ROLLA, Mo. -- Missouri S&T will kick off a season on its home turf for the third consecutive year Saturday as it plays host to West Florida in a 7 p.m. contest at Allgood-Bailey Stadium.

Both teams are looking to improve on 5-6 seasons a year ago and to prove the pre-season projections wrong, as the Miners were tabbed to come in fifth place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and the Argonauts were picked to come in seventh in the powerful Gulf South Conference.

West Florida -- who opened play on the field last fall -- knocked off the Miners 45-28 a year ago in Pensacola, Fla., as it compiled a season-high 503 yards through the air to negate a brilliant performance by S&T's Braxton Graham (Seneca, MO/Seneca).  The now-junior for the Miners racked up a career-high 301 all-purpose yards in last year's matchup, which was the first-ever home contest for West Florida.

ABOUT THE MINERS: The Miners will look to a roster with plenty of experience to get back over the .500 mark in the 2017 campaign, led by senior quarterback Tyler Swart (Dickinson, TX/Dickinson), who threw for 2,178 yards and 21 touchdowns in his first year as a full-time starter.

Swart completed 56 percent of his throws a year ago, with Graham catching 68 balls for 1,029 yards and nine scores.  Graham was a first-team All-Great Lakes Valley Conference selection last year as a wide receiver and was also named as the league's special teams "Player of the Year." 

Another key element in the S&T passing game, Spencer Elrod (Lancaster, CA/Eastside), returns after missing most of last year due to an injury.  Elrod hauled in 40 passes to lead the Miners in 2015 and had seven touchdown receptions as well.

Heading into the opener, the Miners will count on a pair of experienced running backs to handle the rushing load, with Deshawn Jones (Olympia Fields, IL/Rich Central) coming off a year with 333 yards rushing and D'Luis West (Troup, TX/Troup) having two years of play at S&T under his belt.  They will operate behind an offensive line with four returning starters, paced by past first-team All-GLVC picks Adam Echele (Wildwood, MO/Lafayette) and Nick Wunderli (St. Louis, MO/DeSmet Jesuit).

On the defensive side of the ball, S&T returns its top three tacklers from last fall in linebackers Landon Compton (Lamar, MO/Lamar) (94 total tackles, 15 for a loss) and Austin Truvillion (Kansas City, MO/Park Hill) (76 stops, 12.5 for a loss) and safety Bo Brooks (Canutillo, TX/Canutillo), who had 67 tackles in his sophomore season.

The Miners accumulated 37 quarterback sacks and 101 tackles for a loss last season, both of which ranked second in the GLVC.  Defensive end Bret Curtis (Lombard, IL/Glenbard South) was also big in that category with 4.5 sacks among his 13.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

ABOUT WEST FLORIDA: In the Argonauts' first season of play on the field in 2016, they won five of their first eight contests and averaged 480 yards a game in those outings, before dropping three in a row to end the year which included a setback to national runner-up North Alabama.

West Florida was the 10th-best team in terms of passing yardage per game in NCAA Division II last season, averaging 309 per contest.  To maintain that pace this year, it is counting on new signalcaller Mike Beaudry, a sophomore who did not throw a pass during the 2016 season.

However, Beaudry will have a talented receiving corps of his own to throw to, led by the team's leading receiver from last season in Ishmel Morrow.  The senior wideout hauled in 72 passes for 1,045 yards and eight touchdowns last year, including one in the win over S&T where he finished with 162 receiving yards.  He is joined in the wideout group by Antonie Griffin, who had seven scoring catches among his 43 a year ago and Kevin Grant, who averaged 14.6 yards on his nine catches.

Chris Schwarz, the Argonauts' leading rusher last year with 355 yards, also returns.

The Argonaut defense is headlined by a pair of linebackers who were named to the All-GSC pre-season squad.  Senior Reggie Barnes, who had 67 tackles in 2016 and sophomore Andre Duncombe, who made 51 tackles and 12.5 for a loss, were cited on the GSC's pre-season squad.

Trent Archie, another linebacker, led West Florida in tackles last year with 90 and also picked off three passes, while Joshua Smiley was in on 78 tackles.  John Williamson, a junior defensive end, led the way a year ago with 13.5 tackles for a loss and 7.5 sacks; West Florida recorded 40 sacks during the 2016 campaign.