SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Augustana football team concludes the home portion of its regular season Saturday as Minnesota Duluth visits Kirkeby-Over Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m.
 
Tickets to the contest are available at GoAugie.com/Tickets. Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app. The app can be downloaded in the app store or Google Play.
 
The Game
It'll be Senior Day as Augustana honors 16 of its student-athletes in a pregame ceremony. The contest is between the 6-3 Vikings and 6-3 Bulldogs fighting to keep playoff hopes alive.
 
The Bulldogs
Minnesota Duluth is 6-3 in 2022 after having won four of its past five contests. That includes last week's 51-7 win over Minot State. In the win, Armani Carmickle had a pair of receptions for two touchdowns including a 75-yard touchdown. He surpassed 2,000 career yards with the catch. The lone loss over the last five games was a 41-16 setback to Bemidji State.
 
For the year, the Bulldogs put up 33.9 points per game behind three quarterbacks that have seen extended playing time. In all, seven UMD players have thrown a pass in 2022. Of the group, Garrett Olson has thrown for the most yards with 642 and five touchdowns. Logan Graetz, who went 1-for-1 for a 55-yard touchdown last week, has tossed for 571 yards. Kyle Walljasper got the start in Week 9, tossing for 176 yards on 11-of-15 passing.
 
Defensively, UMD gives up 19.4 points per outing and is led by Brad Dati with 42 tackles. Drew Hennessey leads the group with five sacks, totaling 48 yards lost. In all, Minnesota Duluth has sacked the opposing team's quarterback 30 times.
 
The Vikings
Augustana looks to bounce back from its second-straight loss, a 24-7 setback to Winona State. Although the Vikings were on the wrong side of the win/loss column, the contest was much closer than it appeared as AU held advantages in total yards, passing yards, time of possession and more first downs. Casey Bauman threw for 231 yards on 24-of-35 passing while Jack Fisher and Logan Uttecht each recorded five receptions. Fisher led the way with 67 yards receiving and a touchdown.
 
For the season, Bauman completes nearly 56 percent of his pass attempts for 1,017 yards and 11 touchdowns. His top target, total yards wise, has been Fisher and his 51.2 yards per game along with seven touchdowns. Total receptions-wise, it's Devon Jones with 44 catches and 389 yards. Squeezed between the two of them is Logan Uttecht who has made 32 receptions for 405 yards.
 
On the defensive side of the ball is T.J. Liggett and his 62 tackles through nine games. Grayson Diepenbrock leads the team with 13 tackles for loss, 8.5 coming from sacks.
 
Who to Watch For
Augustana will have 16 student-athletes playing for the final time on the turf of Kirkeby-Over Stadium. In the pregame ceremony, the following student-athletes will be honored: David Addo, Bryce Bomgaars, Joel DeHaai, Grayson Diepenbrock, Connor Hansen, Curtis Haugen, Andrew Henrich, Jeremy Jenkins, Drew Jurgens, Ben Kemp, T.J. Liggett, Ben Limburg, Tyler Skradski, Eli Weber, Brian Witter and Riley Zuhde.
 
Year 100 Tidbit
Moving to the 1990s, we need to talk about arguably one of the greatest athletes to come through Augustana. Bryan Schwartz. The three-time All-America honoree was the only non-Division I player nominated for the Butkus Award in 1994. As a linebacker, he was chosen for the Senior Bowl and was subsequently drafted in the second round of the 1995 NFL draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He earned a spot on the NFL All-Rookie team. He concluded his Augustana playing career with the career record for tackles at 407.
 
One Last Thing
Grayson Diepenbrock broke one of the oldest single-season records on the books with a half sack at Winona State. He now holds 8.5 sacks in 2022, surpassing the record that was initially set in 1985 by Devon Bartscher. The record of 8.0 sacks was tied four more times before Diepenbrock finally surpassed it. Those with 8.0: Devon Bartscher (1985), Tony Adkins (1986), Lee Pulse (1992 & 1993) and Jamal Samaha (2015).