SHAWNEE – Following two road games, the Oklahoma Baptist (1-4) football team returns to Crain Family Stadium at the Hurt Complex on Oct. 11 at 2 p.m. Their opponent: Arkansas-Monticello (2-3) who has won each of its last two games.
Saturday's contest is sponsored by Chick-Fil-A and will serve as Kids Day at OBU.
The Bison Sports Radio Network's Todd Miller, Dave Myrick and John Brooks will be on the call of the game starting at 1:30 p.m. Below are notes on both teams.
Harris Accomplishes Another Feat
Nick Harris continued his strong 2025 campaign with a seven-catch, 104-yard performance at Ouachita last week. He's now one of only three players in OBU's history (since the program reboot in 2013) to record at least 100 receiving yards in three straight contests. The others: Keilahn Harris in 2021 and Josh Cornell in 2019. During the 2021 campaign, Harris had 100-plus yards between Sept. 2nd and 18th against Ouachita, Arkansas-Monticello and Northwestern. For Cornell, he accomplished the feat between Oct. 5th and 19th versus Arkansas Tech, Harding and Ouachita.
Of note, no OBU player has ever recorded four-straight games with 100 receiving yards.
Solid Running Skills
Deuce Wise and
Caden Peevey provided a one, two punch in the ground game last week in Arkadelphia. For Wise, he carried 13 times for 56 yards and a touchdown. Peevey added seven totes for 43 yards which included a game-long run of 29 yards. By game's end, they had averaged 4.95 yards per game. This season, Wise ranks 13th in the GAC with 256 rushing yards while Peevey's 5.8 yards-per-carry is slotted the same.
One Strong Force
Jahden Brown led the Bison defense with seven tackles last week, including five solo stops. He also added a game-high 1.5 tackles-for-loss. That bumped his season total to 5.0, a mark that's sixth-best in the Great American Conference and 2.5 off of the GAC leader Ghee Evans (7.5), a member of Arkansas-Monticello.
A Cool Defensive Note
The Bison defense has several good tacklers. Included in that mix:
Colt Humphrey,
Chase Whitebear,
Caleb Giles and
Noah Loyd. That group of four all rank inside the top-20 of the GAC in tackles. Humphrey has 35, Whitebear with 33, Loyd with 32 and Giles with 31.
This is mentioned because to date, only one other OBU defense has produced four, top-20 tacklers in the league. That came in 2022 when Elijah Tomlin, Kaleb Peters,
KJ Price and Nick Boone were ranked within the top-20 of GAC defenders.
Lowry Converts
Sophomore
Carter Lowry connected on a pair of field goals against Ouachita – a 37-yarder in the second quarter followed by a 24-yarder in the third. The Norman native is now 4-of-5 this season in field-goal attempts. That 80.0 percent conversion rate is slotted 21st nationally and third-best in the GAC.
NCAA Stat Updates
OBU is now the GAC leader and ranked 15th in the country with 285.0 passing yards per game. Also of note, the team is No. 27 in Division II with a 63.6 fourth-down conversion rate.
Individually, there are a few bright spots for the Bison.
Chase Whitebear is still the conference leader and 15th in the nation with seven passes defensed. Harris is No. 30 in D2 and sits atop the GAC with 80.2 receiving yards per game. Plus, position-mate
Garrett Vaughn's 4.50 reception per game is second-best in the GAC and 71st in the nation. Lastly, quarterback
TJ McMahon's 205.4 total yards per game is fourth in the conference.
2025's Recurring Theme
For the fourth time in five games, the Bison turned the ball over multiple times. Last week at Ouachita, the squad's productive first drive ended in an interception near the Tigers' goal line before the second drive resulted in a fumble. OBU has lost 13 possessions to turnovers, a mark that's 136th out of 156 Division II squads. Also, the Bison's minus 1.80 turnover margin is 152nd in the country.
Coach's Thoughts
HC
Chris Jensen: "They have the deepest group of wide receivers we have seen and one of the best quarterbacks we have seen as well. They have gained some momentum with big wins the last two weeks and we will have to be at our best this week."
OC
Daniel Eaton: "Monticello is a defense that is getting better as the year goes on. They have a lot of solid transfers and JUCO guys to pair with some of the young talent they had return. They do a lot on defense at all three levels that we have to prepare for."
DC
Tyler Roberts: "They have a lot of dynamic playmakers. The offensive coordinator does a good job of getting his playmakers the ball. They run some good offensive concepts that will put pressure on a defense."
About Arkansas-Monticello
Arkansas–Monticello enters the week at 2–3 after a 23–9 victory over Southern Nazarene. It was their second consecutive victory after starting the year 0-3.
Linebacker Ghee Evans led the defense with 17 total tackles, including 12 solo.
Evans dominated in the backfield, recording 5.5 tackles-for-loss totaling 13 yards and 4.0 sacks, earning GAC Defensive Player of the Week honors. This year, he ranks seventh in the GAC in tackles, second in TFLs and third in sacks.
UAM also has others contributing on defense. Keith Wells Jr. and Jaquan Frank are ninth and tenth, respectively, in the GAC with 2.0 sacks each.
As a team, though, Monticello has only forced one fumble and recorded a single interception, that coming to Dajon Doss.
Offensively, UAM has down a great job limiting mistakes. Coming into Saturday, the Boll Weevils are the third-least penalized team in the GAC. They average a little more than six a game.
UAM is also second in the conference averaging 14.58 yards per catch.
Quarterback Demilon Brown leads the offense across the board, pacing the team in passing yards (1,116), passing touchdowns (8) and rushing touchdowns (2).
UAM has multiple receiving threats too. Ahmari Cox is 11th in the GAC with 11 catches along with three touchdowns. Plus, TJ Fields and Michael Lott have each scored as well.
Along the special teams front, Tanner Steenbock averages 40.1 yards per punt and has pinned nearly half (6/13) of his boots inside the 20-yard line.
As for field-goal duties, Charles Stinson is 5-of-6 (83.3%) with a long of 39 this fall.
The Boll Weevils will be looking to win in Shawnee for the first time since the 2017 season. During that Oct. 14 matchup eight years ago, UAM earned a commanding 64-21 win at Crain Family Stadium. Since then, they are 0-3.
