ABILENE, Texas (BCH Sports) – The Hardin-Simmons Cowboys and head coach Jesse Burleson are back in the national rankings this year, and they are expected to challenge national power Mary Hardin-Baylor again this year.

The Crusaders seem to be the Cowboys biggest obstacle every year. They just can’t get past them.

This year, HSU takes the field with a new determination to claim the ASC crown.

Head coach Jesse Burleson said, “I think that anytime you have a loss, I think our expectation is every time we take the field we expect to win. When we don’t do that, we’re gonna be disappointed. Yeah you’re gonna use it as fuel, we don’t focus on it, but we definitely use it as fuel and our guys have definitely done that.”

Matt Mitchell said, “I mean we’ve had a chip on our shoulder every year since we’ve been here and we just try to take it day by day and just get better everyday.”

Gaylon Glynn said, “Oh there’s always a chip on our shoulders. There’s always a chip on our shoulders and to take the next step in the program, we use that as fuel and we’ve been working. While we couldn’t play football. We’ve just been grinding and we’re ready to show why we can compete for the National Championship.”

A national championship is the goal.

Of course they want to win the American Southwest Conference first, but the Cowboys want the big prize.

The season starts on September 1 at Shelton Stadium against Albright College.

They kick it off at 7 p.m.