FB Preview: Yellow Jackets host Bluffton for rights to The Hammer
November 10, 2023

FB Preview: Yellow Jackets host Bluffton for rights to The Hammer

SATURDAY'S GAME: Defiance College hosts rival Bluffton University to battle for The Hammer. A Yellow Jackets win would give the program a 5-5 finish for the first time since 2016 and would be just the eighth year with a record of .500 or better since joining the HCAC in 2000. In the final game of the season, this contest marks Defiance's last football game as a member of the HCAC and NCAA Division III as the Yellow Jackets return to the NAIA level beginning in the fall of 2024.
 
LAST TIME OUT: The Yellow Jackets got into a shootout with Rose-Hulman last week at Coressel Stadium that ended with a 78-54 loss for DC, which set a program record for the highest-scoring football game in program history. The 54-point performance by Defiance gave the Jackets back-to-back 50-point games in the history of DC football after posting 51 the week prior at Manchester.
 
ABOUT THE YELLOW JACKETS: Defiance has surpassed last year's win total (3-7) thanks to a 4-1 mark on the road, but looks to earn their first home victory to cap off the season. Over the team's last 13 games, Defiance is 7-6 and poised to finish conference play with a winning record for the first time since 2010, which is a feat that has occurred seven times as an HCAC member. Defiance has the third-best rushing attack in the HCAC, averaging 203 yards per game and have eclipsed 200 yards in five games this season. DC is 176 yards shy of surpassing 2,000 yards as a team this year, which would be the first time since the 2001 conference title team and just seventh all time. The offense is also 15 points from surpassing 300 points for the season, a mark that has been has also not been hit since 2001. On the defensive side, the Jackets have the second-best passing defense by letting up 197 yards per game. 
 
ABOUT THE BEAVERS: Bluffton travels to Defiance with a 3-6 record coming off a 49-27 loss at home to conference-leading Mount St. Joseph. Like Defiance, Bluffton has improved on last season's 2-8 record under second-year head coach Matt Nardo. The Beavers also rank close DC in total offense (390.9 per game) and defense (368.7 per game) while favoring the passing game over the ground game, which produces 254 yards per game compared to a 136-yard average on the ground. The Beavers have conference wins over Anderson and Manchester in addition to a season-opening victory over Kenyon, who is 1-8 entering the final week of the campaign.
 
THE SERIES: The Yellow Jackets and Beavers compete for The Hammer for the 99th time since their first meeting in 1914. Last year, the Yellow Jackets withstood a second-half comeback by Bluffton to snap a two-year drought against their rivals with a 17-14 victory. Defiance seeks consecutive victories over the Beavers for the first time since the 2008-09 seasons. Bluffton currently holds a 49-47-2 edge in the historic series and carries a 14-9 upper hand over Defiance since both schools joined the HCAC in 2000. Two other important markers of the series are each school's DIII era, which DC is 14-16 against Bluffton since becoming an NCAA DIII institution in 1991, and the modern era since World War II, another period that Bluffton holds a slight advantage of 40-35 dating back to 1946. The two programs are playing for the 24th consecutive season, the second-longest continuous run of the series behind a 52-year tradition between 1946-97. The last time Defiance did not have Bluffton on the football schedule was during the 1998-99 seasons due to schedule conflicts from DC's MIAA membership. In the 1990 game at Defiance, the Yellow Jackets were in the NAIA and the Beavers were in their first season as an NCAA DIII program.
 
STOUT HOME SCHEDULE: The Yellow Jackets have hosted tough competition at Coressel Stadium in 2023. No. 2 Mount Union (9-0) opened the football season at Defiance followed by Mount St. Joseph (8-1), Frankin (4-5), and Rose-Hulman (7-2). DC's opponents at home this season have dept the Jackets out of the win column on their own turf while going a combined 28-8 through nine games this season.
 
TOUCHDOWN TYSHAUN: Senior running back Tyshaun Freeman has turned in a sterling season with 809 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, which are tied for fourth-most in a single season at DC. Freeman ranks third in the conference in rushing yards and rushing scores while he seeks the eighth 1,000-yard season in team history. Accounting for one receiving score as well this season, Freeman has posted five multi-touchdown games this fall and six for his career. The Georgia native has run for 2,436 career yards and 22 touchdowns, ranking third and fourth in the Yellow Jacket career rankings.
 
ALL ABOARD THE COLTRAIN: Senior linebacker Thomas Coltrain earned his fourth-career HCAC Defensive Player of the Week Award after a career-best 19 tackles last week. For the year, he has 86 tackles and just 10 short of setting a new single-season career best. Coltrain now owns 343 total career tackles, third-most and 17 shy of tying for second for a career. His 216 solo tackles are already a program record to go with the program's longest fumble recovery returned for a touchdown, a play that went for 95 yards at Anderson.
 
AMBROSE FINISHING STRONG: Quarterback Jordan Ambrose has turned in strong performances over the last two weeks while going three straight games without an interception. He has thrown for more than 270 yards in each of the last two games and has compiled a stat line of 687 yards, seven touchdowns and completed 56 percent of his throws in the last three games. The dual-threat has also produced three straight rushing games over 60 yards, including a four-touchdown, 127-yard game last weekend. 
Ambrose has already recorded career-high totals in passing yards (1,599), passing touchdowns (14), rushing yards (554), and rushing touchdowns (6) to become the first DC quarterback with 1,500 yards passing and 500 yards rushing in the same season.
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