After completing the nonconference segment of its 2006 schedule with a perfect 2-0 mark, the University of Minnesota Duluth will now open defense of its North Central Conference championship Saturday (Sept. 16) when the Bulldogs invade Vermillion, S.D. to take on fellow 2005 co-champion University of South Dakota. Game time is set for 2 p.m. at the DakotaDome (10,000).

TO VIEW THE FULL PDF VERSION OF THIS RELEASE CLICK HERE:

UMD/USD Football




THE RECORDS: Both the Bulldogs and Coyotes, who shared the 2005 NCC crown with the University of North Dakota and the University of Nebraska Omaha, are off to 2-0 overall starts this fall.



HOW THEY RANK: UMD received votes in this week's American Football Coaches Association Division II Poll and held down the No. 23 spot in Don Hansen's Football Gazette NCAA II Top 40 Poll. South Dakota, meanwhile, is ranked in all three polls --- AFCA (No. 11), Don Hansen's Football Gazette (No. 6) and d2football.com (No. 8).

THE BROADCAST: Saturday's Bulldog-South Dakota matchup will be carried live locally on KDAL-Radio (610 AM) with Jayson Michaels handling the play-by-play assignment and Bruce Ciskie providing color commentary. All UMD games during the entire 2006 season can also be heard via the internet at: www.umdbulldogs.com.

THE COACHES: The 2005 NCC Coach of the Year, Kyle \"Bubba\" Schweigert (Jamestown College, 1985) is in his third season at UMD and has a 14-11 overall record to show for it (1-1 vs. South Dakota). Last fall, Schweigert directed his troops to an 8-4 mark (defeating three AFCA Top 20 teams along the way), a share of the school’s initial NCC title, and its second NCAA Division II playoff berth in four years. For his efforts, he was named the D2football.com Northwest Region Coach of the Year and the American Football Coaches Association Division II Coach of the Year for Region 5. Prior to officially being named the school's fifth head coach on Dec. 23, 2003, Schweigert spent 15 seasons at North Dakota where he helped guide the Fighting Sioux to six NCC titles. During his tenure, North Dakota also secured an NCAA II playoff berth on eight occasions, making it to the semifinal round four times and the title game twice (including in 2001 when it won the national championship). Schweigert began his Fighting Sioux coaching career as the team’s defensive secondary coach before taking over the defensive coordinator duties in 1998. Three years later, he added the title of assistant head coach.

Ed Meierkort (Dakota Wesleyan University, 1982) is also in his third year at South Dakota, where has amassed a 20-4 overall record. In 2004, Meierkort's Coyotes went 9-2 -- for their best season in 18 years -- and they duplicated that mark last fall. Meierkort arrived in Vermillion in December 2003 following an 11-year head coaching stay at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. He racked up a 55-55 overall record with the Blue Devils, and in 2000 directed that club to a 10-1 mark (10-0 during the regular season) and a berth in the NCAA III playoffs. A former assistant coach at Southwest Minnesota State University (1983-89), Meierkort is 2-3 in his five lifetime confrontations against UMD (1-1 while at South Dakota and 1-2 at Wisconsin Stout).

THE SERIES: Saturday's game will mark just the sixth meeting ever between UMD and South Dakota. The Bulldogs hold a slim 3-2 lead in the somewhat young series, which began in 2001 (the two teams have met once each season ever since).

LAST WEEK: UMD opened its 2006 home schedule with a resounding 42-14 victory over the University of Mary Saturday night. The Bulldog offensive line stood up to the Mauraders pass rush -- they went the entire game without yielding a sack -- and sophomore quarterback Ted Schlafke responded by completing 21 of 34 attempts for 246 yards and four touchdowns. Sophomore wide receiver Tony Doherty hauled in two of Schlafke's scoring passes and finished up with a game-high 85 yards on six receptions. Senior running back Keith Bizzle topped the Bulldogs with 46 rushing yards on nine attempts and sophomore running back Marek Seta made the most of his carries in the redzone with scampers to paydirt from five yards and one yard out during the non-conference battle. On the defensive side of the football, 13 Bulldogs recorded at least three tackles, led by Cody Ahmann's six stops. And, headlining the interception front were a pair of UMD seniors -- cornerback Tim Garceau and linebacker Curt Laffin -- who each had one pick.

