After combining for 107 points against Northern Colorado, the Wildcats travel to Houston Baptist to open Southland Conference play.
ACU has defeated HBU all three times the teams have met, with the latest a 49-21 win last year in Abilene.
Despite the past success against the Huskies, head coach Ken Collums said this is a team that keeps improving and cannot be taken lightly.
“We’ve done well against Houston Baptist in the past, but we all know it really doesn’t matter how you’ve done in the past,” Collums said. “They’ve got good players, and they’ve got skill guys they can throw that ball up to. They’ve got several very capable running backs that if you’re not doing a good job against them, they can score from anywhere on the field.”
As the Wildcats head to Houston they will be looking for their first road win since Nov. 15, 2014, having lost their last seven away from Shotwell Stadium. However, ACU is 2-0 at Husky Stadium and outscored HBU 128-26 in those two wins.
Houston Baptist is coming off 24-20 win over Texas Southern, but is 0-1 in Southland Conference play after opening the season with a 56-13 loss against Central Arkansas.
Junior transfer D.J. Fuller hauls in a pass during the 55-52 loss to Northern Colorado. Through the first two games Fuller has 11 catches for 191 yards and two touchdowns.
ACU enters Saturday 0-2, but showed promise offensively against Northern Colorado putting up 565 yards of total offense, including 239 yards on the ground.
“Well we need a win, we’re 0-2 and this just happens to be a conference game, it didn’t matter who we were playing this week we need a win,” Collums said.
Redshirt sophomore Riley Mayfield is playing in just his third game after missing all of last season with a knee injury, but is confident in the run game heading to HBU, despite junior DeAndre Brown’s recent injury.
“As an offensive line we take a lot of pride in moving people around and the running game,” Mayfield said. “When you can do that at the level we did on Saturday it’s a big confidence boost.”
Defensively each team has struggled to slow down opposing offenses. Through two games ACU has allowed 92 points and HBU has given up 76, but ACU has also scored 72 compared to HBU’s 37. Junior linebacker Sam Denmark continues to anchor the defense with 22 tackles this season, and he recorded the 237th tackle of his career against Northern Colorado to rank him 14th all-time.
The Wildcats have won their last two conference openers, and have outscored opponents 70-21 in those games. When ACU takes the field on Saturday it will be looking for its second Southland Conference road win since rejoining in 2013.
