Bearcat Booster Chuck Place of Albany revisits what was known about Abilene Christian before the Aug. 30th season opener, the team that handed Northwest their only loss during the 2008 football season. Here’s what Chuck wrote back in August:
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August 12, 2008
Presented below is information on the Bearcat season opener (Saturday, August 30, 6:00 on Tjeerdsma Field in Bearcat Stadium) opponent Abilene Christian accumulated from several sites. For an almost infinite amount of information on the Bearcats including the complete 2008 160-page Media Guide go to nwmissouri.edu where Northwest SID Bryan Boettcher has all the Bearcat football information you can absorb. Also, on bearcatblitz.com you can find additional info such as articles from area newspapers and fan personal observations of Bearcat practices in their Fan Forum section. So, my niche is information on opponents outside the MIAA/region which is usually just the season opener and some playoff games.
According to Lindy’s College Football 2008 magazine, the season opener at Bearcat Stadium will feature 2 of the 4 best running backs in all of DII. Bernard Scott of Abilene Christian (who was a Harlon Hill runner up in 2007 while Xavier Omon did not make the final 8) was one of two 1st team RB’s. Bearcat Laron Council was named as a 2nd team DII pre-season All-American running back. While I believe Laron Council — and any other running back recruited to Northwest — is a very good running back, it is still a tribute to Northwest recruiting, reputation and blocking that a running back with no career starts at that position would be selected by such a publication as one of the 4 best in the nation (what would be going through Pitt State RB Caleb Farabi’s mind when he sees that?). Bearcat offensive linemen Reid Kirby and Jeremy Davis were both selected as first team pre-season AA while ACU had one OL 2nd team selection. Early information indicates that perhaps Council may not be the automatic starter or play every snap (remember Sheldon Cook rushing for 186 yards in the 2006 Clash of the Champions when both Oman and Council were injured?).
Abilene Christian has been ranked in the Top 25 since 2006 mid-season giving them 21 straight weeks of Top 25 recognition. They were ranked 15th in one poll at the end of 2007 and are in the top 10 of several pre-season polls for 2008. You know the Bearcat history of Top 25 rankings.
In addition to the August 30 game featuring top ranked teams with great All-American running games the result of ACU’s final 2007 game brings the most interesting angle. In their final 2007 game, ACU gave up 36 points in the 4th quarter to give up a 49-20 lead. Chadron State eventually won that game 76-73 in 3 overtimes and hosted Northwest the next week end in the NCAA quarterfinals. Had ACU not had a defensive collapse of epic proportions in 15 minutes (all of the Chadron scoring was on offensive plays from scrimmage instead of the return game or turnovers), then ACU would have played Northwest for the first time in more than 25 years (in Maryville undoubtedly) on December 1, 2007 instead of August 30, 2008. Perhaps the Bearcat fans can remind our guests about that collapse in the last game ACU played.
Abilene Christian has a new defensive coordinator for 2008. Besides the 56 points Chadron scored on ACU in regulation (the 36 in the 4th quarter alone), ACU 2007 opponents averaged 30 points and 427 yards per game and 5.6 yards per play. In their 11 regular season games, ACU gave up 25 or more points 7 times In 2006, ACU gave up an average of 37 points in their final 5 games (tougher part of their schedule) and only held 3 of their 11 regular season opponents under 30 points. So ACU has a new d-coordinator this season — one who has never coached at the college level before but was however a head coach at a Texas high school the previous 3 seasons. But the ACU head coach was a high school coach before getting the ACU job. After going 4-6 his first season he is now 22-12 in 3 years and has been to the play offs the past 2 years with a 1-2 record. The new d-coordinator mentions upgrading the talent level and “a slew of transfers to fix every part of the defense.” ACU lost to West Texas A & M 10-20-07, 31-41. Northwest beat West Texas A & M 11-24-07, 56-28 with Northwest scoring 49 of those points in the first 3 quarters. ACU in 2007 averaged only 34.2 yards per punt with a net after return average of under 30 yards per punt. Defense seems to be not an area of emphasis in the Lone Star Conference.
West Texas A&M hosts ACU 10-18-08 in what an Amarillo sports writer was already was labeling the game of the year. That writer did mention that ACU played at Northwest in their season opener but stated unequivocally that ACU would win against Northwest and enter the WTA&M game undefeated. But that same writer also made comments that indicated he was not aware of the change in the DII regional assignments.
Abilene Christian played a 6-game junior varsity football schedule in 2007. For many years ACU was NAIA and was very successful at that level. The home field for ACU seats 15,000 — but it is not on campus and they share that facility with two Abilene high schools. Their average attendance for home games in 2007 was listed as 8,000.
Offense has not been a problem area for ACU. Three then-juniors combined for 7800 yards in 2007. Runningback Bernard Scott scored 39 touchdowns (35 rushing) and had 234 points — both DII records. He had 2165 yards rushing to lead DII in 2007. Scott also caught 46 passes. Quarterback Billy Malone will be a 4-year starter who passed for 3914 yards and 37 TD’s last season. Wide receiver Johnny Knox (Tyler JC transfer for 2007 6-0, 180#) had 1158 yards receiving and 17 TD’s for ACU in 2007. As a team, they averaged 49 points per game (helped by the 73 at Chadron) and in their 9 victories never were held under 41 points. A DI QB (Tulsa) has transferred to ACU to eventually take over for Malone.
Bernard Scott has a very interesting past. In four years, he played 3 years of football — each year at a different school. His freshman year of eligibility (2004) he gained over a 1000 yards rushing for Central Arkansas and was Gulf Coast Conference freshman of the year. His sophomore year of eligibility was in 2006 when he played for Blinn juco where he did so well that he was ranked as one of the top 3 running backs coming out of all jucos after the 2006 season. Of the 26 players listed as “top juco players available” after 2006, every one of them went to a DI program except for Bernard Scott. The offensive coordinator at Central Arkansas in 2004 was the o-coordinator at ACU in 2007. Coming out of Blinn, Scott was listed as 5’10”, 187 pounds. Lindy’s lists him as 5’10”, 220 pounds in their 2008 magazine.
Scott scored 6 touchdowns in regulation against Chadron. Four of those came on runs totaling 235 yards. The other 25 rushing attempts by ACU that day totaled just 57 yards for just 2.3 yards per attempt. In the 60 minutes of regulation, Chadron controlled the ball 40 minutes but still gave up 56 points (no returns of any kind for any of those touchdowns!!).
With the demise of the North Central Conference (original core made up of 4 Dakota schools, Northern Colorado and UNO) regional assignments for 2008 are different than in 2007. The MIAA is still in the southwest region with the Lone Star Conference but the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (Chadron State and Mesa State in the 2008 playoffs) has been moved to the northwest region with Northern Sun (mostly Minnesota schools) and Great Lakes (Grand Valley State’s conference).
In exchange for the RMAC leaving the southwest region, five independent schools from the Pacific northwest who are in an athletic conference (Great Northwest) that does not sponsor a football competition have been moved from the northwest region to our region. Central Washington (8-2) was the only team from that group that finished in even the top 12 of the northwest region in 2007 but CW did defeat UNO in the play offs. Dixie State (Utah) plays Central Washington, Western Washington and Western Oregon each two times in 2008 to give them their 11 regular season games. The RMAC has usually gotten two of the southwest play off slots and the five independent schools combined have usually gotten only 1 in the tough northwest region. Perhaps another play off slot will be available for a 3rd or 4th MIAA school — although playing well and winning games is undoubtedly a more reliable route to the play offs rather than counting on weak opposition.