FB: American Southwest Conference

[Kelly Boggs]

Great feature on UMHB's Teidrick Smith by Around the South columnist Brian Lester. While there is no doubt Smith is having another great year, fellow D-linemen Haston Adams, John Thorn and Jon Isom are also playing at a high level right now. Some longtime CRU fans that I've talked to believe this is one of the best, if not the best, defensive fronts UMHB has ever put on the field. Time will reveal just how good they are.

UP with the PURPLE!

[GillCJ1]

Good article and good observation.  They are fun to watch.  That game against Belhaven was unreal.

[DFWCrufan]

Very power line indeed, we will have to corrall Barolle, but I would have to agree

[GillCJ1]

Hunter Sims named next head coach at Howard Payne University.  He's their current OC.

http://www.ascsports.org/news/2015/10/14/FB_1014154808.aspx

He will be taking over for Roger Geise, who last week announced he would be retiring at the end of the season.

[umhb2001]

Very power line indeed, we will have to corrall Barolle, but I would have to agree

The key here is our LB's. We recruited several LB's this off season, and they have done a great job in bottling RB's this year. The CB's that we have are also better than expected. They have good vision and attack the ball well. Those big hits on Saturday were a testimony to that!

[DFWCrufan]

The highlights for UMHB Vs. Sul Ross    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-xNNoWvULM

[GillCJ1]

UMHB vs Louisiana College Game Notes:

http://cruathletics.com/documents/2015/10/15//Game_Notes_LC_2015.pdf?id=1033

[Kelly Boggs]

Thanks, DFW and Gill. Good stuff!

[GillCJ1]

Cru wins with another dominant performance.  Offense seemed fairly balanced, and the D was great as usual.  In fact, they really only gave up one big play all day.  Penalties were down from last several games, too.  A big shout-out to Sr. DE Jon Isom for continuing the sack trend and setting a new ASC single game record with 5!  Next up is TLU at the Cruthedral.

[umhb2001]

Cru wins with another dominant performance.  Offense seemed fairly balanced, and the D was great as usual.  In fact, they really only gave up one big play all day.  Penalties were down from last several games, too.  A big shout-out to Sr. DE Jon Isom for continuing the sack trend and setting a new ASC single game record with 5!  Next up is TLU at the Cruthedral.

Did the offense start slow again? At one point the LC commentators said it should have been 21-0 but was 6-0.

[GillCJ1]

Cru wins with another dominant performance.  Offense seemed fairly balanced, and the D was great as usual.  In fact, they really only gave up one big play all day.  Penalties were down from last several games, too.  A big shout-out to Sr. DE Jon Isom for continuing the sack trend and setting a new ASC single game record with 5!  Next up is TLU at the Cruthedral.

Did the offense start slow again? At one point the LC commentators said it should have been 21-0 but was 6-0.

Yep.  Pair of field goals.  Cru starts slow more often that not.  Fortunately, they kicked it in to gear and controlled the rest of the game.

[Kelly Boggs]

UMHB's defense was smothering against LC on Saturday. The Wildcats never got anything going. The Purple CRUsh front four were devastating. The offense continues to improve. If/when UMHB starts coming out of the gate strong and really gets the run blocking on track, this team will be very, very good.

The CRU just needs to continue to improve each week. One game at a time.

TLU will visit The CRUthedral this week. The Bulldogs will come into the game ranked #24 by D3football.com. TLU will be the best team UMHB has faced this season. Just a little reminder, the two teams met twice last year. In game one played at Seguin, The CRU dominated TLU winning 72-16. In game two, the first round of the playoffs played at Belton, UMHB held on to win a bizarre weather delayed game, that was completed on Sunday afternoon, winning 27-20.

Having lost to HSU earlier in the season, there is no doubt that TLU has its back against the wall and it playing for its playoff life. A loss to UMHB will end any playoff hopes the Bulldogs might now harbor.

I believe The CRU will show up ready to rumble on Saturday and will start on offense better than they have this season. I am hoping for another decisive win.

GO CRU!

[DFWCrufan]

So my feed went down and I could only see the game from LC's feed, and I have to admit those guys they have doing their color and play by were freaking hilarious, I enjoyed the game so much. They were fair on their calls across the ball, not really a one sided take, and added so much to the broadcast, I was near in tears at some of the calls, like when Malcolm broke out on his scoring rush and a single defender tried to hit him at the waist and bounced off like he tried to tackle a mack truck, the commentators were...You don't stop a rusher like miller trying to get him at the waist son....Then proceeded to ask, What does Miller really weigh? 230? of 260? So I give kudos to the guys, it was like sitting with some knowlegable fans in the stands, and just talking about the game, really enjoyed it...Even the mrs's enjoyed it...(she is a jon and coach fan, anything else she isn't interested)
So what was this air game, I have to admit it looked like Zach was just having a blast out on the field. To me, it just looked like the Cru lightened up a bit and just played the game they can, they just seemed to be that much more relaxed. I dunno maybe they are settling into the groove, more comfortable perhaps, but it appeared to be a dominant, relaxed and confident team out there...

[GillCJ1]

Regarding the AFCA (#2) and d3football.com (#3) rankings for the Cru...

It's difficult to remain unbiased, and some of my fellow Cru fans may disagree with me, but I 100% agree with Pat in this case (assume this is who controls the d3fb twitter account?).  I don't really understand why we are ranked #2 ahead of Linfield in that poll, either.  There's nothing in recent history to suggest UMHB should be ahead of them.  Even putting aside the fact that they lost to Linfield in the 2nd round of last year's playoffs, the quality of opponents and margins of victory so far this year don't really point in the Cru's favor, either.

The Cru has 2 straight weeks against challenging opponents.  There's not much point in fretting over their ranking if they can't focus on the here and now.  Remember - no AQ for the ASC right now.  They play for that lone Pool B bid (and home field playoff advantage, at least part of the way) each and every week.

[GillCJ1]

One more thing to keep an eye on this week.  The forecast is currently calling for a 60% chance of thunderstorms in the Belton area for Saturday.  Let's hope this doesn't turn into another delayed game!