against Carson-Newman in 2000.Â
Ferris St. will put an impressive 39-game regular season winning streak on the line on Saturday. The Bulldogs last regular season loss came on September 23, 2017. You have to go back to September 7, 2013 to find the Bulldogs' last non-conference loss, a 56-10 defeat at North Dakota State.Â
LR has won nine straight non-conference games with their last loss coming when they took a 36-32 defeat to open the 2018 season.Â
Lenoir-Rhyne owns a 7-4 record when they and their opponents are ranked entering a game. Not only would a win over Ferris St. represent the highest ranked team LR has beaten, it wouldn't be close. Since 2000, the highest-ranked team LR has defeated were the No. 12 Wingate Bulldogs in the 2018 season.Â
Each team put up at least 35 points in their season openers but look for more success on the ground. The Bulldogs ran for 143 yards but that came on 49 carries, an average of 2.9 yards per rush. The Bears were held under 100 yards rushing for the first time since October of 2017 when they totaled 94 yards on 31 carries, an average of 3.0 per rush.
Dwayne McGee did manage to record his 24th career rushing touchdown in just his 16th career game at LR.Â
LR ran its streak of consecutive games with at least one sack to 55 straight with five takedowns of the QB in the opener. In total, 35 different players have recorded a sack during that stretch and LR has gotten to the quarterback a total of 164 times in the 55 game streak.
Zeke Nance and
Andre Jefferson each recorded 1.5 sacks last week.Â
With his victory,
Mike Jacobs improves his career record to 54-12. Jacobs and his counterpart on Saturday Tony Annese are the only two coaches in NCAA Division II with at least five years experience to have winning percentages above .812. Jacobs' .818 winning percentage is second only to Annese's .864 mark.
Annese's Bulldogs defeated 2021 Playoff team Central Washington in the opener. New QB Mylik Mitchell filled in for all-world QB Jared Bernhardt who led the Bulldogs to a perfect 14-0 record last year. Mitchell has plenty of experience, playing in 15 games and completing over 64 percent of his career passes with 13 touchdowns and just two interceptions. Bernhardt is now on the 53-man roster for the Atlanta Falcons.Â
The only other time in program history that Lenoir-Rhyne beat a defending national champion came on Oct. 2, 1982 when LR took down Elon by a final score of 16-7 thanks to three field goals from Jeff Long. The Bears will look to equal that feat almost exactly 40 years later.Â
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