TODAY’S GAME
The Dayton Flyers haven’t had back-to-back losing seasons since the mid-1970s, but that remains a possibility with two games left.
“Just an overall winning record and pride for the team and the program,” fifth-year senior Matt Tunnacliffe said of what’s at stake. “Last game at home and Senior Day — so a lot of things, but most important playing for each other.”
Dayton (4-5, 3-3 Pioneer Football League) needs a win today in the home finale against Morehead State (2-6, 2-4) and the following week at Jacksonville to post its 40th winning season in the last 42 years.
“You want to finish up the season on a winning note,” coach Rick Chamberlin said. “It gives you momentum heading into the winter as Morehead State at Dayton, 1 p.m., AM 1290 and News 95.7 WHIO you begin preparing for the 2019 season.”
Part of the frustration from a year ago was a loss at Morehead that snapped an eightgame winning streak against the Eagles.
“We’ve got to control the ball,” Chamberlin said. “They’ve been averaging about 90 plays a game and they put up a lot of points. They are a quick, fast offense that doesn’t spend a lot of time on the line. They go.”
Chamberlin will hand out what he calls the program’s biggest award at halftime. The Lt. Andy Zulli trophy will be presented to a player who doesn’t always make a big impact on the field.
“It’s not just the best foot- ball player, it’s the best per- son on this team,” Chamber- lin said. “The guy who lives and dies UD football, both on and off the field.”
Last season’s winner is not eligible for the award. Tunnacliffe won the Zulli award and the Flyer of the year award in 2017.
The Flyers have 28 seniors who will be honored before today’s game. Four are fifthyear players who are out of eligibility, including quar- terback Alex Jeske, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the season opener.
“It’s just fun to be out here with the guys,” Tunnacliffe said. “Try to focus on the little stuff and I think that’s what all the seniors will do, and then ultimately it will hit us at the end of the day that it will be our last day there.” Contributing Writer
Chuck Martin was OXFORD — lamenting this past Wednesday the lack of a trophy for the winner of the annual football “Battle of the Bricks” rivalry game against Ohio.
The fifth-year Miami coach and his RedHawks will get a chance Wednesday to add to their trophy case when they travel to DeKalb, Ill., to face Northern Illinois.
At stake besides Miami (4-6, 4-2 Mid-American Conference East Division) keeping bowl eligibility alive and the Huskies clinching an outright Mid-American Conference West Division championship — if they haven’t already — will be the Mallory Cup, named in honor of the late Miami and NIU coach.
Mallory, who passed away May 25, was 39-12 in five seasons as coach of the thenRedskins and, after coach- ing Colorado, 25-19 in four seasons with the Huskies, who won their first conference championship in his final season.
Ten years earlier, he’d led Miami to a MAC champi- onship with an 11-0 record, including a Tangerine Bowl win over Florida.
“When you’re talking about presence, you have to talk about his career at Miami,” Martin said Friday morning during his weekly media session. “If you ever got into a discussion about who was Miami’s greatest coach, that would be an awesome argument, but if you go on their records, it’s no contest.”
Some might debate that, since Mallory ranks just ninth in the program’s record books in career games with 51, tied with Ara Parseghian in career wins and seventh with a .765 winning percent-