Football | 9/29/2016 12:30:00 PM
Gameday Central
ABILENE – Central Arkansas brings its unbeaten Southland Conference record to Abilene this week for a 2:30 p.m. game Saturdayy against the ACU Wildcats that will be nationally televised from Shotwell Stadium.
While the Bears are 2-0 in the Southland Conference (3-1 overall), the Wildcats are scuffling at 0-4 overall and 0-2 in the league. ACU hasn't won since Nov. 14, 2015, when it beat Southeastern Louisiana, 21-17, in the final home game of the season.
Saturday's game will be broadcast on the American Sports Network with Lincoln Rose calling the play-by-play and former ACU all-America offensive tackle and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) world champion John Layfield handling the analyst role. Ashlea Bullington will be on the sidelines for the broadcast. The game will be seen locally on KIDZ MyNetwork (channel 15.2 over the air, Suddenlink channel 116 or DirecTV channel 42). Nationally the game will be broadcast on DirecTV channel 681 and Dish Network channel 413. The game will also be available online at
southland.org/live.
For the third straight week, the Wildcats were down by only one score in the fourth quarter, but were again unable to either get the game tied or take the lead. The Wildcats hurt themselves with six turnovers in the 41-30 loss to Stephen F. Austin. ACU trailed the Lumberjacks 28-0 late in the second quarter before putting up a late touchdown to cut the SFA lead to 28-7 at halftime.
ACU outscored the Lumberjacks 30-13 in the final 30 minutes, 22 seconds of the game, but it wasn't enough to overcome the big first-half deficit. The Wildcats, however, had the lead down to 38-30 with 7:30 to play, but gave up a field goal and then turned the ball over on downs and via interception on their final two drives of the game.
The Wildcats' offense is second in the league in total offense (472.8 yards per game), second in the league in passing offense (332.5 ypg) and fourth in the league in scoring offense (31.8 points per game). Sophomore quarterback
Dallas Sealey threw for a career-high 400 yards against SFA and is first in the league in completions (101), attempts (169), passing yards (1,317) and total offense (366.5 ypg), is second in passing yards per game (329.2) and TD passes (8) and third in the league in completion percentage (59.8).
Central Arkansas, meanwhile, leads the league in scoring defense, total defense and rushing defense and is seventh in pass defense. The Bears are allowing just 20.2 points, 318.0 total yards, 54.8 rushing yards and 263.2 passing yards per game. Junior George Odum is the Bears' leading tackler with 32 total tackles (8.0 per game) and senior Price Miller has 33 tackles.
Offensively the Bears are led by quarterback Hayden Hildebrand, who is fourth in the league in passings yards per game (247.5) and total passing yards (990). Hildebrand has thrown six touchdown passes and is completing 57.6 percent of his passes. Carlos Blackmon is the league's sixth-leading rusher (295 yards per game), while senior wide receiver Jatavious Wilson leads the league in receptions per game (6.8) and yards per game (109.0).
