ABILENE – ACU head football coach
Ken Collums didn't have a big birthday cake in the post-game locker rom last Saturday to celebrate his 40th birthday.
And he didn't have any presents to open after his team had rallied to beat Tarleton State, 34-31, at Cowboys Stadium.
And he certainly wasn't impressed with the efforts of his players in giving him a Gatorade bath after the win.
He was, however, impressed with a second-half comeback that saw the Wildcats rally from a 20-10 halftime deficit to win 34-31 and improve to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the Lone Star Conference. That comeback should certainly be a shot in the arm for a team about to play two road games in six days in San Angelo (at Angelo State on Saturday) and in Cleveland, Miss. (against perennial national powerhouse Delta State on Thursday, Sept. 27).
"I didn't anticipate being down at halftime, and things looked pretty bleak for us at times in the first half," Collums said. "But our guys fought and kept fighting. I'm proud of them for getting it together and playing a cleaner second half."
And while the Wildcats certainly have work to do, their second-half performance was much more reminiscent of the team fans have come to expect over the previous six seasons than the previous six quarters.
To wit:
• ACU had more first downs in the second half than Tarleton (13-8), which led to more time of possession (18 minutes to 12 minutes).
• After allowing Tarleton to make good on 7 of third-down conversion plays in the first half, the defense clamped down on third down in the second half, allowing only 2 of 6 conversions. The offense, meanwhile, also did a 180 on third downs as ACU converted 5 of 8 in the second half, including 4 of 4 on its final touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
• After struggling to a 12 of 22, 122-yard passing performance in the first half, senior quarterback Mitchell Gale reverted his old self in the second half by completing 15 of 20 passes for 157 yards and two scores in the game's final 30 minutes.
• Perhaps the most important turnaround, however, came on the scoreboard where ACU outscored the Texans 24-11 to turn that once unimaginable win into a 34-31 victory. Tarleton's only second-half touchdown came with 1:02 left to play, and ACU linebacker
Thor Woerner was able to recover the onside kick to preserve the victory.
"We were on our heels on defense throughout the first half because they were going up and down the field on us," Collums said. "That's why I get big-time satisfaction out of this win because I know what was happening out there. Neither our offense nor our defense played well in the first half. But we were able to get it together and overcome adversity against a really good team. Our guys were resilient and tough enough to come out with a win."
The key to the win came on several key plays in the second half in all three phases of the game, and it could be argued that without each of them the Wildcats wouldn't have won the game. Among the key plays in the second half:
• The turnaround might have gotten its footing near the end of the first half with Tarleton at the ACU 16-yard-line and looking to build on its 20-10 lead. On first down, quarterback Aaron Doyle tried to squeeze a pass into Clifton Rhodes III, but it was tipped and deflected into the air by ACU safety
L.B. Suggs.
Thor Woerner – who earlier in the first half recovered a pooch kickoff with one hand – picked it off to keep ACU's halftime deficit at just 10 points.
•
Darian Hogg's block of an Isaac Arellano punt early in the third quarter that gave the Wildcats the ball at the Tarleton State 36-yard line. Five plays later, Travis Tarver – who picked up 19 yards on second-and-10 on the drive – bulled in from seven yards out to cut the TSU lead to 20-17 with 8:29 left in the third quarter.
• On Tarleton's next drive, Angelo Lopez and
L.B. Suggs combined to drop Vaughn Smith for a loss of 1 yard on third-and-four to force another punt.
Taylor Gabriel returned the punt 54 yards to the TSU 15-yard-line, and although a penalty pushed the Wildcats back to the 25-yard line the momentum was clearly shifting. Four plays later, Gale hit a diving Gabriel for a 6-yard touchdown pass to give the Wildcats a 24-20 lead with 4:03 to play in the quarter.
• On Tarleton's final drive of the third quarter,
Caleb Withrow and
Justin Stephens combined to stop Jerome Regal for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the ACU 34 to give the Wildcats the ball back going to the fourth quarter. Ten plays later,
Morgan Lineberry knocked home a 30-yard field goal to push the ACU lead to 27-20 with 12 minutes left in the game.
• On the Texans' ensuing drive, Regal broke loose for a 62-yard run, pushing the ball down to the ACU 13-yard line. But the ACU defense stiffened, giving up just six yards on the next four plays and forcing a 25-yard field goal attempt from Blake Barnes to cut ACU's lead to 27-23 with 9:35 left.
