ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Saturday at 1 p.m. at Sea Foam Stadium, Concordia-St. Paul football (1-6 NSIC, 0-3 South) hosts Upper Iowa (5-2 NSIC, 1-2 South) in NSIC South Division play. An unseasonably warm day is on tap with forecasts predicting 66 degrees and sunny skies with moderate wind between 10-15 miles per hour.

THIS WEEK: GOLDEN BEARS HOST PEACOCKS
Concordia-St. Paul (1-6 NSIC, 0-3 South) will host Upper Iowa (5-2 NSIC, 1-2 South) at Sea Foam Stadium in NSIC South Division play. The Golden Bears are coming off a 6-38 loss at #2 Minnesota State (now #1). Concordia has a chance to pull even with Upper Iowa in the divisional standings with a win this week. The Peacocks are coming off of a 19-38 home loss to Winona State, their second straight loss after a 5-0 start.

SERIES HISTORY: CONCORDIA 7, UPPER IOWA 1
Concordia has won seven out of eight all-time meetings against Upper Iowa and is undefeated at home with a 4-0 record against the Peacocks in games played in St. Paul. Upper Iowa is winless in two trips to Sea Foam Stadium, as Concordia holds a 91-13 scoring margin against the Peacocks at Sea foam Stadium. Concordia won the first seven meetings before UIU finally pulled off a 28-24 win over the Golden Bears last year in Fayette.

LAST MEETING: 2013, UPPER IOWA 28, CONCORDIA 24
Jared Russo's 4th-and-goal pass from the five yard line sailed just out of reach of Jermaine Clemon's grasp with three seconds to play as Concordia was unable to complete the comeback.

The Golden Bears trailed 14-3 in the second quarter before rattling off three-straight touchdowns from midway through the second to midway through the third quarters to lead 24-14 at the end of three.

But Upper Iowa running back Chris Smith scored his third rushing touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter and added a big 55-yard run late in the game that set up the go-ahead UIU score with 1:59 left. He finished the day with 266 rushing yards on 34 carries, adding 43 more through the air on four catches.

Russo led Concordia's offense with 22-38 passing for 238 yards and two touchdowns without throwing an interception or taking a sack. He connected seven times with Cordell Smith for 84 yards and a touchdown, adding seven targets to Clemon for 49 yards. Tre Spears led the run game with 16 carries for 61 yards.

Although Smith had a big rushing day for UIU, Concordia held a strong UIU passing attack to just 183 yards as Cole Jaeschke completed 21-35 and was sacked once by Zach Moore.

ABOUT THE PEACOCKS
Upper Iowa enters the weekend with the fifth-ranked offense in terms of points (36.0) and sixth-ranked offense in terms of yards (456.7). The Peacocks have been guided by running back Chris Smith and quarterback Cole Jaeschke and on the offensive side of the ball as Smith leads the league in rushing with 941 yards and Jaeschke ranks second with 2,023 passing yards. Smith has averaged 156.8 yards per game and paces the NSIC with 16 rushing touchdowns despite missing last week's game due to injury. Jaeschke has 12 touchdowns compared to seven picks as he has averaged 289.0 passing yards per game.
 
Jaeschke's three top targets all rank in the top six in the NSIC in receptions. Derek Giesking averages a league-best 7.83 catches per game (47 total catches) as a possession receiver with 459 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Shay Gutman ranks as the top deep thread with a team-high five touchdowns and 590 yards receiving on 6.14 catches per game (43 total catches). Third on the list with 5.71 catches per game (40 total catches) is Lucas Hefty, who registers in at 381 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
 
Defensively, despite ranking 13th in the league in yardage allowed at 460.2 per game, the Peacocks rank in the middle of the pack in points allowed at 27.3 per game. A big factor in that has been their red zone defense as they have held opponents to a league-low 66.7% conversion rate while allowing only 18 scores on 27 attempts.
 
Alex Wahl has been a factor on the defensive side with a team-high 4.0 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss to rank top-10 in the NSIC in both categories. He also ranks third in the league with 11.7 tackles per game while Tyler Fisher ranks eighth with 8.9 tackles per game.  Chayz Holt shuts down his side of the field with 13 passes defended including six interceptions ranking 2nd in the NSIC.