South Dakota blasted the University of Minnesota-Crookston 66-6 at the DakotaDome Saturday as Coyotes tailback Stefan Logan rushed 15 times for 199 yards and found the endzone three times. In all, the USD running game totaled 398 yards on 42 attempts and six touchdowns en route to winning its 13th straight nonconference game.

TAKE TWO: Now in its 74th season of intercollegiate football, UMD has gotten off to a 2-0 start on 29 occasions, including each of the past two years and five of the last seven. UMD, however, has not commenced a season 3-0 since 2002, the year the Bulldogs turned in their only 11-0 regular season.

THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING: A trio of seniors -- offensive guard Mark Knudsen, outside linebacker Kevin Krenz, and strong safety Trent Scheidecker -- along with sophomore quarterback Ted Schlafke are serving as UMD team captains this fall.

HITTIN' THE ROAD: UMD was 2-1 in NCC road matchups last season after going winless the previous fall (0-3) in head coach Kyle \"Bubba\" Schweigert's first year at the helm in 2004.

NCC FORECAST: Both the media and league coaches have the Bulldogs projected for a middle-of-the pack finish in the NCC race this fall. The media predicted a fourth-place showing for the Bulldogs while the coaches have UMD holding down the No. 5 spot. One year ago, incidentally, the Bulldogs were picked to finish sixth (out of seven teams) by the coaches and media in their respective annual preseason polls. UMD went on to prove those two entities wrong -- and how -- by claiming a share of the 2005 NCC title.Defending co-champion North Dakota was selected as the league favorites by the media and coaches. This season’s media poll marks the 52nd time that the league scribes and broadcasters have made their prognostications. The media have correctly picked the NCC champion on 27 occasions, including 15 of the past 24 seasons. In all, the media have successfully chosen the NCC champion 27 times in the 51 years of the poll’s existence. The NCC coaches, meanwhile, have conducted their poll for the past 23 years and have predicted the eventual titleholder 12 times.

BOMBS AWAY: It's not often that a college football team can give up over 600 yards of total offense and come away with a win -- a 13 point win at that. But that's exactly what the Bulldogs did one year ago (Oct. 29) in their 56-43 home finale victory over South Dakota. Then freshman quarterback Ted Schalfke threw for six touchdowns (equalling a school mark) and set UMD single-game marks for both passing yards (457) and total offense (504 yards). In all, the clubs combined for a whopping 1,191 yards of total offense (616 by the No. 8 ranked Coyotes and 575 by the Bulldogs).

POUNDING THE ROCK: Sophomore running back Marek Seta hasn't taken short-yardage situations for granted so far this season. By scoring two touchdowns against Mary, Seta has already equaled his total number of rushing scores from his true freshman season in 2005. His 44 rushing yards (3.4 yards per carry) are good for second best on the team behind starting tailback Keith Bizzle (104 yards).

THAT'S AKER, AS IN RECORD BRE-AKER: Senior wide receiver Greg Aker, a 2005 All-NCC second team pick, has now caught 119 passes for 1,592 yards as a collegian and trails only the brother tandem of Tim (189 catches from 2000 to 2003) and Steve (182 from 1999 to 2002) Battaglia in lifetime receptions by a Bulldog. Aker, a Don Hansen’s Football Gazette 2006 Division II Preseason All-America Team, has come away with at least one pass in 25 straight games heading into this Saturday's clash at South Dakota. Last fall, the Superior, Wis. native latched on to a career-high 67 receptions for 1,005 yards -- becoming only the third Bulldog to ever eclipse the 1,000-yard plateau -- and 15 touchdowns (which was just four shy of the school single-season record). He also topped the NCC in both scoring (12.0 points per game) and total touchdowns (12). But Aker's athletic prowess hasn't been limited to just the gridiron at UMD. During each of the past three springs, he has been an all-conference (NSIC/NCC) first team honoree and holds a bevy of Bulldog records including runs (177), hits (236), walks (106) and games played (179) in a career.

