Head coach Jed Stugart and his first place Lindenwood Lions will host second place Southwest Baptist in a key Great Lakes Valley Conference contest, Saturday afternoon at Hunter Stadium in St. Charles. (Photo: Cedric Williams)
Lindenwood Lions Football – Gameday Info
Game No. 8 – Southwest Baptist (3-4, 2-1) at Lindenwood (5-2, 3-0)
Date/Time – Saturday, October 23 – 1 pm
Location – Harlen C. Hunter Stadium – St. Charles, MO
Broadcast – GLVC Sports Network
Live Stats – Sidearm Stats
by Cedric Williams
Senior Editor
The first place Lindenwood University football is back home at Hunter Stadium this weekend, following a triumpant vitory last week on the road at Indianapolis.
Lindenwood and UIndy are the two most recent Great Lakes Valley Conference champions and their meeting this season was considered one of the premier matchups on the 2021 league schedule, especially with the Greyhounds and Lions picked to finish first and second, respectively, before the season began.
And last week’s matchup lived up to the billing, and more, with UIndy jumping out to an early lead and Lindenwood rallying back with a dominant second half to come back from 13 points down to win the game.
The victory gave Lindenwood (5-2 overall) sole possession of first place in the GLVC, with a 3-0 league record, putting the Lions one game ahead of three other teams that are tied for second at 2-1.
Lindenwood will face one of those 2-1 teams on Saturday, when Southwest Baptist comes to town. The Bearcats (3-4) began the season by losing its first three, but have responded by winning three of their last four, including a pair of sensational victories the last two weeks over William Jewell and Truman State.
With Lindenwood having won five in a row, Saturday’s matchup will feature two of the hottest teams in the GLVC right now. Lindenwood has won all three of the previous matchups between the teams, including a 42-10 road win the last time the club’s met in 2019.
Players to Watch: Saturday’s contest figures to be a showdown of two of the conference’s best quarterbacks in Lindenwood’s Cade Brister and Southwest Baptist’s Cooper Callis.
Brister, a junior dual threat weapon from O’Fallon, has 1,572 passing yards and 10 passing touchdowns, to go along with 317 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns. And Callis, a junior from Jackson, Mo., with a rifle-arm, leads the GLVC with 2,343 passing yards and 21 touchdowns.
Lindenwood also has a pair of talented tailbacks in freshman Robert Giaimo and junior Nash Sutherlin. Combined, the duo has 647 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.
Southwest Baptist’s has perhaps the league’s best receiving corp, with three receivers all having more than 500 yards this season.
Freshman Jordan Kent has been the leader of that group, with 34 catches for 586 yards and six touchdowns. But teammates Cassian Foreman and Preston Carson are right behind with 551 yards/5 TDs and 515 yards/4 TDs, respectively.
Defensively, Lindenwood’s leader is always All-American senior linebacker Drew Seers, who currently ranks second in the conference in total tackles (72) and solo stops (36).
The only player in the league with more tackles than Seers, is Southwest Baptist’s Coleton Smith, who has a whopping 105 total tackles this season, which not only leads the league but is the most of any player in all of NCAA Division II football.
Smith is also coming off an amazing game last week, which earned him GLVC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
The junior from Appleton City, Mo., was in on 21 tackles last week, two of them for loss, while also notching a quarterback sack and two pass breakups, the second of of which came on a critical fourth down play which helped sealed the Bearcats’ upset win over Truman.
Up Next: Lindenwood will be on the road for two straight games, at William Jewell and at Missouri S&T, before concluding the regular season with a home game on Saturday, November 13, against McKendree.
Southwest Baptist will be back home to play McKendree next Saturday in Bolivar, Mo.
| Lindenwood Lions Football Upcoming Schedule |
| Sat., October 30 — at William Jewell — 1 pm |
| Sat., November 6 — at Missouri S&T — 1 pm |
| Sat., November 13 — vs. McKendree — 1 pm |
| All Lindenwood home football games will be played at Harlen C. Hunter Stadium |