Drake defensive lineman John Sawhill is preparing for his senior season with the Bulldogs and hopes the senior class will lead them to the P-F-L title.   He says his class is the first recruiting class for coach Chris Creighton, and he says with 10 of 11 starters on offense they have the leadership there too. Sawhill played high school football at Jefferson-Scranton, and says coming from the small school, it was a transition moving to the college game.  Sawhill says he didn’t know the time commitment, and says that was different, but he says the atmosphere, feel of football and the family feeling of the team was what he expected. He says they pride themselves on being a hardworking team and he says their strength and conditioning is their strong point. Sawhill says the team also has pride in being a non-scholarship team that stands toe-to-toe with schools that offer scholarships.   Sawhill says it’s something they pride themselves on, “we go to school, it’s academics first.” He says even though academics is the main goal they feel they are excellent athletes too. Sawhill says while the offense is more experience this season, the defense still looks to make things happen.  He says they always want to win the turnover margin by being plus two in the turnover margin with the goal of three turnovers a game. Sawhill says while some players might have individual goals, the only written goals they have are team oriented goals. Drake opens the season on Thursday September first at North Dakota.

Iowa defensive end Broderick Binns hopes strength in numbers can help the Hawkeyes overcome some key losses on the defensive line. With the likes of Adrian Clayborn and Karl Klug gone there will several new faces on the defensive line.  Binns says there will aloso be more depth up front.  Binns feels the added depth will help keep the defense fresh. The Hawks gave up several late touchdowns a year ago enroute to an 8-5 record.  The Big Ten Conference looks a lot different as Binns prepares for his senior season. The addition of Nebraska has introduced divisional play and for the first time the Big Ten will hold a championship game.  The Hawkeyes open the season at home on September third against Tennessee Tech.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Garrett Jones homered to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning and lift the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.  Jones connected on a 2-2 pitch from Arthur Rhodes (3-4) for his 14th home run. It was also Jones’ second career game-ending homer as he connected against San Francisco’s Bob Howry on July 17, 2009.  Center fielder Andrew McCutchen prevented St. Louis from going ahead in the top of the 11th when he made a running backhanded inning-ending catch to rob Albert Pujols of extra bases and keep Rafael Furcal from scoring from first base.  Chris Resop (4-4) pitched two scoreless innings for the win.