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GAME NOTES | SAU | NWOSU | GAC Weekly FB Notebook

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First Road Test
The Southern Arkansas football team is preparing for its first road test of the 2015 season as they will make the long nine-hour trek to Alva, Okla. to take on Northwestern Oklahoma State. The Muleriders last traveled to Northwestern in 2013 and came back home with a 47-14 win in hand. Last season, the Muleriders experienced some difficulties on the road as they went 1-4 with their lone victory away from Wilkins Stadium coming in the season finale at Arkansas-Monticello, a 66-42 win.

This year, the Muleriders will look to improve on the road, but their first opportunity away from Magnolia comes with added fanfare at their intended destination as Northwestern Oklahoma is calling for a "Black-Out" of their expected big crowd for their home-opener that is to feature the unveiling of brand field turf and a state-of-the-art press box and suites.
 

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About Northwestern Oklahoma
SCHEDULE
The Northwestern Oklahoma Ranger football team enters play this weekend with a 1-0 record overall and a 1-0 mark in the Great American Conference after a 52-31 week one victory on the road over Arkansas-Monticello. This weekend's game will be the Rangers' first at home in 2015 and NWOSU is set to proudly unvail their new field turf as well as a brand new state-of-the-art pressbox during pre-game ceremonies.

THE COACH
The Rangers are coached by Matt Walter, who is the midst of his first year as the head coach at Northwestern Oklahoma. A NWOSU graduate and All-America football player, Walter helped the Rangers to a NAIA National Championship in 1999. Prior to his appointment at Northwester, Walter served the previous six years as the strength and conditioning coach as well as offensive coordinator at Emporia State in the MIAA.

SCOUTING THE OFFENSE
Offensively, Northwestern featured an explosive attack in their first game under Coach Walter as the Rangers totaled 459 yards of offense with 379 yards coming through the air and 80 on the ground. The offensive output was the highest single-game total for the Rangers since the 2013 season. Guiding the offensive outburst in week one was junior quarterback Reid Miller. In that game, Miller would throw for 379 yards on 33-of-45 passing with five touchdown tosses as well. Miller's outstanding statistical night resulted in him being named the Great American Conference Offensive Player of the Week for the first week of play.

On the receiving end of Miller's big game were 10 different Rangers with Justin Lord and Justin Schanbacher hauling in the most passes with six each. Lord and Schanbacher also each caught two TD passes with Horatio Smith catching the other.

In the running game, the Rangers would only gain 80 net yards on 31 attempts, but two of the touches found paydirt as Davante Bourque and Zachry Doyle each had touchdowns while nearly splitting all of the carries.

SCOUTING THE DEFENSE
Defensively, Northwestern Oklahoma allowed 31 points and 418 yards of total offense to Arkansas-Monticello in week one, but the Rangers were able to force five turnovers with four of those coming as fumble recoveries. Additionally, the Rangers were able to convert those takeaways into 28 points as they were able to overcome an early 17-0 deficit on their way to a 52-31 win. The leading tackler for the Rangers in week one was Derrick Thompson as he had 10 total tackles. The fumble recoveries went to Chris Ladd, Theodis Williams, Caden Cacek and Caleb Longest while the interception was taken in by Ladd.

THE SERIES
This will be just the sixth meeting all-time between Southern Arkansas and Northwestern Oklahoma and will be the third-straight season in which the two will face off as members of the Great American Conference. Despite not being conference opponents unitl 2013, the series was already three games deep with the two teams playing in 1977 and 1978 as well as in 1997. This weekend's game will be the third meeting in Alva with SAU winning the first two matchups. Overall, the Muleriders have a 4-1 lead in the all-time series and have won three straight.
 

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SAU NEWS AND NOTES
"It's Our Time"
With the departure of several househould names within the Great American Conference ranks including the starting quarterbacks at Harding, Henderson State, and Ouachita, it appears that landscape that has been the top of the GAC over the last three-to-four years may be in for a shakeup in 2015. While the Muleriders are among those that will feature a new starting quarterback, head coach Bill Keopple feels that his 2015 team may be the most talented team in his tenure and feels that this year is when the Muleriders make their move to assert themselves as the class of the GAC; rallying his team on a single mantra since spring ball; "It's Our Time."

.500 or Better Three Years Running
Last season, the Muleriders finished the year 5-5 over their 10-game schedule to give them a .500 winning percentage. That marked the third-straight season in which the Muleriders have finished with a .500 winning percentage or better. In those three years, the Muleriders are 19-12 overall for a .613 winning percentage, which marks the best three-year stretch ar SAU since 2002-04.

Fountain of Youth
After losing over 25 seniors a year ago, the Muleriders appear to have found the ever-elusive fountain of youth heading into the 2015 season as an overwhelming majority of the roster will be underclassmen. This season, the Muleriders will field only 20 upperclassmen with 12 of those being seniors. While the Muleriders will be young in terms of experience, they figure to be a talented bunch all the same. Listed among the preseason two-deep, the Muleriders have 28 underclassmen that are projected to either be a starter or backup in 2015.

Dazzling Debuts
Week one of the 2015 college football season served as the collegiate debut of several redshirt and true freshmen on the Southern Arkansas team and many of those debuts were nothing short of spectacular. Redshirt QB Barrett Renner got the nod under center and passed for 336 yards on 27-of-44 passing with a pair of TDs. Renner also got loose for 50 yards on the ground to bring his total offensive numbers to just under 400 yards.

Defensively, the Muleriders had two redshirt freshmen and one true freshman make an impact along the D-Line as Kendrix McCann, Davondrick Lison, and Anthony Washington all had assisted sacks with Lison in on all three SAU sacks.

Welcome to the 300-Yard Club 
In his collegiate debut, redshirt freshman Barrett Renner threw for 336 yards making him the third different QB in the last three years to throw for over 300 yards. It also is the 16th time in the last four years that SAU has thrown for over 300 yards in a game.

Mr. Utility
Sophomore wide receiver Jonathan Weisheit got his 2015 season off to a great start as he shined in multiple roles for the Muleriders against Southwestern Oklahoma. As a wide receiver, Weisheit hauled in a game-high seven receptions for 136 yards with one touchdown. The TD went for 75 yards and came late in the fourth quarter while serving as the eventual game-winning score. Weisheit then added 54 yards one carry in the rushing game and 13 yards on his lone punt return. That punt return also set up the TD strike which occured on the first play of SAU's ensuing drive.

Playing Nickel Back is Cool
Senior defensive back Chris Wilson has made the move to Nickel Back in the Muleriders' revamped defensive scheme and in the first game of the year, Wilson appeared to take to the new position just fine. Wilson would rack up 8.0 total tackes with 3.5 going for lost yardage. Additionally, Wilson broke up two passes and had a quarterback hurry as well.

Defense Stands Tall
The Southern Arkansas defense stood talll when it needed to the most in SAU's 28-24 win over Southwestern Oklahoma in week one. After the Bulldogs took the lead 24-22 on a blocked punt that went for a safety with 8:55 remaining, the Mulerider defense went into complete shutdown mode on SWOSU's final three possessions of the game.

Over those three possessions, the Bulldogs would be forced to go three-and-out twice and on their final possession would cough the ball up on a sack/forced fumble by Davondrick Lison and Kendrix McCann. All told, the Muleriders held the Bulldogs to -8 yards to close out the game after SAU fell behind.