ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - With four games remaining in the 2023 regular season, (RV) Henderson State will get the final third of its schedule underway Saturday when it takes on Arkansas-Monticello Saturday, Oct. 21. Kickoff from Willis "Convoy" Leslie Cotton Boll Stadium is set for 2 p.m. 
 
STORYLINES: SETTING THE SCENE
(RV) Henderson State comes into Saturday's matchup 5-2 after having played the most difficult schedule in the conference with an opponents combined record through week seven of 29-20. The Reddies, with their next three opponents having won a combined two games to 19 losses, head to Monticello, Arkansas, where they have not lost since 2000, having won seven straight on UAM's home field. Since that loss at the turn of the century, HSU is 16-3 against Arkansas-Monticello. In what will be the 85th all-time meeting, Henderson leads the series with the Boll Weevils, 51-31-2.
 
After starting off the year 2-0 with wins over Southwestern and Northwestern Oklahoma State, Arkansas-Monticello has suffered five consecutive losses ahead of Saturday's meeting. At 2-5, the Boll Weevils have not started 2-6 through their first eight games of a season since 2015 when they went 1-10. Monticello has never beaten SWOSU, NWOSU and HSU in the same season in the GAC era.
 
REDDIES REPORT: OFFENSE
Henderson St. got off to one of its best starts of the season this past Saturday against Southern Arkansas as part of its season-high 517 total yards, scoring touchdowns on three of its first four drives and four of its six first-half series'. After scoring 28 points in the first half, however, the Reddie offense managed just two field goals in the second half compared to two punts and a turnover-on-downs.
 
The red-and-gray struggled Saturday to score touchdowns in the redzone, primarily in the second half. After finding paydirt on each of its redzone trips in the first half, both of HSU's trips inside the SAU 20-yard line in the second half resulted in field goals. On the season, Henderson has had 32 redzone trips, scoring a touchdown just 17 times, while settling for a field-goal on 12 occasions in that space, which is the most in the GAC.
 
Running back Fredrick O'Donald has been electric the last two contests for the Reddie rushing attack, having posted 248 yards and three touchdowns in his last two outings. O'Donald needs 104 yards Saturday to become just the second Henderson running back since 2015 to rush for at least 352 yards in a three-game span. Korien Burrell ran for 401 yards in three games last season while Jaquan Cole holds the record with 450 yards across three games in 2015.
 
Similar to O'Donald, Chris Hatzis has surpassed 100 receiving yards in each of the last two games after catching nine passes for 118 yards and two scores this past Saturday. Hatzis joins Xavier Malone and L'liott Curry as the only HSU receivers since the beginning of the 2019 season to post back-to-back 100-yard receiving games. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native is second in the GAC with 508 yards and tied for second with five touchdowns.
 
After throwing for 297 yards and a touchdown while adding 48 yards and another score on the ground, Andrew Edwards is up to 1922 total yards on the season. With four games remaining, Edwards needs 529 more yards to move into 10th for the most total yards for a single season in program history. This season, the Bentonville High School product is averaging just over 274 total yards per game.
 
REDDIES REPORT: DEFENSE – SPECIAL TEAMS
After Southern Arkansas scored a touchdown on an opening five play, 65 yard drive, Henderson's defense forced an SAU punt on two of the next three drives to help the Reddies establish a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter. As the game wore on, however, three of the Muleriders' final four touchdowns came on drives that took less than 1:55 of game time as big plays hurt the red-and-gray.
 
Southern Arkansas converted on eight of 15 third-down attempts, but was 4-of-6 on third downs in the second half compared to just 4-of-9 in the first 30 minutes of game time. Henderson is tenth in the league in opponent third-down conversions at 42.2 percent (43-102). Three of HSU's final four opponents are among the four worst teams in the league when it comes to third-down conversions, with UAM converting 31.3 percent of the time for ninth in the GAC.
 
Henderson St. continues to pace the league with 23 sacks through seven games, which is tied for ninth in all of NCAA Division II. With an average of 3.29 sacks per game, the Reddies need to accumulate 12 more sacks to set a GAC program record for the most sacks in a single season. Arkansas-Monticello is allowing the fifth most sacks in the conference at 18.
 
Defensive linemen Dylan Ndambuki (4.5), Tyler Strain (3.5) and Trenton Moore are (3.0) are leading HSU in sacks as the red-and-gray are one of just two teams in the GAC with three players who each have three or more sacks on the season. Linebacker Jakob Neel leads the team and is 13th among league leaders with 44 tackles while Strain is second on the team at 33.
 
Kolby King logged his longest field-goal of the season Saturday against Southern Arkansas, knocking in a 47-yard attempt for HSU's final points of the game. The Reddies' punting game struggled, with King and Axel Robertson combining to average 31.3 yards per boot. On the season, Henderson is averaging 35.7 yards per punt, which is ninth in the league. Arkansas-Monticello is 10th at 35.5 yards.
 