A HISTORIC START: Offensive right guard Tobias Lemke made UMD history last Saturday when he became the first European to ever start for the Bulldogs. Lemke, a true freshman from Essen, Germany, pent the past two summers with the Dusseldorf Panthers of the German Football League (juniors) before joining the Bulldogs this fall. Lemke, who is believed to be just the second European to play at UMD (fellow German Jens Klenner, a linebacker, became the first in 2000) attended White Bear Lake (Minn.) High School in 2002-03 as a foreign exchange student and competed with the Bears junior varsity football team.



GETTING DEFENSIVE: Through two games, Second-year starting free safety Tyler Yelk finds himself in familiar territory -- atop the Bulldog defensive charts (13 total tackles). Last fall, Yelk became the first freshman in 13 years to finish as UMD’s leading tackler. He was credited with 88 tackles, including a team-high 56 solos -- and also ranked second on the club in pass breakups with eight. Yelk also corralled 2005 All-NCC honorable mention acclaim after placing third overall and first among defensive backs in that circuit in total tackles (10.0 in league play). His 88 total stops were the seventh highest single-season total in club history while inside linebacker Nate Fears' 82 tackles were good for the No. 9 spot.

GETTING HIS KICKS: Junior placekicker Britt Baumann has converted his last 39 extra point kicks after having one attempt blocked against MSU-Moorhead on Sept. 19, 2005. The Bulldog record in that department is 45 set by Chad Gerlach during the 2003 season.

THE GREAT INDOORS: Saturday afternoon will mark the Bulldogs' 24th appearance in an indoor football facility. UMD is 11-12 lifetime inside, but has won just once (23-21 over South Dakota on Sept. 14, 2002) in its last 12 outings played under a roof. Ten of the Bulldogs' 11 indoor wins have come at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

NO PASSING FANCY: Sophomore Ted Schlafke has now managed to throw at least one touchdown pass in each of the 13 games over the past two seasons. Last fall, the Stevens Point, Wis. native broke almost every major club passing and total offense record while quarterbacking the Bulldogs to a piece of the NCC championship. An NCC Offensive Player of the Week honoree on three occasions in 2005, he established single-season marks for pass completions (305), pass attempts (490), passing yardage (3,335), total offense (3,591 yards) and total plays (625) and surpassed the team single-game records in those same five categories as well. Schlafke, who was named the D2football.com National Offensive Player of the Week twice last fall (Oct. 31 and Nov. 7), also topped the NCC in passing yardage (308.0 yards per game in league play) and per game pass completion percentage (an NCC-record 26.16).

SPREADING THE WEALTH: Eight different Bulldogs have caught passes already this year, including the trio of Tony Doherty, Greg Aker and Keith Bizzle, who each have been credited with a team-leading nine receptions.

INJURY UPDATE: Besides junior wide receiver Ross Schumacher, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the opening quarter at Bemidji State, and junior linebacker Nick Gigante, who reinjured his knee Saturday night against Mary and is out for the year, no other Bulldogs are listed as inactive for this Saturday's game.

BULLDOG BITS: Both senior co-captains Kevin Krenz and Mark Knudsen and senior wide receiver Greg Aker have started all 25 games over the last three years -- the only three Bulldogs to do so. Krenz, who was also entrusted with captaincy responsibilities as a junior, is the Bulldogs' first repeat captain since Gus Novotney turned the trick in 1942 and 1946 ... Since the opening of the 2005 season, the Bulldogs are a perfect 10-0 when they've led after three quarters, 8-0 when they've went into halftime on top, and 10-1 when they've scored first ... UMD has now won each of its past seven home openers ... The Bulldogs have outscored their opposition 65-21 thus far in 2006 while South Dakota has defeated its two opponents by a combined 125-6.

UP NEXT: The Bulldogs will return to Malosky Stadium on Sept. 23 to host NCC newcomer Central Washington University in the first-ever meeting between the two clubs.

COACHES SHOW: The UMD Coach's Show, featuring \"Bubba\" Schweigert, airs each Wednesday/Thursday night during the entire 2006 season at 6 p.m. on KDAL-Radio (610 AM). Jayson Michaels and Ray Schow host the one-hour program, which can also be heard via the internet at: umdbulldogs.com.