Photo by Brendan Burns
If there was a symbol for the first half of the Lindenwood football season, it would have been a yellow flag resting quietly on the turf. Untimely penalties took away big plays, personal fouls extended opponents’ drives and an inexperienced Lions’ team had trouble recovering.
But during the Lions’ current four-game winning streak, the costly penalties have diminished, but more importantly, the ability to recover from mistakes has increased dramatically.
“We’re still plagued with some untimely penalties, but the difference is that we’ve been able to overcome those. When we make a mistake, we don’t get discouraged, we’re not panicking,” Lindenwood coach Jed Stugart said. “I’m loving the maturity of our team as the year has gone on. More guys are becoming veterans.”
A seasoned Lindenwood team hopes to continue their winning ways when they travel to Tennessee-Martin for a 2 p.m. kickoff Saturday afternoon. The game will be shown on ESPN-Plus.
The Lions (5-4, 4-1) find themselves in a three-way tie atop the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) standings with a 4-1 league record, alongside Southeast Missouri State and Western Illinois. The Lions conclude the regular season Oct. 21 with a home game against the Leathernecks.
“There’s a big difference between confidence and comfortable,” Stugart said. “We have to build upon the confidence we’re having, but the moment we get comfortable, it’s going to be a humbling experience.”
Lindenwood received a humbling experience when SEMO claimed the Game Ball Brawl trophy at Hunter Stadium on Oct. 10, placing the Lions’ overall record at 1-4. Since then, trust, discipline and maturity have been key factors in the Lions’ resurgence.
Against Eastern Illinois Oct. 17, Lindenwood went 3-of-3 on fourth down, including a conversion at midfield during the opening possession that set the tone for a gutsy offensive approach.
“I told them I’m going to have the confidence to be aggressive in some of these situations,” Stugart said.
But a lack of execution in the red zone, a long touchdown nullified by penalty and a pair of missed field goals saddled the Lions with more adversity. This time, Lindenwood got stronger as a team, overcame those disappointments and made winning plays in a 20-13 victory.
“It was the first time in a little bit where I saw true, complimentary, team ball. The defense had the offense’s back. We had two takeaways that we didn’t convert points off of, and it could have been frustrating,” Stugart said. “We handled the adversity through four quarters. It never felt like anybody was starting to panic.”
Against first-year program Chicago State the following week, Lindenwood converted another fourth down on its opening possession. It set the tone for a panic-free, 549-yard explosion and a comfortable, 44-9 victory.
The defense was the composer of a 27-0 masterpiece over conference opponent Tennessee State the following week. The Lions earned three takeaways, Andrew Baumgart had three sacks and a relentless defensive effort held the Tigers to 32 yards rushing on 26 carries.
“I’m an old defensive guy, so it was really fun for our defense to get a shutout, especially against an offense that does a nice job like Tennessee State,” Stugart said.
Gardner Webb, the only team in the OVC the Lions had not beaten, was the next opponent. The Bulldogs ran for 245 yards and five touchdowns in a 48-20 victory over Lindenwood last season, but last Saturday, the Lions were the ground and pound team, rushing the ball a program record 65 times and chewing up over 40 minutes of possession time.
Lindenwood won 34-21 and pushed its winning streak to four games.
“The goal was to run the ball. We knew it was going to be tough to do, but we stayed patient and we were able to get the clock running, which played into our favor,” Stugart said. “To get 40 minutes of possession time, you’re going to have a really good chance of winning.”
In the victory over Gardner-Webb, the Lions still faced their share of adversity. An interception was nullified by an offsides penalty and a goal-to-go situation was negated by a personal foul, but this time, it was the special teams unit that came to the rescue with a pair of muffed punt recoveries to swing the tide of the game.
“That’s complimentary football, picking each other up, and the guys are buying into it,” Stugart said.
The combination of playing complimentary football and recovering from adversity has helped Lindenwood find a place among the trio of teams sitting atop the OVC conference standings with two games remaining, a stark reversal from a team that appeared to have more questions than answers at the midway point of the season.
“Coaching is having enough bubble gum to put in the dam. Once you get one (leak) sealed, we spring another one over here. But that’s the fun part of coaching – what’s the next thing that we have to solve?” Stugart said.
He added, “We’ve been able to overcome mistakes that, way early in the season, we couldn’t bounce back from. Those are the things you like to see from your football team.”