(Seguin) — The Texas Lutheran football team enters a new conference as they head into year three of the Neal LaHue era.
The Bulldogs are a part of the re-established Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) in football. TLU moves to the SCAC after seven seasons as an affiliate member of the American Southwest Conference.
The SCAC announced the reinstatement of football as a conference sponsored sport two years ago with play to begin this season. Football was an officially sponsored sport of the conference from 1962 (when the league was formed as the College Athletic Conference) through the 2016 season. Texas Lutheran previously competed in the SCAC in football from 2013 to 2016 before joining the ASC as an affiliate.
The conference will employ a double round-robin format. With only five conference schools participating in football, each team will play each other twice this season.
TLU head coach Neal LaHue says they are approaching the new conference format like the pros do.
“It’ll be like playing in a division with NFL guys. We’ve reached out to friends of mine that are in the NFL about how they approach that,” LaHue said. “We’ll have a plan for that. You know, we’ll see how we respond. We’ve got some long trips and hopefully (our opponents) have some long trips coming here.”
TLU is coming off a 2-8 season in 2023. Despite losing eight games, the Bulldogs were competitive. Half of their losses were by five points or less. On offense this season, quarterback Caden Bosanko returns for his junior year. Last year as a sophomore, the San Antonio East Central product appeared in all 10 games with six starts. He threw for 1,260 yards with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions to go along with five rushing touchdowns.
Defensively, LaHue says they have a good nucleus coming back.
“We have guys we’re counting on guys on the back end. (Troy) Tomaselli was Freshman of the Year, Mason Hardy is a senior who’s been an all-conference player. Our corners, I think, are gonna be pretty good. We have guys battling there.
“On the (defensive) line, Chris Monroe is coming back for a fifth year. Kaleb Hamilton played a lot of games last year as a freshman. And we like our linebackers. Tristan Smith was all-conference. He’s a guy to build around.”
TLU will start the 2024 season on the road in non-conference action against NCAA Division III 13th-ranked Trinity on Saturday night in San Antonio. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Trinity Stadium. We’ll have the game for you on KWED. Our Bulldog pregame starts at 6:30 p.m on Saturday evening on AM 1580 and you can watch a video feed of the game broadcast at the TLU+ YouTube channel.
Texas Lutheran Bulldogs
2023 record: 2-8 (1-5 in conference)
Coach: Neal LaHue (3rd season)
Conference: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
Schedule – ALL HOME GAMES and Trinity opening road game to be broadcast on KWED
Sept. 7 – 7 PM at Trinity (TEX.)
Sept. 14 – 6 PM vs. Centenary (LA.) *
Sept. 21 – 6 PM at McMurry *
Sept. 28 – 2 PM at Lyon *
Oct. 5 – 1 PM vs. Austin *
Oct. 12 OPEN
Oct. 19 – 1 PM at Austin *
Oct. 26 – 4 PM vs. McMurry *
Nov. 2 – 1 PM vs. Lyon *
Nov. 9 – 1 PM at Centenary (LA.) *
Nov. 16 – 1 PM vs. Southwestern (TEX.)
* Conference