PINEVILLE — At long last, the Louisiana Christian University football program has broken through the glass ceiling to land at No. 25 in this week’s NAIA Top 25 Poll, the first time the Wildcats have ever been ranked as members of the NAIA.

To find the last instance of a LCU football squad being ranked at any point, you would need to go all the way back to the conclusion of its lone NCAA Division III Playoff appearance in 2012, when the Orange and Blue ended the year at No. 23 in the D3Football.com poll.

The Wildcats pounded visiting North American 55-0 Saturday to raise their record to 6-0 overall, 5-0 in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

Offensive coordinator David Feaster, three-time SAC Offensive Player of the Week Sal Palermo III and a devastating stable of running backs spearhead the offense that is among the elite in the NAIA ranks.

The WIldcats lead the nation in total yards (3,087), first downs (164), and first downs per game (27.3), are second regarding rushing touchdowns (24) and yards (1,768), third for total yards per game (514.5), rushing yards per game (294.7), and yards per carry (6.5) while also slotting among the top 10 in terms of yards per pass attempt (9.6), touchdowns scored (36), and scoring offense (44.7).

Defensive coordinator  Tyson Andrus has had a student-athlete from each level of his defense register a SAC Player of the Week award in 2023 as Detavious Eldridge nabbed one for the linemen, Andre Reed took the first accolade of the season home for the linebacking corps, and Tyren Young snatched the honor out of the secondary.

Thanks in large part to a nine-sack day that saw North American record minus-18 total yards, the tenacious Louisiana Christian D leads the NAIA with 22 quarterback takedowns while sitting in the top five for total offense allowed (211.8) and passing yards given up (118.0).

Louisiana Christian has limited its victims to a smidge over two touchdowns on average (14.2), the seventh-fewest in the country.

Both the punter and the placekicker deployed by special teams coordinator Joe Weaver have laid claim to weekly hardware as well as Levi Hilborn received Conference recognition while Mason Ingram earned the Louisiana Sports Writer Association’s Special Teams Player of the Week a few weeks back.

The home stretch of the 2023 season will be a scramble between the Sooner Athletic Conference’s top-three squads as Louisiana Christian heads to No. 24 Ottawa (Arizona) in just 12 days while the Wildcats end the regular season in a possible de facto championship game at No. 17 Texas Wesleyan on November 11 in Fort Worth.

First things first for coach Drew Maddox and his Wildcats, as this Saturday is Texas College’s Homecoming which will kickoff at 2 p.m. inside Mewbourne Field.