GREELEY, Colo. – A frustrating 2015 football season full of ups and downs had a chance to end on a positive note Saturday afternoon on a cold, clear day at Nottingham Field.
But as has happened so many teams throughout the season, the breaks that ACU needed went the other way, and plays that needed to be made either offensively or defensively weren't made. And it added up to a 40-36 season-ending loss to Northern Colorado in front of 3,387 chilled fans.
The loss means the Wildcats finish 3-8 on the season in their first losing campaign since 2005 and worst record since the 2001 team finished 3-8. For Northern Colorado, the win was significant in that it marked the program's first winning season since a 9-2 finish in 2002.
The Wildcats had more than their share of chances to leave Colorado with a win in the season finale, but left points on the field at the end of each half that could have been the difference in the game.
Late in the first half, the Wildcats drove inside the UNC 10-yard line, but on third down and with no timeouts left, ACU quarterback
Parker McKenzie threw a pass in the flat to
Herschel Sims for a small gain. Sims, however, couldn't get out of bounds and the first-half clock ran out before the Wildcats could get their field goal team set, leaving UNC with a 27-21 halftime lead.
In the fourth quarter, ACU took possession of the ball with 8:22 left in the game and trailing 40-36 and moved 67 yards to first-and-goal at the UNC 8-yard line. On first down, McKenzie's pass in the back left corner of the end zone was overthrown, and on second down Sims was stopped at the 5-yard line after a three-yard gain to set up third-and-goal.
On the third down play, McKenzie rolled to his left looking for an open receiver, but was dropped by Myles Overton and Keifer Morris for a sack – UNC's fifth of the game – leaving ACU with fourth-and-goal with 1:15 to play. On fourth down, McKenzie's pass that was intended for Gilbert was intercepted in the end zone by James Davis, and despite being forced to punt with eight seconds left, UNC was able to hang on for the victory.
Other than those two series, the Wildcat offense didn't have many failures on a day that it ran 87 plays for a season-high 548 yards.
De'Andre Brown finished his season in fine fashion with a season-high 176 yards on the ground on 25 carries and Sims had 67 yards and three short touchdown runs on 17 carries.
McKenzie was 28 of 39 for 330 yards and two touchdowns in the game, one to
Jonathan Epps and one to
Cedric Gilbert, both of whom were playing their final games as Wildcats. Those 548 yards were racked up behind a patchwork and banged-up offensive line that was starting its fourth different player (
Brady Melde) at right guard. Center
Austin Hisler was so gimpy on a bad ankle that he had to be helped to the sideline before the fourth-down play to end the Wildcats' last scoring chance and then had to be carted off the field to the locker room.
He was just one of a large group of Wildcats who gutted their way to the finish line of a season that saw the team go through more injuries in one season than at any time during head coach
Ken Collums' tenure at ACU.
But those players did enough to keep ACU battling to the end, taking a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard Sims run on the team's first drive and pushing the lead to 14-6 on a 2-yard run by Sims with 5:37 left in the first quarter.
The ACU defense, however, had no answer for the Northern Colorado offense, at least in the first half. The Bears ended the half with 27 points and 340 yards of offense as freshman quarterback Jacob Knipp directed an offense that put up 521 yards of total offense and had 10 plays of at least 15 yards, including six in the first half.
Freshman running back Trae Riek had a big day for the Bears with 151 yards and one score on 23 carries on the ground and another 90 yards and one touchdown on four catches. He was the dominant player in the first half for the Bears as he scored on a 20-yard run and a 68-yard catch and run that cut ACU's lead to 14-13 early in the second quarter.
That catch-and-run came on a third-down screen pass and happened after a missed tackle that would have created fourth down, a problem that plagued ACU throughout the season and came into play again Saturday.
After UNC took its first lead of the day (20-14) on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Knipp to Stephen Miller, the Wildcats responded with a 10-play, 78-yard drive that took 5:07 off the clock and ended with a 7-yard scoring strike from McKenzie to Epps, pushing ACU back in front at 21-20.
It didn't take long for the Bears to go back in front, though, as Knipp kept on a zone-read play and went 42 yards for the touchdown to put the Bears back in front, 27-21, with 2:48 left in the half.
The Wildcats, though, moved smartly, converting a second-and-16 with a 43-yard pass play to Epps and converting a fourth-and-10 from the UNC 27 with a 14-yard pass play from McKenzie to Brown. The Wildcats – who had to burn all three timeouts earlier in the first half – had no recourse after a 4-yard pass to
Kalin Sadler but to down the ball on second down to bring up third-and-goal from the 9-yard line.
With 18 seconds left and no timeouts remaining, McKenzie checked down to Sims, who was hit almost at the same time he caught the ball in the right flat. He went down with about 10 seconds left and the Wildcats had no chance to get a field goal attempt off as the first half came to an end.
ACU, though, came right out from the halftime locker room and moved 75 yards on 10 plays to a Sims 1-yard touchdown run to go back in front, 28-27. Brown had a 10-yard run on third-and-10 early in the drive, and McKenzie hit Sadler on a receiver screen for 43 yards to the UNC 22-yard line. After a short completion and an incompletion, Brown took over, grinding the ball for eight and six yards before Sims scored with 10:20 to play in the third quarter.
Again, however, the Bears responded as they went 68 yards on eight plays to a field goal by Jamie Falloon to go back in front 30-28. ACU's defense stiffened inside the red zone as
Myles Solsberry had a big tackle on second-and-goal from the 3-yard line, forcing an incomplete pass on third down and the field goal on fourth down.
ACU was moving the ball again, but the ball slipped out of Brown's hands on a third-down run play, giving the ball back to the Bears at their own 44 with 1:56 left in the third quarter. The Wildcat defense again let the Bears move into the red zone where they again stiffened, forcing another field goal.
But ACU responded, moving 83 yards on just eight plays to a 10-yard touchdown from McKenzie to Gilbert on a perfectly thrown fade to the right. ACU overcame a second-and-14 situation on a 28-yard pass from McKenzie to
Cody Ennis and saw Sims run for 17 yards on the drive and add a 2-point conversion run to give ACU a 36-33 lead with 10:42 to play.
The Bears wasted little time going back in front as they gouged the ACU defense for a six-play, 65-yard touchdown drive that ended on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Knipp to Miller with 8:22 to play. The Bears got out of a big hole early in the drive when Knipp, rolling right, found Malcolm Whye for 53 yards and a first down at the ACU 10-yard line.
That score gave the Bears a 40-36 lead, setting up what the Wildcats had hoped would be a game-clinching drive late in the fourth quarter for the second straight week. Gilbert had a big 9-yard catch on a third-and-4 play early in the drive before Brown and Sims took over, combined to run for 41 yards on the next six plays. Those plays, combined with an 11-yard pass to
Monte Green-Avery on second down pushed the ball to the 8-yard line where the Wildcats' last gasp drive came to an end on the fourth down interception.
ACU middle linebacker
Sam Denmark finished with 11 tackles to give him 138 tackles on the season, the third-best single-season total in ACU history behind the 184 posted by Chip Bennett in 1968 and the 161 he had in 1969. Denmark moves into third just past Jay Jones, who had 137 tackles in 1991. Denmark now has 215 career tackles in just two seasons, leaving him just outside the top 15 in ACU history and on pace to finish his career as the program's all-time leading tackler (Ryan Boozer with 388 tackles from 1998-2001).
