Saint Joseph's Pumas (6-2, 3-2) at UIndy Greyhounds (7-1, 5-0)
Thursday, Oct. 30, 8 pm ET, Indianapolis
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ON TAP
The GLVC-leading Greyhounds go for their seventh straight win when they host in-state Saint Joseph's Thursday night.  The game, which will kick off at 8 p.m. ET, is scheduled to air nationally on CBS Sports Network.  UIndy is also running a "Black Out" promotion Thursday, asking fans to wear black to the game.  Some 4,000 Black Out t-shirts will be handed out to fans before the game.

IN THE NATION'S EYE
As part of the NCAA's partnership with CBS Sports Network, the UIndy/St. Joseph's match-up was selected as the Division II Football Game of the Week.  The contest will be the seventh and final game in this year's nationally-televised D-II lineup.  CBS Sports Network is available in a reported 99 million households nationwide.

To find CBS Sports Network, visit cbssportsnetwork.com/channel-finder.  Don't have CBS Sports Network, find the game will also air locally on HSTN 6.2.  A free live stream can also be seen at ncaa.com/liveschedule.

ABOUT SAINT JOSEPH'S
The Pumas enter the week with a 6-2 overall record and 3-2 mark in league play.  After starting the season 4-0, Saint Joseph's have split its previous four games, including a slim 30-27 home win versus Southwest Baptist last week.  Gavin Voss' 31-yard field goal with 2:30 left proved to be the game winner.

Led by fourth-year head coach Cory Sanders, the Pumas top the GLVC in both rushing offense (232.8 ypg) and rushing defense (98.8), with the latter number good for 15th in Division II.

Offensively, SJC is led by all-conference running back Braxton Shelton.  The senior ranks second in the league in rushing yards with 938, 62 shy of a second straight 1,000-yard season.

HOUNDS vs. PUMAS
Separated by just 107 miles, UIndy and Saint Joseph's have a ton of history on the gridiron.  The in-state rivals faced off in all but one season between 1971-2007 before renewing the series when the GLVC began sponsoring football in 2012.  UIndy has a 27-10-1 advantage in games versus the Pumas and has won each of the last 14 contests.  The Hounds have not lost at home to the Pumas since Oct. 11, 1980.  The 38 previous meetings are the second most for any UIndy opponent, second only to another Indiana adversary, Franklin College (51).

Last season, the Greyhounds went on the road to earn a hard-fought 27-24 victory.  Though they never led in the game, the Pumas tied it at 17-17 early in the fourth quarter, punctuating a methodical 12-play, 74-yard march with a three-yard touchdown from Shelton.
 
UIndy responded with 10 unanswered points, starting with a long TD catch from then-freshman Kevin Teglia.  The drive saw the Greyhounds convert a 3rd & 9 with a 25-yard reception by Reece Horn, followed by Teglia's 26-yard touchdown on 2nd & 20.
 
On the ensuing SJC possession, a Koby Orris interception and 23-yard return set up Scott Miller's season-long 42-yard field goal.
 
Just 1:49 later, the Pumas struck back with a quick seven points to pull within three, but the Hounds controlled the ball for the final six minutes to bleed the clock dry and seal the win.

#HASHTAG
This season, interact with your fellow Greyhound football fans on Twitter with game-specific hashtags. Be sure to follow @UIndyAthletics and use the #UINDYvsSJC to join the conversation. Also, follow all the action in the Great Lakes Valley Conference this weekend via #GLVCfb.

LAST WEEK
The Greyhounds celebrated Homecoming with a decisive 52-14 win against Lincoln last week.  UIndy racked up more than 500 yards of total offense for the third consecutive game, while the Blue Tigers managed just 228 yards, including a paltry 61 through the air.  Five different Greyhounds found the end zone, with senior wideout Greg Johnson's 13-yard TD catch good for his first of the season.

GROUND & POUND
The Hounds handed the ball off a whopping 56 times versus Lincoln.  It marked the most rushing attempts for UIndy since the 57 it racked up versus Hillsdale in the 2004 opener.  The result was a lopsided difference in time of possession, as the Hounds controlled the ball for a season-high 42:44 of the game's 60 minutes.

REGIONAL CONCERNS
With the release of the year's first NCAA Division II regional rankings Monday, the Greyhounds debuted at No. 5 on the initial Super Region Four list.  UIndy is on pace for their third straight playoff berth, as just six teams from each region will advance to the 24-team NCAA D-II Championships next month.

A total of 42 teams make up Division II's fourth "super region," as members of the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (GLIAC), the Lone Star Conference (LSC) and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) comprise the lot.

Undefeated Ferris State claimed the top spot, followed by one-loss teams Colorado State-Pueblo, Ohio Dominican and Ashland.  The Greyhounds, who like Ferris State are unbeaten in Division II play, are the only GLVC team in the top 10.  See below for the complete Super Region Four top 10.
 

