Bulldogs announce 2013 football schedule

Cumberland to open season Aug. 29 at Tennessee Tech

Cumberland director of athletics Ron Pavan announced the 2013 football schedule on Friday, which includes five home games and nine contests versus NAIA competition.

The Bulldogs will open the 2013 campaign on Thursday, Aug. 29 at Tennessee Tech, the first meeting between the two clubs since 2007. CU will head to the University of the Cumberlands the next week before an off week and then another road game, this one at Belhaven.

Cumberland will open a four-game homestand .Sept. 28 against Bluefield, followed by contests versus Pikeville, Union College and Faulkner.

The Bulldogs will travel to Campbellsville the last weekend of October and play their final home game of the year the next week against long-time rival Bethel. The squad will end the season with a road game at first-year program Reinhardt and then at NCAA Division II Aldersson-Broadus College in Philippi, W.Va.

Cumberland has produced a 23-9 overall mark the last three seasons, the best three-year run in program history, under Coach Dewayne Alexander, who just finished his seventh year at the helm of the Bulldogs. The club is scheduled to return six starters on offense, including redshirt junior quarterback Reed Gurchiek, who threw for 1,455 yards and nine touchdowns this past season, but just three starters on defense, a group that included three- and four-year starters Collin Urenda, Connor McChurch, Allanté McLemore, Cody McCallister and Michael Hagewood.

Game times will be announced at a later date.