The Wildcats will play their final 2024 regular season game against the Stephen F Austin University Lumberjacks on Saturday.
This game comes a week after the Wildcats secured the United Athletic Conference title against Tarleton State University, and clinched an FCS playoff berth.
“There’s a difference, there’s a sense of accomplishment,” said Head Coach Keith Patterson. “But we’re still not satisfied with where we are as a program. We still want to continue to raise the standard.”
The final regular season game for the Wildcats was originally set to be their final conference game, however, with the late departure of SFA from the UAC, the game will serve as a non-conference matchup for both teams.
The Lumberjacks will enter the game with a 6-5 record after falling to the No.6 ranked University of the Incarnate Word Cardinals last weekend. Despite the teams’ record, they have scored over 35 points per game while only giving up an average of around 17 to their opponents.
Running back Qualan Jones has led the way for the run game, rushing for 717 yards and six touchdowns so far this season.
Quarterback Sam Vidlack has an impressive year under center, throwing for 2387 yards and 27 touchdowns in the nine games he has played.
The high-powered offense will face a Wildcat defense coming off of a game where they gave up 304 passing yards and over 20 yards per reception. This bodes well for wide receivers Kylon Harris, Jordan Nabors and Blaine Green who have all had great receiving seasons.
Kylon Harris leads the team in receiving yards and touchdowns with 958 and nine respectively.
The Wildcats, however, now have two receivers with over 800 yards receiving. Blayne Taylor leads the team with 951 while Nehemiah Martinez I has 824.
The keys to the game for the Wildcats will be to take care of the football and to play the way they have through the last few weeks of the season.
“We just need to keep doing what we’re doing,” Patterson said. “The way I put it was ‘stick to the plan.’”.
Patterson also said the team has been ‘really good’ on third downs on both sides of the ball and in the red zone so far this season.
“They’re a typical Stephen F Austin team,” said Patterson. “They play really good defense, they’re athletic on both sides of the ball and they’re going to give you everything that they’ve got.”
With a win on Saturday, the Wildcats will have an opportunity to move into the top eight seeds in the FCS playoffs and earn a bye week through the first round of the playoffs. If the team is not ranked in the top eight seeds after their final game, they will play their first-ever FCS playoff game next weekend.
