Saturday, September 14, 1996

Hardin-Simmons hosts "The Streak" today at 2 p.m.
By MARK WILSON
Staff Writer

Surely there has never been a game between two winless teams that has drawn this much attention.
Hardin-Simmons University takes on "The Streak" today in the Cowboys' season opener, at Shelton Stadium. And this is one streak the Cowboys will be doing everything in their power not to break.

The visitors from southeast Texas will be the Prairie View A&M Panthers, who extended their all-time collegiate football record for consecutive losses to 59 with a 30-14 loss to Abilene Christian University a week ago.

"It seems like to me they're playing hard," HSU coach Jimmie Keeling said. "They're not going to stay down all the time. We'd like to keep them down at least one more week and let somebody else worry about them."

Last season, the Panthers surpassed the previous mark collegiate mark of 50 consecutive losses held by an NCAA Division III school, Macalester.

The Panthers have dropped their first two games this year, and continue to draw national attention for their futility. More trouble erupted the week before the loss to ACU when head coach Hensley Sapenter Jr. was suspended by the university pending an internal investigation into the possible use of ineligible players in the season-opening loss to Texas Southern. Fred Freeman, who led Hampton University to a 10-1 record in 1985, is the interim coach.

The pressure each week on the Panthers to finally win may not be much greater than for opponents to avoid losing to them.

"We fully intend to play well," Keeling said. "Our emphasis is on our team trying to perform at a good level right now. I hope if we perform well, the other takes care of itself."

The Cowboys, members of the American Southwest Conference, were 9-2 last season and shared the conference title with Howard Payne.

HSU is No. 6 in the NAIA Division II poll, but the Cowboys haven't played a game this season.
They need to get today's game behind them - win or lose - before taking on 10th-ranked Howard Payne next Saturday in Brownwood.

Todd Baumann returns for his senior year with the Cowboys. He was the offensive Most Valuable Player in the conference last season after throwing 21 touchdown passes. Slotback Todd Bloom caught a team-high 96 passes a year ago.

The Cowboys must decide on a replacement for leading rusher Mark Pawelek, who provided 1,348 yards and 10 touchdowns rushing in 1995 but was ruled academically ineligible this season. Keeling said that Jeff Callaway, a junior from Dublin, will start.

"We'd like for our offense to be pretty good, pretty quick because we've got some players back," Keeling said.

Defensively, HSU will count on returning starters Ty Bishop of Bangs at linebacker, Willace Johnson at defensive end and Efrain Moreno at tackle.

"I think we've made good progress," Keeling said of his defense in the preseason. "We've got new faces in new spots. I think we're going to perform well."

After the second-week roster shakedown of 10-14 players because of eligibility questions, the Panthers are now led by a freshman at quarterback - Josh Barnes. He completed 15 of 26 passes with three touchdowns against ACU, and threw two interceptions.

Terry Brown and John Sharp led Prairie View in rushing, combining for 104 yards last week.