Football Preps for Road Test Against Central Methodist
DUBUQUE, Iowa – Fresh off of its first win of the 2022 campaign, Clarke University is heading down to Fayette, Mo., to take on the Eagles of Central Methodist University on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Davis Field. Tickets cost $10 and can be purchased online ahead of the game on Central Methodist's athetlics website.
The Pride are coming off of a thrilling statement win over Missouri Valley last weekend. Down five with five minutes remaining, Clarke began its game-winning drive on its own 47-yard line. After a one-yard pickup from running back Sean Ceasar, quarterback Brandon Mueller rushed for back-to-back five-yard gains, followed up with completions of one, two, six, nine and 12 yards to bring the Pride down to the Viking's 20-yard line.
On second and four, Missouri Valley sacked Mueller for a three-yard loss. An incomplete pass on third down forced CU into a fourth down timeout. On the next play, Mueller attempted to hit wideout Gabe Deadwiler near the pylon, but was unable due to a Viking defender committing pass interference. On the ensuing play, Mueller was sacked for a second time on the drive and was slow to get up with a cramp. Clarke was forced to use its final timeout and put the game into the hands of Williams, who escaped a Missouri Valley defender and threw the game-winning pass to Wyer.
The Series
Clarke is 0-2 lifetime against Central Methodist and will play the Eagles for the first time as the visiting team Saturday. The last meeting between the two programs came on Sept. 11, 2021, which resulted in a 31-16 Eagle win. Williams was 11-of-19 passing for 150 yards and a touchdown, while running back Garrett Egan racked up 86 yards on 13 carries, finding the endzone with 3:15 remaining in regulation. Cesar Aguilera was the recipient of Williams' touchdown pass., while Wyer had two catches for 31 yards.
Central Methodist at a Glance
The Eagles (0-2) are off to a rough start to start the season, falling last weekend 24-0 to Peru State. The offense, led by a quarterback duo of Matthew Luna and Mallan Cole, has failed to find the endzone to date and has amassed 166 yards of total offense. Luna has passed for 47 yards and an interception on 4-of-21 passing, while Cole has thrown for 29 yards on 8-of-18 passing. On the ground, Luna leads all rushers with 34 yards, followed by running back Terrell Aldridge with 26.
Defensively, senior linebacker Davion Stockard leads all Eagle defenders in total tackles with 22, followed by defensive lineman Cameron Essick with 15. Defensive back Mujahid Camel leads the team with two tackles for loss, with Bailey Proctor trailing at 1.5. Senior DB Erik Mays has recorded the team's lone interception, returning it four yards.
Storylines to Follow
Slingin' It
The chemistry that is seemingly budding between Mueller and Deadwiler has been a big narrative to the Pride offense since the start of this season. Over the course of the first two games, Deadwiler has racked up 19 receptions for 293 yards, while Mueller has thrown for 628 yards – all of which stand as two-game records for a wideout and quarterback in program history.
Against the NAIA, Mueller ranks second in completions (52), fourth in passing yards, 13th in completion percentage (65%), and 20th in QB efficiency (144.9), while Deadwiler ranks second in catches and third in receiving yards.
Goin' Back to Back
A Pride win on Saturday would give the program back-to-back wins for only the second time since its inception in 2019. During that inaugural season, Clarke defeated Peru State, 18-17, and Graceland, 28-23, in back-to-back contests.
If at First You Don't Succeed, Try Again
Although the offense has seen a surge this season, one area that plagues the Pride is third down conversions. Clarke is 11-of-35 on its third down conversion attempts, which ranks third to last in the conference. However, not all hope is lost after failing to convert on third down, as the Pride's fourth down conversion rate stands at 71-percent, tied for the second best mark in the nation for teams with five attempts or more.
Redzone Success
Clarke is tied for the fourth highest redzone percentage in the country at a success rate of 88-percent, which trails fellow Heart of America Conference foe William Penn, who is three-for-three on their attempts. The Pride have scored on seven of their eight trips, which is tied with Grand View and MidAmerica Nazarene for the most in the conference.
Head Coach Miguel Regalado Weekly Sit-Down
Direction of the team following its first win of 2022:
"I think we took a step forward in that we are finally learning how to compete for 60 minutes. I think they showed it last week as well. To compete for 60 minutes, two weeks in a row – I really feel like our team is starting to believe in the direction we're heading – the right direction. Unfortunately, it takes some wins for guys to believe what you're telling them. When you're losing and you're saying those things to those guys, they aren't listening. When you win and show it to them, they start to understand where you're going. The team is fighting and competing until the end."
Biggest standout looking back to last week:
"On offense, I was very happy with the way that Sean Ceasar came in and ran. Sean is a guy that's been here since 2019. He's always been that third back, but he's never complained. He's worked his butt off and was here all summer long. He was here for 22 of 22 workouts. He didn't play hardly at all against Evangel, but then Craig (Elmore) had his AC sprain on his shoulder and that opened up a door for him. Sean came in and did a fantastic job of running his butt off. On the defensive side of the ball, Logan Otting is playing fantastic ball. Logan's in the best shape that he's ever been in, and I would bet he'd say the same thing but over the course of his entire career. He's been playing sideline-to-sideline. We have an incredible clip of him running from one side of the field to another and hitting the quarterback. Of course, our defense is going to go as far as our defensive line goes. Jalen Smith was the player of the game last week. That defensive line absolutely gets after it every single week."
On Jayden Wyer's steady performance this season:
"Wyer is a funny guy. He's a guy that if he wasn't catching big touchdowns, he'd be on the bench because he busts so much. His touchdowns overrule that. They cancel out the missed routes and assignments. The crowd sees the touchdowns, but the coaches on Sundays see the missed routes. I give Wyer a hard time, but bottom line is this: he is making incredibly clutch plays. His two touchdowns, in my opinion, were the difference on Saturday. Brandon (Mueller) just gave him a chance on a deep ball – that wasn't the read, but Wyer made a fantastic catch. Then, Kenyon Williams comes in on the final play and Jayden just stays alive. He's a flat route, trying to open up a curl route for number one – the ball isn't out of Kenyon's hands, so he stays alive, goes to the back of the endzone and makes a play."
Overall thoughts on Central Methodist:
"They're dangerously athletic on defense. They always have good-looking players and guys who can run. They do not care about down and distance. They don't care what zone of the field they're in. They will blitz you at any point. I always said at Baker that this was a game that we'd always win big, but our quarterback would come out with a beating. That's what we need to avoid with our offense on Saturday. We need to be efficient, but we also need to take care of Brandon. Offensively, CMU is struggling. They lost one of the better quarterbacks in our league from last year. He saw greener grass and transferred out. I need our defense to step up and eliminate big plays. On special teams, we need to be the difference. We just have to keep them down on offense."
Three keys to a victory over CMU:
"Here's what I told our offense: we need to start fast. Last week, the first three plays looked like boom, boom, boom. We were rocking and rolling before we had two missed assignments and all of a sudden, it's third and 19 yards to go and we're off the field. Those are things we have to avoid on offense. On defense, we need to eliminate big plays. We gave up too many big plays last week. I've told them that we need to align correctly, do your own job, and wrap up. If we do those three things on defense, we're going to eliminate big plays. On special forces, I want our stalkers - our kickoff team. They have been a thorn in our side for two games straight now. We made a bunch of changes in the depth chart, and I need them to have a coming out party and have some swagger. If we do those three things in all of those three phases, we're going to be really good."