(July 28, 2008)--The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team has been picked to successfully defend its American Southwest Conference Championship in the league's 2008 Preseason Coaches and Media Poll. Cru linebacker Eric Henri has also been voted ASC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year in that same balloting.

The Cru picked up a league record 24 of the 27 first-place votes and totaled 240 points in balloting of the ASC head coaches, sports information directors and selected media members. Hardin-Simmons University finished second in the poll with one first-place vote and 197 total points, finishing just one point ahead of third-place Mississippi College's 196 points and two first-place votes. East Texas Baptist University is picked to finish fourth with 154 points, Louisiana College is fifth with 125 total points, Texas Lutheran University is the choice at #6 with 97 total points, Howard Payne University is picked seventh with 85 total points, Sul Ross State is picked eighth with 61 total points and McMurry University is chosen ninth with 60 total points.

Henri, a senior linebacker from Lake Dallas High School, was
voted ASC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year after earning First
Team All-ASC honors last season. Henri posted 86 total tackles, 14.5
tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks last season. Mississippi College
quarterback Adam Shaffer was voted ASC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and ETBU placekicker Kyle Pope was selected ASC Preseason Special Team Player of the Year. The Cru returns 38 lettermen from a team that went 12-2 overall and 8-0 in the ASC. UMHB welcomes back three offensive starters and seven defensive starters from a team that won its fifth ASC championship in the last six years and advanced to the NCAA Division III National Semifinals. The Cru will report to campus on Monday, August 18th, and will kick off the 2008 season with a home game against Southern Nazarene University on September 13th.