The Howard Payne Yellow Jackets’ spring football season opener took place Feb. 6 at Gordon Wood Stadium, a 39-38 loss to Texas Lutheran. One month to the day later, the Yellow Jackets (0-1) will finally take the field for the second time as they visit the Sul Ross Lobos (0-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday in American Southwest Conference gridiron.

Due to winter weather issues and a scheduled bye, the start of the season hasn’t been what first-year HPU head coach Jason Bachtel anticipated. However, with Bachtel arriving on campus a month before the season opener, the extra time off hasn’t been all that bad.

“It’s been a really, really long process,” Bachtel said. “Our kids are itching to get back at it, our coaches are definitely itching to get back at it. That first four weeks going into the TLU game was a learning process for the kids and a learning process for me just to see how things were done. Now it’s kind of the start of a second season. The kids know who I am, they know what I expect. We’ve gone eight weeks and practiced a lot of football, so they know the expectations of what practices look like and what a daily routine looks like and what we expect from them.

“The bad part is you take four weeks and play a ball game, then you take four more weeks and you’re playing a second ball game. That’s not fun for kids and it’s definitely not fun for coaches and football is supposed to be fun. Now we’re back to game week and kids are having fun again.”

Looking back at the season opener against Texas Lutheran, Howard Payne finished with 468 total yards – 309 passing and 159 rushing. Freshman quarterback Landon McKinney completed 19 of 28 passes for 309 yards and two touchdowns, while rushing for a team-high 68 yards and two more scores. Jake Parker hauled in 11 receptions for 195 yards and a touchdown, while Selah Smith grabbed three catches for 83 yards with a trip to the end zone. Stephen Willis Jr. chipped in 45 yards on the ground and Billy Reagins rushed for 31 yards and a score.

Texas Lutheran produced 487 yards – 272 passing and 215 rushing. Cosme threw for 230 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 83 yards and two more scores. Mason Perkins caught 10 passes for 205 yards with two trips to the end zone, while DaKory Willis and Chris Monroe chipped in 79 and 61 yards on the ground, respectively.

Kyle Bell led Howard Payne with 19 tackles followed by James Jakubowski with 10, including two behind the line of scrimmage, and Peyton Lowe and Jessie Paris added nine tackles apiece.

The extra time off has given the Yellow Jackets even more time to make adjustments and corrections based on their initial performance.

“It’s given Landon McKinney four more weeks to grow and learn the offense and he had a huge game in his first start,” Bachtel said. “It’s given our offensive line a little more time to gel together and everybody knows if your offensive line is gelled together you’re going to have a chance to be OK offensively.

“Defensively we went into a ball game against Texas Lutheran where we had implemented some new stuff. That’s given us some more time to build on that and to get better at doing some of that stuff. It’s also helped us in special teams especially where we had some penalties and costly mistakes that we can now clean up. There’s a lot to grow on, but more than anything else it gives us a little more time to familiarize ourselves with each other and where we want this program to go moving forward.”

Sul Ross enters Saturday’s contest coming off a 24-3 loss to Texas Lutheran last week and a 17-14 loss to McMurry in the season opener.

The Lobos average 8.5 points and 222 yards – 120 rushing and 102 passing – per outing, with no turnovers. Quarterback Clayton Maxwell has completed 23 of 51 passes for 181 yards with two touchdowns, Ozias Wright leads the ground game with 162 yards, while top receivers include Dre’Chan Moody (7-67), Brian Mattison (6-70, TD), and Cory Driver 18-yard TD.

“They run multiple formations so we have to be able to line up to them,” Bachtel said. “They’re going to be sound offensively. They’ve got some guys out on the edges on the skill positions that can roll a little bit, so we’re going to have to manage to defend those guys pretty well. And they’ve got a good physical back that likes to run downhill.”

Defensively, Sul Ross is yielding 20.5 points and 373 yards – 244 on the ground and 129 through the air – on average, while forcing five turnovers. Leading tacklers include Eduardo Garcia (15 tackles, 3.5 for loss), Jaylen Bussey (14 tackles, 1 FR), Javeon Moses (13 tackles, 3 for loss), and Ronin Williams (10 tackles, 1.5 for loss, 2 FRs).

“Defensively, they are going to be simple in how they line up but they are going to give you a lot of different looks with the stunts and blitzes they give you, “Bachtel said. “That’s a concern of ours because you don’t know where they’re coming from. Our guys have been working hard to try and identify how they’re rolling it, but they do a good job disguising it. It’s just going to come down to who makes the fewest mistakes and can we handle the pressure on offense.”

As for what Bachtel hopes to see from the Yellow Jackets in their second game, he said, “I want to see how well we’ve improved from game one to game two. I want to see a little more excitement later in the ball game. I want to see that if we have an opponent down we can finish them. Really I want to see us be the hardest workers out there. I want to see us being physically dominant on both fronts. And I want to see a bunch of guys who are unified together and ready to become the brotherhood I remember Howard Payne football being.”