While the chance to advance to the playoffs or even post a winning record has faded for the Wayland Baptist football team, the Pioneers still have plenty to play for in their season-finale against No. 21 Langston at 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon in Greg Sherwood Memorial Bulldog Stadium.
First, there's the opportunity to avoid a losing record, as a win would even the Pioneers' final mark at 5-5 overall and 4-4 in Sooner Athletic Conference play.
There's also the chance to record Wayland's first-ever on-field win over Langston, which has beaten the Pioneers in all seven previous games. (Langston was forced to forfeit their game against Wayland in 2013, which the Lions won initially, 33-0). The closest the Pioneers have come to actually defeating Langston was last year when WBU fell on the road to the 14
th-ranked Lions, 31-20.
"Our kids have always played extremely well against Langston," Wayland coach
Butch Henderson said. "We had a chance to win in their backyard last year."
Also surrounding the game is the rivalry that almost perplexingly exists between Wayland and Langston on the gridiron, which Pioneers head coach
Butch Henderson said is difficult to explain. "Why would we have a rivalry (with an opponent) that far off? It's just something that's developed over the years," he explained. "There's no love-loss. I promise you our kids will play hard."
For the Pioneers to pick up their first win over a rival while also preventing the Lions a share of the conference championship would certainly be sweet. Langston (7-2) currently is tied with No. 16 Ottawa-Arizona atop the league standings with identical 6-1 records.
Also playing a motivational factor for Wayland is the fact that the game will be the final time on the field for 15 Pioneers seniors. Those players, who will be recognized on the field just prior to kickoff, would like to end their careers on a positive note, which is also true for the rest of the program looking ahead to 2020.
"(A win) gives you a lot of momentum through the off-season heading into next fall," Henderson said.
Beyond all of those factors, though, maybe the biggest reason, according to the coach, why the Pioneers are hungry for a win Saturday against Langston is the chance to secure a signature victory.
"We need to beat a nationally-ranked football team. For us to really move forward as a program, that's one of those things we need to be looking at," Henderson said.
Since football was restarted eight years ago, Wayland has lined up against 13 teams that were ranked or receiving Top 25 votes at the time. The Pioneers are 1-12 in those contests, the lone win coming over Webber International, Fla., 31-20, during the 2016 campaign. The Pioneers have dropped their last nine straight against teams ranked or receiving votes.
This will be Wayland's second game of the season against the NAIA's No. 21 team. Ottawa-Arizona was ranked 21
st back on Sept. 21 when the Pioneers fell to the Spirit in Surprise, Ariz., 80-21.
Having plenty of motivation to win and actually doing it are two different things, though, especially against a team like Langston.
"They have a really good football team," Henderson said.
The Lions do some of their best work surrounding the rushing game, both on offense and defense.
When Langston has the ball, the Lions are the 12
th-best team in the NAIA averaging 221 yards rushing a game. Most of that comes from Tim Whitfield, a 5-foot-11, 220-pound junior running back who ranks seventh in the NAIA with 125 yards rushing per game and third in scoring thanks mostly to 16 touchdowns.
"He has been really good all along through his career," Henderson said of Whitfield. "He does a good job picking holes."
Under center for the Lions is a freshman, 5-10, 185-pound Jordan Cooper.
"He has great speed and throws the ball well, but what you don't want him to do is tuck it and run," Henderson said of Cooper, who has completed 66-of-118 passes (56 percent) for an average of 100 yards per game with five touchdowns and six interceptions. The QB also averages 45 yards rushing a game and has scored nine TDs. "When he gets unwound, he can run."
Henderson said the Lions play ball-control football. "They want to rush the ball first and play great defense behind that."
That great defense is proven in Langston being the NAIA's top-ranked unit at stopping the run, allowing opponents just 55 yards a game. That could be a problem for a Wayland team that managed just 58 net yards rushing in last week's 24-6 loss at Texas Wesleyan.
Additionally, the Lions' defense is ranked fourth in the NAIA overall, giving up 243 ypg, and second in third-down conversions (22 percent).
"They have two linebackers who play good inside. Their leading tackler is a defensive end (6-3, 240-pound Justin Wade) who plays well off the edge. They also have two safeties who fill in behind those linebackers," Henderson said.
The coach also feels good about Wayland's defense.
"Our defense will rise up and play well against them. Defensively we played well enough to be able to win (last week against Texas Wesleyan). I have all the confidence in the world in our defense," he said.
"The thing we have to make sure to do is keep the ball offensively some so our defense is not on the field all the time. We have to have some kids make some big plays… some big-time catches, big-time runs, big-time throws. Someone once said you get five or six big plays in a ballgame, and you have to make sure four of those are yours."
Wayland had a handful of big plays in last year's near-upset at Langston, and two were made by defensive back
David Garza. Then a redshirt junior, Garza gave Wayland an early lead with a school-record 82-yard pick-six then returned another interception 35 yards to the Langston 8 to put the Pioneers in position to tie it in the fourth quarter.
But Wayland came up one yard short of the goal line, then the Lions flipped the field with an 86-yard punt that helped set Langston up for a clinching score.
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