Week 9 starts with some good news for Wildcat football, nationally ranked for the first time since Week 3. The team comes in at No. 24 in both the AFCA FCS Coaches Poll and the Stats Perform FCS Top 25.

This comes after the Wildcats completely turned around their season. It’s no secret that the squad started 1-4, but to quote head coach Keith Patterson, the team never went into panic mode. Now 4-4, the team is exactly where it stood through eight games last season.

“I think we knew it was going to be a difficult first five games. I mean, everyone was a ranked opponent,” Patterson said. “That’s why I like it. There’s nowhere to hide, and it allowed us to make some good adjustments and expose some things.”

To recap the season, the Wildcats opened with a loss against No. 20 Lamar, then fell to West Texas FBS big brother No. 12 Texas Tech, followed by another loss to No. 9 Stephen F. Austin.

The Wildcats notched their first win of the year against unranked Idaho; the Vandals later went on to beat No. 1 Montana State. After that, they hosted No. 23 Mercer and lost, then No. 17 West Florida and won. Then they had two weeks of unranked games against Central Arkansas and North Alabama, winning both, bringing the Wildcats to a perfect 3-0 in conference play.

“I think it was just all about the process,” Darius Moore, graduate linebacker, said. “We just trusted the process, trusted our coaching, trusting in each other. We’re right there, and we just have to keep going.”

The squad will have to continue to trust that process because the schedule doesn’t get any easier to close out play in the United Athletic Conference, which Patterson refers to as the SEC of FCS football.

Following Saturday’s Homecoming matchup against West Georgia, the Wildcats face in-state rival and No. 1-ranked Tarleton State, then have No. 9, Austin Peay. They later end the season with a solid Eastern Kentucky team that is coming off a close 16-13 win over No. 23 West Florida, but Patterson says he believes it is only up from here.

“I really believe this team can get better than what we’re playing,” Patterson said. “I think our better football is directly in front of us.”

On Saturday, the Wildcats have a Homecoming matchup against West Georgia, which is 1-7 on the year and 0-3 in conference. The Wolves’ only win came against Division II’s Fort Valley State University.

Things have been looking up for ACU with players getting healthy and returning against North Alabama. The Cats saw some snaps from senior defensive lineman Chris Herpin, a touchdown from senior star running back Alex Broome, and a 76-yard bomb to redshirt senior receiver Cristian Driver, who leads the team in reception yards.

Furthermore, the team has gotten comfortable with its quarterback, who continues to improve, with a career game against North Alabama with 264 yards on 21-for-25 passing and two touchdowns. Parks also has not thrown an interception since Week 4 against Mercer; the Wildcats have not lost a game in which he hasn’t thrown an interception.

Continuing to look ahead, the team says they are more worried about who they are than who they play down the stretch, saying they can only control what they can control.

“We spend a lot of time focusing on us,” Patterson said. “I can’t control anything that goes on with West Georgia, so why would I spend time focusing on West Georgia?”

And Moore echoed his head coach, saying the team is looking inwardly.

“We’re only worried about us in our program,” Moore said. “We’re not worried about what anybody else has to say. I feel like we’re just all on the same page right now, going for that championship.”

Last season, the Wildcats won out the regular season after starting 4-4 to win their second straight UAC championship. The Wildcats are in a similar place as they try to chase that third straight conference trophy, and it starts with West Georgia Saturday at 3 p.m.

“Most people just have a tendency right before they accomplish something great; they tend to stop,” Patterson said. “So that’s been my challenge to our team is that, you have positioned yourself to win four of last five football games. And, man, we got an opportunity to do exactly what we’ve done the last two years and finish strong.”