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NACOGDOCHES,Texas – For the second-consecutive week, McMurry University will take on an NCAA Division I FCS foe, this time traveling to Stephen F. Austin University for a 6 p.m. kickoff. Both the War Hawks (0-1) and Lumberjacks (0-2) will be searching for their first win of the young season.
McM will be returning to a place in Homer Bryce Stadium which does not hold fond recent memories. The last time the two teams met in the 2011 season opener, SFA rolled over the War Hawks, 82-6. It is both McM's largest margin of defeat in a game and the most points allowed to an opponent in the 88-year history of McMurry football.
"Hopefully we've gotten bigger," McM head coach Mason Miller said when asked about the difference between facing SFA now and in 2011. "It was a good experience for us. Obviously we go out there to be successful every time and grow from our mistakes.
"(Homer Bryce Stadium) is a great venue for our kids to play in and a great opponent. Obviously it's a challenge; but one we are willing to accept.
"I told the guys I could have easily gone out and scheduled a lesser opponent to go out there and play, but that's not going to do us any good. All that does is make us feel good about ourselves. When you play great teams your weaknesses and areas needing correction are exposed. That's what we did; that's what we're going to do to get these guys to the level (we want to be at)."
In this year's opening game, McMurry lost to cross-town rival Abilene Christian University, 60-17. Despite the lopsided score, the McM squad rolled up 406 yards in total offense against the Wildcats. Included in that total was 215 rushing yards.
The passing game netted 191 yards. Sophomore signal-caller
Brady Lambert was 22-of-35 for 187 yards in his first collegiate start.
The main benefactor of those passing yards was junior receiver
Jeret Smith. Smith made seven catches for 81 yards. In all, no less than 10 different War Hawk players caught a pass.
On the defensive side of the ball, defensive back
Desmond Guy racked up a career-best 13 tackles versus ACU. Freshman
Jacob Perez got his college career off on a memorable start on special teams, with a fumble recovery in the end zone of a fumbled kickoff, good for his first collegiate TD.
SFA is coming off of consecutive road losses to Weber State (50-40) and Texas Tech (61-13) to open the 2013 campaign. The Lumberjacks are averaging 368.5 yards per game in total offense.
McMurry leads the al-time series versus SFA by a 6-4-2 margin. The first meeting between the teams was in 1927, the first of two 0-0 ties in the series (the other was 1966). The teams met in consecutive years from 1927-30 and 1965-71, as well as in 2011.
The game can be heard locally on KSLI 1280 AM with the pre-game show beginning at 5:45 p.m. Kit Kimbrell and David Bacon call all the action. The game can also be heard over the internet by connecting to the links at mcmurrysports.com.
