Rons preview: San Diego

The Dayton Flyers (4-2, 2-1 PFL) play the league-leading San Diego Toreros (4-2, 3-0 PFL) Saturday evening in a rare "under the lights" game at Welcome Stadium at 6 PM. The night game marks the finale in a day of festivities that include the start of Dayton Flyers basketball at the UD Arena with the annual Red & Blue games for women at (2 PM) and men (3 PM). UD will host a pre-football game tailgate going from 4-6 PM before the big showdown that could be a make-or-break point for the Football Flyers. The tailgate is just $5 in advance by contacting Adrienne Green at arossgreen1@udayton.edu.

The game between the Flyers and Toreros is a classic matchup as Dayton and San Diego have battled over the years at home and away. Dayton leads the series with San Diego, 14-6, but San Diego has won the last two games. Jim Harbaugh, now with the San Francisco 49ers, can be credited with taking San Diego into the limelight of the PFL as he turned the program around and in his second year won the PFL Championship. Mike Kelly and Harbaugh battled at home and away and now Rick Chamberlin is facing the program that Harbaugh developed.

Butler is tied for first place in the PFL with San Diego, both undefeated at 3-0 in the conference. The Flyers are tied for third place with Drake, Marist, Mercer and Morehead State. It's an excellent opportunity for Dayton to move up in the standings, but the task won't be easy. It will be a classic offensive and defensive game with San Diego leading the PFL in total offense and Dayton in 2nd place of total defense. Dayton is in 9th place, offensively, while the Toreros are fifth in total defense. The offense and defense of Dayton have won and lost games in the past and Rick Chamberlin needs to find the right mix of offense from Will Bardo, who is more suited as a runner. If the Flyers have a chance at winning Saturday night under the cool night breeze, they must contain San Diego's first place pass efficiency quarterback, Mason Mills. Mills is hitting on 67.9% of his passes compared to Will Bardo at now just over above average at 51.5%.

The football game with San Diego would be an excellent way to signal the beginning of Flyer basketball. Flyer Hoops hopes to see everyone at both events.

Ron Thaman shares his pre-game and post-game thoughts in his columns "Ron's preview" and "Ron's review". He is a seasoned staff writer for FlyerHoops.net with a wealth of knowledge of both Dayton basketball and Dayton football. You can e-mail Ron Thaman at Ron@FlyerHoops.net

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