In the Polls: UMHB Football earns most points of any unranked team in 2024 D3football.com Preseason Poll

Photo of Crusader Stadium by Russell Marwitz/True To The Cru/russellmarwitz.com

BELTON–Mary Hardin-Baylor Football will begin the 2024 season unranked, but receiving votes in the D3football.com Top 25 Poll, as the nationally-accredited media organization released its annual preseason ranking on Wednesday morning.

At the top of the poll, it's last year's unexpected champion and last year's runner-up, as North Central and Cortland divide up all 25 of the No. 1 votes. Check out the full https://t.co/h9aVxkhxEE preseason Top 25. https://t.co/eLhO7lWJ3l #d3fb
— D3football.com (@d3football) July 24, 2024

The Cru earned 102 points from the panel of 25 voters, tallying the most points of any unranked team by a 32-point margin. Per a post on X/Twitter from D3football.com, UMHB’s point total is the highest of any unranked team in the history of the outlet’s preseason poll, surpassing the previous high of 97, set by Wooster (2004), Hampden-Sydney (2005), and Baldwin Wallace (2007). UMHB’s total was just one point shy of Berry College, who took the final spot in the poll at No. 25 after a 9-1 season last fall.

Additionally, 2024 marks the first time in the history of the preseason poll that UMHB will open the year outside of the Top 25. The Cru was ranked in every edition of the poll from 2004-2023.

The 102 poll points for @UMHB @CruFootball is the highest total for an unranked team in any of our preseason polls. Previous high was 97, by Wooster in 2004, Hampden-Sydney in 2005 and Baldwin-Wallace in 2007. #d3fb
— D3football.com (@d3football) July 24, 2024

The Cru enters 2024 coming off a 6-4 campaign last season that included a 5-1 record in American Southwest Conference play. Included in the returners from last year’s campaign will be quarterback Isaac Phe, who completed 147-of-245 passes for 1,738 yards and 20 touchdowns in his freshman season. Phe threw for a season-high 233 yards against Hardin-Simmons and also had a pair of four-touchdown performances on the road against Texas Lutheran and Howard Payne. Defensively, linebacker Durand Hill enters his senior year after earning All-ASC First Team recognition in 2023, as he tallied 84 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, in addition to two interceptions.

UMHB begins its 2024 season on the road, visiting Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee for its Sept. 7 season opener. Bethel comes off a run in the NAIA playoffs last season, and it will be the first time in program history that The Cru have played a game in Tennessee. The home opener follows a week later at 6 p.m. against Westgate Christian University, an independent program out of Houston.

UMHB’s first Division III opponent of the season will be UW-Whitewater, who was ranked No. 3 in Wednesday’s preseason poll. UWW went 11-2 in 2023, and has won the last two regular season meetings against The Cru. This year’s edition of the matchup will be contested at Perkins Stadium in Whitewater, Wisconsin, on Sept. 21.

The Cru is scheduled to face one additional team ranked in the Preseason Top 25 on two different occasions in 2024, as ASC rival Hardin-Simmons came in at No. 16. HSU, who won the league title last year, went 9-2 in 2023. UMHB hosts the Cowboys in Belton on Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. followed by a 1 p.m. duel in Abilene on Nov. 9.

The entire D3football.com Preseason Top 25 Poll can be found here. North Central took the No. 1 spot with 14 first-place votes, and Cortland, the 2023 Stagg Bowl champion, is ranked No. 2.