Week 2 Preview: No. 6 UMHB hosts No. 16 UW-Whitewater in familiar Top 25 showdown

Above photo courtesy of David Morris

No. 6 UMHB vs No. 16 UW-Whitewater

Saturday, September 20, 2025 • 11:00 AM CT • Crusader Stadium
Weather: sunny, 85, 6 mph wind

Broadcast: Mary Hardin-Baylor All-Access on Cruathletics.com

Radio: KMIL 105.1 FM

Setting the scene

UMHB hosts UW-Whitewater in The Cru’s second game of 2025, looking to build out of the bye week and the season-opening 30-23 win over NAIA Bethel University (TN) on Sept. 6. It will be the fourth-consecutive season that the two powerhouses have met during the regular season, and the second time they’ve played in Belton during that span.
This marks the first time since UMHB’s historic 15-0 Stagg Bowl campaign in 2021 that The Cru has opened a season with back-to-back home games. It is just the third such instance for UMHB within the last decade, with the first coming in 2019 when they beat Albright and Belhaven to start 2-0.
In the 2024 edition of this series, UMHB pulled off an upset in Whitewater, intercepting UWW QB Jason Ceniti three times in the first quarter to set the tone. The Crusader defense forced eight turnovers (5 INTs, 3 fumble recoveries) in the 35-17 win over the third-ranked Warhawks, leading by as many as 25 points in the third quarter. The victory also featured Kamerin Ferguson’s 96-yard touchdown run, the longest ever in program history, and gave UMHB its second road win at UWW since 2021.
With UMHB ranked No. 6 and UWW ranked No. 16 in the D3football.com Top 25, Saturday will mark the highest-ranked game between these two programs since 2022, when it was No. 1 (UMHB) vs. No. 6 (UWW) in Week 2 in Whitewater.

Trends and records of note

UW-Whitewater leads the all-time series, 8-3, with five of those wins coming in Belton. Of those five wins, three came in the national playoffs in 2008, 2013, and 2019. The Warhawks also won regular season games against The Cru as the road team in 2006 and 2023.
That said, since 2018, UMHB is an even 3-3 against UWW, including the Crusaders’ first—and to date, only—home win in the 2018 national semifinals.
In the 11 meetings between UMHB and UWW all-time, The Cru has scored first five times while the Warhawks have scored first on six occasions. UWW is 6-0 when scoring first. UMHB is 3-2 in the same situation. The big takeaway from a UMHB perspective is this: while that 3-2 record means The Cru has only won in 60% of the games when scoring first, those three wins encompass the entirety of UMHB’s all-time wins over UWW. Scoring first has consistently been a big deal in this series.
UMHB is 8-9 (including 2016-17 results) against the WIAC all-time, with at least one win over three different programs from one of D3’s strongest conferences: UW-Whitewater, UW-La Crosse, and UW-Oshkosh. UWW is 11-5 against the ASC all-time, having faced UMHB, Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, and former member Belhaven within the last three decades.

The head coaches

Larry Harmon is in the midst of his fourth year at the helm of The Cru after spending the previous 20 years as UMHB’s defensive coordinator. Promoted to head coach in January 2022 following Pete Fredenburg’s retirement, Harmon is 28-10 in his tenure, highlighted by playoff runs to the national quarterfinals or better in two of his first three seasons.
Jace Rindahl is also fairly new to his position as UWW’s head coach, as the former Warhawk defensive coordinator is in his third season. Part of the UWW program since 2015, Rindahl’s first season in 2023 featured an 11-2 campaign that included a 6-0 start against Top 25 opponents. UWW went 6-4 in a highly-competitive WIAC title race last fall, a season that included wins over John Carroll, UW-Oshkosh, and UW-River Falls. Rindahl played at UWW as an All-America linebacker from 2005-08, winning the D3football.com Defensive Player of the Year award as a senior.

The QBs

Kirkland Michaux prepares for his second start as a Crusader after completing 20-of-26 passes for 230 yards with a TD and two interceptions in Week 1. The Illinois transfer and 2019 UIL 6A state champion ranks seventh in the country in completion percentage based on that season-opening performance and distributed his 20 completions amongst six different pass-catchers against Bethel.
Justin Klinkner is off to a solid start in his first year as UWW’s starter under center, and leads the nation in completion percentage (84.4%) through the Warhawks’ first two games. The sophomore has completed 27-of-32 passes for 299 yards and 3 TDs, in addition to running for 146 yards, the second most on the team. Read more about Klinkner in our UWW-focused preview story from Wednesday.

3 things we’re watching

Explosiveness in the return game

Whenever there is a game anticipated to be tight, as this one is, special teams are typically brought up. It is these contests where field goals, punts, and certainly, returns take on a larger role. Every yard counts just a little bit more, and considering the quality of both defenses in this matchup, it makes sense that a few significant kick or punt returns could have a major role in impacting the outcome. Starting field position will be critical for both offenses, who each will be up against their toughest test to this point, and in the case that a returner manages to score off a kickoff or punt, the return game would directly play into the scoreboard. That is a likely possibility, given each team’s speedy return men, two of which are All-Americans.

For UWW, that is junior Tyler Vasey, a 2024 D3football.com All-American, who has picked right up where he left off last fall. The 5’10, 180-pound receiver/returner led the country with three kickoff return TDs in 2024, setting a new UWW single-season record in the process. Against Carleton in the Warhawks’ 2025 opener two weeks ago, Vasey was back at it, taking a kickoff 91 yards for a TD. Despite seeing action as a WR in each of the previous two meetings with UMHB, Vasey has just one career kick return against The Cru—a 41-yard return in 2023.

