6/6 Hardin-Simmons (5-0, 2-0, ASC) At Nelson (1-6, 1-4, SAC)
Saturday, Oct. 24 - 1 p.m.
Lumpkins Stadium - Waxahachie, Texas

Broadcast |  Tickets | Full Game Notes 
 
Jesse Burleson Show - https://youtu.be/D5_qlXfZf4g
Player Spotlight – Ty Thompson - https://youtu.be/zNmlR0lXTGY
Hooyah Podcast With Dylan Hardin and coach Jake Freeman - https://hooyahpodcast.podbean.com/e/hooyah-podcast-s2e6/
 
 
Opening Kickoff
Hardin-Simmons will close its non-conference slate with a road game at Nelson University in Waxahachie. The Cowboys beat the NAIA school 68-14 in Abilene last year and the Cowboys are 2-0 all-time in the series. HSU comes into the game with a 5-0 record and Nelson is 1-6. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. at Lumpkins Stadium, the high school stadium in Waxahachie.
 
Nelson Broadcast And Tickets
Nelson uses YouTube to broadcast its games and you can find the link here. There will be a players pass list (limit of four) for tickets. Anyone not on the pass list for the game can purchase tickets here. 
 
Foster Named Finalist For Campbell Trophy
Harrison Foster has been named a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy, awarded by the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame to the nation's top scholar-athlete it was announced on Wednesday. The award is given the top scholar-athlete and combines academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. He had a 3.91 GPA in finance and is pursuing an MBA. He will be honored in a ceremony at the Bellagio Hotel on Dec. 8 at the NFF Awards Dinner. He is the second HSU student-athlete to be a finalist for the "Academic Heisman". joining ZaVious Robbins in 2009.

The Series
HSU has won both games in the series against Nelson University (which used to be called Southwest Assembles of God University). The Cowboys won 68-14 last year in Abilene and won 61-24 in 2015 in Waxahachie.
 
Up Next
The Cowboys travel to Brownwood for a matchup against one of the contenders in the American Southwest Conference. The game is slated for a 1 p.m. kickoff in Brownwood.
 
In The Polls
Hardin-Simmons moved up a spot to No. 6 in both the D3football.com Top 25 and the American Football Coaches Association poll. The Cowboys have been ranked for 136 consecutive weeks, including 77 weeks in the top 10. HSU owns the nation's third-longest active ranking streak. North Central leads the way with 232 consecutive weeks, followed by Saint John's at 147. Wheaton ranks fourth with 90 consecutive weeks. HSU was ranked No. 6 in this week's NCAA NPI rankings of the season. The NPI rankings are used to select and seed teams for the NCAA playoffs.
 
A Cowboy Win Would
• Be the 534th victory in school history.
• Be the third straight win over Nelson.
• Be the 122nd win of the Jesse Burleson era.
• Be the 14th straight in regular-season non-conference action.
• Extend HSU's October winning streak to 26 games.
 
Streaks
• HSU has won 25 straight games in October, dating back to Oct. 26, 2019. The last October loss came on a walk-off field goal by Mary Hardin-Baylor.
• The Cowboys are 26-1 in their last 25 conference games.
• HSU has won 14 straight games at home against ETBU.
• ETBU scored a touchdown last week on the first drive of the second half. It snapped a 35 consecutive game streak of not allowing a TD in that situation.
 
Last Time Out
Hardin-Simmons rolled to a 63-27 win over East Texas Baptist on Saturday in the homecoming game. The Cowboys received a punt return and kickoff return touchdown from Dylan Hardin and Tucker Griffin threw for 356 yards and five touchdowns in his first career start.
 
Versus Scholarship Schools
The Cowboys transitioned to non-scholarship Division III for the 1996-97 school year and have since played 21 scholarship schools. They are 20-1 over that time frame and have won 15 straight games. The games haven't been particularly close. Only five of the games have been less than one score. The average score has been 47.2-16.7.  
 
Next Man Up
Senior transfer quarterback Tucker Griffin made the most of his first start as a Cowboy as he threw for 356 yards and five touchdowns in the 63-27 win over East Texas Baptist. He had scoring tosses of 75, 64, 28, 8 and 5 yards as the Cowboys had 527 yards of total offense. Griffin is from Georgetown, where he played for his dad Chuck, a former HSU graduate assistant. He was filling in for an injured Ty Thompson. He was named the ASC offensive player of the week.
 
