ABILENE -- ACU head football coach Chris Thomsen and his staff welcomed more than 125 players to campus Wednesday as the Wildcats began preparations for the 2009 season and the defense of their Lone Star Conference championship.
The Wildcats will be on the field at the
Wally Bullington Football Practice Facility at 9:30 a.m. Thursday for a conditioning test, and then they'll return for the first practice of the summer at 4 p.m.
The Wildcats finished 11-1 last season and won the program's first outright LSC title since 1973 and first LSC title since a co-championship in 1977. ACU -- which reached the NCAA Division II playoffs for the third straight year in 2008 -- reached the quarterfinal round of the NCAA playoffs for the first time in program history.
ACU's season came to an abrupt end with a 45-36 loss to eventual national runner-up Northwest Missouri State at Shotwell Stadium. The Bearcats' win avenged ACU's 44-27 season-opening win in Maryville, Mo., a win that snapped Northwest's 17-game home winning streak.
The teams will open the season on Thursday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m. at Shotwell Stadium when ACU hosts Northwest Missouri State in a game that will be nationally broadcast on CBS College Sports.
The Wildcats are the pre-season pick to win the LSC South Division, and leading the charge early on will be a defense that returns seven starters, including sophomore defensive end
Aston Whiteside. The Vernon native was last year's LSC South Division Freshman of the Year and co-Defensive Lineman of the Year and is this year's Pre-Season Defensive Player of the Year.
The defense will also be led by sophomore defensive end
Nick Jones, junior linebackers
Bryson Lewis,
Fred Thompson and
Eric Edwards, and senior defensive backs
Tony Harp and
Drew Cuffee.
The offense returns five starters, led by senior offensive tackle
Tony Washington, who should be one of the most dominant players in NCAA Division II football in 2009. Washington -- last year's LSC South Division Offensive Lineman of the Year and a first team all-America selection -- has already been
tabbed as the No. 6 offensive tackle prospect in all of college football by
nfl.com personnel guru Gil Brandt.
Other returning starters on the offense are linemen
Royland Tubbs (guard) and
Trevis Turner (tackle) as well as receiver
Edmund Gates and fullback
Emery Dudensing.
ACU Also welcomed more than 40 newcomers to the program, including several NCAA Division I transfers.
"I'm excited about the guys we have returning, and I'm excited about the new guys we have coming in and the opportunity we have to mesh those two groups together," Thomsen said. "We've got a lot of really good players in both of those groups, and I'm excited to see them come together in the pursuit of a common goal."
ACU has now been picked to win the LSC South Division championship three seasons in a row, but for the first time enters the season as the defending conference champion. And Thomsen said the feel is a bit different for the Wildcats entering the 2009 season.
"We've been picked to win the title before, but it's definitely different now as the defending champion," he said. "We've got to be ready to take everyone's best shot from the first week through the last week of the season. It's a different role for us, but it's we embrace and one we're excited about."
ACU NOTES
* Former ACU offensive lineman Keith Wagner has joined the coaching staff as the running backs coach. Wagner joins the Wildcat staff after serving as the defensive coordinator for the last three seasons at Corpus Christi Carroll High School. Wagner replaces Desmond Gant on the staff after Gant left coaching to attend the seminary as he pursues a career in the ministry.
* The only other coaching change for the Wildcats will see Joe Walker move from coaching running backs to linebackers.
* Former Wildcat quarterback Billy Malone is back with the team, but this time in a coaching capacity. He'll be assisting offensive coordinator
Ken Collums with the quarterbacks and working to finish his degree (he's six hours short).
* Speaking of Malone, his old jersey number (No. 2) will now be worn by Whiteside, who leaves No. 86 to wear the No. 2. Transfer wide receiver
Dennis Campbell has been assigned Bernard Scott's No. 3, and senior defensive back
Drew Cuffee has switched to Johnny Knox's No. 7.
* The Wildcats will practice just once a day Thursday-Monday before practicing twice on Aug. 11. ACU, however, has just four days of two-a-days among its 24 practices prior to the Aug. 27 season-opener. The Wildcats will have two scrimmages at Shotwell Stadium during summer practice, the first of which is at 9 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 14. The second scrimmage -- which will be more of a situational scrimmage -- will be Friday, Aug. 21, at 9 a.m.
* Three Wildcats who compete in other sports showed up Wednesday and will attempt to make the active football roster. Track and field athletes
Raymond Radway and Harold Jackson and basketball's
Riley Lambert will all be trying to make the roster as wide receivers.
