Photo: Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/Backwards Hat Media
BELTON — There isn’t much that needs to be said. It’s already pretty clear what Saturday’s game means in the story of UMHB’s 2025 season.
A little less than four weeks ago, The Cru walked off the field at Hardin-Simmons searching for answers in the moments that followed a 34-7 loss. They had not met the moment, plain and simple, and the Cowboys—ranked No. 9 in d3football.com Top 25 poll—took advantage, dominating on both sides of the ball.
But in the aftermath, head coach Larry Harmon made it clear that wasn’t the standard he expected. Nor the level of performance that would be tolerated.
“We’ve got four weeks,” he said the Monday afterwards. “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.”
Three weeks have passed, and now UMHB finds itself prepping for a Top 10-ranked Hardin-Simmons squad once again. Has The Cru righted the ship? The performance over the last three games certainly lends itself to the idea that yes, UMHB is a different team than it was a month ago. Winning three straight games has that sort of effect.
In victories over NAIA Texas Wesleyan and ASC members Howard Payne and ETBU, The Cru outscored its opposition 131-50. In that same span, the passing game threw for 200-plus yards in each contest, and the run game tallied seven rushing scores, after putting up six in the first five games. The defense has gotten healthier (more on that in a minute) and the pieces seem to be fitting into place to the tune of 10 pass breakups, 11.0 sacks, and 26.0 tackles for loss against TXWES, HPU, and ETBU.
All of it seems to have UMHB trending in the right direction with the HSU rematch on tap. There isn’t much runway left. With two regular season games remaining, The Cru will host the fifth-ranked Cowboys at Crusader Stadium in a must-win environment on Saturday afternoon. A win keeps their ASC title chances alive. A loss gives HSU the conference title right then and there. Not to mention the pride that surrounds this rivalry, without fail, every season, and the fact that this will be only the second time since 2020 that UMHB and HSU have met inside Crusader Stadium. The last three meetings between the rivals in Belton have yielded an average crowd of 5,582. Storylines abound heading into this week, as they always do.
“When you’re part of the two best of a division in a state where football is king, there’s a lot of pride in it,” Harmon said of the matchup. “Alumni from both schools take pride in where they’re from, administrators take pride in where they’re from. It’s a cool thing to be part of, because it’s just not the 60 kids out there playing that play this game on Saturday. There’s going to be thousands of people on both sides keyed in, watching this thing. There’s so much emotion that goes into this game.”
As UMHB prepares for the challenge, hosting a Top 5 opponent in the regular season for only the third time in the last decade, Harmon met with the media on Monday. Here are four thoughts as The Cru gets set for Round 2 against HSU.
The penalties have taken a drop in frequency
Through UMHB’s first five games, a stretch spanning up through the first meeting with Hardin-Simmons, The Cru averaged 8.2 penalties per game. It led to touchdowns on punt returns being called back, and plenty of momentum-stopping instances that hurt the production of an offense that was still trying to figure things out. That penalty rate also ranked as the 36th-most in Division III through Oct. 11.
But since returning to Belton and sparking its three-game win streak, there has been a noticeable shift in that department. After having at least seven penalties in four of its first five games, UMHB hasn’t been whistled more than four times in a game since. That has brought The Cru’s season average down to 6.5 penalties per game, a step in the right direction for a team that has sought to play a more disciplined brand of football in the second half of this regular season.
“We’re just not going to put up with people not being disciplined,” Harmon said. “There’s a difference between an ignorant penalty, a penalty where they’re just doing it out of frustration, and a penalty where they’re doing it out of aggression trying to get the job done. So it’s not quite black-and-white.”
Notably, UMHB hasn’t dealt with inopportune penalties quite to the degree it did weeks ago. With a quick-whistled officiating crew at Mars Hill, three returns of 40+ yards (including a pair of 60+ yard returns from BJ Stewart) were called back due to penalties. On Saturday, Stewart had three returns that went for 40+ and not one was called back.
Back in the first meeting with ETBU, The Cru saw a touchdown taken off the board due to a holding call, and an ETBU 3rd-and-long turn into an automatic 1st down (and two plays later, a TD) after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That wasn’t the case in the second round against ETBU. Needing to play clean, mistake-free football against HSU, the recent showings all point to a positive direction for UMHB.
More than anything, the homestand has helped with the mental fatigue
UMHB proved it could win on the road in last season’s dramatic playoff run, in which The Cru took down Trinity, Hardin-Simmons, and Linfield in three consecutive weeks away from Belton. But nobody denies the value of playing at home, and it certainly seems that after going through a stretch of three straight games on the road—at Mars Hill, ETBU, and Hardin-Simmons—the return to Crusader Stadium has had at least some role to play in UMHB’s recent uptick.
Harmon said as much in his weekly presser, noting that for the team’s younger players in particular, getting what will be four weeks of home games has been most helpful from a mental standpoint. The physical aspect of travel is one thing, but a multi-week stretch like UMHB had in late September and early October takes an even more significant toll in the mental energy required, especially when two of those three opponents are in conference play and the other is over 1,000 miles away.
