Live Video / Audio Link | Game Notes

ABILENE, Texas - The last four games of the regular season will define the 2011 season for the McMurry University football team. The War Hawks set out to win an American Southwest Conference title in its final season as a conference and NCAA Division III member.

The pursuit encountered a bump in the road with a one-point loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor Sept. 17, but running the table in the final four games puts pressure on the six-time defending ASC champ and is the only show the War Hawks have at gaining an at-large bid if the Crusaders do the same thing.

The path to four-straight wins starts in Seguin Saturday as McMurry looks to take sole possession of second place in the ASC by attempting to knock off unbeaten Texas Lutheran at 1 p.m. at Matador Stadium.

The Bulldogs are 4-1 overall and 3-0 in league play while the War Hawks are 4-2 and 3-1 respectively. The three conference victories for both sides are over the same opponents, and score wise, McMurry averages a larger point spread.

TLU took a 10-point win over East Texas Baptist Sept. 17 (44-34, 9/17), a 38-point victory over Howard Payne (51-13, 9/24), and a 17-point win over Sul Ross State (43-26, 10/1) for an average of 21.7 points spread in conference victories.

The War Hawks took a 32-point win over ETBU (63-31, 9/24), a 47-point victory over Howard Payne (50-3, 10/1), and a 28-point victory over Sul Ross State (41-13, 10/8) for an average of 35.7 points per contest.

The much-improved Bulldogs under second-year head coach Danny Padron turned around a 0-10 season in 2009 to a 4-6 season last year. However, at this point last year, the Bulldogs entered their game with McMurry at 3-2 overall and 2-1 in league play before dropping four out of its last five in the tough part of the ASC schedule beginning with McMurry's 63-14 win over TLU Oct. 16 in Abilene.

The Bulldogs have a similar scenario in front of them in 2011. In their last five games, they'll face McMurry, Hardin-Simmons (10/22), Louisiana College (10/29), Mississippi College (11/5), and UMHB (11/12) to close out the year. TLU will get a chance to prove they've taken the next step to a turnaround while McMurry looks to do the same after consecutive fourth-place league finishes in 2009 and 2010.

Senior linebacker Kyle Kelley said McMurry won't take the Bulldogs for granted.

“TLU is 3-0 in conference their tied with UMHB undefeated, they have a really good team together,” said Kelley. “They have some really good athletes they're returning their quarterback, and it is going to take a lot of effort. It's going to take the same amount of intensity to prepare for them, we sure can't slack off one bit, we've got to keep rolling.”

McMurry head coach Hal Mumme echoed his linebacker's statement.

“If we want to be in the hunt we've got to knock them off and I'm sure they feel the same way about us, and I think it's going to be a good ball game Saturday,” Mumme said. “It's pretty much the same thing they did last year, but they're a year older with experience. They're scoring a lot of points and defensively they're a lot like us they'll give a lot of different looks and coverages.”

Texas Lutheran uses a balanced offensive attack with an average of 189.8 yards on the ground and 160.6 yards through the air. Second-year quarterback Mitchell Bunger averages only 160.6 yard per game through the air but hasn't made many mistakes. He's tossed 10 touchdown passes and only two interceptions while carrying a 55 percent completion percentage.

Dominique Hardaway averaged 59.6 yards per game on the ground and 4.9 yards per carry, but TLU uses four different backs to get yards including Bunger who averages 35.2 yards per contest, Charles Cooper averages 43.8 and Patrick Johnson has scored four touchdowns this season rushing while averaging 29 yards per contest.

On defense, the Bulldogs allow more yards than they produce offensively. TLU has allowed 386.8 yards per contest offensively to its opponents while averaging 384.0 on the offensive side. Bradley Snowden leads the team in tackles with 39 while Marcus Ferree has proved to be one of the top playmakers with 3.5 sacks and a forced fumble.

McMurry's offensive numbers took a hit Saturday when the War Hawks played an abbreviated contest with Sul Ross State where lightning delays forced the teams to play with a running clock midway through the second quarter until the game was called with 14:41 left in the fourth quarter.

However, the War Hawks average 389.2 yards per game with 330.2 of those yards through the air. Jake Mullin has 1,729 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and eight interceptions to accompany a 63.3 percent completion percentage. His favorite two targets are R.J. Long and Delfonte Diamond who average 67.0 and 64.3 receiving yards per game respectively and each has five touchdown grabs.

McMurry's rushing attack is led by Justin Johnson who has 288 yards on 58 carries and three touchdowns. Defensively, McMurry's defense is allowing just 14.6 points per contests in the second half this season, and the War Hawks have allowed only 371.8 yards per game of total offense to their opponents. At the conference level, McMurry's defensive unit has allowed just 250 yards of offense to their opponents.

Will Morris leads McMurry with 36 tackles, three interceptions and two forced fumbles while Chris Williams leads the team with 7.5 tackles for a loss.

The game will be broadcast on 1560 AM KZQQ beginning at 12:45 p.m. and live video and audio will be available on mcmurysports.com/showcase.