After hanging on for two wins by the skin of its teeth, the Lions football team will be going into Jefferson City tomorrow hoping to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2002 by beating Lincoln.

A victory for the Lions would be the seventh in a row over the Blue Tigers, including a 56-14 drumming at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis last season.

“We’re not trying to do a lot of talking,” Head Coach Daryl Daye said. “We’re trying to be realists and understand that, you know, this program has had one winning season in 16 years, and we’re here to improve that.”

Daye was quick to remind a room of media members that if not for a couple of close calls, his team could easily be 0-2.

In week one, it took a fourth-and-inches conversion to keep the ball in Southern’s hands and run out the clock for the Lions’ first victory.

Last week, Northeastern scored to bring the Riverhawks within a touchdown of tying twice, both in the second half.

“We’ve gotta focus on our job at hand,” Daye said. “We’re not overlooking anybody. We’ve gotta do our job as coaches, get out there, put our hard hats on and go to work every day to get better, and that’s what we’re focusing on right now.”

Lincoln is second to last in the MIAA in rushing offense, total offense, scoring defense, pass defense and is only in the top-10 in the conference in five of 17 provided statistical categories.

Even still, Daye and his players have no plans to take the Blue Tigers lightly.

“They’re good cats,” senior defensive tackle Jonathan Rogers said. “Lot of fast players on the outside. O-line is pretty good as well.

“A bunch of young players out there, so they’re trying to figure themselves out just like we are on our side. So this game is gonna be a pretty good game to see who’s got what and who can make plays.”

Southern will be continuing in its new triple-option offense, which has the Lions ranked second in the conference in rushing offense.

The Lions also rank second in rushing defense and total defense in the MIAA and their rushing mark is good for No. 10 nationally.

“I’ve kind of grown accustomed to the triple-option just because it’s so effective,” senior running back Bryant Venson said.

“And as an athlete, you know, you like the match-ups that you have on the edge with the safeties, you know, one-on-ones.

“So I kind of like that, with spread, it spreads the defense out which makes the lanes a lot more tougher and a lot more cutbacks, but if I had to choose, I would definitely go with the triple-option offense just to see how effective it is.”