Lindenwood QB Cole Dugger calls out signals during Saturday’s GLVC football game against Southwest Baptist at Hunter Stadium in St. Charles, Mo. (Photo: Cedric Williams)

Scoring by Quarter1234T
SOUTHWEST BAPTIST (3-5, 2-2)1430724
LINDENWOOD (6-2, 4-0)3357348

by Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

ST. CHARLES, MO — In each of its home games this season, and even a couple of its road games, the Lindenwood University football team has shown a strange tendency at the beginning of the game. They tend to fall behind in the first quarter or even throughout the entire first half.

Maybe the Lions just aren’t fully prepared for the beginning of the game. Or maybe they need time to settle in and adjust their original gameplan. But whatever it is, just about every time out this year, Lindenwood has fallen behind in the early going.

Fortunately though, what’s also happened just about every time out is the Lions rally back with a roaring response to get back into the game and sometimes take over the game. And that was never more apparent than Saturday afternoon at Hunter Stadium, when Lindenwood fell behind 14-3, but answered back with an overwhelming 35 points — that’s five touchdowns — in the second quarter, on its way to a thrilling 48-24 win over visiting Southwest Baptist University.

“It’s a pattern we don’t like,” Lindenwood head coach Jed Stugart said. “We’ve tried different things in practice, but it’s just got to be a mindset these guys come out and execute right from the start.”

And in the early going, Southwest Baptist looked like it might be that team, as it scored twice on long first-quarter drives to get the lead. But then the second quarter began and Lindenwood just exploded on the Bearcats to take the lead by halftime.

The rally began with a pair of touchdown drives that ended with a touchdown pass and a touchdown run that tied the score at 17. But the key play of the half, and perhaps the entire game, was a dazzling 51-yard punt return by sophomore Spencer Redd that sent the entire stadium into a frenzy and gave Lindenwood its first lead at 24-17.

“You know, we go into every game thinking they’re not going to kick it to him, and we plan accordingly,” Stugart said. “But they keep doing it and, he can go any time. And that’s on kickoffs or punt returns. He’s just such a weapon to have back there. And in all my years of coaching, (Spencer’s) the best punt return I’ve ever had.”

Redd is the Great Lakes Valley Conference leader in kickoff and punt return yards and he already had one score on a return this year. So it seemed like Southwest Baptist had a strategy for trying to keep him from doing anything on his returns on Saturday.

The Bearcats tried to pooch punt every time. That way, the ball would land before Redd could get to it and then SBU would hope the ball would bounce and roll to give them more field position.

And that tactic worked the first time they tried it, as Redd couldn’t risk trying to field a short punt that travel barely 30 yards in the air, but then rolled another 21 yards for a 51 yard punt that gave Lindenwood the ball on its own five yard line.

That play even led a Lindenwood fumble that gave Southwest Baptist the ball back deep in Lindenwood territory and led to a field goal that helped the Bearcats increase their lead to 17-10.

But after Lindenwood answered with a score to tie the game, then forced a three-and-out and a punt, Redd worked his magic to give the Lions the lead.

The speedy 5-foot-9, 175-pounder from Springfield, Ill., lined up closer to the line of scrimmage and was able to field the punt on just one bounce. And as soon as he did, he took off through the SBU punt cover team, for a sensational touchdown return that had him and his teammates so excited, Redd was high-fiving his teammates before he actually crossed the goal line.

“I was just so pumped, man,” Redd said. “I like having fun out there. I love my teammates. They do so much for me and work so hard to help me. I was just pumped and excited.”

That excitement must have energized the Lindenwood defense too, because just four plays later, senior cornerback Jordan Perry stepped in front of an SBU pass, picked it off, and returned it 32 yards for a score that gave the Lions a 31-17 lead.

And then just five plays after that, junior free safety Kai Ross made a diving interception in front of the SBU sideline that gave Lindenwood the ball back again with a little more than two minutes left in the half.

The Lions took over at SBU’s 48, and drove through the Bearcat defense to score, on seven plays, capped by a touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Cole Dugger to freshman receiver Jalen Bethany.

In just one quarter, with a series of big plays and exciting action, Lindenwood turned an 11-point deficit into a 21-point lead.

