“Our kids are ready, they’re excited for the challenge, they know it’s a big challenge, they know it’s a big ball game, they know it’s a big rivalry,” said HPU head coach Jason Bachtel. “If our kids continue to practice and prepare like they have the last couple of days, I think we will give ourselves a shot.”
The Yellow Jackets (1-1) are coming off their first win under Bachtel, 54-34, over Sul Ross last weekend, while Hardin-Simmons (2-0) knocked off Texas Lutheran, 33-14. The Cowboys also own a 49-7 win over McMurry, while Howard Payne fell to TLU, 39-38, in the closing moments of its season opener.
Against Sul Ross last week, the Yellow Jackets rallied from a 21-9 deficit as they finished with 677 yards of total offense – 405 passing and 272 rushing – while surrendering 348 yards.
“Early on I thought offensively it almost looked like it was the first ball game again,” Bachtel said. “There were times where we really struggled to move the ball. I thought our defense played really well early on in the ball game and kept a little bit of the momentum on our side. Eventually we found ourselves down 12 but the sidelines were never like we were in trouble. I had kids coming up to me and telling me we’ve got this and we’re fine. That was the whole mindset on the the sideline. It was never like it was out of reach. Then we go down and hit Jake Parker on a long pass and we came back and kicked an onside kick and got it, but we were offsides, but you could still feel the momentum shift from that point. We weren’t going to just sit back and take it from them anymore. It set the tone moving forward for what we wanted to do. The kids responded really well, the coaches made good adjustments and once the offense caught fire there was no stopping them. Defensively, as they started throwing the deep ball on us our guys made good adjustments and settled down and started playing the way we’re capable.”
Parker finished with nine catches for 197 yards and three touchdowns to earn ASC Offensive Player of the Week honors, and through two games he leads in the conference in receptions (20), yards (392), and touchdowns (4).
“He is a major contributor to this football team,” Bachtel said of Parker. “Jake’s a kid that out of high school when to Tyler Junior College and didn’t really find his way there. Then he went out to Texas Tech and it didn’t work out how he wanted it to so he decided to go into the oil fields. He eventually realized he loved sports, he loves football, and that’s how he approaches everyday life with us. Every single day is a competition, everything he does is full speed, full tilt, and when your best players do that day in and day out, something special is going to happen and it’s happening for him. Everything you seem from his stat-wise, it all happens for him out here on the practice field.”
As a team, Howard Payne ranks first in the ASC in scoring (45.5 points per game), total yards (572.5 per game), and passing yards (357 per game), and comes in second in rushing yards (215.5 per game). Freshman quarterback Landon McKinney leads the ASC in passing yards (681), touchdowns (6) and completions (38), and has chipped in 90 yards on the ground, while Billy Reagins leads the conference with four rushing touchdowns to go along with 92 yards.
The Yellow Jackets, however, will be facing the ASC’s top defense in Hardin-Simmons, which yields just 7 points and 181.5 yards per game, including a mere 21 yards on the ground.
“Hardin-Simmons is one of the gold standards of the American Southwest Conference, and that’s what we’re wanting to achieve and grow back in to,” Bachtel said. “They’re going to be very experienced, that’s one of the key things you’ll see when you look at their roster, the amount of experience they have, especially up front on both sides.
“Defensively they held Texas Lutheran to less than 50 yards rushing and Texas Lutheran is prominently known as a rushing team. They’re going to be really good against the pass as well. Again the experience factor shows up, they’re a 4-3 defense, they’re not going to blitz you a whole lot, they’re just going to play very sound football. They do a good job tackling and do a great job in coverage. They’re not going to give you anything real big, we’re going to have to earn everything we get this week.”
On the other side of the ball, the Cowboys have the No. 2 offense behind HPU, while the Yellow Jackets’ defense currently ranks in the lower echelon of the conference.
Howard Payne is giving up 36.5 points, which ranks ninth in the ASC, and 417.5 yards, which ranks eighth, per game. Standouts on the defensive thus far have included Kyle Bell with 23 tackles, which ranks fourth in the conference, Peyton Lowe with 16 tackles and James Jakubowski with 15 tackles.
Hardin-Simmons produces 41 points and 481.5 yards per game – 258 through the air and a league-high 223.5 on the ground. Leading the charge are quarterback Kyle Jones (441 passing yards, 4 TDs; 88 rushing yards); running backs Marc Reed (100 yards, 3 TDs) and Myles Featherson (73 yards); and receivers Cade Bell (6-143, TD); Kai Brinkerhoff (5-82, TD); and Jalen Crawford (5-78, TD).
“Offensively they’re going to be very physical, they’re going to be a power run game with a little bit of a spread pass vertical attack,” Bachtel said. “They love running the RPOs and they do it well. They’ve got a great quarterback, they lost the Hemphill kid from Coleman from last year, but they replaced him with another running back that’s doing an excellent job.”
Among the keys to a win Saturday, Bachtel pointed to a fast start and eliminating self-inflicted wounds.
“The biggest thing I want to see is a faster start offensively and defensively,” Bachtel said. “In order to beat somebody like this you have to start fast and finish strong and continue to put the gas pedal down. I would like to see us come out and score on our first possession and set a tone that we’re here to play. We also have to cut out some things like penalties, we had 12 the last ball game, and we have to shut those down to beat the really good teams.”
And as for the importance of earning a victory Saturday?
“Essentially with a win over Hardin-Simmons and McMurry that would put us in the championship ball game with the East Division,” Bachtel said. “It’s been a long time since Howard Payne’s played for a conference championship. So if we can beat Hardin-Simmons and McMurry back to back and play for a conference championship, that’s a huge deal for this program going forward. It’s something to build on, it’s something to recruit off of, and the life line of Howard Payne football has to be in recruiting, so yeah it’s huge.”