Jody Easter saw four kickoff returns Saturday, averaging 20.8 yards per return. On the season, Easter (19.3) and Cameron Thomas (19.8) are 11th and 12th, respectively, in the league in average yards per return. As a team, Henderson is third in punt return yards per game and fourth in kickoff return yards.
 
THE OPPONENT: ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO
After what looked to be a promising start to the 2023 season with Arkansas-Monticello winning its first two games, it has since lost five straight. The Boll Weevils have also lost more than just games as starting quarterback Demilon Brown, who accounted for 2113 total yards in 2022 and had already thrown for 1046 yards and 11 touchdowns this season, was lost to injury four games into this campaign.
 
During this losing streak, Arkansas-Monticello has lost three games by at least 14 points while the other two were by single digits, including a last-second loss to Southeastern Oklahoma State, 22-21. Redshirt freshman Buddy Taylor has taken over the starting quarterback spot the last three games, averaging 241 passing yards and 1.3 interceptions per contest in that time span.
 
The Boll Weevils are fifth in the conference in scoring offense at 30.0 points per game, though 107 of their 210 points this season came in the first two games as they have not surpassed 28 points since then. Arkansas-Monticello is also sixth in the league in total offense with 385.4 yards per game. A huge chunk of those yards have come through the air as UAM is leading the league with 286.6 yards per game. Henderson St. is second at 232.1 yards per game.
 
Arkansas-Monticello's biggest threats on offense are wide receivers Isaiah Cross and Nick Howard, who are fourth and fifth in the GAC with 464 and 409 receiving yards, respectively. That one-two aerial attack for the Boll Weevils has them as the only team in the league with two pass catchers among the league's Top-8 receiving leaders.
 
The loss of Brown with his dual-threat ability has severely hampered UAM's running game. In the four contests in which Brown got the start, the Weevils averaged 135 yards per game on the ground. In the last three games without Brown, that number has dropped to 89 yards per game. Arkansas-Monticello's top healthy rusher on the team is currently Gary Ferman, who has 142 yards on 28 carries.
 
Through seven games, the Boll Weevils have given up a lot of points but not a ton of yards. They hold the sixth ranked total defense with 350.3 yards per game but are allowing 32.9 points per game, which is the third most in the conference. Arkansas-Monticello operates as the seventh ranked rush defense (180.6 ypg) and the fifth ranked pass defense (169.7 ypg).
 
Monticello's leaders on the defense begins with junior defensive lineman Alfernee Hankins, who is second on the team with 31 tackles while leading the unit with nine tackles-for-loss – third most in the GAC – and three and a half sacks. Junior defensive back Gregg Hooks leads the secondary with 10 pass break-ups, one interception and one fumble recovery.
 
THE COACHING MATCHUP
In last season's victory over Arkansas-Monticello, Henderson St. head coach Scott Maxfield claimed his program-record 120th career victory. Maxfield, who has never lost to the Boll Weevils in Monticello, is now 130-64 all-time in Arkadelphia and 14-2 against Arkansas-Monticello.
 
Hud Jackson is in his 13th year and 12th football season as UAM's head coach. Jackson is 44-84 during his time at UAM and is second on the program's all-time wins list among head coaches, behind only Tommy Barnes (69). Under Jackson, Arkansas-Monticello is 1-9 against the Reddies.
 
THE LAST MEETING
Henderson State opened up a 23-0 lead over Arkansas-Monticello halfway through the second quarter in route to a 37-27 victory in Arkadelphia. The Boll Weevils scored 20 fourth-quarter points, including 13 in the game's final three minutes, to bring the final margin to two possessions. The Reddies used 374 total yards in the first half before logging just 149 in the second half.
 
The matchup with the Boll Weevils served as Andrew Edwards' second career start before completing 21-of-33 passes for 310 yards, four touchdowns and one interception while adding a fifth score on the ground. Arkansas-Monticello's quarterback Demilon Brown matched Edwards through the air with 320 passing yards while adding another 106 on the ground to go with four touchdowns – two through the air and two rushing.
 
Henderson's Korien Burrell ran for 121 yards while Xavier Malone caught eight passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns. Shaq'ke Robinson led the defense with seven total tackles and two sacks while also blocking a field goal. The Reddies as a unit recorded six sacks on the dual-threat Weevil signal caller.  
 
WHERE TO LISTEN
The game will be broadcast and available by the Henderson State Sports Network on KDEL 100.9 FM and KVRC 1240 AM in Arkadelphia, KWPS 99.7 FM in Hot Springs, KYXK 106.7 FM in Gurdon, and KZYP 104.1 FM/1310 AM in Malvern. Coverage begins one hour prior to kickoff.