Booth Review: Little Brother, Big Numbers

Abilene Christian and Texas A&M-Commerce each lived up to its name Saturday: the former demonstrating that it is indeed better to give than receive, and the latter exercising the kind of free trade that even NAFTA couldn't have conjured up.

The two teams turned the ball over five times apiece in a bumbling, 40-28 ACU victory that at once moved the Wildcats (6-2) closer to becoming a playoff team while casting serious doubt as to whether or not they legitimately resemble one.

But looks can sometimes deceive. Daryl Richardson is living proof. The senior running back bears in his physical appearance a striking similarity to his older brother, Bernard Scott and, as of Saturday, now has a resume that few others besides Scott can match.

Saturday against Commerce, Richardson rushed for 170 yards and two touchdowns. The first, a 78-yard 1st quarter sprint down the visitors' sideline, tied him with Scott's and his first cousin, Edmond Gates, for the third most total TDs in ACU history. The second, a 46-yard burst up the middle, gave him sole possession of a very distant third behind Scott and Wilbert Montgomery.

I don't know of anyone who thinks of Richardson as one of the best backs in ACU history, probably in part because he isn't even the best runner in his own family and at times since arriving in 2009 hasn't even been thought of as the best on his own team. But crunch the following numbers and then tell me what you think:

• 32 games
• 30 rushing TDs (Wilbert Montgomery, 66; and Scott, 63)
• 33 total TDs (Montgomery, 76; and Scott, 73)
• 2,012 rushing yards (9th all-time) on 406 carries (4.95 yards/rush)
• 661 receiving yards on 74 catches
• 2,673 all-purpose yards

Those aren't empty stats either. Richardson scored the game-winning touchdown this year against Tarleton State and both Midwestern State and West Texas A&M last year - not to mention a boatload of big afternoons and nights, including 10 multiple-touchdown games.

If Richardson's body of work sneaks up on you like it did me, perhaps it's because his physical body looks so much like Scott's and, therefore, we subconsciously compare the production of one to the other. Which, of course, is completely unfair. There likely will never be another Bernard Scott - at ACU or anywhere in Division II.

Richardson came to ACU from Cisco Junior College in 2009. He arrived on campus rather incognito, in part because his cognito wasn't "Scott." Word began spreading prior to August training camp that Bernard's baby brother had joined the team, but there was nothing on the preseason depth chart to give Richardson away. There were no Scotts (the brothers have the same parents, but Bernard has his mother's maiden name). There were no running backs from Vernon (Richardson played high school ball in Jacksonville, Fla., where he lived with his father).

And there was no guarantee how much playing time he'd get. Richardson was merely one of three running backs brought in for the 2009 season to try to fill the Grand Canyon of a hole left by Scott (now with the Cincinnati Bengals), who in two seasons became ACU's all-time leading rusher with 4,321 yards and scored 73 touchdowns - three fewer than Wilbert Montgomery's school record.

Richardson wasn't even the most highly-touted of the three new backs in '09. The rage was over Justin Johnson, a transfer from the University of Oklahoma where he'd played in 10 games, including the one for the national championship that OU lost to Florida, 24-14. It was Johnson who got the start in the season opener against Northwest Missouri State on national television. Unfortunately, he was barely Sooner said than done. Played just seven games, had only one touchdown - albeit big, a 100-yard kickoff return to help ACU rally past Eastern New Mexico - and quit the team.

Richardson would be the third running back to see playing time in that first game after Johnson and Reggie Brown. Only then was Richardson's cover blown. You could tell from his face and physique, if not his first few plays (9 rushes for 28 yards, 3 catches for 10 in that season opener), which one was Baby Bernard.

It wasn't long before he showed a similarly uncanny knack for finding the end zone. Richardson scored his first two ACU touchdowns in the second game of 2009 and two more the next week against Commerce in a soggy Cotton Bowl en route to a 17 TD (16 rushing) season, which was the second most in the LSC that year.

Perhaps most amazing about Richardson's productivity is that at no point in his nearly three seasons has he been the clear No. 1 starter - in part because of a variety of minor but nagging injuries. Whereas Scott carried the ball nearly five times as much as any other teammate, Richardson essentially split the workload with Reggie Brown 50-50 in 2009 and only accounted for one-third of the team's rushes last season. This year, even after starting the season with a sore hamstring, he's finally become the featured back, carrying 92 of the team's approximately 200 called run plays.

