Humboldt St. at Azusa Pacific
Saturday (Sept. 18)
Cougar Stadium, 6 p.m.

Records:

Azusa Pacific – 2-0

Humboldt State – 2-1

THIS WEEK: Azusa Pacific, winner in 19 of its past 22 games including its first road game of the 2004 season last week at Olivet Nazarene, returns home to host longtime nemesis Humboldt State University, an NCAA Division II program that has inflicted 1 of the Cougars’ 3 setbacks over the past 2-plus seasons.

SERIES NOTES: Humboldt State leads the all-time series with Azusa Pacific, 11-5. However, the Cougars are 4-3 vs. HSU in Azusa, having won 3 straight since taking a 20-13 verdict at home in 1998. The 2 programs have split the past 6 meetings with each team successfully protecting its home field turf.

LAST YEAR: A year ago at the Redwood Bowl in Arcata, Calif., Humboldt State snapped Azusa Pacific’s 8-game winning streak and handed the Cougars their only regular-season loss of the 2003 campaign with 21-7 dumping. Lumberjack QB Chris Dixon accounted for 280 of HSU’s 333 yards of total offense to lead Humboldt to the victory over the NAIA’s No. 8-ranked Cougars (Azusa Pacific would never be ranked as high the rest of the season). All the scoring took place in the first half with the Jacks using a pair of short-field situations to score 2 second-quarter TDs to break a 7-7 tie and assume a 21-7 halftime lead. The Lumberjack defense stifled what had previously been a potent Azusa Pacific offense, holding the Cougars to their fewest points in the past 31 games. Additionally, the Jacks held Azusa Pacific RB Ben Buys to less than 100 rushing yards (63 yards), the only team to do so in 2003.

LAST TIME IN AZUSA: In Humboldt State’s last visit to Azusa (10/12/02), Azusa Pacific downed the Lumberjacks, 35-22, on the strength of the freshman Ben Buys’ 4 rushing TDs. The Cougars jetted out to a 21-3 lead with Buys scoring on runs of 1, 12 and 7 yards. Humboldt State eventually caught fire behind the play of back-up QB Aaron Currell, scoring on 3 straight possessions to pull to within 28-22 with 7 minutes left in the third quarter. At one point, Currell completed 19-of-22 passes for 176 yards a TD. Less than 3 minutes into the fourth quarter, it appeared HSU would complete its comeback when it had the ball first-and-goal at the Cougar 4-yard line. Yet, Azusa Pacific stopped the Lumberjacks on 4 straight rushes, including 3 from the 1-yard line. Buys then added the game-clinching TD with another 1-yard burst with 1:24 left in the game.

vs. NCAA DIVISION II: Humboldt State, which is California’s only NCAA Division II school to sponsor football and the only DII football program within a 700-mile radius of Azusa Pacific, has been the only NCAA Division II team on the Cougar slate the past 4 years. Since 1996, though, Azusa Pacific is 6-5 vs. DII teams..

NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Azusa Pacific has won 11 straight games at home in the Canyon City, matching the longest home winning streak in program history (the 1998-99 Cougar teams set the original standard by reeling off 11 straight in Cougar Stadium during Azusa Pacific’s run to the 1998 NAIA title and 1999 NAIA semifinals). The Cougars have not lost at home since Southern Oregon laid a 64-21 thrashing on Azusa Pacific, Oct. 27, 2001. Since then, the Cougars have posted back-to-back seasons of perfect play at home, a first in the program’s 40-year history. Since 1998, Azusa Pacific is 32-5 at home.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Azusa Pacific head coach Peter Shinnick, son of former Baltimore Colt linebacker and UCLA All-American Don Shinnick, is in his sixth season at Azusa Pacific. He has fashioned a 38-15 record to date and only Cougar Hall-of-Famer Jim Milhon (1978-94) has won more game at Azusa Pacific (81). Shinnick led Azusa Pacific to the 1999 NAIA semifinals and put the Cougars back in the NAIA playoffs in 2000 and again last year. Shinnick came to Azusa Pacific in 1999 from Humboldt State, where he had spent the previous season as the offensive line coach on Fred Whitmire’s staff. He is 2-3 vs. his former employer.

Doug Adkins is in his fifth season at Humboldt State and owns a 14-32 record to date. A former defensive coordinator for the Lumberjacks, Adkins returned to HSU in 2000 after serving 5 seasons as the defensive line coach at the University of Nevada. Adkins is attempting to guide the Lumberjacks envisioning their first winning campaign since 1995.

NATIONAL RANKINGS: Azusa Pacific was ranked No. 11 in the NAIA Coaches Preseason Top 25 Poll that was released Aug. 17. The Cougars have appeared in 24 consecutive NAIA Polls dating back to Sept. 17, 2002. The first NAIA poll of the 2004 season will be released on Tuesday (Sept. 14) at 1 p.m. (PDT) and can be obtained via the Internet at the NAIA site.

