ROLLA, Mo. – After a 2020 season that was postponed and adjusted to a three-game spring season, Missouri S&T's football team will start a new campaign in its normal fall timeframe Thursday night when it faces South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City, S.D.  Kickoff is at 6 p.m., Mountain time, 7 p.m., Central time.

The Miners went 2-1 in the three games they played in April, beating William Jewell and Southwest Baptist before losing to Truman State in the spring finale.  They will open their new campaign against a team that also played an abbreviated slate – in the fall in South Dakota Mines' case – as the Hardrockers split the four games they saw action in a year ago.

Missouri S&T is counting on a veteran squad to lead the way this season, as the Miners have 32 players on the roster that are currently listed in their senior year or as a fifth-year player, as members of the 2020 roster were granted an extra season of eligibility in light of the COVID-19 pandemic matters from last season.  Of those 32, 25 are currently listed on the team's two-deep heading into Thursday's opener.

The returners on the offensive side are led by quarterback Brennan Simms (Punta Gorda, FL/Charlotte), who completed 50-of-72 passes (69.4 percent) during the spring and threw for 2,721 yards and 21 touchdowns during the 2019 campaign.  The Miners' top two running backs from the spring return in leading rusher Aaron Moya (Canutillo, TX/Canutillo) and Payton McAlister (Decatur, TX/Decatur); Moya led the Great Lakes Valley Conference with 396 yards in April and ran for over 100 yards in all three games, while McAlister rushed for 385 yards.

McAlister was also the Miners' top receiver in the spring with 13 receptions, but S&T returns a strong receiving corps in Josh Brown (Gainesville, FL/North Marion HS), Breon Michel (Colorado Springs, CO/Vista Ridge), Tate Nickleberry (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge) and Aundray Henley (Miami, FL/Flanagan).  Brown and Nickleberry had 12 catches apiece in the spring, while Michel hauled in 32 passes and scored four touchdowns in his last on-field action in 2019.

The Miner offense will be guided by a veteran offensive line that includes returning all-conference performers Nino Schmitt (St. Louis, MO/Christian Brothers College HS) at center and Josh Thornton (Katy, TX/Katy) at guard, along with returning starters Kyle Urich (Tulsa, OK/Bishop Kelley) at guard and Jorge Escalante (Fresno, CA/San Joaquin Memorial) at tackle.  The fifth starter is projected to be Missouri State transfer Jake Seidel (Imperial, MO/Seckman).

On the defensive side, S&T brings back its top tacklers from the spring in Justin Onwugbufor (Wichita, KS/Northwest) and Stefan Camplin (Raytown, MO/Raytown) at safety and linebackers Ben Straatmann (Washington, MO/Washington) and Dontay White (Florissant, MO/Hazelwood Central).  Onwugbufor made a team-high 29 stops last season, while Straatmann had 28 stops and led S&T with three sacks while sharing the team lead in tackles for a loss with defensive end Jack Roush (Columbia, MO/Rock Bridge).

In the secondary, the Miners also return CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison), who had interceptions in all three spring contests and Cameron Clemons (St. Louis, MO/Lutheran North), who started at cornerback during the latter half of the 2019 campaign.

S&T returns its entire kicking game from the spring in placekicker Zach Glaess (Queen Creek, AZ/Queen Creek) – who was a perfect 16-of-16 on extra point attempts – and All-GLVC punter Chase Cole (Festus, MO/Festus), who averaged a league-high 47.1 yards per punt.

ABOUT SOUTH DAKOTA MINES: The Hardrockers played four games last fall, posting wins over Black Hills State and Colorado Mesa and dropping a pair of contests to Chadron State. In the last full season of football in 2019, South Dakota Mines finished with a record of 3-8 and was 2-8 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Hardrockers were picked to finish sixth in the RMAC this fall.

Quarterbacks Jayden Johannsen and Spencer Zur split time at the position during the 2020 season with almost identical statistics; Johannsen completed 61.5 percent of his passes for 395 yards and two touchdowns, while Zur connected on 59.3 percent of his throws for 352 touchdowns and two scores. Isaiah Eastman caught 22 passes -- nearly 25 percent of the team's completed passes -- for 258 yards and three scores, while Collin Zur had 15 receptions for 201 yards.

Mines' offensive numbers were split almost down the middle in 2020, as it rushed for 799 yards as a team and threw for 747. Ahmad Lewis led the Hardrocker ground game with 384 yards after running for 1,157 yards and six touchdowns in 2019. The aforementioned quarterbacks combined to run for another 347 yards during the past campaign.

On the opposite side of the ball, linebacker Cole Peterson led Mines with 31 tackles in the four-game season last fall, while defensive end Kyante Christian made 26 stops. The Hardrockers also recorded six interceptions and seven sacks in those four games while holding opposing teams to an average of 348.8 yards per game.