ACU (1-0, 0-0) heads on the road this Saturday for its first road test of the year when it takes on Prairie View A&M (1-0, 1-0) at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Panther Stadium.
The two teams met in Abilene last year in the second game of the season where the Wildcats got the win 21-13
The Wildcats are coming off an impressive week one win where they took down Northern Colorado 31-11. Both the offense and defense shined for the Wildcats last Thursday night and head coach Keith Patterson will look to build off the success from last week.
“We were obviously very pleased,” Patterson said. “Winning is hard and you don’t ever take it for granted. I really liked the way our players prepared for the game. I really thought they were as prepared as any game since we’ve been here and the coaching staff did a great job putting together gameplans.”
The Panthers took their first game of the season last weekend as well, taking down Texas Southern, 37-34, in an overtime thriller.
The one area the Wildcats held a major advantage in week one came with the running backs and offensive line. The veteran O-Line was able to help the Wildcat running backs rush for 255 yards, led by junior running back Jeramiah Dobbins.
“We knew one of the strengths of our football team was going to be our offensive line up front,” Patterson said. “They showed dominance early in that game, controlling the line of scrimmage.”
The one player to watch going into Saturday night however, is redshirt-freshman running back Xavier Wishert. In his first collegiate game Wishert rushed for 58 yards on 10 carries, accounting for two of the Wildcats four touchdowns. His opening performance was enough to earn him the title of UAC player of the week.
The Wildcat secondary will look to shut down the Southwestern Athletic Conference player of the week, Trazon Connely, who went 20-of-33 passing for 275 yards with two touchdowns in the Panthers week one win.
“Obviously he’s a tremendous talent,” Patterson said. “He can extend plays, is very very athletic and does a nice job pushing the ball down the field. They are very explosive offensively.”
The penalty flags could play a large part come Saturday night as the Wildcats more than doubled their average flag count from last year in game one. The late game flags set up UNC with better field position allowing some easy points which could be much more costly against a high scoring offense like Prairie View.
Looking to go 2-0 for the second time in Patterson’s two seasons, the Wildcats will look to keep their early season momentum going when they take on a high flying Panther offense come Saturday night.
“You only get 11 opportunities to play the 12th,” Patterson said. “We try to make sure we take the things we did well from the game and we take the things we need to correct and we get them corrected and once we turn the light out on the game now it’s already moved on. Everything now is moving towards step two and that’s Prairie View A&M.
