Full ASC Release
UMHB-Belhaven Game Notes
BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team is picked to win the East Division in the American Southwest Conference's 2020-21 Preseason Poll. The defending ASC champion Cru picked up 19 of the 20 first-place votes and totaled 99 points in balloting of the ASC head coaches and sports information directors. East Texas Baptist is picked to finish second with the other first-place vote and 79 total points. Southwestern University totaled 53 points as the pick to finish third, Belhaven University is picked fifth with 36 total points and Louisiana College rounds out the five-team East Division with 32 total points.
Hardin-Simmons was picked to win the West Division with 17 first-place votes and 93 total points. Texas Lutheran picked up the other three first-place votes and 80 total points for second place, Howard Payne is picked third with 52 points, Sul Ross State is fourth with 40 points and McMurry is picked fifth with 31 total points.
The ASC will play in a divisional format in football this season for the first time in league history due to the shortened, conference-only schedule forced by the pandemic. The four-game regular season will be followed by a week of cross-over play where the corresponding seeds from each division will face off. This format will set up the first true championship game in ASC football history.
UMHB's
Jefferson Fritz was voted ASC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and
Anthony Avila was named ASC Preseason Special Teams Player of the Year. Fritz, a senior defensive back from Kaufman High School, earned All-American and ASC First Team All-Conference honors after posting 44 total tackles and three interceptions last season. He also holds the ASC and UMHB career interception record. Avila, a junior kicker from Troy High School, was also All-American and earned ASC Special Teams Player of the Year honors in 2019. Avila set a school and conference record with 23 field goals and also hit 64 extra points to finish with 133 points on the season.
Hardin-Simmons junior wide receiver Kevi Evans was voted ASC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. UMHB junior wide receiver
K.J. Miller and senior defensive end
E'Monte Smith joined Fritz and Avila on the Preseason Players to Watch list after also being nominated for Preseason Player of the Year honors.
The Cru went 12-1 overall and won the ASC title with a 9-0 league record last season. The team advanced to the Quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III National Championships before falling to eventual national runner-up Wisconsin-Whitewater. UMHB will open the 20-21 spring season with a noon kickoff at Belhaven University on February 6
th.
