ABILENE – Oh, yeah, there's a game to play Saturday.
Almost lost in all of the excitement around the opening of Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium is the fact that ACU will host Houston Baptist in the Southland Conference-opener for both teams, and it's almost certainly a must-win game for the Wildcats for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the Wildcats are 0-2 and simply in need of a victory in 2017.
The game kicks off at 6:05 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN3 with Lincoln Rose (play by play), Shea Walker (color commentary) and Tatum Everett (sideline) handling the broadcast. It will be broadcast on 98.1 FM The Ticket with
Grant Boone (play by play) and Jim Reese (color commentary) calling the game.
For the first time since Nov. 27, 1958, the Wildcats will play a football game on campus as they host the Huskies, who enter tonight's game at 1-1 overall after a road win over Texas Southern last week.
That game in 1958 was a 49-30 win over ACU at Elmer Gray Stadium – the site where Wildcat Stadium now stands – because the surface at ACU's home field (Fair Park Stadium) was too muddy to host a game, so the game was moved to the ACU campus.
The last time the Wildcats played regularly at an on-campus facility was 1942 at A.B. Morris Stadium, which was near the site of the current Mabee Business Building. ACU then moved to Public Schools Stadium in 1959 and it was later re-named Shotwell Stadium, and that's where the Wildcats played through the end of the 2016 season.
The Wildcats are 0-2 on the season after a 38-14 loss at New Mexico in the first game of the season and then a 38-10 loss last week at Colorado State in the Rams' new on-campus stadium. ACU is trying to avoid a second straight 0-3 start to the season (a streak last year that stretched to 0-7 before a 52-27 Homecoming win over Incarnate Word).
ACU enters its first game in its new home with a head coach in
Adam Dorrel who has never lost back-to-back games in his career, much less flirted with a potential three-game losing streak. Dorrel entered his first season as the Wildcats' head coach with a 76-8 record in his six seasons as a head coach and a 90.5 winning percentage, which was the highest of any active college football coach at any level.
Dorrel had led teams that had won 30 straight games dating back to the start of the 2015 season before the recent two-game losing streak. He leads a team that is averaging 307.5 yards of offensve per game and is allowing 543.0 yards per game defensively.
Houston Baptist lost its season-opener at Texas State before bounding back last week with a win over Texas Southern. HBU freshman quarterback Bailey Zappe is 37 for 66 for 447 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Freshman running back James Brown rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown against the Tigers and leads HBU with 72.0 yards per game on the ground. Freshman Dennis Houston leads the Huskies in receptions with nine for 101 yards, while senior Ethan Fry has made seven catches for 150 yards and a touchdown.
The game features the top two active career tackles leaders in the FCS, with HBU's Garrett Dolan racking up 410 and ACU's
Sam Denmark totaling 332.
