Purchase Live Audio / Video Feed of McMurry vs. Hardin-Simmons Football Game Saturday

ABILENE, Texas – To Baylor University fans Grant Teaff is famous for winning the Bears' first Southwest Conference Championship in 50 years in 1974, and he's also known for defeating the Texas Longhorns 10 times over his 21-year tenure at Baylor.

However, for McMurry University fans Teaff is apart of football history that comes to the forefront Saturday. Teaff was the head coach at McMurry from 1960-1965, and in 1963 he led the Indians to a 21-7 victory over cross-town rival Hardin-Simmons.

However, unfortunately for McMurry, the 14-point victory 46 years ago was its last over the Cowboys. In McMurry's defense, HSU dropped the football program following the 1963 season and didn't revive it until 1990.

The Cowboys hired Jimmie Keeling to lead HSU's program, and among its many successes, he's coached the Cowboys to a win over McMurry each year since 1990 and twice in the 1995 and 1996 seasons to tally a 21-game win streak over their cross-town rivals.

Since 1990, there have been only three games between the two schools in which McMurry lost by less than a touchdown. The Cowboys edged the Indians 9-7 in 1990 and then McMurry fell in overtime twice with a 30-27 loss in 1996 and a 30-24 loss in 1998.

There have been some memorable games between the two schools separated by just 4.5 miles since the two overtime wins in the late 190's. In 2005, McMurry led 25-19 in the fourth quarter, however, the Cowboys scored 17-straight points and went on to a 36-25 victory at Shotwell Stadium Oct. 29.

Then, in a school record for combined points in a contest for both teams, Hardin-Simmons outlast McMurry 71-56 in a bizarre four-hour plus game at McMurry's Wilford Moore Stadium.

The one-sided rivalry has been ignited with new life based upon each team's performance in 2009. After losing several key starters including all-America quarterback Justin Feaster, Hardin-Simmons fell on hard times losing four-straight games after a season-opening win to begin 1-4. However, behind the experienced coaching staff led by Keeling and the depth of HSU's roster, the Cowboys have salvaged their season with four consecutive wins and enter Saturday's contest with a 5-4 record overall and a 3-3 mark in American Southwest Conference play.

McMurry had been 2-18 from 2007-2008 under head coach Donny Gray and the football program had posted a 16-63 record since 2001. After Gray's resignation McMurry cleaned house and brought in an entire NCAA Division I coaching staff led by head coach Hal Mumme.

Mumme was the head coach at the University of Kentucky in the late 1990's and New Mexico State's head coach from 2005-08. He also brought along Joe Lee Dunn as defensive coordinator who during his career, had been the defensive coordinator at powerhouse schools such as Mississippi State, Arkansas, South Carolina and Ole' Miss.

With an overhauled staff, McMurry's 0-4 start left fans with a roller coaster of emotions. The first two losses were by a combined eight points and showed fans vast improvement from previous years. However, a 61-14 loss to Mississippi College and a 41-8 defeat suffered to perennial NCAA Division III power Mary Hardin-Baylor had McMurry fans wondering if anything positive could ever happen for the football program.

However, McMurry was able to turn the tide Oct. 3 by snapping a 17-game losing streak to defeat East Texas Baptist 45-21 and since then has rolled to three more wins giving the team a 4-4 overall record and a 4-2 mark in league play putting McMurry in a tie for third place in the nine-team ASC.

Saturday, Mumme said that the it will be the Cowboys' run offense against McMurry's pass offense. With the loss of Feaster, HSU has two running backs with over 500 yards rushing and backup quarterback Taylor Byrd has filled in nicely for the injured Feaster.

“I think Taylor Byrd's done a good job and they've adjusted their offense to him because he's not the same kind of quarterback that [Justin] Feaster is,” Mumme said. “They've done a good job of adjusting clearly since they've won four in a row. [Steven] Rockwell and [Derrick] Grant give them two good backs and they've got an experienced offensive line that do a nice job blocking and they're going to be a tough chore for us.”

Byrd has tossed 11 touchdown passes and thrown eight interceptions in eight games to average 172 yards per game through the air. Grant leads the team with 583 rushing yards on 112 carries (5.2 ypc) and two touchdowns while Rockwell isn't far behind with 551 yards on 103 carries (5.3 ypc) and four touchdowns. Thomas Labian is the team's top receiver with 28 catches, 473 yards and five touchdowns.

HSU will have its hands full with one of the nation's top passers in McMurry sophomore Jake Mullin, but Mumme said that the Cowboys have a lot of strengths defensively.

“They do a lot of things on defense but they're mainly a zone defense team and the guys we're worried about up front is their defensive end [Hank] Hornsby who's a really good pass rusher,” Mumme said. “They've got a couple of good safeties in [Cameron] Cox and [Michael] Tracy that play real hard.”

Mullin became McMurry's single-season record holder in both passing yards and passing completions in McMurry's last game Oct. 24 in a 36-23 win over Texas Lutheran. So far on the season, Mullin has 2,562 passing yards, 24 touchdown tosses and only seven interceptions. He's completed at least 20 passes to six different receivers with Marcus Franklin being the favorite with 46 receptions, 744 yards and eight touchdowns.

Defensively Andrew Wallace, the ASC's leader in tackles, has 83 tackles on the year and the Josh McKinnis and Nick Hernandez have nine and seven tackles for a loss respectively.

“If we can just keep doing what we've done the last four games and not turn the ball over too much, and if Jake has a good day on offense, I think we'll have a good shot of winning our first of these battles with HSU,” Mumme said.

Kickoff at McMurry's Wilford Moore Stadium is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday. The teams play for the Wilford Moore Trophy, which was introduced in 1998. Moore was a player at Hardin-Simmons from 1938-40 and was McMurry's head coach from 1947-54.