Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/@lukezayas_photography
BELTON — Now comes the flip in the schedule.
With just three weeks left in the regular season, UMHB (4-3, 2-1 ASC) has already faced the entirety of its ASC opponents: Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, and ETBU. But starting with Saturday’s 1 p.m. home game, The Cru is about to match up with all three again.
For the second year in a row, the ASC is using a double round-robin conference schedule, one of only three leagues in Division III that is doing so this fall (joining the SCAC and SCIAC). As a result, there comes a point for each team where the first run through the league closes, and the second cycle begins. For UMHB, that is this week, with the Crusaders squaring off inside Crusader Stadium against ETBU (4-3, 0-3 ASC), a team they earned their first D3 win of the season against in Marshall on Oct. 4.
To this point, each of The Cru’s first seven game weeks have been spent preparing for a different opponent. But as the second round of ASC play gets going, the dynamic shifts. Now, the task is looking ahead to an opponent they played just four weeks prior, and making the necessary adjustments to ensure success in the midst of familiarity.
“There’s always tweaks,” UMHB head coach Larry Harmon said at Monday’s press conference. “So you can’t just say, ‘This is what they did the first game, and they’re going to do the same thing [again].’ You’ve got to ask, ‘What did they do the first time that caused you trouble? What did they do that gave them success? And how are they going to build on that? What else are they going to try to do to take advantage of what your counter is to what they did good?’ There’s definitely some chess that needs to be played this week.”
ETBU came into its first meeting with The Cru riding a four-game win streak, off to its best start since 2016. But after going into halftime tied with UMHB, the Crusaders used their run game and a handful of defensive adjustments to shut out the Tigers in the second half of a 42-28 win. Since that home loss, ETBU dropped two more. The Tigers fell to Howard Payne by more than 14 points (18-point margin) for the first time since 2001, then had homecoming spoiled by sixth-ranked Hardin-Simmons, 34-16.
The first time these two played, UMHB was the team in desperate need of a conference-builder, coming off double-digit losses to UW-Whitewater and Mars Hill, while ETBU found itself on an upward trajectory. But a month later, the roles have been reversed, as The Cru remains in the hunt for a playoff bid, having won back-to-back games for the first time in 2025.
As UMHB heads into a third-straight home game, Harmon met with the media on Monday. While we’ve moved away from our traditional “3 takeaways” format this season, we’re bringing it back, with four thoughts (including insight from Harmon) from Saturday’s 41-17 win over Howard Payne and the state of The Cru moving forwards.
Needing depth at WR, Quinci Jones has emerged as a reliable target
Through UMHB’s first five games, just two receivers—Luke Vidal and BJ Stewart—had a touchdown reception. Through six, Stewart was the lone pass-catcher with multiple scores for The Cru. But that changed on Saturday when Quinci Jones broke free on a post route to the end zone, pulling in Kirkland Michaux’s fifth touchdown pass of the afternoon from 17 yards out.
That fourth-quarter touchdown catch was Jones’ second of the day, after making a leaping grab on a 10-yard pass between two HPU defenders to cap UMHB’s first scoring drive of the win. All of a sudden, Jones, who didn’t have a single catch prior to two weeks ago, now ranks second on the team in touchdown receptions (2). His average of 38.5 yards per game is third amongst UMHB’s receivers, behind Stewart and Vidal.
“I think we’ve found a fourth guy to go with the trio of BJ, Luke, and [Will] McClintock,” Harmon said Monday, referencing Jones.
Looking at Jones’ stats—7 catches for 77 yards and 2 TDs through his first two games—one might assume it’s a case of a breakout contributor that seemingly came out of nowhere. After all, he only played his first snaps as a Crusader on Oct. 18 in the win over Texas Wesleyan. But the truth is that through spring practice, it looked as if Jones might be that sort of reliable receiving threat starting in Week 1. Then came a hamstring injury early in fall camp, ultimately postponing his arrival in game action to Week 6.
“He’s a great competitor,” Harmon said of the transfer from Division II Midwestern State. “He had a tremendous spring. Unfortunately, he had a small tear in a hamstring at the beginning of camp, so that’s why he didn’t play all those weeks. He’s had two solid weeks for us, and he’s only going to get better the more confidence he has in his leg. He’s still probably only running at 70% of his top-end speed. He’s a very quick-twitch, very fast athlete who can create a lot of mismatches against defenses. We just need for him to keep gaining confidence in his leg and what we’re asking him to do.”
Jones played in 15 games between 2022 and 2023 at Midwestern State, highlighted by his 17 receptions for 183 yards and two touchdowns as a true freshman. That first college season seemed to display two things: 1) Jones’ skill set, the one Harmon spoke highly of on Monday, translated well to the college level in one of the country’s top D2 conferences, and 2) Jones could slide into an offense and make a noticeable impact relatively quickly. Fast forward to this season, and the last two games have shown the same attributes. In his return to game action, he has fit well into the offense, and it’s clear he’s developed a good rapport with quarterback Kirkland Michaux. Over the last two weeks, no Crusader that played against both Texas Wesleyan and Howard Payne has pulled in more passes than Jones’ seven, and against HPU, Jones was targeted six times, the second-most of UMHB’s receivers behind Stewart (10).
“I think it shows what he’s done, Kirkland is having some confidence in him,” Harmon said. “They did a great job on the first touchdown down in the red zone. [HPU] double-teamed BJ, feeling that’s where we were going to go with the ball, and Kirkland went backside to Quinci, and Quinci made a really tough catch in the end zone. They’re starting to get a pretty good relationship. I’m excited about where we can move this thing going forward.”