Historic Day For Hardin
Dylan Hardin became the first Cowboy to return a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown in the same game. He returned a punt 64 yards for a score right before halftime and added a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. He now has two punt return and two kickoff return touchdowns on the year. He leads the nation in punt returns with a 28.8 yard average and is second in kickoff returns, averaging 40.0 yards per return. He tied Reese Childress, Jessie Ramos and Dameon Gomes as the only Cowboys with two punt return TDs in a season. Alex Bell, Ramos and Gomes each have the school record with three kickoff return touchdowns in a season. He was named the ASC Special Teams player of the week for the third time this season and was also on the D3football.com Team of the Week.  
 
Receiver Room Doing Work
Jairdyn Anderson was a little overshadowed on Saturday with Hardin and Tucker's big days. Anderson had eight catches for 141 yards and scored three times. Wes Douglas had five catches for 132 yards and Harison Brockway scored on a 75-yard touchdown.
 
Doing The Dirty Work
The Cowboys' success against the run this season has been well documented. Although his tackle numbers aren't massive Caden Sampson Stuckey has been the anchorman up front. He often takes on double teams and opens up lanes for the speedy linebackers to come in and make the tackles. He was only credited with two tackles last week put his penetration in the backfield reset the line of scrimmage over and over again.
 
Cleaning It Up
Kaiden Roden has been a tackling machine his entire career and seems to be around the ball on every running play. How assisted tackles are credited is up for interpretation and only two players can be credited with tackles. He's officially been credited with 47 tackles on the year and could easily have 8-10 more. He leads the ASC with 9.0 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks and is second with his 47 tackles. He now has 214 career tackles and his 129 assisted tackles rank seventh in school history. 
 
Sack Attack
The Cowboys added four more sacks last week and are up to 20 on the year, which leads the nation. Kaiden Roden leads the way with 4.5 for 17 yards and freshmen Tyett Morris has 3.5 sacks for 23 yards. HSU also ranks seventh in tackles for loss as a team. Not only did the Cowboys get to the quarterback four times, they had eight quarterback hurries. Sophomore linebacker Colyn Donnelly had five of those hurries. HSU is second nationally allowing, 42 yards per game on the ground.
 
Complimentary Football
The Cowboys are averaging 17 points per game from its QRF units. The Cowboy defense is allowing just 17.6 points per game. Offensively, the Cowboys are averaging 48.2 points per game which is fifth nationally.
 
First Time
Cowboy tight end Chris Woodley had his first career touchdown catch on Saturday, an 8-yarder from Tucker Griffin in the third quarter. He now has five catches for 67 yards on the season. Cowboy Devo quarterback Seth Mayberry saw his first career varsity action on Saturday. He had two rushes for 13 yards.  
 
Third-Down Success
Part of the Cowboys' winning formula this year has been its work on third down. HSU is converting 61.5 percent of its third downs, which ranks second nationally. The defense is only allowing a 31.6 percent conversion rate. HSU is 58-0 all-time under Jesse Burleson when they convert 50 percent or better on third down. HSU has been over 50 percent in three of the five games this year.
 
Field Position Game
The Cowboys' punting and field position game is also a key contributor to the success this season. HSU ranks seventh nationally in net punting at 38.6 per punt. Kaden Turner would be leading the nation in punting if he had enough attempts to qualify. He averages 48.9 yards per kick. Pedro Altamirano leads the country with 33 touchbacks on kickoffs.
 
About Nelson
The Lions come into the game with a record of 1-6 but have played their best ball of the season the last two weeks. They lost to nationally ranked Louisiana Christian 31-23 last week and fell 35-28 to Panhandle State the week before. The Lions are averaging 20.1 points per game and are allowing 33.9 points per contest. They gain 346.4 yards per outing and allow 356.9 yards per contest. They have played a pair of quarterbacks in Judah Holtzclaw and Elijah Bowman. They have 15 touchdowns and just three interceptions between them. Jermaine Jones is a big-play threat at wide receiver with 33 catches for 600 yards and seven touchdowns. Justin Beaudoin has 35 catches for 473 yards and six touchdowns. Xavier Garcia leads the team with 67 tackles and Micah Smith leads the way with four sacks on the year.

 

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