Houston Christian Huskies 2026 Season Preview

Bachtel's Rebuild Grinds On

A 2-10 finish and a 1-6 league mark left Houston Christian near the bottom of the Southland, and the No. 107 power rating backs up what the record shows: this program has real ground to make up. Jason Bachtel's group did not lack for competitive spots so much as a way to finish them, and 2026 is about turning close conference losses into wins rather than a stylistic overhaul. The margin for progress is thin, but even flipping a handful of those one-score league games changes the story of this season entirely.

Bachtel's Margins Were Misleading

A 2-10 record with a 1-6 conference mark buried what actually happened on the field for Jason Bachtel's group: in conference play, Houston Christian's yardage margin implied a far higher win rate than the 14.3% it actually posted, and a -3 turnover margin and a 1-2 mark in one-score games both point to bad luck rather than bad football. The offense still has real problems to fix, needing 16.6 yards per point scored against a 13.9 league median while ranking 116th in success rate, so the passing game (153 yards per game, 116th) has to get more out of drives. The defense held up better in the metrics that matter, ranking 23rd in yards per play allowed and 12th against the pass, and that baseline plus the shed bad-luck variance sets up a 2026 team better than its record suggests.

Reilly Garcia takes over as the settled starter, and there is nowhere to go but up from a 138-yard, 2-interception snapshot last fall. That thin sample matters less than what he replaces: Maddox Kopp (795 yards, 5 TD, 2 INT) and Jake Weir (897 yards, 2 TD, 6 INT) combined to run an offense that ranked 116th nationally in passing yards per game and 113th in third-down rate. Garcia does not need to be spectacular to move Houston Christian off 16.8 points a game, just steadier than the two-man rotation he is inheriting.

Darryle Evans and his 382 rushing yards are gone, and no returning back comes close to replacing that workload. Jordan Montanez managed just 72 yards and a single score last fall, with Sudais Arowosaye and Champ Dozier splitting time behind him at 57 and 47 yards. That kind of committee production fits a rushing attack that ranked 92nd nationally while the offense as a whole stalled at 118th in yards per play, so unless Montanez turns those touches into an every-down role, Houston Christian's ground game stays a patchwork operation.

Ja'Ryan Wallace's 547 yards were nearly double any other Houston Christian receiver's total last year, and that gap is the room's whole story heading into 2026. Keith Wheeler (245 yards) and Tamarcus Gray Jr. (138 yards) both return to spread the load, but the passing game they're plugged into ranked 116th in yards per game and the offense as a whole posted a 33.2% success rate, 116th nationally, so more targets for Wallace won't fix much on its own. Losing Deuce McMillan's 27 catches stings less than the fact this group still needs someone beyond Wallace to threaten a defense vertically, and right now nobody on the returning list has shown it.

Mason Graham's 5 catches for 30 yards were modest, but they now stand as the top production returning at tight end after Kyle Koontz's 7-catch, 71-yard, one-touchdown season walked out the door. Evan Stein adds a pair of catches to the room, while Joshlyn McCarter and Jett Runion return without a catch on file, giving Jason Bachtel a group of experienced bodies but no proven receiving threat to plug into an offense that ranked 116th in passing yards per game. With the passing attack already sputtering at 153 yards per game, whichever of these four tight ends separates first becomes the safety-valve target this unit lacks.

Houston Christian's line gave up an offense that managed just 4.47 yards per play and a 33.2% success rate a season ago, numbers that put the entire attack among the least efficient in the country. Jer'Marques Bailey, Cullen Montgomery, Nonso Omezi and Ben Mulholland are all gone from that front, and Briley Brown arrives via transfer from UTSA to help rebuild the interior. With the passing game averaging just 153 yards a game and third downs converting at 31.0%, Brown's addition matters most in whether the rushing attack, which at least cleared 128 yards per game, can carry more of the load in 2026.

Houston Christian's front held up against the run about as poorly as its 192 rushing yards allowed per game suggests, even as the pass defense quietly ranked 12th nationally in yards allowed through the air. That split says the pressure and point-of-attack work up front never matched the coverage behind it, and now Jason Bachtel has to replace that trench group almost wholesale, with six defensive linemen gone including Ravonte Blowe and Julius Davis at the two spots that anchored the rotation. Whoever fills those roles inherits a defense that finished 23rd in yards per play allowed, meaning the scheme worked when the line did its job, and stabilizing the run front is the difference between building on that number and watching it slip.

The run defense was the soft spot last season, giving up 192 yards per game on the ground even as the pass defense held up well at 174 yards allowed through the air, and the linebacker corps takes the hit in that math. Rodney Dansby, Jayhvion Gipson and TJ Smith are all gone from that front seven, none of them big tacklers by the numbers but each a body Jason Bachtel now has to replace against a rushing attack that ranked 107th in yards allowed. Houston Christian's defense still played fast enough to stay respectable overall (366 yards allowed per game, 51st nationally), so the front office bet is that whoever fills those linebacker spots just has to shore up gap discipline rather than reinvent the scheme.

Houston Christian's pass defense was the surprise strength of a 2-10 season, ranking 12th nationally in passing yards allowed per game at 174, even as the run defense bled 192 yards a contest. That split identity is about to be tested, since all five departed defensive backs named in the exodus of seven were the safeties and corners tasked with keeping that passing number respectable. Jason Bachtel's group still carries an experienced secondary feel on paper, but replacing that back end's coverage instincts, not just plugging the run-support gaps, is what determines whether 2026 looks like last year's pass defense or last year's ground-game bleeding.

Charlie Weinrich made just 4 of 10 field goals last year, though his 50-yard long shows the leg is real, and Ryan Zuckert's tidy 2-for-2 clip with a 45-yard long gives Jason Bachtel a legitimate case to hand him more attempts in 2026. The bigger swing is at punter, where Brady Young's 69 punts and 42.2-yard average walk out the door with no returning statistical punter on the roster to replace that workload, leaving Dax Dunham's small three-punt, 36-yard sample as the only in-house data point. Houston Christian's kicking game has a name to build around in Zuckert, but the punting job is effectively starting from scratch.

Reilly Garcia's Growth

Houston Christian's season comes down to whether Reilly Garcia can turn last year's 138 yards and 2 interceptions into an offense that actually moves the ball. He is projected to start with a stacked receiver room already in place, Ja'Ryan Wallace coming off 36 catches for 547 yards, plus Keith Wheeler, Braylon Finney and Tamarcus Gray Jr. all back. With eight players out via the portal and Xai'Shaun Edwards' production gone, Garcia gets the weapons but has to prove he can get them the ball more than he did in 2025.

Bachtel's Home Cover Drought

Houston Christian bettors have found exactly one place to make money: on the road as an underdog, where Jason Bachtel's team has covered three of five and even snuck out a straight-up loss margin small enough to cash tickets. Bring the Huskies home and the story flips hard, an 0-5 mark against the spread with zero covers as a home favorite twice over. Conference play has been just as brutal for backers at 1-6 against the number, and getting run over the week after a loss (1-7 against the spread) means fading Houston Christian off any defeat is the closest thing to a system here.