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After spending the past two weekends at home, it's back to road warfare for the University of Minnesota Duluth as  this Saturday (Oct. 6) unbeaten Bulldogs will pay a visit to Sioux Falls, S.D., to take on Augustana University. Opening kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Kirkeby-Over Stadium (artificial surface/6,000).

THE RECORDS: The 10-time defending Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division champion Bulldogs are a perfect 5-0 on the year while Augustana, a NSIC South Division member, sports a 3-2 overall record.

HOW THEY RANK: Here is how the Bulldogs and Vikings stacked up in this week's American Football Coaches Association Division II and the D2Football.com polls:
 

	AFCA	D2Football
UMD	No.7	No.10
AU	NR	NR

          
THE BROADCAST: The Bulldog-Viking clash will be carried live locally on KDAL-Radio (610 AM and 103.9 FM) with Jeff Papas on the call. The broadcast can also be heard at: kdal610.com.

Saturday afternoon's game will be videostreammed as well and can be accessed for free at: portal.stretchinternet.com/umd.

THE RIVALRY: UMD and Augustana will square off for the 12th time ever this Saturday night. The Bulldogs own a commanding 9-2 lead in the all-time series, which began with a 47-16 UMD home victory on Oct. 23, 2004. The two clubs butted heads in each of the next six seasons, including in 2005-07 when both were members of the now-defunct North Central Conference, and last met on Sept. 24, 2016 with then-unranked UMD rallying from a 14-point third-quarter deficit to clip the No. 16 Vikings 41-38 in Duluth.

LAST WEEK: UMD remained among the ranks of the NCAA II unbeatens by taking down Concordia University-St. Paul 32-3 at James S. Malosky Stadium on Satuday in its first day assignment of the 2018 season. Sophomore quarterback John Larson furnished the Bulldogs with 307 yards of total offense as he completed 20 of 32 passes for 238 yards and one touchdown -- a 10-yard strike to senior tight end Tyler Lattery in the first quarter -- while rushing for a team-leading 69 yards and another score on 15 carries. Redshirt freshman wide receiver Dain Hudson finished with game-high and career-best six pass receptions. The Bulldogs held an advantage in virtually every statistical category in the penalty-filled game, including total yards (417-240), first downs (27-15), passing yards (250-108) and rushing yards (167-132) en route to posting its seventh consecutive victory over the Golden Bears.

Cashing in on each of its six first-half possessions, Augustana cruised to a 48-3 road win over the the University of Minnesota Crookston on Saturday.

5-0 IS THE WAY TO GO: Each of the previous four times the Bulldogs got off to a 5-0 start (2014, 2010, 2008 and 2002), they finished with an unbeaten 11-0 regular season record.

VIKING VEXERS: The Bulldogs have reeled off eight straight wins at Augustana's expense since falling 26-22 to the host Vikings on Oct. 22, 2005 when both clubs were members of the North Central Conference. The last time UMD paid a visit to Augustana (Sept. 13, 2014), it pulled out a thrilling 23-22 overtime  triumph after being down 16-6 with just over five minutes to go in the fourth quarter..

GETTING A BIT DEFENSIVE: UMD is giving up just 211.4 total yards per outing this season, a figure bettered by only one other NCAA II school (Davenport University with 195.6 ypg). Here is how the Bulldogs rank nationally and in the NSIC in various defensive categories:
 

Category	Rank  (NCAA/NSIC)	Avg./Total
3rd Down Conv. Def.	1st/1st	0.169
Scoring Defense	2nd/1st	9.8 ppg
Total Defense	2nd/1st	211.4 ypg
Kickoff Return Def.	3rd/1st	11.95 ypr
Passing Defense	7th/1st	129.4 ypg
Passing Eff. Defense	11th/2nd	93.07
Rushing Defense	12th/2nd	82.0 ypg
First Downs Allowed	16th/1st	65
Red Zone Defense	18th/3rd	0.615
Tackles for Loss	20th/1st	9.0 tpg

NO OFFENSE TAKEN: UMD also currently sits among the NCAA II and NSIC offensive leaders as well:

Category	Rank (NCAA/NSIC)	Avg./Total
3rd Down Conv. Offense	2nd/1st	0.547
Time of Possession	3rd/1st	37:24
Tackles for Loss Allowed	4th/1st	2.80 tpg
Sacks Allowed	8th/1st	0.60 spg
Scoring Offense	11th/3rd	41.6 ypg
Total Offense	17th/3rd	478.0 ypg
Rushing Offense	19th/4th	224.4 ypg

MOVING ON UP: The Bulldogs, who were unranked in the 2018 AFCA II Preseason Poll, have now climbed all the way to No. 7. That represents their highest position in that poll since being slotted third in the 2015 preseason rankings.