Balancing Osbourn and Ferguson’s skill sets within the run game
The last time UMHB played ETBU, The Cru backfield had a day to remember, rushing for 284 yards and an impressive average of 6.9 yards per carry. Considering ETBU’s defensive front has allowed 200+ rushing yards in each of its previous four games, odds are good for running backs Asa Osbourn and Kamerin Ferguson to find plenty of opportunities for explosive rushing gains again on Saturday.
Returning two senior running backs—both of whom brought ample college experience to Belton last season and were The Cru’s top two backs in 2024—is certainly a point of strength for UMHB’s offense. Yes, the run game struggled at times against The Cru’s daunting non-conference slate, but facing several staunch run defenses appears to have paid dividends (Bethel is ranked No. 24 and Texas Wesleyan is ranked No. 26 in NAIA rush yds allowed/game, UW-Whitewater is No. 13 in D3 in rush yds allowed/game).
Against HPU, UMHB ran for an efficient 147 yards, averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Ferguson’s 27-yard TD run highlighted the day for the run game, as the 6-foot-1, 210-pound running back bulldozed over two would-be tacklers on his way to the end zone.
“His touchdown was an inside zone call where he just ran right through the linebacker and took off,” Harmon said.
UMHB is the only team in the ASC heading into this week with two running backs that have each tallied multiple rushing TDs in conference play. The Crusaders averaged 158.7 rush yards per game through its first three contests in league action.
“They both are very talented,” Harmon said, noting that Osbourn and Ferguson have different styles as running backs. “They both probably need to touch the ball more than they are right now. We need to get a few more formations and concepts with them both in the game at the same time, instead of one of them on the sideline. There is a plan for some stuff in the future with that. We’ve just got to get to it and get them both utilized.”
Harmon also noted the fact that Osbourn recorded 18 carries on Saturday to Ferguson’s 3, and mentioned a desire to have seen those numbers a little more balanced for the sake of fatigue and utilizing both backs.
“We’re very blessed with both. I thought Kam should’ve touched the ball more on Saturday. Asa was running well and chugging out, but you do get fatigued and take some shots. Asa had a fumble there towards the end that was probably due to being gassed a little bit. I am disappointed we didn’t play Kam a little bit more than what we did.”
“D Mo is D Mo”: Morris with a two-game stretch garnering national recognition
On the defensive side, UMHB has gotten contributions out of several different players as of late. Last week, we wrote about how Gavin Brzezinski stepped in at middle linebacker before the Texas Wesleyan win, along with JJ Davis shifting over to cornerback and Ty Legg making an impact at safety.
Da’Marion Morris has been a central figure in that as well, one of the play-making pieces of a defense that ranks No. 8 in HansenRatings’ opponent-adjusted defensive efficiency. In other words, the analytics say The Cru has a defense right up there with the likes of St. John’s and Johns Hopkins this season. And there’s no doubt Morris has had a role to play in that.
The junior safety had a quiet start to 2025 on the heels of a 2024 postseason in which he picked off three passes and tallied 21 tackles. He didn’t play against Bethel in the season-opener and had just three total tackles against UW-Whitewater in Week 2.
But Morris’ production on the back end of the defense has only grown, especially in these last two weeks. Through his first four games of 2025, the native of Orange, Texas had six solo tackles. Against Texas Wesleyan alone, he had seven. He raised the bar again in Saturday’s win, with nine solo tackles, 14 tackles in total, and notably intercepted a pass at the goal line just before halftime, keeping UMHB’s 11-point lead secure.
Following each of those performances the last two weeks, Morris was selected to D3football.com’s Team of the Week, becoming the first UMHB defensive player to be placed on the national honor roll in consecutive weeks since Jacob Mueller did so in the spring 2021 season. He was also named ASC Defensive Player of the Week each of the last two Mondays.
“D Mo is D Mo,” Harmon said Monday. “He’s been the leader of that secondary now going on for two years. The thing I appreciate about him is he’s the same person today that he was the very first time he walked on campus. It doesn’t matter if everything’s going right or everything’s going wrong, he’s the same true, genuine person. I really appreciate that about him.”
As far as the intangibles of practice intensity and overall buy-in, UMHB is making progress, but there’s room to grow too
Coming out of the Hardin-Simmons road loss on Oct. 11, Harmon made it clear that there was no time to dawdle or sulk if his team was serious about contending for a playoff bid down the stretch. There needed to be a level of intensity that powered The Cru into consistent weeks of preparation and quality performances on Saturdays. “Our players have to have a sense of urgency and then they have to really want to go do it,” he said at his Oct. 13 press conference.
Harmon was asked about the level of intensity on the practice field these days, with the loss in Abilene three weeks in the past and his team coming off its second-straight win. His response indicated that there’s been an improvement, but there is still plenty of room to grow over the next few weeks.
“We still have a long ways to go,” Harmon said, when asked about seeing an elevated intensity in recent practices. “There are certain parts of practice where that’s really shown up. Our offense has a period [of practice] they call ‘Race and Dash’, and man, everybody was flying around. They knew where they needed to be. The 1s knew the number of reps they were getting, the 2s knew how many reps they were getting. It worked like you’d want it to work.
“But there are other parts of practice that aren’t that efficient. We’re striving to get it all the way we want it.”
How about the overall buy-in to the goals and standards of the program? That was another emphasis point coming out of the HSU loss, and Harmon noted he feels progress has been visible in that area as well. But they have to keep pushing forwards.
“I do feel that guys are starting to embrace the difficult things that come along with being a Mary Hardin-Baylor football player, and that showed up Saturday,” Harmon added. “We’ve got to continue to get more people to buy into it, and more people to go out there and perform.”
