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Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team will open defense of its 2009 American Southwest Conference Co-Championship when the Cru kicks off ASC play at McMurry University this Saturday. UMHB will enter the game ranked 5
th in the country by D3football.com and the Cru is 1-0 after posting the biggest comeback in school history in a 24-19 victory at Wisconsin-La Crosse last Saturday. McMurry is also unbeaten at 2-0 on the season and the team has outscored its opponents 105-6 through the first two weeks of the season. The Cru has won nine straight meetings with McMurry by a combined score of 473-84. But last year's meeting was close before UMHB blew it open late on the way to a 41-8 victory. After last week's come-from-behind victory, the Cru knows that it will face a challenge in every game.
“We learned that we have guys who are going to fight to the end and that we've got some players with great character,” Cru head coach
Pete Fredenburg said. “We can't take anything for granted because the circumstances are different every week and we are going to get everyone's absolute best shot. We've got to be ready for that and be up to the challenge.”
Part of that challenge will come from a McMurry defense that is holding opponents to just 138 yards of total offense per game and 3.0 points per contest. But that defense is often overshadowed by McMurry's “Air Raid” passing attack. McMurry will come into the game averaging 498 yards of total offense and 52.5 points per game.
“They are going to make some yards and make some plays,” Fredenburg said. “We can't let that frustrate us defensively and we have to stick to our plan and keep doing what we do. This is going to be a huge challenge for our defensive line and they will have to step up and play well.”
Meanwhile, the Cru rushing attack rolled up 242 yards in last week's win and
Quincy Daniels went over the 100-yard mark for the 14
th time in his career. Daniels finished with 144 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries. But the Cru also turned the ball over four times and will have to find a way to eliminate the turnovers. UMHB will turn the starting quarterback job over to
LiDarral Bailey this week. Bailey threw for 138 yards and a score and ran for 50 more in relief of
Kyle Noack.
The game will be a 6:00 PM kickoff at Wilford Moore Stadium on the McMurry campus. You can listen to the game on KTEM-1400 AM or listen to a live Internet stream of the broadcast through the UMHB athletic department web site at
www.cruathletics.com. McMurry will also offer a pay-per-view video stream and live statistics through the McMurry athletic department web site.
