The last time UTPB suffered a Lone Star Conference defeat, head coach Kris McCullough was still at East Central Oklahoma.
That result was a 49-14 loss to Central Washington on Nov. 12, 2022 in Ellensburg, Wa.
Since then, it’s been a nine-game winning streak for the Falcons.
UTPB will look to continue that run when they face Texas A&M-Kingsville- a team with personal significance to McCullough- at 6 p.m. Saturday at Astound Broadband Stadium in Midland.
The Javelinas were the first Lone Star Conference team McCullough faced as a head coach right before coming to UTPB.
He saw them in the Heritage Bowl back on Dec. 3, 2022 in Corsicana.
McCullough, of course, was the head coach at East Central University.
“I’ve never gone into a game with little confidence,” McCullough said. “Our guys are ready to roll. Kingsville is a conference opponent but they go back further with me. We played them in a bowl game in my last game at East Central. We beat them pretty handily. Last year, we beat them by two scores and dominated that game. I don’t plan on letting up. I think our confidence is going to grow as our team grows. Our team is going to play with a lot of confidence.”
UTPB is coming off a confidence-boosting 67-14 win against nonconference Adams State last week in Midland.
If there was anything that UTPB had to fix from last week’s contest, McCullough said it was cleaning up on a few plays on offense and defense.
“We have to clean up the fumbles and then we have to clean up a couple of screens on defense,” McCullough said. “Adams State was able to hit a couple of screens on us. offensively, we had a couple of sacks that were on the quarterback. We have to clean those up. Besides that, when the ball is in the air, we have to come down with it.”
The victory put the Falcons back on track who suffered a 40-23 loss to Colorado State-Pueblo in a nonconference clash back on Sept. 7.
UTPB sits at 2-1 overall, 1-0 in Lone Star Conference.
The Falcons began the season with an LSC win against Western New Mexico 41-3 on Aug. 31.
Texas A&M-Kingsville (1-1) will be playing its conference opener.
The Javelinas are coming off a 27-7 win against Mississippi College.
McCullough says he sees some similarities between himself and Kingsville’s head coach Mike Salinas.
“Their head coach is a lot like me with certain formations and certain personnel,” McCullough said. “He wants to run the rock so he’s got two quarterbacks that can run. They’re a trench-driven team. When their offensive line is moving the ball, they’ll have a good chance to win every single ball game. they make it tough on you. … Defensively, they’re pretty solid. I’m excited for this game. it’s going to be very physical. Both teams are going to run for the 250 mark and it’ll depend on who gets to it first.”
