FB Preview: Howard Payne at Lyon College
Howard Payne (0-2, 0-1 ASC) at Lyon College (1-1)
Batesville, Arkansas – Pioneer Stadium
Kickoff: 6:00 pm CST
Series: HPU leads 1-0
Last Meeting: HPU won 85-0 in Brownwood, Texas (9/23/23)
Head Coaches: Howard Payne - Kevin Bachtel | Lyon – Chris Douglas
Listen: 94.3 FM KYOX or https://www.elasticplayer.xyz/kyox/
Video: https://team1sports.com/lyonscots/
Live Stats: https://lyonscots.com/sidearmstats/football/summary

HOWARD PAYNE
The Yellow Jackets come off a 29-27 loss at Nelson University. Howard Payne stormed back in the second half outscoring Nelson 27-7. Zy Gravitt threw for 260 yards and two TDs. Gus Charles had seven catches for 168 yards and one TD, KC Cornelious led with 10 tackles, and Jackson Coulson had eight punts for 376 yards (47.0 avg) with 3 over 50 yards.

The Yellow Jacket defense is holding opponents to under 6 yards per catch (5.82) and HPU currently has four players in the top ten in tackles in the ASC (Jacob Korrodi, KC Cornelious, Kadarious Carr, and Kale Shaw).

Last season, the Jackets dominated Lyon College in Brownwood winning 85-0 and totaling 689 yards of offense. Howard Payne's 85 total points and 47 first quarter points were the most in the modern era for the Yellow Jacket football program. The Yellow Jackets also broke the ASC record for Margin of Victory by a point (Previous was Mary Hardin-Baylor vs. Albright with 84 on Sept. 8, 2018). The HPU football program's largest margin of victory was against Tarleton State in 1912, HPU won 127-0.

This is the second all-time meeting between the two schools.

LYON COLLEGE
Last week at McMurry, Lyon lost two quarterbacks to injury in a 48-6 road loss. Grayson Johnson will be the projected started for Lyon, who was 4 of 11 for 40 yards and one interception off the bench at McMurry. Christian Barber should also see action at QB.

The Scots are averaging 27.0 ppg and 280 total yards per game (145 passing). Lyon is led by Jaylin Babers with 49 carries for 223 yards and 2 TDs. DB Mason Davis and LB Michael Wingo lead in tackles with 13 and 11 tackles respectively. 

The Scots finished 4-4 overall in 2023, with two non-countable games. This will be Lyon College's one and only night game this season.  

AROUND THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE
The Hardin-Simmons Cowboys up two spots to #12 in the AFCA Poll and one spot to #12 in the D3football.com Poll. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor received votes in the polls.

WEEK 2 RECAP
Hardin-Simmons traveled to Milton, Massachusetts, defeating Curry College 73-21.  
Mary Hardin-Baylor opened home with an 85-6 win against Westgate Christian University.
East Texas Baptist headed to Conway, Arkansas, earning a 63-28 victory against Hendrix College.

ASC FOOTBALL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Games: September 14, 2024
 
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Kaden Brown, QB, Fr., East Texas Baptist
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Andrae Gibson, CB, So., East Texas Baptist
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Dameon Gomes, WR/KR, Jr., Hardin-Simmons

CURRENT ASC STANDINGS

School Conf CPct. Overall Pct. Streak Hardin-Simmons 1-0 1.000 2-0 1.000 W2 East Texas Baptist 0-0 .000 2-0 1.000 W2 Mary Hardin-Baylor 0-0 .000 0-1 .000 L1 Howard Payne 0-1 .000 0-2 .000 L2

THIS WEEK'S ASC SCHEDULE

Week 3 Matchups
Mary Hardin-Baylor travels to Wisconsin to take on No. 3 UW-Whitewater at 1:00 p.m.  
Howard Payne heads to Arkansas for a 6:00 p.m. contest against Lyon College.
Hardin-Simmons and ETBU both have OPEN weeks