• On its next drive, ACU was 4 for 4 in converting third downs into first downs on its way to the game-clinching touchdown. On third-and-10 from its own 21, Gale hit
Darian Hogg for 14 big yards and a first down. On third-and-2 from the TSU 42, Gale bulled his way for three yards and another first down. On third-and-18 from the TSU 47, Gale lofted a pass down the left sideline that
Demarcus Thompson ran under and caught before stepping out of bounds at the 13-yard-line. And on third-and-13 from the 16, Gale found Gabriel 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.
• After Tarleton scored and added the 2-point conversion with 1:02 to play to cut the ACU lead to 34-31, Woerner was again in the right spot as he recovered the onside kick, allowing ACU to run out the clock on a big comeback victory.
"I tell our guys every day that we have a chance to win every game that we play," Collums said. "If we play well and play clean, we have a great chance. That game was so encouraging for me because it was two different halves. We took their best shot int eh first half, and they're really good. But we took their best shot and we were able to get back up, answer the bell and come back and win, and that's what's encouraging. That's what veteran teams that have won a lot of games over the years do in these types of situations.
And that also led to the on-field Gatorade shower for the first-year head coach.
"I told them after the game that I was not impressed with the Gatorade bath because the set-up man (
Nick Finney) was terrible," Collums joked. "The key to the Gatorade bath is the set-up guy, and Finney was awful."
POST-GAME SOUNDBITES
• "That was really a huge momentum shift, and we could feel it. They were down in the red zone and could have at least gotten three points if not seven. I should have had the interception, but couldn't get it because my hand was hurt. I'm just glad that Thor was there to make a play on the ball and get the interception."
--- ACU senior safety L.B. Suggs on Woerner's interception before halftime
• "We had a better week of practice. If you want to play at a hight level then you'd better practice at a high level, and I don't think we did that during the week leading up to the Kingsville game. Somewhere during that week our preparation slid for some reason, and it showed on the field. I didn't play at the level I need to play at for us to be successful, so I knew I had to prepare better coming into the Tarleton game. That's something we worked on last week, and something we'll continue to work on as we go forward."
--- ACU senior quarterback Mitchell Gale on last week's poor performance
• "I had fun the entire game. I had more fun on the trip to this game than I did last year. I guess I have a different perspective on it this year. It's my last season at ACU and I'm being intentional about having fun with our guys. I'm not going to play football forever, and I want to be able to look back in 15 years and know that we played hard, left it all out on the field and that we had fun."
--- Gale
ACU NOTES
• Gale recorded the sixth second-half comeback of his career on Saturday as he led the Wildcats back from a 10-point deficit to the three-point win. ... He's also led second-half comebacks at Midwestern State (2009 playoffs), vs. Midwestern State (2010 regular season), at West Texas A&M (2010 regular season), at Tarleton State (2011 regular season) and at Texas A&M-Kingsville (2011 regular season).
• The ACU defense has been on the field for 95 minutes, 40 seconds of a possible 180 minutes of game time through three games and opponents have already run off 256 plays for 1,277 yards (425.7 yards per game or 5.0 yards per play). ... Opponents are converting 36.4 percent of third-down plays (20 of 55), although that number grows to 47.2 percent (17 of 36) over the last two weeks against Texas A&M-Kingsville (8 of 20) and Tarleton State (9 of 16).
• With Saturday's 34-31 win over Tarleton State, Abilene Christian became just the sixth college football program in the state to win games at both Cowboys Stadium and the Cotton Bowl. ... ACU beat Texas A&M-Commerce, 20-14, in overtime in 2009 and then won Saturday's game to join Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and Midwestern State as the only programs in Texas to have won a game in both venues.
• After two games at Cowboys Stadium, the Wildcats hold several stadium records for collegiate football, including team pass attempts (101), completions (62) and passing yards (669) and offensive plays (155). ... Gale holds stadium collegiate records for attempts (101), completions (62), yards (669), total offensive plays (120) and total yards (697). ...
Taylor Gabriel is the collegiate stadium leader in points by a receiver (24), and he's tied for the most receiving touchdowns (four). ... Senior placekicker
Morgan Lineberry is the leader in points by a kicker (15).
