Surging Texas A&M-Kingsville confident plus more key takeaways from a 4-0 start

KINGSVILLE — It’s hard to define a season through four games.

In four contests, though, Texas A&M-Kingsville’s football program seems to have found its identity but more importantly it has found a surging confidence the program has lacked over the last few years.

It’s been more than half a decade since the Javelinas have had a winning season and the same amount of time since they played in any type of postseason game.

Saturday night, Texas A&M-Kingsville dominated Eastern New Mexico 43-10 at Javelina Stadium and it marked the first time since 2010 the Javelinas have started a season 4-0. That same year, A&M-Kingsville finished 10-2 and were 9-1 in the Lone Star Conference.

The season is a long way from over with games against conference powers Angelo State and Midwestern State awaiting, but the confidence of the players and coaches in the program is surging each day.

“Everyone just bought in,” said redshirt freshman Demarcus Hendricks. “Coach bought in and as players we believe in each other.”

Coach Mike Salinas said he and players could sense a difference when fall practices started in August, mainly because it was their first full offseason and the confidence has grown.

“From a team standpoint, the question we asked them was ‘How good do we want to be?’” Salinas said after Saturday’s game. “I just think from the team aspect and what we’ve tried to build from the inside out in our locker room that is sort of what got us to this point and now the challenge is going ot be to continue to do that.”

DEFENSE SHINING

The Javelinas defense had another stellar showing on Saturday, limiting Eastern New Mexico to 250 total yards and allowed 14 or fewer points for the third time in the 2022 season.

A&M-Kingsville entered Saturday’s game ranked first in the Lone Star Conference in rushing defense, scoring defense and total defense.

“I think it’s just a mindset on the defensive side of the ball,” Salinas said. “These guys have a vision of how good they want to be. The goal now is to go out and compete against that vision every week and continue to get better.”

RUNNING GAME KEY

The Javelinas have a stable of running backs that provides some depth at the position and on Saturday that showed as Toneil Carter and Christian Anderson shared carries early in the game.

The two running backs combined for 148 rushing yards and three of the Javelinas’ touchdowns.

“We talked about controlling the offense, controlling the ball and wanted to limit three and outs,” said quarterback Jacob Cavazos, who had 67 rushing yards and TD on Saturday. “We felt like we had too many (against West Texas A&M). I think we did a good job of that and it showed.”

KEY STRETCH AHEAD

The Javelinas will play two of their next three games at home before they head to San Angelo for a clash with conference favorite Angelo State. A&M-Kingsville will travel to Blaine, Washington to take on Simon Fraser, and then two consecutive home games against Western New Mexico and University of Texas-Permian Basin.

“Right now to get a win (Saturday) puts us in a situation where we wanted to be,” Salinas said. “We got to go back to work to get better, and we’ve got to continue to get better in everything we are doing. It’s never as good as it seems, or never as bad as it seems. There are some things today we need to clean up. We have to continue to play in critical situations.”