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Opponent: William Jewell
Time: Saturday, October 9; 3:00 PM
Location: Liberty, MO
 
Liberty, Mo. - The Bearcats are looking to bounce back after falling to Indianapolis at home last weekend. They'll travel up the road a couple hours to face the Cardinals of William Jewell Saturday afternoon. 

Scouting The Bearcats
Robert Clardy will be entering his seventh season (2021-22) as the Head Football Coach and his 14th season overall on the Bearcats Football coaching staff. In 2016, Coach Clardy earned GLVC Coach of the Year honors after leading the Bearcats to their first ever conference title and NCAA National Playoff appearance after finishing the season 10-2 (7-1 GLVC). Clardy's Bearcats were ranked as high as 17th in the NCAA Division II AFCA poll, finishing 22nd in the final NCAA Division II AFCA poll, while earning their first ever regional and national rankings. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the 2020-21 football season took place in the spring of 2021. The spring season was a shortened, three game, conference opponents only, season. Truman State visited Bolivar, taking the first game after a very tight first half. SBU nearly defeated Missouri S&T on the road the next week, but fell short late in the game. The final game finished with a high scoring victory over William Jewell.

The fall 2021 season began a week earlier than expected for the Bearcats, scheduling a home contest last minute against Texas Permian Basin. The Falcons' strong defense held off the potent Bearcat offense, taking the week one matchup 24-16. Week two saw the Bearcats take on the defending national champions and #1 ranked West Florida on their turf. The Argonauts took the game 63-14. The Oilers of Findlay won a shootout in week three, 62-41. Bouncing back, the Bearcats defeated Lake Erie 28-20 on the road in week four, holding the Storm scoreless in the second half. UINDY won week five, 77-10. The spring's GLVC Offensive Player of the Year, Cooper Callis, returns to lead the SBU offense. So far this season, Callis has completed 121-180 passes for 1430 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. He leads the GLVC in all passing categories. Preston Carson, Jordan Kent, and Cassian Foreman have all been big targets. Kent has the second most receptions per game at 6.2 and Carson is a couple spots behind with 5.6. Carson also ranks 3rd in receiving yards per game, Kent is 4th and Foreman is 7th. Eric Knight, Bryce Cabrera, and Abel Carter will all take reps at running back. SBU's group of linebackers is strong, led by upperclassmen in Aaron Harris, Taylor Jones-Morgan, and two-time GLVC Defensive Player of the Week, Coleton Smith. Week one saw Smith with 20 tackles, and Smith recorded 19 tackles week four. He leads the team with 75 total tackles, 20 more than any other in the GLVC. Brenden Smith has the second most takles on the team with 34.

Scouting The Cardinals
The William Jewell Cardinals enter Saturday's game with an 0-5 record on the season. Most recently, the Cardinals fell 52-10 to McKendree. They have also dropped games against Colorado Mesa, Black Hills State, Ohio Dominican, and Kentucky Wesleyan. Mike McGlinchey is the leader of the Cardinals, just his second season in the position and first full schedule. Prior to his time at William Jewell, McGlinchey was a CoDefensive Coordinator at Colorado School of Mines. Leading the Cardinal offense is Anthony Pritzel. Last spring when the teams met, Pritzel threw for 492 yards and 5 touchdowns, but also had 3 interceptions, including a pick-six. This year, Pritzel has completed 62- 129 passes for 749 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions. He has also picked up 101 yards and a score with his feet. Jalik Jaggwe is his primary target, catching 26 passes for 320 yards and 3 touchdowns this year. Tabren Yates is the primary rusher for Jewell, carrying the ball 51 times for 176 yards and a touchdown. The tackling duties are rather spread out, but Kian Betancourt leads the team with 33 tackles, Carson Anderson just behind with 32. Anderson also has an interception, a pass break up, and a forced fumble this year. Radell Washington has been in the backfield quite a bit this year, recording 1.5 sacks and 4 quarterback hits.

SBU leads the all-time series against William Jewell 8-4. In the spring, the Bearcats won a shootout at William Jewell 55-50. Cooper Callis was 24-39 for 429 yards and 4 touchdowns. Eric Knight ran the ball just 5 times but 2 of those were scores. On the receiving end, Jordan Kent caught just 4 passes resulting in 125 yards and 2 touchdowns.