RK	SCHOOL	vs D-II	OVERALL
1.	Ferris State	8-0	8-0
2.	Colorado State-Pueblo	6-1	7-1
3.	Ohio Dominican	6-1	6-1
4.	Colorado Mines	7-1	7-1
5.	Indianapolis	7-0	7-1
6.	Michigan Tech	6-1	6-1
7.	Ashland	7-1	7-1
8.	Texas A&M-Commerce	5-1	6-2
9.	Chadron State	5-2	5-3
10.	Angelo State	5-2	5-2

INDY 300
Senior kicker Scott Miller recently became the first-ever Greyhound to surpass 300 career points.  The Indianapolis native generated 10 points for the Hounds versus Lincoln last week (7 PAT, 1 FG), upping his school-record career total to 313.  He leads all active Division II kickers in both points and field goals.  He also ranks fourth among all active D-II student-athletes in points – 120 ahead of the closest GLVC player.
 

D-II ACTIVE POINTS LEADERS		Cl.	Pos.	TD	FG	PAT	Pts
1	Trevor Harman , Shippensburg	Sr.	WR	58	0	0	348
2	Anthony Bilal , Lake Erie	Jr.	RB	54	0	0	324
3	Terrell Watson , Azusa Pacific	Sr.	RB	53	0	0	318
4	Scott Miller , Indianapolis	Sr.	K	0	45	178	313
5	Jason Vander Laan , Ferris St.	Jr.	QB	47	0	0	282
6	Cody Nuzzo , California (PA)	Sr.	K	0	41	157	280
	---
43	Garrett White*, Truman	Sr.	RB	32	0	0	192

_{*next-closest GLVC player}

YOU COMPLETE ME
Junior quarterback Connor Barthel has compiled an impressive .675 career completion percentage, good for the third-highest total among all active Division II players with at least 350 attempts.  His is also third among that same group in touchdown-to-interception ratio (3.78), throwing nearly four TDs to every pick.

The Indiananpolis native heads into this week 13-2 as a starter for the Hounds.  In just his second career start back on Oct. 19 of last season, Barthel completed 19-of-20 (.950) passes at William Jewell to break the program's single-game record.  He is also currently UIndy's career leader in both completion percentage and passing efficiency (157.5).

POLL POSITION
Following the week-two loss at Saint Xavier, the Greyhounds snapped a streak of 18 consecutive appearances in the AFCA Division II Top 25 Poll.  UIndy first broke into the weekly poll Nov. 5,  2012, and did not drop out until Sep. 15, 2014.

The Hounds have received votes in each of the last seven editions, however.  Meanwhile, they remained among the top 25 in the D2Football.com media poll, moving up three spots to No. 18 this week.   See below for UIndy's AFCA poll history.
 

	Pre	W1	W2	W3	W4	W5	W6	W7	W8	W9	W10	W11	FINAL
2012	RV	-	-	-	-	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	19	18	15
2013	19	14	12	22	21	T21	21	20	18	13	11	10	18
2014	18	15	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV

_{RV = receiving votes}

HOMELAND SECURITY
Head Coach Bob Bartolomeo's Greyhounds have compiled a stellar 23-4 (.852) record at Key Stadium since he took over in 2010, including a combined 15-1 (.938) mark since the start of the 2012 season.

Last year's first-round playoff loss to No. 19 West Texas A&M snapped a 12-game home winning streak – the longest since Key Stadium was built in 1970.  UIndy has not lost a regular season game at home since falling to eventual national runner-up Wayne State in the 2011 home finale.

TOUCHDOWN TALLY
Reece Horn's 15-yard touchdown catch last week upped his season total to 11, good for fifth in D-II as well as a share of third in the UIndy single-season annals.  A product of local Cathedral High School, Horn is chasing former-teammate Mar'Quone Edmonds on the school's single-season receiving TD list, as the former All-American put up seasons of 17 and 14 TD catches in 2012 and '11, respectively.

Horn enters the Saint Jospeh's game with 1,939 career receiving yards.  Sixty-one yards Thursday night will make him the seventh 2,000-yard receiving in school history.

CENTURY CLUB
Linebacker Rob Dury enters to week with 94 tackles on the season.  He is looking to become the first Greyhound sophomore to reach triple digits in tackles since Max Davis in 2010.  Dury leads the GLVC with 11.8 stops per game, ranking 15th among all D-II defenders.

GLVC GIANT
The two-time defending GLVC champion, UIndy is a perfect 20-0 in league play since the conference began sponsoring the sport in 2012.  With William Jewell falling 42-28 at home to Quincy last week, the Hounds stand alone atop the conference with a 5-0 league mark.  Jewell, who is 4-1 in GLVC play, faces UIndy in the regular season finale Nov. 15.

Statistically, the Greyhounds top the league in a number of catgories, including scoring offense (34.9 ppg) and scoring defense (15.4).

GLVC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Three Greyhounds have combined for four GLVC Player of the Week awards, with two nods going to tackling-machine Rob Dury.  Below is the complete 2014 list.
 