The season opener against Tarleton might actually be a microcosm of his ACU career. Slowed by the bad hammy, Richardson didn't get a single carry that night and didn't even enter the game until the first play of the 4th quarter. That play was a 27-yard swing pass to Richardson from QB Mitchell Gale. ACU's last offensive play of the night? A desperation shot-put from a scrambling Gale to Richardson, who turned it into a 23-yard touchdown with 1:09 to go that proved to be the game winner. Two touches, two dynamic plays - yet not quite as healthy as a horse needs to be for an offense to really take off.

I have a feeling history will be more flattering than our present perceptions, and record book ink may prove more indelible than any image Richardson leaves in our minds' eyes.

Like I wrote after the Angelo State game about letting this offense become whatever it will become instead of comparing it to the juggernauts of past years, I hope we can appreciate what we're seeing in Daryl Richardson.

The irony is this: the more he resembles his big brother the rest of this season, the more ACU will resemble a playoff team.

Booth Review: ACU've Got Mail

The New Pony Express galloped into Wichita Falls Saturday night with a message. It was delivered personally to ACU but addressed to the entire Lone Star Conference and consisted of this solitary line:

There's a new sheriff in town.

The Midwestern State Mustangs, they of the nation's No. 1-ranked offense - not to mention that catchy, aforementioned nickname - rode over, around and through the ACU defense and didn't stop until they had laid a whoopin', the likes of which the Wildcat football program had never in 90+ years suffered.

The 70-28 rout - it was every bit as dominant as that score would indicate - leaves Midwestern alone in first place in the Lone Star Conference. Barring a loss to West Texas A&M in two weeks, the Mustangs will unseat ACU as conference champs. They earned it Saturday night.

70 points! The most ACU has ever surrendered in a non-overtime game.

740 yards of total offense! The most an ACU team has ever allowed in any game - overtime, playoff, Xbox 360.

And make no mistake: this wasn't about an emotional letdown or resting on the laurels from the big Homecoming win over West Texas A&M the previous Saturday. The Wildcat offense actually won the toss, elected to receive and marched 80 yards in six plays for a 7-0 lead. No, this was about a Midwestern State offense that none of its seven opponents have come close to even slowing down, much less stopping.

That the Mustangs have now run roughshod over a playoff-caliber opponent - its previous opponents' record was 15-26 - drives the message home at an ear-splitting decibel level.

After processing what happened Saturday night, it would seem to me that the only defense capable of slowing this team down is one that is excessively large (and, thus, less likely to get thrown to the curb like yesterday's trash) or exceptionally fast (and, thus, able to catch Mustang runners when they get to the edges). ACU's defense is neither small nor slow but neither are they really big and really fast.

Five Midwestern runners gashed ACU for 436 rushing yards in every way imaginable. Senior Lester Bush is the bowling ball who steers clear of the gutters and runs straight for the head pin. Freshman Jimmy Pipkin, who at 6'0" looks even a foot taller, is the edge rusher who hurdled a Wildcat defender on an eye-popping 45-yard dash. Sophomore Keidrick Jackson isn't as picky: he can beat you north and south or around the corner.

The offensive line, led by a projected early-round NFL draft pick in Amini Silatolu, is ginormous and quick, opening holes for the runners and providing plenty of protection in the passing game.

But Brandon Kelsey is the trigger man. The junior QB rushed for 114 yards - including a 64-yard scamper on 2nd and 9 after ACU had cut the lead to 35-14 early in the 3rd quarter. He also threw for a very efficient 205 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

I said on the play-by-play broadcast Saturday night that if there is a better team in the country, I'd like to see it. As of now at least, there isn't one better in Super Region 4. The first regional rankings of the 2011 season were released Monday and Midwestern is No. 1 at 7-0. ACU is currently No. 5 and, with the top six at season's end making the playoffs, still in position to reach the postseason for a sixth straight year.

But a second straight conference title and third in four years was most likely marked "Return to Sender" after what the New Pony Express brought Saturday. The change of address in conference champions has nothing to do with character and effort. ACU exhibited those qualities even in that record-setting defeat.

