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ARLINGTON – At halftime, deep inside the bowels of Cowboys Stadium, ACU head coach
Ken Collums stood in front of his team and told them what was about to transpire in the second half against Tarleton State.
"I told them that we were going to go up and down the field on them offensively and that our defense was going to get stops," Collums said.
Pretty bold talk from a coach who had just watched his team sputter throughout the first half and was trailing 20-10 at the break. The defense had been on the field for almost 17 minutes and had allowed 327 yards, while the offense once again struggled and had just 147 yards in the first 30 minutes.
But the Wildcats' first-year head coach turned out to be prophetic as he watched his team completely turn around its fortunes and perhaps save its season with a 34-31 win over the Texans in the Lone Star Football Festival.
The 20th-ranked Wildcats improve to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the Lone Star Conference with the win, while the Texans fall to 1-1 overall and in the LSC. The Wildcats will be back in action next Saturday in San Angelo when they take on Angelo State at 6 p.m.
"I don't want to stand here and say, 'I told you so, but ...,' " Collums said as his voice trailed off in a jubilant post-game locker room. "I'm so proud of you guys because we could have folded it up, but we didn't. I know this, this team is tough and we're only going to get better."
After completing just 12 of 22 passes for 122 yards in the first half, ACU senior quarterback Mitchell Gale reverted to his normal self in the game's final 30 minutes by completing 15 of 20 passes for 157 yards and two scores, both to junior wideout
Taylor Gabriel.
Trailing 20-10 at the break, ACU took its second possession of the third quarter 36 yards on five plays, taking just 1:56 off the clock before freshman running back Travis Tarver
scored on a 7-yard run to cut the TSU lead to 20-17. The short field was set up by ACU wide receiver
Darian Hogg, who got a hand on Isaac Arellano's punt, the first in a series of game-changing plays by several different Wildcats in the second half.
After Tarleton went three-and-out on its next series, Gabriel made his first big play of the second half with a 54-yard punt return down to the TSU 15. Despite a 10-yard penalty on ACU at the end of the run, the Wildcats still had great field position, and they took advantage of it again.
ACU needed just four plays and 2 minutes, 10 seconds to cover the 25 yards,
scoring on a 6-yard pass from Gale to Gabriel to give the Wildcats a 24-20 lead with 4:03 to play in the third quarter.
The teams traded field goals by
Morgan Lineberry and Blake Barnes to make it a 27-23 ACU lead with 9:35 left in the game before ACU began what would turn out to be the game-clinching drive.
The Wildcats methodically moved 79 yards in 14 plays and took 6:23 off the clock before scoring on a 16-yard pass from Gale to Gabriel. The Wildcats were 4 for 4 on third-down plays on the drive, converting a third-and-10 on the drive's third play with a 14-yard pass from Gale to Hogg. On third-and-2 from the TSU 42, Gale scrambled up the middle for three yards.
On third-and-18 from the 47, Gale lofted a deep pass to DeMarcus Thompson,
who hauled it in on the sideline for a first down at the TSU 13-yard line. After a rush for no gain and a sack of Gale back to the 16-yard line, Gale found Taylor over the middle and let him go to work. Gabriel tried to cut back, but slipped and looked as if he were going to go down short of the goal line. But he dropped his hand down to keep his balance,
popped up and leapt into the end zone for a 34-23 ACU lead with 3:12 to play.
Tarleton came right back down the field, moving 85 yards on 10 plays to an Aaron Doyle 1-yard touchdown run with 1:02 to play. Doyle then completed a 2-point conversion pass to Will McLane to make it 34-31 and setting up an onside kick.
But ACU's
Thor Woerner recovered the kick -- his second big recovery on a kickoff in the game -- and ACU was able to run the clock out on a big come-from-behind win.
"I know this group of guys has great heart," Collums said, "and that's why I knew we wouldn't quit. We kept playing and kept working, and that's what you have to do to win games. That was a real football game out there, and Tarleton has a good team. A lot of stuff happened out there that tests a team, and we came through with a lot of plays when we needed them."
ACU went on top first when junior
Charcandrick West scored on a 1-yard run at the 8:38 mark of the first quarter, the result of great field position when Tarleton couldn't advance past its 14-yard line, and a punt gave the Wildcats the ball at midfield.
Tarleton's defense dug in and the Texans answered back with four straight scoring drives, the first two ending with TD passes from Doyle: Regal on a 16-yarder and Vaughn Smith on a 10-yarder to hand the Texans a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. Barnes added 28-yard and 41-yard field goals in the second quarter, giving his team a 20-7 lead.
Lineberry's 27-yard field goal closed the gap to 20-10 just before halftime, and
Thor Woerner's interception of Doyle's pass at the TSU 4-yard line stopped what looked like another sure Texan score in the final minute of the half.
