Football | 9/15/2016 12:21:00 AM
Gameday Central
HOUSTON – The ACU Wildcats hit the road again Saturday looking for their first win of the 2016 season, and also looking to snap a recent skid on the road that dates back to the 2015 season.
The Wildcats' Southland Conference-opener against Houston Baptist will get started at 7 p.m. from Husky Stadium and will be broadcast on Fox College Sports Central. The game can be seen in Abilene on Fox College Sports Atlantic (Suddenlink channel 509), and it can be heard locally on 98.1 FM. The game will also be streamed online at
http://Southland.org/youtube, and it can also be heard at
www.98theticket.com. The game will also be available on DirecTV (channel 608.2) and Dish Network (channel 453), as well as on the Fox SportsGo app (
https://www.foxsportsgo.com/).
The Voice of the Wildcats,
Grant Boone, will be in the booth to handle play-by-play of the game and will be joined on the broadcast by former ACU all-America offensive lineman John Layfield, who will be in the booth to offer color commentary. Layfield is best known as JBL or Bradshaw, the former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) world champion.
Layfield is still part of the WWE company as an announcer on the company's weekly national TV show "Smackdown." Outside of his WWE work, Layfield is a widely respected financial analyst and appears regularly on Fox News and Fox Business News.
The Wildcats go into Houston with an 0-2 record and trying to avoid the program's first 0-3 start since 2002 when the Wildcats were still members of the NCAA Division II. That year the Wildcats fell to Central Arkansas, Cal-Davis and Tarleton State before rebounding to finish 6-4 and co-champions of the Lone Star Conference South Division.
The Wildcats are led by sophomore quarterback
Dallas Sealey, who ran for four touchdowns and threw for one in last week's 55-52 loss to Northern Colorado, earning Southland Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors and nominations for several national Offensive Player of the Week awards.
Sealey's favorite target early on has been junior wide receiver
D.J. Fuller, who has caught 11 passes for 191 yards and two scores.
Justin Miller and freshman John Fink each have eight catches for ACU.
Senior running back
Adrian Duncan had 101 yards last week against Northern Colorado as he got the start in place of the injured
De'Andre Brown, who is questionable against Houston Baptist. Sealey has helped pick up some of the slack in Brown's absence as he has carried the ball 19 times for 91 yards and those four touchdowns in two games.
The Wildcats have lost seven straight games away from Shotwell Stadium with an 0-6 record in 2015 and a 2016 season-opening loss at Air Force. In those seven losses, the Wildcats have been outscored by an average of 37-22. ACU has never lost to the Huskies and has outscored them by a combined 177-47 (an average of 59-16), including 128-26 in two wins in Houston (2013 and 2014).
The Huskies are 1-1 and coming off a 24-20 win last Saturday over Texas Southern. They are led by quarterback Tony Dawson, who has completed 29 of 54 passes for 277 yards in two games, as well as running back Terrance Peters, who has carried the ball 28 times for 220 yards and two touchdowns.
Defensively, veteran linebacker Garrett Dolan leads the team in tackles with 25 through two games.
