By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
Fort Hays State Football kicks off the 2024 season on Thursday night (Aug. 29) in the annual Vyve Broadband Kickoff Classic at Lewis Field Stadium. The Tigers play host to No. 24 ranked Angelo State at 7 p.m. Both schools are coming off 7-win campaigns in 2023. FHSU finished at 7-4, while ASU finished at 7-3.
Fort Hays State and Angelo State are meeting for the first time in football. This will only be the third time FHSU plays a team from Texas in its 117-season history of football. The Tigers are looking for their first-ever win over a team from Texas.
Angelo State has been a perennially strong program under sixth-year head coach Jeff Girsch, who owns a 40-12 mark leading the Rams since the 2019 season. Excluding the 2020 COVID year when Angelo State played just four games total, ASU has won at least seven games in each season of Girsch’s guidance. The Rams were an NCAA playoff team in both 2021 and 2022, reaching the national quarterfinals each time before getting knocked out by Colorado School of Mines in the Super Region 4 bracket. ASU finished 11-3 overall in 2021 and 12-1 in 2022 before its 7-3 campaign in 2023.
Fort Hays State won its last home game against an AFCA Top 25 team. The Tigers defeated a No. 15 ranked Northwest Missouri State team last year in Hays by a score of 17-6 on September 16. FHSU was 1-1 against Top 25 teams at home last year. Since the 2014 season, FHSU is 7-7 against Top 25 ranked teams at Lewis Field Stadium. This will be the second-straight year the Tigers are playing a home opener against an AFCA Top 25 team after facing a No. 3 ranked Pittsburg State team last year. This will be the fifth time since 2017 the Tigers play their home opener against an AFCA Top 25 team.
Fort Hays State’s last game against a current Lone Star Conference school was a 45-12 win against Eastern New Mexico in the 2016 Heart of Texas Bowl. That capped an 8-4 season for the Tigers and the program’s first-ever bowl game win.
Fort Hays State will be playing its first non-conference regular season game against a non-MIAA affiliated school since 2013, when it defeated South Dakota School of Mines in Hays by a score of 63-17. In 2014, the MIAA went to an 11-game conference schedule and conference schools did not play non-conference games in the regular season all the way through the 2022 season. In 2023, MIAA affiliate Lincoln University chose to play as an independent before leaving for the Great Lakes Valley Conference in 2024, technically creating a non-conference game last year, but Lincoln remained part of the MIAA in every other sport.
Fort Hays State has 16 of its 17 All-MIAA performers from the 2023 season returning in 2024. John Johnsonled the 16 returners with a first-team selection, while second-team picks went to Trevor Watts (WR), Myles Menges (DL), Mason Perez (DB), and Kobe Rome (DB). Jack Dawson (QB), Josh Shaw (OL), Parrish Terry (DL), and Makel Williams (LB) were third-team selections. Honorable mention status went to Jayden Horace (WR), Cale Cormaney (TE), Dawson Reynolds (OL), Kofi Karikari (OL), Carson Arndt (K), Trevion Mitchell (DB), and Sam Brandt (DB).
Solid defense has been a key to success for FHSU in recent years. FHSU ranked among the top three of the MIAA in total defense six of the last seven seasons (2nd three times, 3rd three times). Fort Hays State’s 300.1 yards allowed per game in 2023 was its lowest average allowed in a season under head coach Chris Brown. Fort Hays State had to face six Top 45 total offenses in NCAA Division II in 2023, which included national leader Central Missouri (593.8) and Emporia State (497.4). It bested the 306.6 allowed per game by Brown’s 2017 squad that finished 11-1 overall and ran through the MIAA with a perfect 11-0 record. FHSU had to face five teams in 2023 that finished with total offenses averaging at least 400 yards per game. FHSU has a nine-year streak of allowing less than 400 yards per game on defense, which started in 2014.
Fort Hays State has generated at least 400 yards of total offense per game in five of the last six seasons. The Tigers averaged 420.2 per game in 2023 to rank 28th in NCAA Division II. The Tigers have been among the Top 45 of NCAA Division II in total offense in five of the last six seasons as well. The Tigers were 12th nationally in 2019 at 485.6 yards per game, the top average generated in a season under head coach Chris Brown, and ranked 10th nationally in 2021 at 460.3 per game. The Tigers have been among the top four MIAA total offenses in five of the last six seasons, ranking fourth last year and as high as first in 2021.
FHSU owned the best kickoff return defense in NCAA Division II for the 2023 season. The Tigers allowed only 12.88 yards per return, leading Division II by 0.12 over East Central University (13.0).
Fort Hays State saw its biggest one-year win improvement under head coach Chris Brown in 2023, improving four wins by going from just three in 2022 to seven in 2023. The previous largest jump in win total under Brown was a three-win improvement from 2016 (8) to 2017 (11).
Fort Hays State is 81-55 during Chris Brown‘s tenure as head coach. Brown enters his 13th season in 2024 and has guided the Tigers to winning records in eight seasons. The Tigers have played in four postseason games under Brown, which included bowl games in 2015 and 2016, and NCAA Playoff games in 2017 and 2018. FHSU has reached at least eight wins in a season five times under Brown’s guidance. He is the all-time wins leader in FHSU history and has the most eight-win seasons of any coach in program history. By completing the 2024 season, Brown can match Wayne McConnell (1956-68) as the longest tenured head coach in FHSU Football history.