Football greets HBU Saturday for Whiteout game

GET HYPED!

THE DETAILS

Abilene Christian (2-4, 1-3 Southland) vs. Houston Baptist (4-2, 1-1 Southland)
Date: Saturday, Oct. 12
Kickoff: 6:05 p.m.
Gameday Program
TV / Web: ESPN+ (Zach Carlyle with Owen Simpson and Tyler Henderson)
Radio: 98.1 FM - The Ticket (Grant Boone and Jim Reese)
Real-Time Stats

PROMOTIONAL WALL

ABILENE - The Houston Baptist Huskies are no longer the perennial doormats of the Southland Conference.

That's right. The same program the Wildcats have defeated five times in six meetings by 57, 45, 28, 21 and 25 points, now lays claim to the No. 1 offense in the Southland Conference.

The Huskies first put up 34 points in a season-opening loss to FBS UTEP and then hit the 50-point threshold in back-to-back games vs. Texas Wesleyan and South Dakota. Their 53-52 shootout win over the Coyotes resulted in two Southland Conference Player of the Week citations for quarterback Bailey Zappe and defensive end Andrew Walker, while senior kickoff returner Gamar Girdy Brito was selected as the STATS FCS National Special Teams Player of the Week.

From there, HBU whipped Northwestern State, 48-21 in H-Town, and pummeled Texas Southern thanks to 31 third-quarter points. Two days later, the program made its first appearance in a national poll, tying for 25th in the AFCA Coaches FCS rankings.

HBU slipped back into the receiving votes category this Monday (Oct. 7) after suffering a 38-36 loss to Incarnate Word, last season's Southland Conference co-champions, but Zappe still impressed by completing a school-record 49-of-69 passes for 390 yards and three touchdowns.

As for the Wildcats, they come into this game on a two-game road losing streak but are undefeated at home this season at 2-0. The goal is to win all remaining four home games, and ACU can put itself back in the FCS playoff picture if they do that combined with a win at Nicholls on Oct. 26.

The Wildcats have done a lot of things right during their recent run of misfortune, but slow starts and inability to win the fourth quarter have hurt them during the first half of the season. They are tops in the Southland with a +1.0 turnover margin, No. 3 in fewest penalties per game (4.3), and top-four in both total offense (444.0) and defense (393.0), but have been outscored 21-7 the last two weeks in the fourth quarter and have not scored a first-quarter touchdown since their Sept. 14 game at Central Arkansas.

Junior quarterback Luke Anthony will be back under center for the Wildcats after missing last week's game at Lamar with an injury. He has nine passing TD this season to go along with 227.5 yards per game. He'll be handing off to FCS touchdown leader Tracy James (12) in the backfield while expecting solid production out of multiple receiving targets, including WR Josh Fink and Kobe Clark and TE Branden Hohenstein.

Clark last Saturday tied his career single-game high with nine receptions with Sema'J Davis at quarterback. As he has in previous games, the versatile and speedy Davis will continue to back up Anthony in addition to lining up at receiver. Davis has passed for 182 yards this fall, and rushed for 205.

Schedule