New year, similar result

Don’t let the score fool you. The Bears were far better than the 39-6 final showed Thursday night against Henderson State.

Some parts of the game started off with a crisp feel as the Bears quickly forced two HSU punts, both led to touchdowns and a quick 14-0 lead.

The first came on a five play drive where four different players ended up with the ball.

Ross Brown got the two of his 15 carries for a quick 16 yards. Nathan Brown threw two short passes to newcomers Cedric Logan and David Robinson before finding Aaron Fairooz for a 48 yard touchdown catch.

The next UCA possession lasted just 23 seconds. Ross Brown’s third carry of the game was a 57 yard run to the endzone, giving him 73 yards midway through the first quarter.

"Really happy for [Ross]," head coach Clint Conque said. "Probably in the first half could have gone to him a little more. He was rolling."

After a missed Reddie field goal, several stalled drives for both teams, and a missed UCA field goal attempt early in the second quarter, Ross Brown took the ball four yards for his second touchdown of the game, giving the Bears a 20-0 lead.

Because of some things the UCA coaching staff had seen on film and during the game, they decided to attempt a fake field goal. Nathan Brown, the holder, took the snap, rolled left and found Charles Twilley for the two-point conversion.

Kicker James Paul got another chance with three seconds remaining in the half and made a 27 yard attempt, putting UCA on top 25-0 heading into the half.

"The offensive line I thought did a very credible job in the first half in particular," Conque said. "Play got a little sloppy in the 2nd half obviously."

The third quarter started with three failed drives for UCA, and HSU was able to turn a blocked pooch punt attempt by Nathan Brown into their first points of the game. Although the Bear defense forced the Reddies to just three plays, the third field goal try was a charm for HSU kicker Brian Giambastiani.

The Bears weren’t able to answer immediately, but did take advantage of Ahmad Brown’s second interception of the game to set up a touchdown pass on the first play in the fourth quarter.

Another newcomer, transfer Chijuan Mack from Oklahoma State, caught his second pass as a Bear and scampered 39 yards for the touchdown.

"We’re pretty deep at receiver," Conque noted. "We’ve got some talent there."

The play and extra point put UCA up 32-3 and was the last time the offense would score as the coaching staff was able to substitute a lot of players to get experience.

"We played an awful lot of people," Conque said.

The defense was solid for the Bears, holding HSU to just 203 yards of total offense. Contributing to that were three forced fumbles, although only one was recovered by UCA. And the secondary, that allowed just eight completions in 20 attempts, caught half that many themselves.

Adding to Ahmad Brown’s two interceptions, James Lancaster set the final score with his 36 yard interception and return. Lancaster didn’t have a tackle in the game, but came up with an interception and touchdown in his first college game.

The following play senior Jasper Johnson’s interception at the two yard line ended HSU last real scoring opportunity.

But Conque was quick to point out that the Bears have a long way to go.

"Third down conversions were very poor. We had four 15 yard penalties in this game, and that’s just unacceptable.

"Hopefully we learned some lessons."

With a long week to prepare for Illinois State next Saturday, the team must make some improvements before they make their first road trip to a fellow I-AA opponent.

"We’ve got to get better. We need to get better. We’re gonna get better. We’re going to see it on film and then go back and make the corrections either by scheme or with personnel."

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A look at the baseball schedule

The first year in Division I baseball will include 56 games against DI teams, zero against lower level clubs.

“I’m happy that we have 56 Division I games,” head coach Doug Clark said. “It was a big process. The Southland schedule helps us a bunch.”

The Bears will play 10 teams in their new conference. The only SLC baseball school not on the schedule in 2007 is Texas-Arlington. UTA is the closest conference member to Conway according to Clark.

The non-conference schedule features two teams that reached the NCAA tournament last season. St. Louis University set a school record for wins last season. The Billikens finished with a 32-29 mark a trip to the Fullerton Regional.

On paper, the scariest team on the schedule is definitely Oral Roberts. ORU made it through the Fayetteville Region with a perfect 3-0 record. They were then swept in the Super Regional matchup with top-seeded Clemson. ORU returns six starters in the field. If there’s any bit of good news, it’s that ORU lost three of their top four pitchers, a group that dominated with a 30-9 record.

Coach Clark said that the 2007 team will be considered a “counter.” A counter means opponents will receive credit towards their Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).

“It also means you go somewhere and get a guarantee,” Clark said.

The counter part of the equation makes UCA attractive to top-tier teams. The guarantee part makes those top-tier teams attractive to UCA.

The Bears finished the season with a 30-18 season, but with the upgrade in competition must come an upgrade in the talent and on-field play.

“We lost a bunch of arms. Pitching definitely was a strength, but we do have [Matt] Whitaker back and [Jonathan] Ashworth will pitch more.”

Daniel Price, who pitched mostly in relief last season, also returns, and Clark is looking to some redshirts to step up and help the team out. But admits there will be “growing pains.”

“It is about the pitching. We feel confident about our ability to develop pitchers.

“We’ve also got a few returners in the field. [Payton] Seelinger wasn’t named freshman of the year, but should have been.”

