Head football coach Joe Prud’homme knows what the Rams need to do to beat the Millsaps Majors on Saturday.

“We need to get into a rhythm,” Prud’homme said after last week’s season-opening loss to McPherson College. “If we can get into a rhythm and prevent big plays and not turn the ball over or have stupid penalties or any penalties for that matter.”

Prud’homme said he appreciates the support Texas Wesleyan has given the team so far this season, and he realizes that last week was the first time that most of his squad had ever played college football.

Still, he said, the Rams have to improve a lot on last week, and playing smart is a big part of that.

“[The Rams] have a long way to go and a short time to get there,” Prud’homme said. “We can’t give them anything. We can’t give them any big plays. We can’t blow assignments.”

The top five ways the Rams can improve:

1. “Field position,” Prud’homme said. “Getting better field position through special teams and offensively move the ball a little bit.”
2. Making sure there are no more of the sort of botched center-quarterback exchanges that happened in the McPherson game, said running back Jermarcus Jones.

“We need to work on our snaps. If we do that we put us in a great position to win,” Jones said.

3. The Rams need to be calmer in their execution throughout the game, Prud’homme said.

“Having a little more calm, composed approach instead of getting so overly excited,” Prud’homme said. “Because they were very excited. Just go into it with just more experienced, mature mindsets.”

4. “We need to work on executing and locking in,” running back Da’vonte Mitchell-Dixon said. “If we play like a unit, we’ll win like a unit.”
5. “Control the game a little more with time of possession,” Prud’homme said, “and just keep the ball out of their hands a little bit more. I think if we do those things we’ll be alright. But field position is huge; we had horrible field position the other night.”

What the Rams know about Millsaps:

1. The Majors have an excellent coaching staff, he said.
2. “The team is very experienced,” he said.
3. “[Millsaps] executes at a high level,” he said. “We have to be very sound in what we do and how we do it.”
4. The Majors may not have won a lot last year, but they were always in the game. The team’s 2016 record was 3-7, but that’s a little misleading, because four of those losses were by a touchdown or less, according to gomajors.com.
5. The Majors are loaded with talent. Four players were selected to First Team All-Sooner Athletic Association, one was selected to Second Team All-SAA and six were SAA honorable mentions, according to gomajors.com.

Prud’homme realizes he has a growing program, and he wants Wesleyan to be proud of the team he’s creating.

“We’re just extremely young,” Prud’homme said, “and just hang in there with us and we’re going to grow and get better.”