Gameday Central
SAN ANTONIO – After a week off, the ACU Wildcats are back on the road to take on what's fast-becoming a familiar opponent in the Cardinals of Incarnate Word. Kickoff is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. at Benson Stadium.
The game can be heard locally on KTLT 98.1 FM.
The Wildcats and Cardinals – who both joined the Southland Conference this season in all other sports and will join the league in football in 2014 – have already played once this season with the Wildcats taking a 40-6 Homecoming win over the Cardinals on Oct. 19 in Abilene.
ACU is 4-0 all-time against the Cardinals having outscored them 179-51, or by an average margin of 44.8-12.8, in those four victories. The closest game between the teams came in the 2012 season-finale when the Wildcats pulled out a 24-12 win over the Cardinals on Nov. 10 in San Antonio.
The Wildcats enter Saturday's game coming off a 34-29 loss at FBS member New Mexico State on Oct. 26, while the Cardinals have won two straight games (24-3 over future SLC rival Houston Baptist on Oct. 26 and 47-43 over McMurry last Saturday in Abilene). A win for the Wildcats would clinch the program's eighth straight winning season and a winning season in its first campaign at the FCS level. A win for
the Cardinals would clinch the program's first-ever winning season since it began playing football in 2009.
But to do so, the Cardinals will have to contend with an ACU offense that has ripped its last three opponents to the tune of 138 points (46.0 points per game) and 1,596 yards (532.0 yards per game). In that stretch, senior QB
John David Baker has completed 69 of 100 passes for 964 yards and eight TDs, while in that same stretch senior wide receiver
Taylor Gabriel has caught 28 passes for 449 yards and four touchdowns, leaving him just 117 yards short of reaching 1,000 receiving yards on the season.
In the Oct. 26 loss at New Mexico State, Gabriel set a new ACU single-game record with 15 catches for a personal-best 188 yards. The ACU defense, meanwhile, is among the nation's leaders in turnover margin (plus-19) and total takeaways (28). ACU is second at the FCS level in
turnover margin behind Sacred Heart (plus-20), and its 28 takeaways are tied with North Texas for the third-highest total at the NCAA Division I level.
ACU will wrap up its season next Saturday with another road game when it visits Prairie View A&M.
