The Drake University football team plays its next-to-last road game of the season on Saturday when it travels to fellow defending Pioneer Football League tri-champion Butler. Kickoff at the Butler Bowl is scheduled for noon, CDT.
Drake makes the trek east on a two-game win streak that has put it at 2-1 in the PFL and 3-3 overall with wins over Jacksonville and at Davidson in its last two games. Butler is a perfect 3-0 in PFL action at 5-2 overall. Butler is averaging 33.1 points per game but will face the PFL's third-ranked defense in Drake.
Drake's veteran defense has allowed a scant 22.3 points per game this season and a miserly 11.5-point average in its last two outings.
“We've got guys who have played before and others who are stepping up,” Drake head coach Chris Creighton said of the defense. “We have some experience on our defensive line and then they're backed up by some new faces in the line backing corps. Our secondary has been intact, so it's a unit that has played together. There's some continuity there and confidence.”
One of those who has stepped up is Taylor Coleman (Hawthorn Woods, Ill.), the reigning PFL Co-Defensive Player of the Week. In his first career start at Davidson, he racked up eight tackles, including three for a loss and a sack.
That defensive prowess has given the young offense the space to develop and mature with the team scoring 27 points in each of its last two outings. In the win at Davidson, Drake had a 100-yard rusher and receiver in Gary Scott, Jr. (Forsyth, Ill.) and Nick Rosa (Owasso, Okla.), respectively. Meanwhile, junior quarterback Andy Rice (Stevens Point, Wis.) is coming off a career-high 278-yards passing at Davidson following a four-touchdown game against Jacksonville.
“We have a lot of new faces offensively and that showed early on,” Creighton said. “We're by no means a finished product, but slowly and surely we're coming along and getting better. Our defense has kept us in games and is playing well. We hope that we're a better team in the back half of the season than we were in the first half.”
Drake is 15-6-1 all-time against Butler after handling BU, 45-20, last season in Des Moines to claim a share of the PFL title. Drake has won three straight games in the series between the charter PFL members.
Following Saturday's contest in Indianapolis, Drake returns home to host a three-game homestand beginning on Oct. 26 against Valparaiso.
