After notching a hearty 48-21 victory over Texas A&M-Kingsville, the West Texas A&M Buffaloes are looking at a win and in situation. Standing in the way, however, is a trip to Blackwater Draw on Nov. 1 to face the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds in the annual Wagon Wheel Game.
“It’s going to add some excitement to practice, even though practice has already been exciting,” Alex Tucci, junior defensive lineman, said. “It’s sort of like another playoff in a way.”
Rekindled in 1986 under former head coach Don Carthel, the Buffs had previously won seven straight Wagon Wheel games before the streak was snapped in an upset loss last season. This was with the help of EMNU triple-option offense, which capped a comeback victory over the Buffs.
“It still burns in my heart every day,” Austin Carson, sophomore offensive lineman, said. “I want to get that Wagon Wheel back, that’s for sure. The way they acted towards the end and how it ended, it makes me want that Wagon Wheel back even more.”
In the win against the Javelinas on Oct. 25, junior running back Geremy Alridge-Mitchell led the Buffs with 126 rushing yards, 73 yards receiving and three touchdowns. This was Alridge-Mitchell’s seventh consecutive game with more than 100 rushing yards. Junior quarterback Preston Rabb also had a stellar game against Kingsville, going 20-30 with nearly 300 yards passing and three touchdown passes.
Despite dropping their last two games, EMNU has been able to average 311 rushing games over the course of the 2014 season. The Greyhounds are led by fullback E’lon Spight, quarterback Jeremy Buurma and linebacker Seth Bailey.
Spight has been a force to be reckoned with on the ground, gaining more than 1100 yards in the 2014 season while Buurma has thrown for more than 1100 yards and rushed for 300 more. On the other side of the ball, Bailey has tallied 54 tackles, four interceptions and one sack for the Greyhounds.
The Buffs have seen shades of this kind before in the Shorter Hawks at the Lone Star Football Festival.
“Shorter and Eastern have communicated over the season and over the summer a little bit on how to play us,” Head Coach Mike Nesbitt said. “It’s just one of those things that you have to understand that it’s a different style of game. You have to be patient on defense, you got to be assignment driven. You have to make good, solid tackles and get some tackles for losses.”
The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be broadcasted on KAMR NBC-4.