	Offensive	Defensive	Special Teams
Week 1	Nick Lonergan, QU	John Strickland, UIndy	Thomas Cook, Jr., WJC
Week 2	Willie Tindal, SBU	Gary Yeoman, SJC	Spencer Elrod, MST
Week 3	Morris Henderson, LU	Rob Dury, UIndy	Marcin Gawlak, SJC
Week 4	Lamar Wilkes, MST	Zach Melber, MST	Eric Poindexter, QU
Week 5	Thomas Cook, Jr., WJC	Rob Dury, UIndy	Dillon Bowman, MST
Week 6	Chris Harris, QU	Eric Jackson, WJC	Blake Allison, QU
Week 7	Matt Ripp, UIndy	Lucky Baar, McK	Brandon Womack, WJC
Week 8	Nick Lonergan, QU	Joel Wimbley, SJC	Nate Rueckemann, QU

PLAYOFFS!?!
In addition to a pair of conference titles, the last two seasons yielded postseason berths for UIndy.  The Greyhounds earned their first-ever NCAA Division II playoff trip in 2012 (they previously made the D-III playoffs in 1975) and followed that with another NCAA appearance last season.

The Hounds earned the program's first postseason win with a 31-14  home victory versus No. 8 Midwestern State in the first round of the '12 playoffs.  A week later,  UIndy fell 28-7 at top-ranked Colorado State-Pueblo in the second round and later dropped a 27-14 decision at home to No. 19 West Texas A&M in the 2013 playoff opener.

THE BART YEARS
The main man behind the success is veteran football coach Bob Bartolomeo (pronounced BART-uh-luh-MAY-oh).  With four winning seasons in four years as the head man at UIndy, Coach "Bart" has won more than twice as many games as he has lost in his time at UIndy, compiling a 40-15 (.727) record at the school and a 54-22-1 (.710) mark overall.  The coach's 33 wins through 2013 easily represent the most in any four-year span in program history, with a distant second of 28 victories coming in the 1983-86 and 1984-87 time frames.

Before landing the head job at UIndy in 2010, Bartolomeo spent two seasons as the head coach at cross-town Butler in 1990 and '91, winning Coach of the Year honors from the Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference the latter season.  He previously spent seven years as the defensive coordinator at Ball State and six years in the same position at UIndy before taking the head job in 2010.  Bartolomeo is the two-time reigning GLVC Coach of the Year.

RIPPING OFF YARDAGE
Senior running back Matt Ripp is coming off his third consectuve 100-yard-rushing performance with a 112-yard effort versus Lincoln last week.  The output pushed his career rushing total past 2,000.  His three-yard touchdown  in the first quarter gave him 28 rushing TDs for his career.  His also third in program history in career yards per carry (6.1), all this while playing behind Greyhound great Klay Fiechter for his first three years.

In addition, Ripp owns the third-longest rush in school history with a marathon 89-yard run versus Quincy in week 10 last season.  Only UIndy Hall of Famer Dick Nyers (1954) and Gary Isza (1996) have longer runs in a Greyhound uniform, as each recorded a 90 yarder in their time on campus.

CAREER KICKOFF
True-freshman Tuwan Payton made a tremendous splash in his first collegiate game. On his first touch in the opener at in-region Saginaw Valley State, the New Albany, Ind., native gained 13 yards and a first down on a jet sweep.

But his biggest impact came at the start of the third quarter, however, when Payton fielded the opening kickoff of the second half at the six-yard line and proceeded to zip 94 yards to the end zone. It marked the first kickoff return TD by a Greyhound since 2011.

Payton, who also garners carries and receptions in the Greyhounds offense, ranks 25th in D-II in kickoff return average (27.4).

MAXIMUM PROTECTION
The Greyhounds are one of only five teams in Division II that alowed two sacks or fewer this season. Their miniscule 0.25 sacks allowed per game is tied for third in D-II.

Last season, the Hounds finished 13th in the nation in fewest sacks allowed, surrendering a total of just 11 sacks, or 0.92 per contest.

GETTING DEFENSIVE
Coach Bart's teams are consistently among the Division II leaders in defensive statistical rankings.  Currently, the Hounds are fifth in Division II in passing defense, seventh in total defense and 15th in scoring defense.  Below is a look at where UIndy has ranked in each category during Bartolomeo's tenure at head coach.
 

	Total Defense	Passing Defense	Scoring Defense
2014	7th, 278.1 ypg	5th, 142.5 ypg	15th, 15.4 ppg
2013	5th, 282.5 ypg	2nd, 157.7 ypg	1st, 13.1 ppg
2012	11th, 293.4 ypg	3rd, 152.0 ypg	15th, 18.1 ppg
2011	50th, 343.5 ypg	31st, 181.0 ypg	52nd, 24.5 ppg
2010	42nd, 323.0 ypg	12th, 153.6 ypg	46th, 21.6 ppg