“We had a flight, then we went to Marshall, and then Abilene,” Harmon said. “You could tell the guys were tired, especially as young as we are. Our younger players were mentally tired, more than physically tired. Figuring out how to handle that as a young player is more difficult, I think, than when you’ve got a bunch of veterans.”
There’s also a comfortability aspect at play when you get a stretch of four home games in a row, something UMHB hasn’t had since 2018, when the Crusaders’ playoff run kept them in Belton for four games leading up to the Stagg Bowl against Mount Union. Just as they did then, this group is aiming for a clean sweep in the homestand, currently 4-1 inside Crusader Stadium this fall.
“It’s just nice to have a home crowd,” Harmon said of the advantages to several weeks of playing at home. “It’s being familiar with your stuff, sleeping in your own bed. Mom, Dad, everybody’s at the game, compared to maybe only a few parents being able to make it to an away game. So all that has factored into helping us.”
The defense has gotten healthier, and that’s made a noticeable difference
While Hardin-Simmons looks to be a very similar team to the one UMHB saw in Abilene four weeks ago, the Crusaders will look different at several different spots, most notably on the defensive side of the ball. That includes defensive ends Brandon McGruder and Gaige Sanders, who were both at full health for the first time in weeks against ETBU, and the impact of that duo was immense for the Crusader defense. McGruder had 2.0 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss, while Sanders added 1.5 sacks and 2.0 tackles for loss.
When UMHB played HSU the first time, The Cru had multiple backups starting on the line and at linebacker. That continued into the wins over Texas Wesleyan and Howard Payne, but as starters have gotten back on the field and into high snap counts, the impact has been noticeable. It lends itself to more confidence for the defense going into the rematch, knowing they have more experience on their side now than they did a month ago.
“Nothing replaces getting your starter back,” Harmon said. “There’s a huge difference in not only games played, but types of games played; playoff games, games that if you lose you go home. All of those things really matter.”
But when faced with the adversity that injuries bring, Harmon and his staff had no choice but to turn to a handful of younger, less-experienced players to fill the holes. That created opportunities for newcomers like freshman linebacker Benton McElree, who had five tackles against HSU, and freshman defensive back Denim Collins, who had four tackles and an interception against TXWES. UMHB leaned on a number of young players to fight through the recent stretch while starters worked back to full health, and Harmon noted their effort in that role on Monday.
“They want to be successful, they want to do right,” Harmon said, answering a question about whether he feels like the previous few weeks have helped UMHB build more depth on the defensive side. “They’re trying their very best, they’re just inexperienced. So for as many reps as they’ve been getting, yeah, our depth is better now.
“It’s been the hand we’ve dealt with. I’m really proud of how our guys have fought their tails off and really tried to learn it. We recruit them for a reason—they’re good players—they’re just lacking experience. It’s our job to get them coached up and playing at a high-level.”
Michaux has built confidence heading into his first start vs HSU
Kirkland Michaux threw for 200-plus yards for the third week in a row on Saturday, 216 to be exact. It raises his season passing yardage total to 1,396 and his two passing touchdowns to BJ Stewart increased his total in that category to double-digits (11). The last time a UMHB quarterback put up three consecutive 200-yard passing performances? 2022, when Kyle King strung together five straight weeks of 200-yard games in his final season with The Cru.
Michaux, who transferred in from Illinois prior to fall camp, took some time to settle in as UMHB’s starting quarterback. Then he missed the first matchup with HSU due to being in concussion protocol. But as the recent weeks have unfolded, Michaux seems to be building more confidence, and his chemistry with UMHB’s receiving corps has shown itself as well.
“His confidence is growing,” Harmon said. “He’s got confidence in his line. He’s got confidence in his receivers to be where they’re supposed to be. He’s going through the same situation through the public eye and through social media that Arch Manning is. He’s a D1 transfer, so everybody expects him to come in and be All-World.
“The reality is, it’s a new system, it’s a new place, and he hasn’t played as much. It’s taken him a little bit of time to go through his internal process of how he needs to read things and get things done and matching it with our team.”
If UMHB is going to make a push towards reaching the ASC point-differential tiebreaker—which would require beating HSU by 21—the offense will need to click early and often against one of the best defenses the Crusaders have faced in 2025. HSU is on a level defensively that Howard Payne, ETBU, and Texas Wesleyan aren’t, but Michaux coming in with an 8-to-0 touchdown-to-interception ratio over the last three games is a good start.
And as Harmon said Monday, there is still another level that Michaux believes he can reach.
“He’s getting more comfortable,” Harmon added. “He’d been the first one to tell you there’s still a big place for him to go, there’s another level he needs to get to for us. But he’s working hard every day to try to get there.”
UMHB kicks off against No. 5 Hardin-Simmons on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT in Belton. The contest will be broadcast live on cruathletics.com and carried over the airwaves on KMIL 105.1 FM.
