The ninth ranked ACU football team will put their 1-0 record to the test tomorrow night when they open up conference play against the twenty-fourth ranked Texas A&M Kingsville Javelinas.

The Wildcats got the better of their LSC foe last season in a 42-34 shootout on the road. This season, the ‘Cats are looking to take down the Javelinas for the ninth straight year.

Last year, the Wildcats entered the fourth quarter down by six, but finished the game with fourteen unanswered points and ruined Kingsville’s senior night.

Both Darien Hogg and Taylor Gabriel went over the hundred yard mark receiving, and Gale finished the game with over 400 yards through the air.

This season, the ‘Cats defense will have to be on the lookout for senior running back Jonathan Woodson, who hammered the ACU front seven last year for a staggering 243 yards and three touchdowns.

“Our front four, it all starts with those guys,” head coach Ken Collums said. “They are going to compress the holes in the run game and try to get Woodson to bounce. If you give Jonathan Woodson a downhill path, he’s so fast he is a game breaker.”

Woodson ran for over 1,000 yards during his junior season, and will undoubtedly be the focal point of an explosive Javelinas offense that needs to run the ball effectively in order to keep the ball away from ACU’s lethal offense.

“They have some fast guys at receiver and running back,” defensive back L.B. Suggs said. “We’ll have to really get back in coverage, and be able to tackle their running back. We have to tackle, they do a lot of options and zone read, so we have to get our head across and wrap him up.”

On the defensive side of the ball, the Javelina’s will attempt to get their tackling machine Jeremy Agular into the flow of the game early. Agular made over 90 tackles last season.

Offensively the ‘Cats should have no problems moving the ball on a defense that gave up nearly 30 points per game last season. The Wildcat’s offense may not score 51 points again, but the purple and white will spend their fair share of time in the end zone tomorrow.

Darian Dulin’s new look defense will make their LSC debut tomorrow night after shutting out the War Hawks last week. Sophomore Nick Richardson is coming off an ACU record six sack performance, and could very well cause havoc in the opponent backfield for a second straight week.

“I was very pleased with our pressure,” Collums said. “I think that’ll be a theme for us for anybody that tries to drop back on us all season, us getting pressure on them without the blitz.”

The first conference game of Collum’s ACU career will be tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. in the friendly confines of Shotwell Stadium.