LAST WEEK: #2 MINNESOTA STATE 38, CONCORDIA 6
For the second straight week, a mid-game lull allowed the opposition to grab a decisive lead as Minnesota State scored three touchdowns in under three minutes of play including short drives of 16 and 8 yards set-up by Concordia miscues.

The result was a 24-6 halftime deficit for the Golden Bears which would be too much to overcome against the nationally-dominant Minnesota State program.

Concordia scored twice on Tom Obarski field goals of 32 and 20 yards, as the offense was unable to convert a pair of red zone opportunities into touchdowns. The two field goals were the bookends of the first half as Concordia scored on the opening drive (8 plays, 59 yds, 3:15) and on the final play of the half (12 plays, 76 yds, 2:32) on impressive drives against the strong MSU defense.

But MSU was opportunistic and also strong on the ground. The Mavericks ran for 274 yards on 40 attempts although the Concordia secondary clamped down on MSU's pass game, holding it to 104 yards on 18 passing attempts.

Concordia had 287 total yards, with 198 through the air as redshirt freshman Ben Schramski made his first career start under center. Schramski also ran for 59 yards on five rushes but lost 39 yards off that total on seven MSU sacks.

Jermaine Clemon led Concordia's offense with six catches for a career high 99 yards with a long of 35 while Tre Spears bruised his way to 66 rushing yards on 20 attempts.

Jordan Halverson led the defense with 14 tackles, giving him 30 over the last two weeks. He added 1.5 tackles for loss and a half sack.

HEAD COACH RYAN WILLIAMS
The Golden Bears are led by third year head coach Ryan Williams. Prior to being named head coach, Williams had served as offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator for the previous six seasons at Concordia. He is a Wayzata, Minn. native and played collegiately as starting quarterback and team captain at former Division II-power North Dakota State from 1997-2000.

With a 14-26 career record, Williams is 2-1 against Upper Iowa. He is 6-14 in his career in NSIC South Division play.

MEET THE 2014 TEAM CAPTAINS
The 2014 team captains are senior Abdullah Asad (SS, Chicago) and junior Jordan Halverson (LB, Fridley, Minn.) on defense and seniors Cordell Smith (WR, Mequon, Wis.) and Tre Spears (RB, Chicago) on offense. All four captains are climbing the career leaders at their respective positions.

This week's honorary captain is Steve Rowan (TE, 1999-03), who was a member of the inaugural NCAA Division II football recruiting class. He helped the program go from 2-8 in year one of Division II to produce three straight winning seasons including a 9-2 senior year in 2002. The winning foundation that was left by Rowan and the other members of the 1999 recruiting class helped the program capture an NSIC Championship in 2003. 

NICK JAUCH DESTROYING BACKFIELDS
Senior outside linebacker Nick Jauch is enjoying his top season as a college football player. With four games left to play, he's already set new single season career-highs in tackles for loss (11.0) and quarterback hurries (7) and has tied his season best 3.5 sacks. He has 47 tackles, putting him 15 shy of last year's high mark, as well.

He ranks fourth in the league and 39th in the country with 1.57 tackles for loss per game and 11th in program history with 25.5 career tackles for loss.

OBARSKI HAVING A CAREER KICKING SEASON
Senior Tom Obarski has been named All-NSIC as both a kicker and a punter in his Concordia career. Now a senior, he continues to excel in all three phases of kicking. His 38 career field goals is a program record, converting at a 69.1% rate (38-55), he holds the career record for punting yards (7,899) and is second in career punting average (38.2). He's also made 103-107 PAT's.

As a senior, he's 12-of-13 on field goals with a long of 48, he's averaging 35.7on 41 punts while forcing nine fair catches, eight inside the 20 and five of 50-plus yards. He's also had 11 kickoff touchbacks on 29 attempts with an average starting field position at the 25-yard line.

In his career, he's 25-29 inside of 40 yards and has made 13 field goals from 40-plus yards with four 50-plus yarders and a long of 59.

He's 5-5 from 40-plus this year, is fifth in the nation with 1.7 field goals per game and seventh in the nation in field goal percentage (92.3%), leading the league in both.

A four year Fred Mitchell Award honoree (either Watch List or Monthly honor roll), Obarski is an NFF Scholar Athlete nominee.

