ACU Game Notes I
New Mexico Game Notes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –
Adam Dorrel was hired nine months to revive a sagging ACU football program that had won just five games combined in the two previous seasons, including posting a 2-9 record in 2016.
The first results of the hard work he and his coaching staff and players have put in since mid-December will be on display for the first time in a game setting Saturday when the Wildcats open the 2017 season against the New Mexico Lobos, who won nine games last season and capped the 2016 campaign with a win in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.
Dorrel is the winningest coach by winning percentage in all of college football with a 90.5 winning percentage (90.5 percent) with three NCAA Division II national titles to his credit, including titles in 2015 and 2016 when the Bearcats finished 15-0 both years.
Wildcats in Season-Openers
ACU will open the season against an opponent from the Mountain West Conference for the third straight season when the Wildcats take on the Lobos of New Mexico in Saturday night's 2017 season-opener. The Wildcats lost to Fresno State, 34-13, in the 2015 opener and dropped a 37-21 decision at Air Force in the 2016 lid-lifter.
ACU is 45-46-4 all-time in season-openers with three straight losses. Prior to those three straight losses, the Wildcats had won six straight openers dating back to the 2008 season when the Wildcats beat Northwest Missouri State in both 2008 (44-27 in Maryville, Mo.) and 2009 (19-14 in Abilene). The offensive coordinator for both of those Northwest Missouri State teams was current ACU head coach
Adam Dorrel.
ACU has played Texas A&M-Commerce 13 times in season-opener, the most games against any opponent in season-opening games in program history. The Lions lead the series against ACU, 7-6, in openers, although ACU leads the overall series against its old NCAA Division II rival, 40-27-1. The season-openers don't get any easier in the years following the 2017 season as the Wildcats are scheduled to open the 2018 season at Baylor and then follow that with openers at North Texas (2019), SMU (2021), Kansas State (2022) and Texas Tech (2024 and 2026).
ACU Head Coaches in First Games
ACU's previous 19 head coaches are 11-8 in their first games as the Wildcats' head coach with previous head coach Ken Collums having beaten McMurry, 51-0, in 2012 to snap a three-game losing streak by coaches in their first game as the ACU head coach.
Those coaches who have recorded wins in their first games are Vernon McCasland (1919), Sewell Jones (1920), Tonto Coleman (1942), Garvin Beauchamp (1950), Nick Nicholson (1956),
Wally Bullington (1968), Dewitt Jones (1977), Ted Sitton (1979), John Payne (1985), Dr. Bob Strader (1993), and Collums (2012). Those who took losses in their first game are Russell Lewis (1921), Victor Payne (1922), A.B. Morris (1924), Les Wheeler (1962), Ronnie Peacock (1991), Jack Kiser (1996), Gary Gaines (2000), and Chris Thomsen (2005).
Saturday night's game will be the first time an ACU head coach has opened his career as the Wildcats' leader against a team playing at the highest level of college football.
ACU Now Fully Division I
ACU has completed its move to full NCAA Division I status and is now eligible for all NCAA and Southland Conference postseason tournaments.
After a vote by the Division I Board of directors, the NCAA on Aug. 24 delivered the news to ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert and director of athletics Lee De León, concluding a four-year transition from Division II that pushed the Wildcat athletics program to membership in the top tier of intercollegiate athletics.
Since their first season competing at the D-I level in 2013-14, the Wildcats have won four regular-season Southland titles (women's cross country in 2015, women's basketball in 2015-16 and 2016-17, and men's tennis in 2017) and have earned wins over established Division I programs such as Arizona (baseball), Texas Tech (volleyball, women's basketball and softball), Texas-El Paso (women's soccer), Iowa (softball), Texas-Arlington (baseball and softball), New Hampshire (men's basketball), and Oklahoma State (women's basketball).
The women's basketball team has reached the Postseason Women's NIT each of the last two years and played in the Preseason WNIT in 2016-17, and last season the softball team qualified for the National Invitational Softball Championship.
Denmark Closing in on Record
Voted a 2017 team captain based on a vote by teammates in late June, two-time first team all-Southland Conference middle linebacker
Sam Denmark is just 63 tackles away from becoming ACU's all-time leader in tackles. Denmark enters the 2017 season with 326 career stops (Ryan Boozer is the all-time leader with 388 from 1998-2001).
Sealey Returns to Lead Offense
Junior quarterback
Dallas Sealey eturns as the Wildcats' starting quarterback after finishing second in the Southland Conference in passing yards per game (277.3) and in total offense per game (302.0). Second in league in completion percentage (61.1) and fourth in total passing yards (2,773). Tied for third in touchdown passes (19).
Sealey is set to break into the top 10 in the following career categories in 2017: attempts, completions, touchdown passes, passing yards, and total offense. He enters the 2017 season with 3,597 yards passing while completing 320 of 526 passes (60.8 percent) in his career.
Brown Chasing Down Record Book
ACU senior running back
De'Andre Brown – who appears to be fully recovered from a leg injury that plagued him throughout the 2016 season – should rank in the top 10 in ACU history in carries, yards and touchdowns by the end of the season if he can replicate what he did in 2014 and 2015.
Brown enters his final season with 366 carries for 1,956 yards and 16 touchdowns in his career. He is 10th all-time in carries, and he's just 103 yards from passing current Kansas City Chiefs running back Charcandrick West for 10th on the all-time yardage list (West finished with 2,058 rushing yards from 2010-13), and he's six touchdowns away from tying three others (Kelly Kent, Jimmy Hirth and Taber Minner) for 10th on the all-time rushing touchdown list with 22.
Grau On Pace for More Records
Senior PK
Nik Grau returns for his senior season with a chance to finish as ACU's all-time leader in field goals made and second in career PATs made and attempted and in career kicking points. He enters the season fourth in ACU history with 37 field goals (Morgan Lineberry is the all-time leader with 50), and he's third in PATs (124) and attempted (130) behind Matt Adams (213 for 222) and Lineberry (140 for 154). He's third in career kicking points with 235 (Adams with 339 and Lineberry with 290 are first and second, respectively), and he's sixth in all-time scoring with those 235 points.
ACU vs. FBS Opponents
The ACU Wildcats are 1-3 vs. FBS opponents since making the move from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I affiliation prior to the 2013 season. The Wildcats played two FBS games in 2014, dropping a 38-37 heartbreaker to Georgia State in the season-opener for both teams in the Georgia Dome, and then beating Troy, 38-35, two weeks later in Troey, Al.
Two seasons ago the Wildcats went to Fresno, Calif., and dropped a 34-13 decision to Fresno State. And last year the Wildcats went to Colorado Springs, Colo., and lost the Air Force Falcons, 37-21. Prior to 2014, the last time the Wildcats had beaten a team playing at the highest level of college football had been in 1959 when the Wildcats went to El Paso and knocked of Texas-El Paso, 28-22, on Nov. 14.
ACU's most frequent FBS opponent over its history is Texas Tech with nine games having been played between the two West Texas schools. The Red Raiders lead the series, 6-3, although the teams haven't played a 20-0 Tech win in 1949. ACU's wins came in succession in 1927 (6-3), 1928 (7-0) and 1929 (7-3). The Wildcats and Red Raiders are scheduled to renew their series with two games in Lubbock in 2024 and 2026.
