SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Augustana football team, unbeaten at 5-0 in 2023, returns home to Kirkeby-Over Stadium Saturday playing host to Southwest Minnesota State in the Military Appreciation Game. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. 
 
Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app, presented by The Original Pancake House. The app can be downloaded in the app store or Google Play.
 
About the Game
It is a homecoming of sorts as Southwest Minnesota State head coach Scott Underwood is a 1988 graduate of Augustana and coached the Vikings for four years as the secondary and special teams coach.
 
Augustana is riding the momentum of a 5-0 start while Southwest Minnesota State is looking to turn the corner of a four-game skid.
 
About the Mustangs
Southwest Minnesota State enters with a 1-4 record and sits at 1-3 in the NSIC. The Mustangs opened the season with a 28-23 win at Minot State but have fallen in the four contests following including last week's 16-15 setback at FCS Valparaiso. In the contest, Josiah Hedensten recorded eight tackles and two sacks while SMSU limited the Beacons to 179 yards of total offense.
 
Hedensten leads Southwest Minnesota State on the defensive side of the ball with 36 tackles, 20 of which are solo, and 3.0 sacks for 25 yards. He has also accounted for three pass breakups.
 
Offensively, Marcus Martin has thrown for 952 yards and six touchdowns while averaging 190.4 yards per game passing. Donald Austin rules the ground game with 97 rush attempts for 407 yards, an average of just over 81 yards per game. The drawback to his stat line however is just his one rushing touchdown.
 
About the Vikings
Augustana is 5-0 for the fifth time in program history and the first since 2010 as it remains one of 19 unbeaten teams in NCAA Division II. The Vikings are coming off a 'Key to the City' win last week as AU put up 49 points in a 20-point win over the cross-town foe. Following the game, quarterback Casey Bauman was named the NSIC Offensive Player of the Week as he tied a school record with six touchdown passes and rushed for a seventh.
 
For the season, Bauman has tossed for 1,291 yards while completing 67 percent of his pass attempts. He has 13 touchdown passes and averaged 258.2 yards per game passing. Jack Fisher is his top target yards wise with 53.4 yards per game while Logan Uttecht owns the most receptions at 18. A third receiver, Canyon Bauer, leads the team in touchdowns with five.
 
Peyton Buckley is playing like an All-America honoree with 35 tackles on the year, three tackles for loss, six pass breakups and an interception.
 
Not of his own doing, but punter Avery Book does not qualify for the stats leaders in punting simply because he doesn't punt enough. The NCAA marks an average of 3.6 punts per game to qualify and Book is averaging 3.2 punts per outing. If he did qualify, he would rank sixth in the nation for average punt yards at 44.63 yards per punt, which is easily the NSIC's best.
 
One Last Thing
Dating back to the final game of 2022, Augustana has strung together six-straight victories. That marks the fifth-longest winning streak in NCAA Division II.