Led by player-coach Clyde "Doc" Matthews, a third-year junior, the Bisons compiled an overall record of 1–5.
Harding's yearbook The Petit Jean also hints at other players besides Matthews helping the team along as coaches during the year.
Although the boys in charge did admirable work considering their lack of experience, they could not have been expected to develop a team in one year that could cope with so stiff a schedule."
The 1926 season was met with excitement because of the upgraded schedule, signaling a feeling that the Harding program had truly arrived onto the scene of real college football, instead of playing mostly high schools and collegiate B or C teams.
The 1926 schedule also marked the beginning of competition with Henderson-Brown College, now known as Henderson State University.