Clark said the team is going to work their way into bigger competition, but ORU and SLU will definitely be a part of the breaking in process. That doesn’t even take into account the quality of competition within the Southland.

Scrimmage Part I

The 15th practice of the fall was also the first scrimmage for the Bears. The goal of the scrimmage was to get players in game situations and see how they perform. Those performances will go a long way in determining which 65 players will get the focus for the remainder of the fall.

The scrimmage matched the first teams against the second teams on the opposing side of the ball.

Offense

One question asked often on Saturday was where the recent transfers from Arkansas and Memphis will fit in.

Olen Whitely, the Memphis transfer, strained his hamstring in practice earlier in the week and will be out until the middle of next week. Coach Clint Conque loves the size that Whitely has and hopes to use his abilities with the play-action game.

Cedric Logan figures into the four-wide sets, according to Conque who pictures Logan on the inside with Aaron Fairooz.

"I don’t think there’s any question the young man has a bevy of talent," Conque said. "[Logan and Fairooz] along with an Eric Ware and a Cameron Kinard who have speed on the outside, size and speed on the inside, that does present some challenges."

Tight End Marcus Winston saw some second team action. Both Logan and Winston also will find roles on special teams. Logan fielded some punts on the second team.

Winston, though, finds himself behind Charles Twilley, a junior college transfer who appears to have a solid hold on the starting position.

"Real pleased with Charles Twilley at tight end. That guy is going to be a weapon for us."

Freshman Chris Johnson also made some nice plays from the tight end position.

"I look for that to be a reason strength position for us."

Whitely, who Conque said really didn’t need to miss any practices after coming in so late, will be competing with a young group of RBs for the backup role to junior Ross Brown.

"I thought Ross Brown ran the ball well – tough and hard. He’s clearly our number one guy. He’s got a phenominal average yard per attempt for his career. He’s an explosive player in his own right and has been a big part of our offense the last two years. Now it’s his turn. It’s his time."

The aforementioned freshmen backfield saw a bit of action on Saturday as well.

Matt Clinkscales didn’t line up much in the featured back spot but was used often as an H-back. Conque called him a hybrid with very good hands out of the backfield.

Brent Grimes and Leonard Ceasar split time with several carries in the backfield. Both showed signs of explosiveness.

Conque said many freshmen will be called on to fill out the depth across every position.

"I look to see probably 15, maybe 17, true freshmen that will have the opportunity to help us in some capacity."

The rest of the backfield positions have not changed since the start of camp. Nathan Brown is of course still the starting QB, and barring another physical setback, Joseph Walker will lead the fullback group. Vanderbilt transfer Zach Logan made some noticable blocks during the scrimmage as well.

The coaches feel comfortable with the top 6 or 7 on the offensive line. After off-season surgery on his left knee, Ronnie Lee was moved to the left side, allowing him to not put as much weight on what would have been his inside knee. All-conference lineman Justin Jones switched to the right side. Josh Restum will make his return to the field after a season-ending leg injury last season.

Part Two – Defense, Special Teams and Overall comments

Scrimmage Part II

Defense
The defense apparently had dominated most of the fall. There were a few slip ups during the scrimmage, but Conque seems satisfied with the starters.

"I feel like our first 11 are pretty solidified. We’ve got some depth in some areas. We’ve just got to continue to grow."

The first team, specifically Fairooz, took advantage of the inexperience of some of the newcomers on defense.

"We gave up a couple of big plays, primarily the 2′s against the 1′s offense. We’ve got some speed on defense now. We’ve got some big play ability over there."

The defense hasn’t been without its share of injuries this fall either. Conque said it was the first practice that defensive ends Jeremy Pittman, Jacob Ford and Lawrence Atkinson were able to take the field for team situations.

The interior of the defensive line was a question mark in the spring and is still being called "a work in progress."

The Barksdale twins and moving Lane Friewold and David Hollis to the tackle position from offensive line are part of the plans.

"We were able to get a push with some of those younger guys."

Seniors Kelvin Horne, Ryan Taylor, and Calvin Dumas give the linebacker corp loads of experience, and Cory McMurrian, another of the team’s I-A transfers, is making his case for playing time. Lance Boykins, another senior, has been moved to mike linebacker after Nick Cowger suffered a broken finger last week..

The defensive backfield is another position full of returning starters but also searching for depth. Jasper Johnson and Leroy Hamilton will be the starters at safety, with Jack Bailey and true freshman Jarrod Dale "probably gives us our best four with [Zach] Hyatt and [Andrew] Summersett continuing to work."

Transfer Tristan Jackson, who would win the award for loudest tackle on Saturday, will join newcomer Anthony Gambles in competing with returning upperclassmen Ahmad Brown, Dathan Johnson and Gerald Norman.

Special Teams

James Paul looks to be the starting kicker for both field goals and kickoffs. There’s a problem here with the backup kicker.

"We’re struggling with our number two guy. The good news is that we feel good about our number one guy. We’ve got to have somebody step up."

Brandon Payne and Grimes were back to return kickoffs. Payne and Cedric Logan were taking turns returning punts, trying to replace a very consistent Cory Cangelosi.

