The Yellow Jackets are coming off a 7-3 record a year ago, their best since 2005, and a 6-3 conference mark. Meanwhile, Texas Lutheran posted a 3-7 mark and 3-6 conference record, which in part is why the Bulldogs are being led by new head coach Neal LaHue.
Projected to finish third in the ASC behind No. 1 Mary Hardin-Baylor and No. 6 Hardin-Simmons, the Yellow Jackets have circled the season opener as a crucial contest in their bid to continue climbing the conference ladder while also gaining national relevance as a program.
“There’s two major goals we always set for our season, win the first ball game and win the first conference ball game, and we have both in Week 1,” Bachtel said. “This is extremely important, it sets the path for what we want to accomplish. If you lose Game 1 on both ends, you’re behind the eight ball. All the sudden you’re climbing your way out and trying to win ball games you know are going to be tough in order to accomplish what our end goal is. I hate saying it’s a must-win in Game 1, but it’s a must-win.”
Starting the season in what could be a hostile environment in Seguin is not expected to be the factor Bachtel believes it would have a been this time a year ago.
“At this time last year, I would have said I had concerns about starting on the road just because of experience,” Bachtel said. “But now we have a lot of guys who have played a lot of football, and we’re 18 months into the program. They know how we travel, they know what we expect on the road, so I’m not as concerned being on the road. It could actually be better for us because we get our guys’ focus.”
What does worry Bachtel and company, however, is the lack of familiarity with the new coaching regime at Texas Lutheran.
“We really don’t know what to expect going into the ball game, it’s a whole new coaching staff,” Bachtel said. “The head coach was there as the offensive coordinator in 2018 and 2019, so we have a base game plan of what we think they could do, but we don’t know. Defensively, we have no clue. The defensive coordinator has been a DC at Western New Mexico several years back, so we’re preparing on both sides with the limited information we know about both.”
Texas Lutheran averaged just 17 points and 304 yards – 187 rushing and 117 passing – per game last season but returns quarterback Seth Cosme (81 of 141 for 1,077 yards, 7 TDs, 2 INTs; 416 rush yards, 1 TD), the top two rushers in Jacob Forton (608 yards, 8 TDs) and DaKory Willis (601 yards, 6 TDs), and leading receiver Aaron Sotelo (24-213, TD).
Defensively, where the Bulldogs surrendered 30 points and 446 yards – 240 through the air and 206 on the ground – last year, Beau Grech takes over as defensive coordinator, but TLU’s top four tacklers from last season are gone. The top returnee is secondary standout Eugene Robinson IV (36 tackles, 3 INTs).
“They’ve got some guys, the Cosme kid at quarterback is really athletic, and he did some things last year to us both in the spring and the fall that put us in a bind,” Bachtel said. “Their offensive line is going to be better, but they’re going to be younger. Defensively, they return a lot of key football players.
“In practice we’ve been showing multiple fronts, multiple offensive systems. There are times when we are running our own offense against our own defense to give them as many different looks as we can. But I can’t emphasize enough that we just don’t know what we’re going to see. We’re trying to prepare for the worst and hoping for the best.”
The Yellow Jackets produced 37 points and 483 yards – 342 passing and 141 rushing – last season but coughed up the ball 19 times. Key returnees include quarterback Landon McKinney (160 of 269 for 2,840 yards, 32 TDs, 9 INTs), receivers Otis Lanier (46-807, 9 TDs) and Hunter Cheek (18-351, 2 TDs), and running backs Tauren Bradley (504 yards, TD) and Stephen Willis (344 yards).
Bachtel is expecting improvement from a defense that yielded 30 points and 406 yards – 233 passing and 173 passing – a season ago, with 17 takeaways. Returning are Kyle Bell (68 tackles, 1 INT), Peyton Lowe (63 tackles, 10 for loss, 1 FR), James Jakubowski (55 tackles, 5 for loss, 3 sacks), Jarrett Brown (41 tackles, 1 for loss), Aaron Alderete (39 tackles, 2 for loss, 1.5 sacks), and Dylan Zeno (19 tackles, 1 FR).
Among the biggest keys to coming away with a victory Saturday, Bachtel said the Yellow Jackets must weather any storms TLU creates.
“Our two key words of the week have been adversity and poise,” Bachtel said. “We have to have poise in the adverse situations that are going to happen Saturday. Because we don’t know what to expect in any phase of the ball game, we’re going to have to make adjustments on the run and adversity will hit. If we’re poised enough and we can handle the adjustments, we’ll be fine.”
As for other keys for Howard Payne Saturday, Bachtel said, “We have to tackle. You’ve seen all throughout high school football in Week 1 that tackling is key. The next thing is turnovers. You have to eliminate them on offense and create them on defense. Special teams have to be special in Week 1 because that is where ball games are lost. And we also have to be able to handle any weather that could come our way.”
Health-wise, the Yellow Jackets are all systems go heading into the season opener.
“Everything’s good, everybody’s healthy,” Bachtel said. “We tried to do a really good job of limiting some of the pounding on each other. Taking care of each other is a key in our four walls here in the building, and our kids have done a great job of taking care of each other so we’re really healthy going in.”