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Opponent: #25 Emporia State
Time: Saturday, October 6; 2:00 PM
Location: Plaster Stadium; Bolivar, Missouri

Bolivar, Mo. - The SBU Bearcats will look to take down undefeated Emporia State on Saturday after coming off of a 14-42 loss at #20 Washburn.

The Coaches and the All-Time Series
Keith Allen has already engineered a significant turnaround at SBU, moving the 'Cats from 0-11 his first year as interim coach, to 5-6 in 2008, to the winning record of 6-5 in 2009, another winning record of 7-4 in 2010, and completed a third consecutive winning season in 2011 with a 6-5 record. Allen served as defensive and recruiting coordinator before being named SBU head coach in 2007. His past coaching experience has included stops at San Jose State, Quincy, TCU and Oklahoma.

Garin Higgins enters his sixth season at his alma mater with a three game improvement for 2009. He has a 70-44 record in ten years as a head coach after going 19-36 in his first five seasons at ESU. He was named the 21st head football coach at Emporia State on December 15, 2006. Higgins was one of 72 formal applicants for the position.

Emporia State leads the all-time series against Southwest Baptist 15-3. The Hornets won the last match-up 42-28 in 2011 at SBU.

Scouting the Hornets
#25 Emporia State comes into the match-up against the Bearcats with a perfect 5-0 record on the season. The Hornets defeated Lincoln last week 37-26, after taking down Northeastern State (30-20), Central Oklahoma (42-14), Nebraska-Kearney (58-35), and Fort Hays (41-18) during the first four weeks of the season.

Senior quarterback Tyler Eckenrode leads the Hornet offense attack, averaging 303.4 through the air while throwing for 11 touchdowns compared to just 3 interceptions. Shjuan Richardson is Eckenrode's favorite target, averaging 114.2 yards per game with 7 touchdowns. Ray Ray Davis has caught 2 touchdown passes on the season, while averaging 66.6 yards per game. The Hornets use a four-man attack on the ground game, led by Jordan Tice who averages 49.5 yards per game. Derwin Hall (47.8 per game), Tyler Eckenrode (40.2), and Dozie Iwuagwa (34.0) all contribute to the Hornets rushing attack.

Defensively Jordan Sanders leads the Hornets with 36 tackles, followed closely by Ben Carlson with 35. As a team, the Hornets have 9 interceptions.