“To be honest with you, I wasn’t really worried about it, because we seem to be able to handle it,” Stugart said. “We haven’t been beat in the GLVC, and I keep trying to tell them that every team we face wants to be that team that knocks us off. So we’re going to get everybody’s best. And we’re going to have to be ready to give our best, or somebody’s gonna jump up and get us.”

Lindenwood added to its lead on the first possession of the second half, with a three-yard run by Dugger, who turned out to be the other story of the day, as he made his first collegiate start in place of Player of the Year candidate Cade Brister, who was injured late in last week’s game at Indianapolis.

The gameday depth chart Lindenwood releases every week still had Brister listed as the starter for this week. But Brister has a broken tibia and fractured bones in his foot and will be out the rest of the season.

That means the team is now Dugger’s to lead, and he did so in quality fashion on Saturday, with 15 completions on 25 pass attempts, for 187 yards, two touchdown throws, a touchdown run, and no interceptions.

In fact, the only real mistake Dugger made in his first start since the Oklahoma Class 6A state championship game in 2019, was he left the field on a fourth down play late in the game, without noticing that his team was intending to go for it to try to run out the clock.

The Lions were forced to call a timeout, while everyone looked for Dugger, who was standing on the sideline with his helmet off, thinking the team was planning to punt. Once they found the freshman, everyone got a good chuckle, as Dugger was the only one that didn’t know the offense was intending to run a play.

“I kind of goofed up there,” Dugger said. “I wasn’t really paying attention. But I wasn’t really nervous or anything. I was just ready to play today and be ready to make my reads and help my team win this game. It was fun to be out there.”

Dugger will be Lindenwood’s starting QB the rest of the season, and that includes next week’s road game at William Jewell. The Lions, who have now won six games in a row and lead the GLVC with a 4-0 conference record and a 6-2 mark overall, will play another road game the following week at Missouri S&T, before returning home for their regular season finale on November 13 against McKendree.

Lindenwood is already through the toughest part of its schedule and is looking like a team that might be able to win its second GLVC championship in three years and go back to the NCAA Division II playoffs again, as well.

“We’re speaking to it now,” Stugart said. “At the start of the season, you don’t really talk too much about the future. But now we’ve got our eyes on it. Two years ago, we had to have a lot of things happen for us to go to the playoffs. But this year, we control our own destiny. So now we will speak to it and say, hey, you can’t afford to stub your toe. You can’t afford to have a team sneak up and get you.”

Kickoff next week at William Jewell is slated for 1 p.m.

Southwest Baptist vs. Lindenwood — Scoring Plays
1st Quarter
12:02 – SBU – TOUCHDOWN – Preston Carson 42 yd pass from Cooper Callis (Logan Turner PAT) — SBU 7-0
6:37 – LU – FIELD GOAL – Logan Seibert 37 yd field goal — SBU 7-3
1:15 – SBU – TOUCHDOWN – Cassian Foreman 3 yd pass from Cooper Callis (Logan Turner PAT) — SBU 14-3
2nd Quarter
13:48 – LU – TOUCHDOWN – Payton Rose 33 yd pass from Cole Dugger (Logan Seibert PAT) — SBU 14-10
9:20 – SBU – FIELD GOAL – Logan Turner 31 yd field goal — SBU 17-10
6:59 – LU – TOUCHDOWN – Nash Sutherlin 8 yd run (Logan Seibert PAT) — Tied 17-17
5:40 – LU – TOUCHDOWN – Spencer Redd 51 yd punt return (Logan Seibert PAT) — LU 17-24
4:14 – LU – TOUCHDOWN – Jordan Perry 32 yd interception return (Logan Seibert PAT) — LU 17-31
:45 – LU – TOUCHDOWN – Jalen Bethany 20 yd pass from Cole Dugger (Logan Seibert PAT) — LU 17-38
3rd Quarter
12:54 – LU – TOUCHDOWN – Cole Dugger 2 yd run (Logan Siebert PAT) — LU 17-45
4th Quarter
8:01 – SBU – TOUCHDOWN – Abel Carter 2 yd run (Logan Turner PAT) — LU 24-45
2:31 – LU – FIELD GOAL – Logan Seibert 50 yd field goal — LU 24-48
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