After righting the ship last week with a hard-fought, emotional win at home over HAAC powerhouse Benedictine College, the Lions will be on the road again this weekend with a trip to Lamoni, Ia., to face the undefeated, 8th-ranked Yellowjackets of Graceland University.

Graceland, under third-year head coach Chris Welch, has been hot in the early going - the Yellowjackets won the preseason Wheat Bowl in Ellinwood, Kan., with a win over Southern Nazarene, then promptly reeled off three impressive league wins over Avila, Baker and Culver-Stockton. The rebuilding job Welch and his staff have done at Graceland is similar to the remarkable reconstruction project achieved by the staff and players at LU - the Yellowjackets were 0-10 the year before Welch arrived, after years of stumbling around the bottom of the Heart, and are now poised to take the jump into the national picture.

Standing in the immediate path of that plan is a Lindenwood team that may be hitting its stride as the season hits the 30-day mark. After sleepwalking through two ugly losses on the road to start the season, one of the nation's most talented NAIA teams finally showed up in the 34-30 win over Benedictine last week. Sometimes inexplicable things happen in sports, and the slow start to LU's season can be chalked up to any number of causes, but one thing is certain - the Lions control their own destiny in regard to 2005 championship hopes, and first on the agenda is taking some of that home magic on the road to Iowa.

"You have to admire the job Coach Welch and his staff has done at Graceland," said LU head coach Patrick Ross. "The thing I like is the fact that instead of whining about how others have more than them, they've gone out and tried to make things better - improving everything from the media guide, to the facilities, to the talent level of their players, even the uniforms. They think big, just like we do."

Fans of offensive football might want to take the trip to Lamoni on Saturday night. Some of the best offensive talent in the HAAC will be on display, including Graceland quarterback Clayton Braddock (completing 10 TD's, two INT's so far) and Lindenwood tailback De De Dorsey (135 yards rushing against a tough BC defense last week). Receiving talent will also be on hand for the show - Graceland's Anthony Ferguson has shined so far, and the talented Lion duo of senior George Mumphard and junior Steven Kennedy combined for 13 receptions, three for TD's, and 243 receiving yards last week.

You have to think, though, that if the ghosts of Tom Landry and Chuck Noll are upstairs chalking this game out in the Great Coach's Office in the Sky, they're thinking it might end up being a battle of the defenses. Lindenwood and Graceland can both bring it on defense, and it may end up being the team that can most effectively contain the other team's explosive offensive stars that walks away smiling.

"We know it's not in our best interest to go up there on their field and get into a shootout with their offense," said Ross. "Our defense has actually played pretty well - Benedictine had five straight three-and-outs to start the second half last week - but we can't keep putting them in bad field position situations. Good college football teams are going to score when you give them the short field."

As the season approaches October, it's now time for the contenders to step away from the pretenders. Comparing scores is fool's work, because things can change so much from week to week - until good teams have actually played each other, there is truly no way to predict how things will go, particularly in a conference as balanced as the Heart. Graceland could survive a loss in this game and still compete for the crown, whereas the Lions probably could not. Will that be the difference? No one knows, and that's the beauty of competition - it's decided between the lines.

Game time is set for 6:00 pm on Saturday evening in Lamoni.

Yellowjacket coach Chris Welch has quickly revived a struggling GU program, climbing to 8th in the national rankings this week.

Two fine defensive units will be going head-to-head on Saturday night, as well - Lion defenders Josh Roberts (19), Mike Martin (56), Brian Loeb (76) and Mike Sullivan (52) will have to contain Braddock and Company; GU stalwarts like Manuel Espinoza (42) and Rahim Martin (97) will be looking to do the same with Dorsey, Mumphard and Kennedy, et al.