Humboldt State is not ranked in any NCAA Division II poll.

LAST WEEK: Azusa Pacific ran its record to 2-0 on the season with a defense-dominating 22-6 victory at Olivet Nazarene University, located south of Chicago. After spotting the Tigers an early 6-0 lead, the Cougars ran roughshod on ONU, beating the Tigers into submission with a defense that allowed just 14 rushing yards and only 193 yards in total offense.

Ben Buys rushed for 111 yards on 20 carries and scored 1 TD while true-freshman Alex Peltier tallied the other TD on a 23-yard screen pass for his first-ever collegiate score. Mike Betancourth added a trio of field goals from 44, 42 and 33 yards.

Meanwhile Humboldt State posted an eye-popping victory, not because the Lumberjacks beat Southern Oregon at home, but rather in the manner in which they hammered SOU, beating the Raiders, 32-0, for Humboldt’s first shutout in 6 years. The Jacks’ defense held Southern Oregon to just 159 yards of total offense and forced 5 turnovers. Humboldt turned 2 of SOU’s 4 fumbles into touchdowns and returned 1 interception 61 yards for a TD.

EERILY SIMILAR: Not only do the playing dates of Azusa Pacific’s 2004 campaign match those of its 1999 NAIA semifinal season, but the first 3 opponents and the order in which they were played are identical, and thus far the results haven’t been too far off either. In 1999, Azusa Pacific opened with a 26-19 overtime victory over San Diego in Azusa on Sept. 4. This year, the Cougars rallied for a game-winning TD in the final minute of play to beat USD, 24-17, in Azusa on Sept. 4 as well. In 1999, the Cougars made their first-ever visit to Olivet Nazarene and used a strong defensive showing to beat the Tigers, 21-14. This year, the Cougars returned to Olivet for the first time since that 1999 date and again in the second week of the season, and downed the Tigers, 22-6, with another excellent defensive performance. Will history continue to repeat itself? Let’s hope not. In 1999, Humboldt State snapped Azusa Pacific’s 12-game winning streak with a thrilling 38-34 verdict on Sept. 18. However, that game was played in the Redwood Bowl, not in Cougar Stadium where this year’s Sept. 18 contest will be staged.

ON THE DEFENSIVE: Echoes of the past are being heard in relationship to this year’s Cougar defense. In 1980 and ’81, Azusa Pacific’s defense ranked among the best in the NAIA, holding opponents to just 168 yards of total offense per game (1981), which included a mere 18.3 on the ground, while producing 4 straight shutouts at one point. Additionally, the 1980 defense set an NAIA record with minus-147 yards rushing thanks in part to 17 QB sacks against Occidental in 1980. This year’s set of Cougar defenders might be likened to the Cougars of lore. Through the opening 2 games this year, Azusa Pacific is holding the opponent to per-game averages of just 39.5 rushing yards and 216 yards of total offense. They’ve yielded just 2 touchdowns, and both followed Azusa Pacific turnovers inside the Cougar 20-yard line. They’ve sacked opposing QBs 8 times so far and have yet to give up a touchdown through the air.

MORE DEFENSE: The most impressive fact of this Cougar defense is that of the opponents’ 26 possessions this year, none have lasted more than 44 yards in length, and 21 of the opponents possessions have ended after just 1 first down. The Azusa Pacific defense has held on 25-of-32 third-down situations this season.

INDIVIDUALLY SPEAKING: All-American candidate Steve Holte, a 3-year starting linebacker out of West Des Moines, Iowa, leads the Cougars in tackles with 18, which includes 4 for loss and a sack. Sophomore LB Scott Ellis has 16 tackles while junior safety Troy McPeak has 14 tackles, including 3 for loss, a sack, 3 pass break ups and the team’s lone interception of the season.

BUY A TD: Senior All-American candidate Ben Buys became only the fifth Cougar ever to tally 2,000 career rushing yards when he rushed for 111 yards on 20 carries at Olivet Nazarene last week. Buys now has 2,061 yards in his 18-game career (114.5 avg.), trailing only Christian Okoye (3,569), Jack Williams (2,737), Marcus Slaten (2,546) and Rod Martin (2,236) on Azusa Pacific’s all-time rushing chart. Additionally, Buys scored a TD vs. Olivet Nazarene to run his career total to 31 rushing TDs, second only to the former NFL Pro-Bowler Okoye (1984-86), who set the program standard with 34 career rushing TDs.

