Storylines
- The Lindenwood football team has its home opener on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Hunter Stadium. The Lions will be taking on Northeastern State in a MIAA contest.

- Lindenwood and Northeastern State both fell in their season openers last week. The Lions led 14-7 midway through the second quarter, but ended up falling 35-14 at Central Oklahoma. The RiverHawks dropped a home game against Washburn by a 31-7 score.

- The contest will be the home debut for first-year head coach Jed Stugart. Stugart has coached on the visiting sidelines of Hunter Stadium before, falling 44-34 to Lindenwood in 2007 while he was the head coach at MidAmerica Nazarene.

- Lindenwood is 20-7 all-time in home openers, including a 49-26 win over Central Oklahoma in the 2016 game. The Lions have won two straight home openers, and are 4-1 since moving to the MIAA.

- The Lions have outscored Northeastern State all-time by an 80-68 margin, but the RiverHawks have won two of the three games between the schools. Lindenwood won the first meeting by 19 points, before Northeastern State has won the last two games by less than a touchdown. Northeastern State won the only previous meeting in 2015 that was played in St. Charles, Mo.

- Lindenwood led last year's contest against Northeastern State by a 31-21 margin midway through the fourth quarter, but the RiverHawks scored two touchdowns in the final six minutes for the win. The final score came with 33 seconds left, and capped off a 98-yard drive.

- Lindenwood is 5-4 all-time in games played on Thursday night. The Lions have won two straight Thursday night games that have been played at Hunter Stadium.

- In the preseason MIAA coaches poll, Lindenwood and Northeastern State were picked right next to each other. The Lions were picked ninth in the rankings, one spot ahead of the RiverHawks. Last season, Lindenwood finished one game ahead of Northeastern State in the MIAA standings.

Lindenwood Game Notes
Lions Offense
- Lindenwood's offense got off to a good start last week, scoring touchdowns on two of its first three possessions, and picking up 190 yards of total offense. In its final seven possessions, though, it did not score and had just 52 yards.

- Lindenwood had 17 first downs in week one, and nine came from its two running backs. Shakeem Wharton had three rushing and two receiving first downs. Calen Campbell moved the chains three times on the ground, and caught one pass for a new set of downs.

- Najee Jackson started his Lindenwood career by throwing for 142 yards and one touchdown. He did not turn the ball over once in the contest. He is the first starting quarterback at Lindenwood since 2010 to not turn the ball over in a season opener.

- Justin Smith, in his first game as a Lion, led the wide receivers with 37 receving yards, and a 18.5 yards per catch average.

- Lindenwood's offense line was missing two of its expected starters in the season opener. Despite that, the Lions did not allow a sack in the game.

Lions Defense
- Lindenwood's defense, which allowed 312.1 passing yards per game last season, gave up just 157 yards through the air in the opener. Central Oklahoma completed just 50 percent of its passes in the game.

- Arsante Conners had a big debut for Lindenwood, recording a third-down sack, and also having 2.0 tackles for loss.

- Also on the defensive line, Jonathan Harris tied a career-high with eight tackles.

- Darrius Williams led Lindenwood in tackles last week with 10. It was the first double-figure tackle game of his career.

- Ace Rogers, a transfer from Minnesota, saw his first action last week since being injured early in the 2015 season. He had an immediate impact, making four solo tackles and breaking up a pass.

Lions Special Teams
- Michael Crowder averaged 38.3 yards a punt in his first game as a Lion. He got better as the game went on, averaging 42.5 yards his last four punts. Crowder had a long of 51, and pinned one punt inside the 10-yard line.

Team Notes
- This year's team captains are Calen Campbell, Najee Jackson, Jonathan Harris, and Bakari Triggs. The captains were voted on by the players before the season.

- Lindenwood's coaching staff has six assistants this year who coached at Sioux Falls with Jed Stugart last year. That Cougars team went 11-0 in the regular season, and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.

- Former Lindenwood player Pierre Desir was recently signed by the Indianapolis Colts and is currently on their opening week roster. He has played in 24 games in his NFL career.

- Lindenwood football games are now being broadcasted by 101 ESPN, St. Louis' number one all-sports station. The games can be head on the 101sports.com site, and select games can be heard of 101.1 FM.

- Lindenwood has its first Saturday contest of 2017 on Sept. 16 with a home game against Washburn. That contest will kick off at 6 p.m.