SPEARS & SMITH JOIN 2,000 CAREER YARDS CLUBS
Seniors Tre Spears and Cordell Smith have already surpassed 2,000 career rushing and receiving yards, respectively and continue to climb the all-time leaders in their respective categories.

Spears currently ranks sixth in program history with 2,518 rushing yards as a three year starter and is 242 yards shy of Sam Campbell (2008-11) for fifth on the career rushing list.

Spears is the league's seventh ranked rusher with 599 yards and is one of the more durable running backs in the league as he ranks third in the league with 143 attempts.

Smith also ranks sixth in receiving yards with 2,004 and is 62 yards away from moving up to fifth place where Joe Langevin (1988-91) has 2,064. Smith's 24 receiving touchdowns rank fourth, one away from Charles Gilbert (2010-11) for third and his 130 career catches is eighth, 10 away from Joe Mapson (2000-02) with 140.

HALVERSON AND ASAD CLIMB THE TACKLES LEADERBOARD
Linebacker Jordan Halverson and strong safety Abdullah Asad are climbing Concordia's career tackles charts. Halverson has 267, ranking seventh in program history and eight away from reaching Terry Gores (1990-93) in sixth place with 275. With another year of eligibility remaining, Halverson has a shot at the career tackles record held by Brian Doyle (342, 2001-04) as he trails by 75.

Halverson is fifth in the league and 22nd in the nation with 11.0 tackles per game.

Asad has ascended to 11th on the career tackles list with 231. With 37 tackles this year, Asad also has racked up 15.5 career tackles for loss, 12 passes defended and 2.5 sacks with four interceptions.

OFFENSIVE LINE PROVIDING A SOLID SEASON
Concordia's offensive line, comprised of Lawrence Walker (LT/LG), Josh Coyne (LG/LT), Matt Bjork (C), Brett Morris (RG/C), Nat Schmidtke (RG) and Cole Parker (RT) has had a solid season performing as a unit.

The the team has been highly ranked in fewest sacks and tackles for loss allowed until last week when MSU's outstanding pass rush sacked Concordia seven times.

Still, Concordia ranks 58th nationally with 1.71 sacks allowed per game, 27th in the nation and second in the NSIC with 5.3 tackles for loss allowed per game and the group has helped the team maintain possession at a high rate with the 25th-ranked time of possession offense at 31:59 per game which is third in the NSIC.

SECONDARY SHUTS DOWN OPPOSING PASSING GAMES
Concordia's secondary is ranked 16th in the nation and leads the league against the pass, allowing only 164.1 passing yards per game including holding three opponents (UMD, Mary, UMC) under 100 passing yards and another (MSU) to just 104. Opposing quarterbacks have found the end zone just 10 times against Concordia while throwing six interceptions and only have a long of 35 yards downfield.

The secondary is led by senior strong safety Abdullah Asad and junior cover corner Jimmy Mireri. Asad has 37 tackles, 2.5 for loss, a sack, two interceptions and a fumble recovery while Mireri has 36 tackles, four pass breakups and an interception.

While the secondary has been solid, the pass rush has helped rattle quarterbacks with junior defensive lineman Dion Roche leading the team with 5.5 sacks along with 11 hurries, 7.5 tackles for loss and 40 tackles.

ROOKIE WATCH: UZZIAH DAVIS
The biggest breakout true freshman on the squad so far has been Uzziah Davis, a kick/punt returner and versatile offensive threat utilized in a variety of ways. He leads the conference and is eighth in the country with 644 combined return yards, leads the team with 107.1 all purpose yards per game and is sixth in the conference with a 22.3 kickoff return average.

NEW STARTING QUARTERBACK: BEN SCHRAMSKI
The Concordia offense turned to its third different starting quarterback last week at Minnesota State as redshirt freshman Ben Schramski made his first career start under center. He went 13-33 for 198 yards with two interceptions while taking seven sacks. He also rushed for 59 yards on five attempts but his overall rushing yards took a hit from the sacks, giving him 20 for the game.

It was not his first time taking snaps, as he debuted against UM Crookston (3-6, 57 yds) and also had pass attempts against Sioux Falls and Wayne State. On the year, he's 18-43 for 248 yards seeking his first TD pass. He joins Corey Cole (18-34, 174, 0 TD) and Jared Russo (94-161, 925, 8 TD) as 2014 starting quarterbacks.