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Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team has been picked to successfully defend its American Southwest Conference Championship in the league's 2010 Preseason Coaches and Media Poll. The Cru picked up 21 of the 27 first-place votes and totaled 237 points in balloting of the ASC head coaches, sports information directors and selected media members to earn Preseason favorite honors for the eighth straight season. Hardin-Simmons University finished second in the poll with three first-place votes and 206 total points, with defending ASC Co-Champion Mississippi College taking third place with one first-place vote and 182 total points. Louisiana College is picked to finish fourth after claiming the final two first-place votes and 168 total points and McMurry University rounds out the top five with 135 total points. East Texas Baptist University is the pick to finish sixth with 110 total points, Howard Payne University is picked eighth with 81 total points, Sul Ross State is picked to finish eighth with 53 total points and Texas Lutheran University totaled 43 points as the pick to finish in ninth place.
For the second straight year, UMHB does not have one of the three ASC Preseason Players of the Year. Hardin-Simmons senior quarterback Justin Feaster was voted ASC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year for the second straight year. Hardin-Simmons University senior defensive end Hank Hornsby took ASC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year honors. ASC Preseason Special Teams Player of the Year honors went to Louisiana College senior return specialist Jordan Rideaux for the second straight season.
The Cru returns 49 lettermen from a team that went 10-2 overall and 7-1 in the ASC. UMHB welcomes back six offensive starters and six defensive starters from a team that won a share of its seventh ASC championship in the last eight years and advanced to the NCAA Division III National Championships for the sixth straight year. The Cru will report to campus on August 14th, and will kick off the 2010 season with a road game at Wisconsin-La Crosse in LaCrosse, Wisconsin on September 11th.
