The Lincoln Blue Tigers won't play the Northwest Missouri Bearcats this season, but today's opponent had the No. 2 team in the nation on the ropes a week ago.
Lincoln will go on the road to play Pittsburg State in the Gorillas' Homecoming game. Kickoff is at 2 p.m. at Carnie Smith Stadium in Pittsburg, Kan.
Pittsburg State (4-2), which received votes in this week's AFCA Division II Top 25 poll, fell 20-19 on the road last Saturday at Northwest Missouri.
"Northwest is the No. 2 team in the country, and they had them beat," Lincoln coach Malik Hoskins said. "We know we're going to go in there, and they're going to be confident. They're going to look at our record, they're going to look at the logo on our helmet.
"Hopefully that's going to play into our favor, but it's a tough test."
Pittsburg State led Northwest Missouri 16-0 early in the third quarter. The Bearcats scored three touchdowns in the second half, including the deciding score with 5:15 to play.
The Gorillas missed a pair of field goals from 38 and 44 yards in the second half on their final two possessions.
"(The defense) played out of its freaking mind," Hoskins said. "Watching Pittsburg State on film against Missouri Southern, and then watching them on film against Northwest, that was a totally different football team, that was a totally different defense."
Lincoln (0-5) is coming off a 52-32 Homecoming loss last weekend to Missouri Southern. It's the fourth time this season an opponent has scored more than 50 points against the Blue Tigers.
"We're trying to make sure guys are in position to tackle," Hoskins said. "A lot of times, we weren't in position."
On the flip side, the Blue Tigers are improving on offense, averaging 36 points per game in the past three weeks. While Lincoln ranks last out of 163 Division II team by allowing 63.6 points per game, it ranks 104th with 24 points per contest.
"Offensively, they now believe in the system," Hoskins said. "They see that it can work. It can be a big-play system or it can be a methodical-drive system."
But Hoskins said there's still room for improvement on offense.
"We left plays out there," he said of the Missouri Southern game. "Yes, we had success, we had over 400 total yards of offense, but it easily could have been over 500 yards of total offense, if we execute the way that we can."
Guiding Pittsburg State's offense is sophomore quarterback Mak Sexton, who ranks fourth in the MIAA at 1,442 yards passing with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions.
Sexton completed 24-of-33 passes for 258 yards and a touchdown against Northwest Missouri.
"He spins it like nobody's business," Hoskins said. "He's most comfortable, it seems like, when the game gets harder. He's a really good quarterback. I don't know if we've seen one like him yet in the conference."
Sexton's top target is senior wide receiver Jalen Martin, who is second in the MIAA with 595 yards receiving on 38 catches. He had a season-high 10 catches for 127 yards last weekend.
"Jalen is huge, he's a big target, and he can run," Hoskins said. "He not only can stretch you vertically, he runs really good routes. I can see why the quarterback looks for him often.
"He'll probably be the best receiver we'll see all season."
Splitting the carries in the backfield for the Gorillas are freshman Caleb Lewis and senior Tyler Adkins. Lewis has team-highs of 83 carries and 325 yards, but Adkins, who is listed as the starter, also has 76 carries and 310 yards.
Both have scored three rushing touchdowns.
"We don't look at the person carrying the football, because there are two other guys that they are going to put in there," Hoskins said. "We're trying to attack the scheme and the concept and the concept that they're running."
Defensively, Hoskins said Pittsburg State has lined up in a 4-3 front.
"This is going to be a tough test for an offense that's had success in the past few weeks," Hoskins said. "This is going to be challenging because they do a good job of disguising what they're doing and where they're coming from."
Redshirt junior linebacker P.J. Sarwinski has a team-high 47 tackles for the Gorillas, including 3.5 tackles for loss, while redshirt freshman linebacker Luke Jennings has 38 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss.
Another linebacker, redshirt freshman Alex Gaskill, has a pair of interceptions.
"It's your typical MIAA football team that's well-coached," Hoskins said. "They recruit student-athletes that fit their system."
In the secondary, senior cornerback Dallis Flowers has a team-high three interceptions. Up front, junior defensive lineman Zeke Wall has 18 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble.
"I'm anxious to see how our young minds are going to react to a team that's going to be physical like that, and that's going to be fast like that, on defense," Hoskins said.
One of the focal points in practice this week, Hoskins said, is getting players to eliminate mental lapses.
"Once we have something good happen, we have to stay on that and we have to build on that, and stop taking lulls where we just lose our concentration and lose our focus," he said.
The second half of the season starts with tough back-to-back road matchups for the Blue Tigers. Next weekend, Lincoln will play at No. 21 Nebraska-Kearney.
"We want our guys to continue to compete and not worry about who's standing on the other sideline," Hoskins said. "Once you get between those lines, if you play with grit and you play with a lot of heart that day, that can overcome some of the things that we're lacking."
Notes: Pittsburg State has won all 10 times in the series history against Lincoln. The Gorillas won their previous meeting 56-14 in 2019 at home, but Lincoln running back Hosea Franklin rushed for 244 yards in the loss. Pittsburg State is 56-13-2 in Homecoming games since 1949. The Gorillas are the all-time winningest football program in Division II. This is Pittsburg State's 114th season, compiling a 725-357-48 record. Tuskegee is second in Division II with 698 all-time victories. The Blue Tigers last won an MIAA road game in 1975, when they defeated Central Missouri 20-7 in Warrensburg.