WHAT A KICK: Junior college transfer Mike Betancourth is turning into a one-man kicking gang for Azusa Pacific. Not since the early 1990s has Azusa Pacific had one person handle both punting and place-kicking duties and not since the great Brad Kramer of the mid-1970s has any Cougar ever been as successful at both duties as Betancourth … at least through 2 games. In 8 punts this season, Betancourth is averaging a hefty 43.5 yards a kick, which is well ahead of the 41.6 school-record pace first set by Bruce Webb in 1969 and matched by Kramer in 1974. Additionally, Betancourth is a perfect 4-for-4 with his field goal attempts this year. In the Cougars’ opening-week victory over San Diego, he converted a 23-yarder, his first attempt in 2 years, to tie the game at 17-17 with less than 4 minutes to play. He then made 3 more attempts at Olivet Nazarene last week, including boots of 44 and 42 yards to become only the second Cougar ever to kick 2 40-yard field goals in the same game (Michael Wade hit 49- and 44-yarders vs. San Diego in 1993).

GETTING THE HANG OF IT: Cougar QB Sean Davis, who a year ago assumed the starting mantle in place of the program’s all-time leading passer (Luke Winslow), is settling in quite nicely as the Cougars’ signal-caller. Davis endured the growing pains through the first 6 games of his career as Azusa Pacific’s field general. However, over the past 6 games Davis has matured quite nicely, completing 77-of-146 (.527) passes for 974 yards and 4 TDs.

ABOUT THE LUMBERJACKS: Humboldt State has won 2 of its first 3 games to open the 2004 season, beating Menlo (42-14) and Southern Oregon (32-0) while falling to NCAA Division I-AA Cal Poly (42-7). The Lumberjacks are averaging 344 yards of total offense, using a reasonably balanced attack that collects 147 on the ground and 197 through the air. Senior QB Jason Baughman leads an offense that is averaging 27 points a game (37.0 against non-Division I teams). Though he was a reserve last year, Baughman did get one start as a 2003 junior and proceeded to set the school single-game record with 468 passing yards. So far in 2004, he has completed 50-of-82 (.610) passes for 590 yards and 6 TDs. His favorite target is Cougar killer WR Dustin Creager, who tops the team with 20 catches and 3 TDs. In 3 previous games vs. Azusa Pacific Creager has 20 receptions for 304 yards to go along with a pair of TDs. Humboldt State relies on a committee of 3 – Lionel Arnold (183 yards, 39 carries), Daniel Nembhard (148, 29) and Bobby Pierson (111, 27) – to handle the rushing chores.

Defensively, the Lumberjacks force turnovers as evidenced by the Jacks’ 12 takeaways in just 3 games. Additionally, in their 2 victories, the HSU defensive front held Menlo and Southern Oregon to a combined 124 rushing yards on 42 carries (62 yards a game and just 3.0 a carry). Linebacker Nick White (28) and defensive back Kyle Killingsworth (23) top the team in tackles.

SHINNICK SAYS: “I’m pleased to be 2-0 because we’ve made mistakes in both games, and yet we countered them and found ways to be on top,” said Cougar coach Peter Shinnick. "I’m really happy with how our defense is playing and the pressure they are putting on people. I think we can continue to do that and get better as the season goes along. We got 11 guys who can run around and they love flying to the ball. Even though we didn’t return a lot of starters on defense, we returned a lot of players with experience, and they’re playing quite well right now.”

“I thought we got Ben (Buys) the appropriate amount of carries against Olivet, and Alex (Peltier) and Marcus (Lampkins) came in to give us a great change up. We need to be more productive on offense, and it starts first with being more efficient in our passing game. We’ve hurt ourselves with missed assignments, which we cleaned up a little from game one to game two, but there is still work to do.”

(on Humboldt State) “To shut out Southern Oregon out is a big thing. Their only loss is to Cal Poly, which could be the hottest I-AA team in the nation right now. So it looks like (HSU coach) Doug (Adkins) has built a very good football team. They are big and physical, and they’ll be a great test for us. You’re going to win a lot of game by averaging 4 take-aways a game. It seems like they are always in the right place, so we have got to secure the ball against Humboldt.

ON THE AIR: Azusa Pacific’s student-run radio station KAPU will carry the Azusa Pacific-Humboldt State game. Click here to listen to Mike Dennis and Alex Charles call all the action starting at 5:55 p.m. Saturday (Sept. 18)

TICKET PRICES: Tickets for the Humboldt State game are sold at the gate on game day, starting at 4:30 p.m. Prices are $5 for general admission, and $3 for students with ID. Children age 12 and under are free.

DIRECTIONS: To attend the Azusa Pacific-Humboldt State game in the Los Angeles area, take the 210 Freeway and exit Citrus Ave in Azusa. Go north (toward the mountains) and cross Alosta Ave. Turn right on University Drive onto the campus. The stadium will be on the left.