19 Fort Hays State Tigers (9-2) at 12 UIndy Greyhounds (9-1)
Saturday, Nov. 17, 1 p.m. ET, Key Stadium

ON TAP
The No. 4-seeded Greyhounds open the 2018 NCAA Division II playoffs versus the MIAA-champion and fifth-seeded Fort Hays State Tigers (9-2) Saturday afternoon.

PLAYOFFS?!
UIndy is making its fifth trip to the DII playoffs, all coming since 2012. The Hounds have gone 1-4 in their four previous trips, earning their lone win in the first round versus eighth-ranked Midwestern State, 31-14, in 2012. UIndy has since lost at Colorado State Pueblo twice (2012, 2015) and at home to West Texas A&M (2013) and Harding (2017). Click here for the complete playoff bracket.

HOMELAND SECURITY
UIndy owns a stellar 45-7 (.865) record at home since Head Coach Bob Bartolomeo took over in 2010. The Hounds are 5-0 at Key Stadium this season and have won 16 of their last 17 home contests dating back to 2016.

ABOUT FORT HAYS STATE
Hailing from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, the No. 19 Tigers played all 11 of their games in-conference, finishing 9-2 on the year to share the MIAA title with fellow-playoff-participant Northwest Missouri State. Fort Hays State comes into the playoffs riding a five-game winning streak, one that includes a 17-16 road versus NMSU.

The Tigers are led by senior linebacker Jose Delgado, who was voted the MIAA Defensive Player of the Year. As a unit, the FHSU defense ranks 14th in Division II at 17.1 points allowed per game. In addition, kicker/punter Dante Brown was tabbed the league's Special Teams Player of the Year after breaking the MIAA single-season record for field goals made (26) as well as the school mark for points scored in a season (114).

Like UIndy, Fort Hays State is coming off an 11-0 regular season in 2017. Both teams won their conference last year and both went on to lose their one and only playoff game.

HOUNDS vs. TIGERS
Saturday marks the first-ever meeting between UIndy and Fort Hays State University. In fact, the Hounds have just one game of history with any MIAA school, defeating Lincoln University, 40-19, back in 1983. Now, UIndy has faced Lincoln five other times since 2014, and though the Blue Tigers still compete in the MIAA in other sports, they were in fact associate members of the GLVC in football since that time. Same goes for Southwest Baptist actually. UIndy is a combined 10-1 versus those two schools.

GLVC CHAMPS
UIndy secured its second straight GLVC crown with a decisive 31-7 win at Truman Nov. 3. The Hounds have now won six of seven conference titles since the league began sponsoring football in 2012. The lone non-championship season came in 2016.

HONOR ROLL
UIndy collected a host of postseason hardware from the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The league announced its year-end awards Thursday, with the GLVC-champion Greyhounds garnering two of the five major honors as well as 20 all-conference nods. A year after being named the league's Freshman of the Year, sophomore running back Al McKeller secured GLVC Offensive Player of the Year accolades after leading the conference in rushing at 1,093 yards and in rushing TDs with 12. Fellow-running back and return-weapon Toriano Clinton was voted the GLVC Freshman of the Year after averaging 8.0 yards per carry and leading Division II in kickoff return average (more on that below).

TOP DOGS
Boosted by the talents of the aforementioned Toriano Clinton, UIndy leads all of Division II in kickoff return average at 30.1 yards per attempt. Individually, Clinton tops the nation in return average (41.6 ypr) and kickoff return TDs (3). Both numbers are good for single-season school records.

The Hounds also rank highly in DII in third-down conversion percentage (3rd, .518), fewest turnovers lost (4th, 9), completion percentage (4th, .665), fewest sacks allowed (4th, 0.5 spg), passing yards allowed (7th, 142.0 ypg) and scoring defense (7th, 14.6 ppg).

4 HUNDO
The UIndy football program is on the doorstep of a milestone victory this weekend, as the Hounds have racked up a total record of 399-366-22 since their inaugural season in 1924. Seventy-eight of those wins have come since Coach Bart took the reins in 2010. He is already the third-winningest coach in program history, seven shy of the No. 2 spot held by his predecessor, Joe Polizzi.

POLL POSITION
The Hounds settled at No. 12 in the regular season's final AFCA Division II Top 25 Poll. UIndy as been ranked in the top 25 for a school-record 24 consecutive weeks dating back to September of 2017.

DYNAMIC DUO
The quarterback/receiver tandem of Jake Purichia and Malik Higgins has been one of the most productive in UIndy history. Both players rank highly in the UIndy career annals in a number of categories, including the ones list below. Additionally, Purichia is not only the school's career leader in passing efficiency, but his total of 166.9 is good for the fifth-highest career number in Division II history.
 

RECEPTIONS					RECEIVING YARDS
	Player	Years	Rec.			Player	Years	Yards
1	Reece Horn	2012-15	272		1	Reece Horn	2012-15	3,562
2	Mar'Quone Edmonds	2009-12	256		2	Mar'Quone Edmonds	2009-12	3,254
3	Malik Higgins	2015-18	199		3	Malik Higgins	2015-18	3,213
4	Cesare Manning	2000-03	196		4	Cesare Manning	2000-03	2,848
RECEIVING TDs					COMPLETION PERCENTAGE
	Player	Years	TDs			Player	Years	Pct.
1	Mar'Quone Edmonds	2009-12	41		1	Connor Barthel	2012-15	.676
2	Reece Horn	2012-15	31		2	Jake Purichia	2015-18	.651
3	Malik Higgins	2015-18	29		3	Chris Mills	2010-13	.628
4	Dick Nyers	1952-55	26		4	Casey Gillin	2005-07	.605

 

PASSING EFFICIENCY					PASSING TDs
	Player	Years	Eff.			Player	Years	TDs
1	Jake Purichia	2015-18	166.9		1	Chris Mills	2010-13	72
2	Connor Barthel	2012-15	150.0		2	Matt Kohn	2001-04	55
3	Chris Mills	2010-13	144.6		3	Jake Purichia	2015-18	53
4	Casey Gillin	2005-17	135.4		4	Two tied at		51