As the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets prepare to begin their first full season under head coach Jason Bachtel, they enter Saturday’s 1 p.m. season and American Southwest Conference opener against the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs at Gordon Wood Stadium with a distinct advantage – five games under the direction of the new leadership to their credit.

Bachtel, who took over the reins of the program on Jan. 7, guided the Yellow Jackets to a 2-3 record during the five-game COVID imposed season, as the traditional 2020 football campaign was canceled.

“This is a big piece to our puzzle that we’ve been speaking about for a while now,” Bachtel said of having coached the program for five games already. “During that spring season it gave me a chance to really identify some areas of concern inside of our program, to figure out players, to figure out schemes. A first-year head coach coming into a long season may be behind the eight ball a little bit, and there’s still parts of where we’re at where we’re behind, but we’re also ahead of schedule when you start talking about stuff like that.

“Now we know kids, we know how the operations inside the workings of the university, the athletic program and the football program work, and we’re not having to play catch up and chase. We’re getting out in front of some things that may have been issues for a first-year coach in a new program. We’ve had some good practices as a result of that, and I think we’re ahead of schedule for a first-year program under new leadership, and that’s the exciting thing moving forward.”

The Yellow Jackets are bringing back 61 of the 95 players that competed in the spring season, and Bachtel feels that ranks among HPU’s greatest strengths.

“This is the first time in several years where we’ve retained 60 or more, so the numbers are good,” Bachtel said. “The leadership of our older guys is also good. When you’ve got some senior leaders who are extensions of our coaching staff on the field, that’s a great thing. And I think we’re starting to see some experience on the field because of retention numbers, especially at key positions – Landon McKinney coming back, we return three of our five offensive linemen, we return all three starters on the defensive line, the linebacking corps is solid, then in our secondary all five guys starting started all five games for us in the spring. You’re starting to see some retention numbers and some experience playback in our favor.”

Among the players to watch for HPU are the aforementioned McKinney, the ASC Freshman of the Year who threw for 1,310 yards and nine touchdowns with no interceptions in his first five college games as a quarterback.

The offensive line will feature Bryant Williams and Ja’Kobe Nutall at the tackles, Chase Iverson and Tyler Howard at the guards, and Justin Tesno at center. In the spring, HPU averaged 29 points and 466 yards – second-most in the ASC – and a conference-best 270 yards passing per outing.

All-American receiver Jake Parker is back after leading the nation in receiving yards with 754 on 39 receptions – including 6 touchdowns – in just five games. Other receivers to keep an eye on include Hunter Cheek, Selah Smith, Collyn Shipley and Otis Lanier.

Defensively, the Yellow Jackets will attempt to improve upon the 31 points and 472 yards surrendered per game during the spring.

The line is headed up by James Jakubowski, Somage Wynn, Brevin Wilson, and Kaleb Jones. The linebacking corps features Dai’Shawn Fisher and Peyton Lowe, and all five secondary starters from the spring return – Byron Clark, James Brown, Kyle Bell, Dylan Zeno, Mark Taplette.

HPU began the spring with a 39-38 home loss to Texas Lutheran in a game decided by a two-point conversion in the closing seconds. Batchel stated the outcome has stuck with the Yellow Jackets through the offseason.

“From the time we’ve ended our season that was our rally cry,” Batchel said. “That set us off on a path and trajectory that we were chasing ball games at that point. 39-38 is etched all over our memory, it’s something we talk about daily. We talk about how for 3 ½ quarters we won a ball game, but we didn’t finish in the last half of the fourth quarter and ultimately it cost us in the win/loss column,. Our kids know it, our kids have had it marked, our kids are excited and ready to hit somebody different. There’s a been a different feel in the air this week, and that’s TLU. That was our conference opener last year and it’s our conference opener this year. I really expect our kids to come out and light it up.”

Bachtel stated the Bulldogs have experienced more turnover than HPU since the spring concluded, so Saturday’s contest could present some surprises.

“It’s hard to say because the first game of the year you don’t have to exchange video based on the NCAA rules,” Bachtel said. “Last year was the first year for the offensive coordinator so we expect their game plan to be similar, but maybe a little more diverse now that he has five ballgames in with those kids. The only exception to that rule is they’ve had a lot of turnover on their roster. They had a lot of turnover on their coaching staff. Their projected two-deep right now appears to be very young.”

“We feel like they’re going to change a little bit defensively because they hired a new defensive coordinator. We expect them to play some of their traditional three-man that they played against us ever since I’ve been in the conference. But we also are expecting a four-man front so we’re ready for that.”

As for the Yellow Jackets themselves – who were picked to finish sixth in the ASC preseason coaches and media poll – Bachtel listed the keys to reversing the outcome of the spring opener.

“We want to see if we are the hardest workers on the field everyday,” Bachtel said. “Are we more physical, are we physically dominant on both lines and across the field? From a locker room standpoint, are we united, can you see the unity on our sideline on both sides of the ball?

“Then when you break down the ball game we played last time, we have to eliminate the turnovers. They also recovered a pooch kick last year. We’ve got to shore up the special teams and we have to find a way to steal a possession or two from them and capitalize on any of their mistakes, those are the big things. I think, more importantly, I want to see if we have the freshmen I think we do, and I think we have some really great ones here. Can they make an impact early, and if they can that only helps us build this thing.”

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AMERICAN SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE

Conference Overall

Austin College 0 0 0 0

Belhaven 0 0 0 0

East Texas Baptist 0 0 0 0

Hardin-Simmons 0 0 0 0

Howard Payne 0 0 0 0

Mary Hardin-Baylor 0 0 0 0

McMurry 0 0 0 0

Southwestern 0 0 0 0

Sul Ross 0 0 0 0

Texas Lutheran 0 0 0 0

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Week 1 Games

Texas Lutheran at Howard Payne

East Texas Baptist at UW-Platteville

Millsaps at Belhaven

Hendrix at Austin College

McMurry, OPEN

Wayland Baptist at Hardin-Simmons

Simpson at Mary Hardin-Baylor

Southwestern at Cal Lutheran