The punter position seems to still be up in the air until the coaches go back and see the tape of the scrimmage.

Overall Thoughts

Very pleased that no one was seriously injured. That’s one of the first times that’s happened in the last several years that we didn’t lose a significant contributor or starter. I think we’ve got a lot of work to do though, shoring up some of our depth.We’ve got some talented youngsters out there. They are just young and don’t know how to push themselves through adversity all the time.

What now?

The coaches were going to take a break and then come back and watch the tapes of the scrimmage on Saturday afternoon and then sleep on it.

"Get back in tomorrow and make some decisions," Conque said. "We have to go by what we see, but we also have to project a little bit on some intangibles. What you may see on the field and what we may see on the tape are two different things. It’s a fine line. But you cannot rep 90 guys and be detailed in all the aspects of a football game. You’ve got to narrow that down so those guys can be detailed. I hope to be able to bring between 65 and 70 to War Memorial."

A Look at the Schedule

After reaching the quarterfinals in the playoffs in 2005 – the deepest run in the school’s 14-year history in Division II – the University of Central Arkansas’ football team is getting ready to “blaze” a path into NCAA Division I-AA this season.



Schedule



The 2005 squad finished with the most wins since the 1987 season. Following a 51-0 pounding of an overmatched Eastern New Mexico team, UCA faced Tennessee-Martin, the only I-AA opponent scheduled last season.



Most fans will remember that UCA was a missed field goal away from leaving Tennessee with a win. What made the loss a little more bearable, however, was seeing the Skyhawks finish the season with a winning record, perhaps giving UCA a measuring stick of how it might fare against other I-AA opponents in 2006.



UT-Martin wouldn’t have been UCA’s first win over a I-AA team. The 2003 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff in Little Rock gets that distinction. The win came in what turned out to be just a 5-6 season for the Bears as injuries took their toll. UCA’s first I-AA opponent, also UCA Coach Clint Conque’s very first game as head coach, was against Nicholls State, a now fellow Southland Conference member. The offense set a few records, but the Bears couldn’t hold onto a 44-24 lead and saw the Colonels score 28 unanswered points to win the game.



This year’s schedule should easily be the toughest in school history. Although three Division II schools remain, UCA’s athletic department – with fairly short notice – was able to put together a schedule that includes eight I-AA teams.



“It’s certainly a difficult schedule,” Conque said. “I think the thing that’s most challenging it the back-to-back-to-back-to-back games on the road.”



Because many SLC schools had the majority of their schedules filled, only two schools made it onto the 2006 schedule.



What may be good news for UCA is that those two schools – Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State – were both at the bottom of the conference. What may be deceiving when looking at 2005 is that both of them handled the University of California-Davis last season.



The Sam Houston State game has been moved to Thursday night to accommodate television, the Bears first appearance as a I-AA (or FCS) institution. Coach Conque noted that means the team will play three games in just 11 days.



“That’s just the way it is,” Conque said. “But young people are resilient. We’ve got to be smart how we practice. And the most important thing is to get 65 guys sharp and healthy to the games on Saturday.”



A few preseason polls are out, and UC-Davis is ranked as high as 11 nationally among I-AA schools. Illinois Sate, UCA’s second opponent, is ranked anywhere from fifth to ninth. And Georgia Southern is slotted as high as 13.



It certainly appears to be a good test for a first-year schedule.

Fall practice underway

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The season officially got started Tuesday afternoon as the Bears took to the practice field for the first fall practice.

"It felt great to be back on the field," head coach Clint Conque said following the two and a half hour practice. "You get away from the phone. You get away from the administrative part, and you get to get out there and work with the student athletes. So it felt really good to get out there. I think the kids were excited."

Players were pushed hard by the drills and also by the heat.

"Several guys fought through the heat today," Conque said.

The recorded temperature was 97 with the heat index well over 100.

It was your typical first practice: a few missed throws and catches, a few pushups and up-downs, and a little yelling.

One noticeable difference was that the defensive line numbers increased drastically from the spring.

"That’s recruiting right there," Conque said. "That’s what it’s all about."

Some of the newcomers will need to contribute immediately to help with depth, but Conque thinks the first-string on both sides of the ball will be "solid."

"We must get [the second-team offense and defense] ready," Conque said. "How fast they get ready may determine how good this team is.

"It looks like the veterans picked up where they left off in spring ball, and of course there’s a lot of carry over from last season. And I saw some good things out of some newcomers. We’ve just got to make steady improvement mentally and physically each and every day."

There were 88 players on the practice field Tuesday. One player was out due to a funeral, but one expected to report still hasn’t made it to campus.

"We’ll see where that goes over the course of the rest of the week," Conque said.

"We’ve got some guys that are out right now: Che Jones, Lawrence Atkinson, Kelvin Horne didn’t go through drills today. Ronnie Lee fought through some things."

The Bears will return to the practice field Wednesday. Temperatures are expected to reach 98 with a heat index of 108.

Media day is this Friday, and fan appreciation day will be Saturday, Aug. 19.

Tomorrow’s story: This year’s schedule