Photo by Luke Zayas/@lukezayas_photography on IG
BELTON — Larry Harmon made one thing very clear at Monday’s press conference: there will be no time for coaxing buy-in out of anyone within the UMHB Football program moving forwards.
A lack of effort or wavering in commitment to the future of the current season won’t have a place on the practice fields in Belton moving forwards. It can’t. Not if the Crusaders want a real chance at making a second-half push and salvaging their chances of playing beyond the Nov. 15 regular season finale.
“This week is going to be a very sensitive time for us,” Harmon, whose team is 2-3 overall, said Monday. “If there’s any kind of situation where we think a guy is not giving it his all, or is kind of checked out, we’ve got to be able to make that change right then and there, and not waste time trying to get a guy to want to do it. We’ve got to make sure we have the guys that want to go out there and perform.”
Limited as their odds of reaching the NCAA playoffs may be at this point, on the heels of a disheartening 34-7 loss at rival Hardin-Simmons, a postseason berth for The Cru remains in play. By the nature of American Southwest Conference’s unique double round-robin format, they play HSU again this fall on Nov. 8 inside Crusader Stadium. That presents an opportunity, in the case that UMHB takes out Howard Payne and ETBU prior to that rematch, for the Crusaders to answer the knockout punch the Cowboys delivered on Saturday with one of their own, and put themselves right in the mix for the ASC title, which in that case would likely be determined by point differential tiebreakers.
“We’ve got four weeks,” Harmon added. “If we can right the ship, start performing the way we can perform, start coming out to practice like we’re going to perform, [we can] play a really solid game and get a win against Hardin-Simmons.”
That is, of course, something far easier said than done based on the performances to date, which have included a pair of 20-point losses over the last four weeks. But the reality is that UMHB showed it could flip the switch a season ago against the odds, and with four games left in conference play, comments that the fate of the season is already decided are simply premature.
At the present moment, even if UMHB were to beat HSU but lose the tiebreaker for the ASC’s automatic bid to the playoffs, The Cru could still weave its way into one of the final at-large bids. Logan Hansen’s updated “season simulation” model gives UMHB a 21.7% chance to make the playoffs, with a marginal chance at an at-large. There is potential for those odds to rise if UW-Whitewater continues its hot pace and wins its final five WIAC games, along with UMHB ouf course winning out.
“Last year, we got in with being right there around that 34th, 35th place team,” Harmon went on to say, when asked about “keeping the belief” in the locker room after the HSU loss. “You think, if we put five solid weeks together, and knock off Hardin-Simmons, that would give us enough NPI points to put us back in that kind of situation and at least see how the rest of the conferences shake out to see if we can get one of the at-large bids.
“Because of what we were able to accomplish last year, as a coaching staff, we’re pretty optimistic. But we’ve got to have a sense of urgency. Our players have to have a sense of urgency and then they have to really want to go do it.”
The first chance to display that urgency comes Saturday afternoon, when UMHB plays a rare October non-conference tilt, hosting Texas Wesleyan in its 2 p.m. homecoming game. It marks The Cru’s return to Crusader Stadium after three consecutive weeks on the road, a stretch in which UMHB flew over 1,000 miles to North Carolina, then took bus rides of four and three hours, respectively, each of the last two Saturdays.
But the upside is that after enduring the longest road stretch of any team in the ASC this season—ETBU, Howard Payne, and Hardin-Simmons will each play no more than two consecutive weeks on the road this fall—UMHB gets four straight Saturdays on their home turf. The next time The Cru boards a bus will be Nov. 15, for the final game of the regular season at Howard Payne.
“We had a pretty tough stretch with Mars Hill, then ETBU, then back out to Hardin-Simmons, so from a standpoint of just getting a little rest, it’s going to be a benefit,” Harmon said.
But he isn’t using it as an excuse for the struggles that have led to UMHB’s current sub-.500 record.
“The travel and schedule has nothing to do with what’s going on. We just have to get better. We weren’t competitive on Saturday at all, and that’s not acceptable.”
Already in a hostile environment and with a new starting quarterback under center, the fumbled first snap on UMHB’s first offensive play proved to be significant. The Cru never truly found a rhythm against HSU, were held to a season-low 183 yards, and managed no more than seven points for the third time this season.
“We lost momentum,” Harmon said, “and then we started trying to call plays and get specific players the ball instead of just running our offense and having a true identity of who we are and what we want to do.”
That is valuable, honest insight. And it’s very much on-point. There were times that exact dynamic was visible on Saturday, including on a few forced passes that created favorable opportunities for pass breakups and interceptions for the Cowboy defense, rather than chances for completions and first downs for UMHB’s offense.
That was something Harmon talked about more later in Monday’s presser, when asked about starting sophomore Seth Mouser—who went 16-of-30 passing for 101 yards—at quarterback. Mouser played for the first three quarters before junior Carson Horton took over quarterback duties on UMHB’s two fourth-quarter possessions.
“We thought that Seth was having a difficult time going through his reads and getting the ball where it needed to go,” Harmon said, when asked about making the change early in the fourth quarter. [He] forced some throws into B.J. [Stewart] where we had other people open. Sometimes you get frustrated when the bullets are flying at you pretty fast.
“We thought he was a little frustrated and sometimes you take a guy out and you bring in a different guy, and he gets to see it from the sideline for a series or two. You have a chance to slow it down and then go back out and perform.”
Harmon praised Mouser’s response to the situation, as the transfer who previously played at UTEP and Kilgore Junior College stayed ready with Horton in the game. He ended up coming back in to throw a well-placed 8-yard touchdown pass to Stewart, snapping HSU’s shutout bid.
“Horton came in, did a great job,” Harmon said. “Then he retweaked his hamstring a little bit. Mouser goes back in and throws a beautiful pass for a touchdown. I commend Seth for his competitiveness and how he went back out and settled down after a pretty bad start. We just have to do a better job of having our guys prepared, having our quarterbacks prepared, so we go out there and perform and execute.”
The road doesn’t get easier from here. On Saturday, that preparation will again be put to the test in a game with virtually no room for error. Texas Wesleyan comes to Belton ranked No.19 in the NAIA, carrying a three-game win streak that has seen the Rams outscore Nelson, Arkansas Baptist, and Louisiana Christian, 136-49. Their two losses? Lindsey Wilson College, ranked No. 7 in the NAIA, and UT-Rio Grande Valley, a Division I FCS program that is 5-1 in its inaugural season.
The defense has tallied 37.0 tackles for loss in its last four games, indicating UMHB’s offensive line will be in a battle up front. On offense, the Rams have quality skill position players, including 200-yard rushers Mark Benjamin and Jalen March, and standout receivers Paul Summers and TJ Curtis.
“They’re going to be a big challenge,” Harmon said of UMHB’s second NAIA opponent of 2025. “They’re very athletic. Being up there in the metroplex, they’ve done a great job recruiting speed.
“They’re on a three-game win streak, so mentally, they’re in a place where they got things turned around and going in a positive direction. We’re trying to overcome being in a negative direction right now. We’ve got to make sure we keep things simple, to where our guys aren’t hesitant and can go execute what’s being asked. [That way] we can make plays and let our athleticism show up.”