What Midwestern proved Saturday is that this year's Lone Star Conference is all about the horses.

Booth Review: Good Night and Good Luck

ACU 51 Western Oregon 35
If you've ever played golf with someone who doinked a tee shot off a tree and had it roll back into the fairway - in other words, if you've NEVER played golf with me - you've probably heard it said, "Better to be lucky than good."

Four games into the 2011 season, it would appear the ACU football team is both lucky AND good.

They're certainly not a great team yet. Great teams don't surrender 1,000 yards of offense in two games, including 833 through the air.

They're not bad either. Bad teams don't protect the football in two straight games, run and throw with equal success, hang half a hundred (+1) on an opponent, make huge stops in the red zone and have a 3-1 record.

What they are is good. And lucky.

I generally agree with those who say good teams make their own luck and those who suggest the better you are, the luckier you get. For example, if an opposing receiver gets alligator arms and doesn't make a catch because he knows he's about to get clobbered by Richard Havins, I'd suggest that's making your own luck.

But consider the following breaks the 'Cats have caught in each of their three wins:

ACU 27 Tarleton State 24. The Texans missed two makeable field goals (from 34 and 46 yards) in a game ACU rallied to win in the final minute.

ACU 31 Angelo State 17. Sophomore QB Blake Hamblin threw for 446 yards and it could've easily been 500+ had Ram receivers not had more drops than a cell phone on Ranger Hill. One of those was in the end zone forcing ASU to settle for a field goal. ACU won by 14, but the game would've been very different had Angelo simply held on to the football.

ACU 51 Western Oregon 35. Like Angelo, WOU had a severe case of dropsy. And in both cases, I'm talking about balls that real live rams and wolves could've caught with their hooves and paws. The zebras helped ACU, too. In the last two minutes of the first half Saturday, Taylor Gabriel went to a knee to field a WOU punt. He got up and began running, and the officials let him go, even though replays showed he should've been down at his own 27. The 35-yard return to the Wolves' 38-yard line gave the 'Cats a short field. Six plays later, Mitchell Gale rumbled up the middle for what the head linesman ruled a touchdown despite the fact that Gale's knee hit the turf at the 1. Replays weren't as conclusive as they were on the punt, but again it appeared ACU caught a break.

Maybe ACU would've reached the end zone without the benefit of those two favorable rulings. Or maybe not. It's harder for anyone to go 73 yards in 90 seconds than 38.

In the second half, ACU did what good teams do: they capitalized on their fortune, blowing open a tight game in the third quarter with 24 points en route to a runaway win.

Good. Lucky. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying as a knock on who and what ACU is right now. Nearly every winning team in any sport is both. The New England Patriots are a very solid 3-1 after a comfortable 31-19 win in Oakland Sunday. But it wasn't so comfy in the closing seconds of the first half with the Raiders down 14-10 but threatening to take the lead when QB Jason Campbell lobbed a perfect spiral...into the hands of Pats' safety Patrick Chung. New England scored the next 10 points of the game and was never threatened.

And don't forget, North Alabama's only touchdown of the second half against ACU two weeks ago - the one that ultimately proved to be the game-winner - began when a ball that was stripped from Darian Hogg's clutches bounced into the clear where superstar cornerback Janoris Jenkins scooped it up and took it into the end zone. A good play by UNA forced the turnover; a lucky bounce helped turn it into a score.

In golf, it may be better to be lucky than good. In football, there's no shame in being both.

Bernard: 0 to 60 in 8 seconds

From www.bengals.com

Bernard Scott's 60-yard kickoff return in the 4th quarter Sunday against the Ravens that set up the Bengals' game-winning field goal. Watch here and enjoy.

Come Home, Play Golf

Here's the scoop on the ACU Homecoming Golf Classic:

• Friday, Oct. 8
• 9:30 a.m. shotgun start
• Diamondback Golf Club

ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert and some of the Wildcat coaches, including Chris Thomsen, will be there. As will a brand new Chevy truck (courtesy of Hanner Chevrolet), which we'll award to the first player to make a hole-in-one!
 
Click on the above postcard to see more details and register online. Space is limited, so sign up today!

Special thanks to corporate sponsor Domino's Pizza and Hanner Chevrolet!