GAME INFORMATION
Saturday, Nov. 7 • 1 pm CT
Busey Bank Field at Joliet Memorial Stadium
Joliet, Illinois

Series History
Overall: USF leads 21-12.
First: at USF 37, Olivet Nazarene 16 (10/18/86)
Last: at Olivet Nazarene 38, St. Francis 20 (11/15/25)
Streak: ONU won the last game in the series.

The Two Coaches
USF: Joe Curry
Alma Mater: USF 2001
Career: 76-77 (15th year)
at USF: 76-77 (15th year)

ONU: Avante Mitchell
Alma Mater: Northwood University 2019
Career: 31-40 (8th year)
At ONU: 17-11 (3rd year)

TOP STORYLINES
• The longest-running series for the Saints among any single opponent continues on Saturday with their 34th meeting against Olivet Nazarene University.  The Saints hold a 21-12 lead in a series that started in USF's first year of the program (1986) before pausing for seven seasons (1992-98) and then restarting in 1999.   
 
• Olivet Nazarene comes in as the 12th-best scoring offense with its 42.0 points-per-game average.

• ONU's Aaron Bennett is one of the best runningbacks in the nation, ranking tied for fourth in yards per carry (7.7) and seventh in yards per game rushing (102.0).
 
• ONU's defense is averaging nearly nine tackles for loss per game. 

• The Saints have recovered three muffed punt returns by the opposition over the last two games, including John Wesolowski's 26-yard return for a touchdown last week.
 
 
GAME NOTES

THE HEAD COACHES
Joe Curry (St. Francis) is in his 15th season as the Saints' head coach, which makes him the longest-serving coach in school history.  He is also the winningest coach in the history of the program with 76 victories and second in winning percentage (.497, 76-77).  Program founder Gordie Gillespie maintains the top spot in winning percentage at .593.

Avante Mitchell (Olivet Nazarene) is in his third season at the helm of the Tigers' program, having gone 17-11.  Prior to ONU, he served as the head coach at Lawrence Technological University (Mich.) for a run of five seasons. 

ABOUT OLIVET NAZARENE
An eligibility issue is the only thing that has slowed down Olivet Nazarene from being another ranked foe that the Saints have faced this year.  The snafu wiped out a pair of wins in the first two games of the campaign and have left the Tigers at 5-3 instead of 7-1.  Nonetheless, nothing has stopped ONU from scoring this season.  The Tigers rank 12th in the nation, averaging a robust 42.0 points per game.  Besides a 31-3 setback to No. 6 Marian University, the Tigers have not scored less than 31 points in any single game this fall.  They have relied upon one of the best rushing offenses in the nation to get the job done, averaging 204.5 yards per contest (20th in the NAIA).  Headlining the unit is senior runningback Aaron Bennett, who is one of just eight players in the nation to average better than 100 yards rushing per contest.  Bennett sits at 102.0 yards per game, which ranks sixth-best in the NAIA.  He is also tied for fourth with his 7.7 yards per carry average and has totaled nine touchdowns.  Seven different Tigers in all have scored rushing touchdowns, including quarterback Christian Dhue-Reid.  The senior is the third-highest rusher on the squad with his 110 total yards.  Bennett's backup, Lehiwa Kahana-Travis, is no slouch, either, with 408 yards and five touchdowns to his credit.  ONU's balanced attack is led by Dhue-Reid, who has completed 55.8 percent of his attempts for 933 yards (133.3 avg.) with 11 touchdowns against just three interceptions.  There is no one main target.  Instead, there is a plethora, with eight different Tigers catching anywhere between nine and 16 passes.  Ten have also caught touchdown passes.  Topping the list is freshman Zayden Alviar-Costa with 16 grabs for 281 yards (40.1 avg.).  Defensively, ONU has allowed less than 100 yards rushing per game (99.4), while opposing quarterbacks have completed less than 50 percent of their pass attempts (48 pct.).  As a group, ONU has averaged nearly nine tackles for loss per game and has totaled 15 sacks.  The main cog to that engine is senior linebacker John Harman.  Of his 61 tackles, 18.5 have gone for a loss.  He also has been credited with two sacks.  The unit is loaded with upperclassmen, nine to be exact.  Japheth Lilo has handled the majority of the special teams work with his 20.6 kick return and 8.4 punt return averages.  Freshman JJ Semradek has totaled 56 points with his leg, going 41-for-42 on PATs and 5-of-8 on field goals with a long of 35.  Gavin Lentz handles punting detail, averaging 37.2 yards per boot.              

ABOUT THE SERIES
Olivet Nazarene represents the No. 1 foe in terms of number of contests in the history of the USF program with the two teams having met 33 previous times.  The Saints have come out on top in nearly two-thirds of the meetings (21-12).  The first matchup came in USF's first season.  The two teams met for six straight years before the series went on pause from 1992 through 1998.  They have met every year since 1999. 

LOOKING BACK AT LAST WEEK
Marian showed its dominance as one of the best football teams in the NAIA by scoring on nine of its 11 possessions in a 63-14 Mid-States Football Association Midwest League victory over the Saints.  The NAIA No. 6-ranked Knights (8-1, 3-0 MSFA) wasted little time in putting up their points, too, requiring just six plays or less on seven of the touchdowns.  Six of the scores also took less than two minutes.
 
DO THAT AGAIN
For the third time in two games and twice last week, the Saints were the benefactors of muffed punt returns by the opposition.  It started two weeks ago against Saint Xavier, which USF turned into a go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter.  Against Marian, it happened twice in the first quarter.  St. Francis was unable to take advantage the first time (missing a 38-yard field goal), but John Wesolowski made the Knights pay the second time with his 26-yard return for a touchdown.  The score was the first one of Wesolowski's collegiate career.

A TOUGH DAY
Marian proved to be too tough a competitor for the Saints last week as USF was held to 180 yards, turned the ball over four times and was just 1-for-12 on third- and fourth-down plays.  It marked the fourth time this season that the Saints were held below 200 yards of total offense.

THE 500 CLUB
Marian, meanwhile, finished the day with 515 yards of total offense on 66 attempts (7.8 avg.).  It was the third time USF's defense yielded 500-plus yards this fall.

TACKLE HERE, TACKLE THERE
A total of 53 players recorded tackles between the two teams last week.  Topping the list were a pair of Saints in Wesolowski and Daniel Rouse.  Wesolowski finished with 12 stops, including one for loss.  Rouse put up 10 tackles.

THAT'S A COINCIDENCE
The double-digit tackle numbers for the pair have left them tied for the team lead in stops with 72 each.  Rouse holds the edge in tackles for loss with 8.0 to Wesolowski's 5.5.

14 SCORE
The Saints have scored at least 14 points in each of their last six games after totaling just 16 points combined over their first three contests. 

OTHER NUMBERS
While the Saints are one point short of the century mark over the first two quarters combined, USF's opponents have done so in each of the first two 15-minute periods, scoring 100 points in the first and 144 in the second.

REMEMBERING ITS SENIORS
St. Francis will pause before Saturday's game to recognize the three senior members of its dance program (Anna Bremer, Alyssa Hoffman and Kathleen Norton) and 11 members of its football program (Matthew Alston, Damian Banaszewski, Grace Bardachowski, Noah Barnes, Marcello Bernardi, Niko Frcek, Adrian Guerrero, Aaron Larkins, Peyton Norton, Antwain Perkins and James Williams).

FOR THE RECORD
The Saints are 184-245 all time, 155-185 in day games and 96-110 at home.