WHAT A RUSH: UMD has outgained the opposition on the ground in 35 of the past 38 games with the 2017 opener against Sioux Falls (when UMD managed negative-16 yards of rushing offense), the ensuing weekend (59 yards versus Minnesota State-Mankato)and the 2017 finale (79 yards vs. the University of Central Missouri) being the exceptions.

WHAT A RUSH II: Sophomore quarterback John Larson leads all current Bulldogs in career rushing production (691 yards on 145 attempts). He also ranks first in lifetime rushing touchdowns with seven-- which is four more than senior nose tackle and part-time fullback Dre Greer. Greer has found the end zone three of the four times he's carried the football as a Bulldog with the latest of those touchdowns coming in the 2018 opener at Minot State.

BONUS FOOTBALL HAS BEEN A BONUS: The Bulldogs are 7-1 in their last eight overtime games and among those seven victories is their 23-22 takedown of host Augustana in 2014
 
SCORE EARLY, SCORE OFTEN: Through five games, UMD is outscoring the opposition 63-3 in the first quarter. That lone field goal was registered against Minot State on Aug. 30.

SACK IT TO ME: The Bulldogs have sacked opposing quarterbacks 16 times this season while allowing just three sacks themselves. A pair of outside linebackers -- senior Alex Helmer and sophomore outside linebacker Nate Pearson -- rank fourth and fifth, respectively among NSIC defenders in that department with 4.5 and 3.5 sacks.

IT TAKES A THIEF: Six current Bulldogs have an interception to their UMD credit and four of those have multiple thefts -- senior strong safety Sam Lynch (six) sophomore strong safety Bill Atkins (three), senior cornerback Tareq Abulebbeh (a transfer from the Southern Illinois University who has a team-leading three picks in 2018).sophomore cornerback Justic'e King (two). Senior cornerback Mitchell Johnson-Martin and senior outside linebacker Alex Helmer have the two other interceptions.
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FEELING RIGHT AT ROAD: Since succumbing 42-38 to Southwest Minnesota State University in the 2016 season opener, the Bulldogs have reeled off 12 straight NSIC road wins.

HE'S NO PASSING FANCY: John Larson holds down the No. 3 spot on the NSIC leaderboard for passing efficiency (148.5) and pass completion percentage (.612) and is second in points responsible for (78).

WE'LL SECOND THAT: The Bulldogs have outscored the opposition 192-55 in the second quarter since the 2017 season opener and have given up a just one second-quarter touchdown (to St. Cloud State on Sept. 13, 2018) in any of their last 13 games.

START ME UP: Senior offensive tackle Matt Juneau, a three-time All-NSIC North Division honoree, has started 37 consecutive games -- the longest ironman streak of any 2018 Bulldog. Speaking of starts, redshirt freshman wide out Dain Hudson made his first as a collegian last Saturday.

CATCH OF THE DAY: Jason Balts, the 2018 NSIC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year who was sidelined last week with a lower body injury (126 receptions) and Nate Ricci (121) hold down the No. 8 and No. 9 spots, respectively, on UMD's all-time catch charts. This year marked just the second time in program history the Bulldogs commenced a season with two members of the 100-reception club on their roster (2014 -- with Aaron Roth and Zach Zweifel -- was the other).

Balts is one of the 179 finalist (25 from the NCAA II ranks) for 2018 National Football Foundation William V. Campbell Trophy recognizes an individual as the best football scholar-athlete in the nation.

Ricci, a sixth-year senior,is an inaugural nominee for the first-ever Mayo Clinic Comeback Player of the Year Award. In 2017, he was on the doorstep of an All-American-caliber season before injuring his clavicle in week three and missing the remainder of the year.

CATCH OF THE DAY II: Thirteen different Bulldogs have recorded a pass reception so far in 2018.

IN GOOD HANDS: The Bulldogs have held the upper hand in time of possession in 31 of the past 32 games. This fall UMD ranks third among all NCAA II schools in that department (37:24) after finishing 3rd and 1st, respectively in 2017 and 2016.

UP NEXT: The Bulldogs return to Malosky Stadium on Oct. 13 for a Homecoming confrontation with Southwest Minnesota Sate University .



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