SALISBURY, Md. - The No. 11/13 Salisbury University football team has a chance to clinch the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament against the TCNJ Lions on Saturday. The kickoff at Sea Gull Stadium is set for 2 p.m.
Salisbury is coming off a historic game on the road. The Sea Gulls stormed through the CNU Captains, 84-14, to spoil CNU's homecoming weekend. Salisbury scored on every offensive drive, except for the final kneel-downs and scored on offense, defense and special teams.
TCNJ heads to the Shore after a bye week and back-to-back conference losses to Kean and CNU. TCNJ attempted a comeback against CNU but the Captains held the Lions off to escape Ewing with a 20-14 win on Oct. 23.
THE RUNDOWN
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SALISBURY STATS
TCNJ STATS
SPECTATOR POLICY
PARKING
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The Series: Salisbury holds the 12-11 series advantage over TCNJ with Salisbury taking the series advantage with a four-game winning streak heading to Saturday's game.
Salisbury cruised to a 62-20 win over TCNJ in the last meeting during the 2019 season. Salisbury notched 517 yards of total offense, including 271 passing yards. Jack Lanham went 7-of-11 passing for 259 and a pair of touchdowns. Lanham only carried the ball three times for 21 yards but scored a rushing touchdown. Shamar Gray tallied two scores on nine carries. Octavion Wilson reeled in four passes for a career-high and school-record 182 yards, including an 85-yard touchdown reception.
Salisbury held TCNJ to 269 yards and forced three fumbles. Patrick Bernardo and Myles Christian each registered a game-high 11 tackles. Jamere Furbush notched seven tackles, including 2.5 sacks and a fumble recovery. Josh Adewumi also recovered a fumble and tallied six stops and a half-sack.
Last Time Out: Salisbury spoiled CNU's homecoming in a big way with an 84-14 win over the Captains last Saturday. It was the third time in the NJAC era that Salisbury has scored 80 or more points.
The Sea Gulls totaled 547 yards of offense with 24 first downs and 6-for-6 on third down. Billy Gant was a perfect 5-for-5 passing for 116 yards and two touchdowns. Gant also scored once on the ground with 54 yards. The defense forced four CNU turnovers and scored twice on defense. Aaron Jahnke, Kevin Linden, Wylen Tompkins and Matthew Harper forced four CNU fumbles. A.J. Butler intercepted a pass and returned 53 yards for a touchdown. Sean Carroll recovered a fumble and return it 51 yards for a score.
National Rankings: Salisbury stayed at No. 11 in the D3football.com Top 25 and moved up a spot in the American Football Coaches Association Coaches' Poll from 14th to the 13th-ranked team in the nation.
Weekly Honors: Salisbury picked up awards from both the NJAC and D3football.com. Billy Gant and Bert Schrecongost were named the NJAC Offensive and Special Teams Player of the Week respectively. Sean Carroll landed a spot on the D3football.com Team of the Week.
Gant became the third Sea Gull to earn the NJAC Offensive Player of the Week award after Jack Lanham and Joey Bildstein received the weekly award on Oct. 3 and Oct. 17 respectively. Schrecongost received his third NJAC Special Teams award of the 2021 season. Carroll was the second Salisbury player to be named to the D3football.com Team of the Week after Casey Counts was picked for the national team following the Week 2 game against Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The Class of the NJAC: Since joining the NJAC in 2015, Salisbury has won 47 games in the conference. The 47 wins stand as the most wins among active teams in the conference.
Breaking through the books: Senior quarterback Jack Lanham crossed the 2,000 passing yard mark in Salisbury's win over Montclair St. on Oct. 2 to become the 11th player in team history with 2,000-plus passing yards. He is only 11 yards away from tying David Doy '96 for 10th on the career passing yard list in SU history.
8. Dustin Johnson (2002-05) - 2,204
9. Marc Thomas (1993-94) - 2,128
10. David Doy (1992-95) - 2,079
11. Jack Lanham (2017-present) – 2,068
12. Ronnie Curley (2005-08) - 1,768
Among the Greats: Salisbury head coach Sherman Wood ranks in the top-20 of active coaches in wins, regardless of NCAA Division. Entering 2021, Coach Wood is tied for 19th with Willie Fritz of Tulane amongst active coaches in victories with 177. He had more career victories than other notable coaches with 20 or more years of experience such as Kirk Ferentz of Iowa and Gary Patterson of TCU.
No Fly Zone: Senior All-American defensive Back Sean Carroll recorded a pair of interceptions against Montclair St. to move to a tie for third on the all-time career interceptions list.
1. Byron Westbrook (2003-06) – 18
2. Andre Carter (2010-13) – 16
T3. Sean Carroll (2017-present) – 13
T3. John Baugher (1986-89) - 13
T4. Du'Juan Wilson (1998-2000) - 12
T4. Greg Stanton (2010-13) – 12
Chance to Clinch: Salisbury has an opportunity to clinch at least a share of the NJAC Championship and the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Championship with a win on Saturday over TCNJ. A win on Saturday would be SU's second consecutive and 12th national bid in program history. The Sea Gulls also look to win an NJAC Championship for the third straight year and the fourth NJAC title in the seven-year affiliate membership in the conference.
Standing Tall: The Salisbury defense has shown up in a big way in the conference schedule. The Sea Gulls have limited teams to a touchdown or less in each of the three of the four conference games. SU also allowed negative-17 yards rushing against Kean, which is the first time that the team has allowed negative rushing yards since the maroon and gold allowed negative-35 yards in a 31-7 win against the Apprentice School on Oct. 2, 2010.
Scouting TCNJ: TCNJ enters Saturday's game off a bye week after losing its past two conference games to Kean and CNU. The offense is led by running back Nick Chambers, who has totaled 485 rushing yards in seven games. Under center, sophomore Trevor Bopp has taken over at quarterback. Bopp collected NJAC Rookie of the Week honors after the loss against CNU on Oct. 23. The defense is stout up front with the best rushing defense in the conference, paced by senior Nick Celli. Celli ranks fourth in the NJAC in tackles for loss (9.5) and sacks (4.5).
Salisbury University is a proud member of NCAA Division III with primary membership in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference, along with the New Jersey Athletic Conference for football and the Metropolitan Swimming and Diving Conference for men's and women's swimming. With over 500 student-athletes in 21 varsity sports, SU is recognized as one of the most competitive intercollegiate athletics programs regardless of division, and dedicated coaches and staff that foster excellence on-and-off the field. The Sea Gulls have celebrated 22 team national championships, 24 individual national champions, 184 conference championships and 41 Academic All-Americans.
To learn more about the tradition of excellence with Sea Gull Athletics, visit www.SUSeaGulls.com or on social media @SUSeaGulls.