B.J. Stewart leads The Cru’s return unit, as the Trinity transfer entered his UMHB debut as the ASC Preseason Special Teams Player of the Year. A 2022 D3football.com First Team All-American as a returner with Trinity, Stewart’s speed in the open field was showcased against Bethel in his 70-yard touchdown catch, along with his 40-yard kickoff return. Stewart also returned three punts for 25 yards in Week 1.

It’s no guarantee that the ball will be kicked in the direction of either Vasey or Stewart—opponents have made concentrated efforts at times to keep it out of their hands for obvious reasons—but in the cases when either of these two All-Americans get a chance at a return, there will be big-play potential.

Which offense will do a better job of staying out of third-and-long?

It has already been well-documented just how difficult these defenses are to score on. UWW is coming off a shutout of NAIA St. Xavier last Saturday, and against Bethel, UMHB’s defense held the Wildcats to a field goal over the entirety of the second half. Both have their own weaknesses, but with the experience on that side of the ball for UMHB and UWW, it’s reasonable to expect that neither will surrender many chunk plays. Combine that with the strength up front on both defensive lines—and the fact that at least three of the four projected D-Line starters for both sides are juniors or seniors—and converting on 3rd-and-long will be a daunting task, regardless of the offensive talent in this matchup.

Which makes staying out of those situations all the more crucial. Both offenses have a third-down conversion rate of 50%, but those percentages get much lower in an atmosphere like this when the caliber of opponent is factored in. And that’s just talking about third downs in general. 3rd downs from four yards or less are certainly manageable, considering the balanced nature of both offenses and how many options are present, both in the backfield and on the outside of the formation at receiver. But it’s the 3rd & 7 or 3rd & 8 that could turn out to be real drive-killers, especially if an offense finds itself repeatedly facing those types of down-and-distance.

This considered, it will put more pressure on the first and second down playcalls for both offensive coordinators. More than likely, both offenses will have to first prove they can complete passes vertically to open up lanes for the run game, a dynamic that plays right into the third-down discussion. How early will each offense open up the playbook for the passing game, and how aggressive will both OCs be in their first-half approach to the passing attack? A team that can move the chains consistently on first and second down via the pass is going to face fewer third downs, and will certainly be able to tap into the run game more as the contest unfolds. On the flip side, if the passing game struggles to gain traction, the defense will be given the opportunity to continue loading the box and stopping the run, creating far more unfavorable third-down situations for the offense, and ultimately less balance between the run and the pass.

Neither side has been especially aggressive in its passing game from what we’ve seen of them thus far, adding some unknowns to this chess match and how both coordinators will approach it. UMHB was fairly conservative offensively against Bethel, especially after taking back the lead for good early in the third quarter. UWW threw the ball just eight times against Carleton, and Klinkner’s longest pass this season was a 32-yard completion at St. Xavier.

Which defense will win the turnover battle and which offense will capitalize more from them?

There is no question that the 2024 meeting was decided almost entirely by turnovers. Yes, UMHB’s offense had to build drives from those takeaways and ultimately produce points, but in the end, UWW outgained UMHB in total yardage (332 to 307), passing yards (244 to 199), and first downs (16 to 10). The difference in a fairly one-sided UMHB victory? The fact that five of UWW’s drives ended with interceptions, and three more were cut short by lost fumbles.

While that feels like an extreme occurrence unlikely to happen again, it highlighted just how crucial the turnover battle is when two heavyweight programs face off. Both defenses have already garnered their fair share of takeaways in this young season, making this storyline something to closely watch. In the last three regular-season matchups between UMHB and UWW (2022-2024), the winner of the turnover battle also won the game (UWW, 1-0 in 2022, UWW, 3-0, in 2023, UMHB, 8-3, in 2024).

UWW intercepted Carleton and St. Xavier twice apiece the last two weeks, and the Warhawks’ four INTs are tied for the third-most nationally this season. UMHB forced three fumbles against Bethel, recovering two, including Brandon McGruder’s forced fumble that resulted in Te’Ron Brown’s 56-yard “scoop-and-score” for a 16-13 lead. And that was along with Deion Drinkard’s fourth-quarter interception, giving UMHB three total takeaways in the opener.

But it can’t be emphasized enough that forcing turnovers is only half of the conversation. Capitalizing on those takeaways and turning them into points—especially when they come with favorable starting field position—is the other half, and so far this season, neither UWW or UMHB have been especially successful on that front. The Warhawks have just three points as the result of their four interceptions, with two punts and a missed field goal ending the other three drives. UMHB had three turnovers against Bethel, and scored on one—Brown’s TD return off the recovery—but ended the other two with an interception and a possession that ran out the clock late in the fourth quarter.

So yes, winning the turnover battle will certainly be a priority, as recent history in this series has shown. But it will also be worth watching to see who does a better job of using them to spark the offense, assuming we get multiple turnovers in this one.

UMHB Two-Deep Depth Chart

The only real item of note is that All-ASC safety Da’Marion Morris (5 INTs, 103 return yds, 1 TD in 2024) is back on the two-deep after not playing against Bethel due to injury. This adds even more strength to a talented unit that played well in Week 1. Gavin Brzezinski, who had a pass breakup against Bethel, is now No. 2 at the free safety position.
The offensive two-deep remains unchanged from Week 1.