MARSHALL, Texas – Playing their fifth night game of the year and third on the road, the East Texas Baptist University football team heads to Brownwood to face Howard Payne University in American Southwest Conference play. ETBU posted over 600 yards of total offense against Hardin-Simmons and will look to continue to build upon their success from last week.
 
The series against Howard Payne University is a tight one as ETBU leads, 10-9, in their 19 meeting. These two teams played in 1948 and 1949 as HPU won both meetings. ETBU has won the last two meetings and the last time in Brownwood they won 51-13. Last season, ETBU made the most of their homecoming game by defeating the HPU, 76-14. HPU is coming off winning their first game of the season against Belhaven 45-37.  
 
Head coach Scott Highsmith expects HPU to defend their home field and come out with energy. "They are a young scrappy team," said Highsmith. "A team like that's always got a chance. They have a new head coach and he's got plenty of experience. He was an excellent defensive coordinator at TLU. He's doing a good job with them. They had a big win over Belhaven last weekend and they are going to be at their best for us. We're going to have a big target on our chest and it's going to be exciting."
 
Offensively, the Yellow Jackets are giving up 25.7 points per game. Quarterback Mitchell Jennings has thrown 265 yards and two touchdown passes while running back Hunter Batten has rushed for 299 yards on 67 carries, which is 4.2 yards per carry. Tariq Gray is the top receiver with 144 yards on 12 catches.
 
Defensively, HPU gives up 49 points per game. Tevin Dawson leads the Yellow Jackets with 30 total tackles. Jaylon Jeffery has a team-leading four tackles for loss including three sacks while Patrick Hunt has three interceptions to his season.
 
Last week against Hardin-Simmons, ETBU put up over 600 yards of offense as quarterback Dru Smith threw for 475 yards on 29-of-46 passing and four touchdowns. He also added a touchdown run while Xavier Grey, (three receptions, 72 yards) Richard Johnson (eight receptions, 134 yards, two touchdowns) and Jaquavian Dabbs (three receptions, 105 yards) each caught a one of Smith's touchdowns. Ty Parsons (14 tackles), Caleb Taylor (14 Tackles) and Hardy Hill (11 tackles) were the top tacklers for ETBU.
 
Kickoff in Brownwood, Texas, is at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday.