411 on USD

Offense

They have a featured back, Stefan Logan, that ranks 10th in yards per game (150). Doesn’t look like they run many screens to the RB because he only has one catch on the season. Logan is also their punt returner and kick returner. He’s returned one of each of those for touchdowns. What’s somewhat weird is that the team has only returned 7 of 25 punts and 5 of 30 kickoffs.

St. Cloud held the Coyotes to just 331 yards of offense, considerably less than the 574 and 531 of the first two games which padded their stats. In their first conference game – against Minnesota Duluth – 378 yards of offense. St. Cloud kept the Coyote running game out of the end zone, but they scored three times through the air.

The passing game isn’t used often, but their 41 completions have gone for 681 yards and 7 of those for touchdowns. USD has just two receivers with more than 5 catches. Desmond Allison (6-5, 244) is their main threat with four touchdown receptions.

Defense

Has 14 sacks in 4 games, 5 against St. Cloud (when you would think their starters played the entire game for possibly the first time)

Great crowd, great win, great night

Go watch UCA volleyball. Just do… Nevermind. I don’t want to get in trouble with Nike, but you get it.

If you’ve never been, you’ll enjoy it. If you’ve been last year or last night, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Most have been inside the tiny Prince Center Gym. Now imagine it full of screaming volleyball players and 400 cheering fans. It really is electric. Different from just about anything I’ve ever been to.

Add all of those things with the fact that the team is two games over .500 heading into conference play, and you’ve got one heck of a deal. Did I mention it’s free?

Not only do you get some great entertainment, but it’s really a gym full of celebrities.

Member of the men’s and women’s basketball teams were in attendance. The baseball team, football, soccer, fraternities, sororities, and athletic department staff – including head coaches from football and softball that I remember seeing – all came out to cheer for the Sugar Bears in their first home game (at night) this season.

And the team didn’t disappoint.

They swept Mississippi Valley State and then played a heart-stopper with Arkansas State.

With the match tied at two games a piece, the Sugar Bears jumped out to a quick lead in the final game, leading by as many as four before ASU made their comeback run to turn a 10-6 UCA lead into a 11-10 game. ASU would even take a 14-13 lead later in the game.

Now hold on. For those of you who’ve never been let’s do some learnin’ – this assuming that I understand the rules at least a little. We’ll see.

Women’s college volleyball is a little different than that game you play in the backyard. The winner is the first to three games. Games are played to 30 points, and you score regardless of whether or not it was your serve. In every game, you must win by two. But wait, there’s a catch in the end. If the game is tied at 2-2, the fifth and final game is played to just 15. Back to the game.

So, the Lady Indians are one point away from leaving Conway with a win. But the Sugar Bears took the next three points, making the bus ride back to Jonesboro a long one.

The crowd, as it had been the entire game, went bananas.

“We expected a great crowd tonight and got it,” head coach Steven McRoberts said. “I told the girls before the game to ‘give them a reason to come back’. We needed every bit of that crowd to pull out the match.

“Hopefully we can go undefeated at home.”

If the crowd continues to take advantage of the atmosphere, it will be that much easier for the team. By watching, you’d have to say that several of ASU’s 14 service errors were due to the wild fans standing just inches away stomping their feet, chanting, yelling, and jumping up and down.

It was a great homecoming for the Sugar Bears, but tomorrow they will load back on a bus and ride about eight hours Beaumont, Texas to start Southland Conference play.

After playing 14 road games to start the season, Coach McRoberts is pleased with the results.

“If somebody would have said going into conference play that we’d be 9-7, I’d have taken it.”

After two more road games, UCA returns home the end of September for Parents Weekend and two games. There are 11 more that you have the opportunity to attend. Don’t miss out!

Defense shuts down Missouri State

"Those are hard to come by. You take ‘em when you get ‘em."

Coach Clint Conque was visibly and verbally excited as he entered his team’s locker room. The words above were yelled, at a very high decibel level, in my general direction. You have to imagine there was more yelling after he entered the locker room. And if you’re a player, it’s the good kind of yelling.

You see, Conque was talking about a big day – a big day for the program, for the university, for the city of Conway. The big day was capped off by his team’s defensive domination of Missouri State, culminating in a 16-14 win Saturday night at Estes Stadium.

"I couldn’t be any more proud for our university," Conque said. "I think that’s important to note. And for those kids in our football program."

The day started off early for some who took part in the best tailgating atmostphere at UCA in my time around the program. Whoever came up with the idea deserves a raise. The only somewhat negative is that it appeared several hundred stayed outside the fence in lawn chairs. (I’m assuming that they were "celebrating" the entire game, just as those inside the fence.)

After leading the first two plus quarters, MSU returned a punt and interception for touchdowns to give them a 14-10 lead, even though they had just three first downs and 86 yards of offense.

"Right now the strength of our football team is our defense," Conque said. "We couldn’t put it in the box on offense.

"I put it on James Paul, and he responded."

James Paul, UCA’s kicker who’d missed a 35-yarder earlier, made two fourth-quarter field goals to give UCA the 16-14 lead.

The UCA defense handled the rest.

As he walked back onto the field, Jacob Ford motioned for the crowd to stand up and make some noise. The crowd did what Ford wanted, and Ford made sure not to disappoint the crowd.

"Being that we had the momentum back, I wanted to get the crowd in it to mess with their offense so they couldn’t get their cadence right," Ford said.

"It was electric down there in the fourth quarter," Conque said.

"In the fourth quarter when we went down and kicked the field goal to pull it within one, the crowd really energized our players I thought."

The MSU possession went like this – sack by Jacob Ford, sack by Jacob Ford, incomplete pass. The two sacks backed MSU up 16 yards to the four.

When asked about the back to back sacks, according to the official stats even, Jacob said, "Ah, that wasn’t two sacks man. One of them was a tackle for loss and the other was a sack. I don’t think too much of it man. That’s what I’m supposed to do."

Ford’s being a little modest of course. The second sack Ford broke through a double-team to get to Krapfl.

"Tonight, we did a little better job of locking down the receivers and make the quarterback have to hold the ball an extra half count and that was just enought to spring Jacob loose," Conque said.

After the MSU punt, UCA was able to run the clock down to 59 seconds.

The game ended on a weird play. MSU quarterback Matt Krapfl dropped back to pass, and you-know-who forced a fumble. Krapfl picked up the ball, ran 18 yards, and – you might not believe this – there was Jacob Ford making the tackle from behind to end the game.

"Right now the strength of our football team is our defense," Conque said.

"Our defense has given up one touchdown in three college football games. If we get that kind of performance week in and week out, we’ll have a chance in every game we play."

The game started off slowly for the UCA offense but obviously not for the defense, who gave up a whopping zero first downs in the first quarter and just one in the entire half..

"I thought we played with great effort and passion, and I thought we tackled well," Conque said.

"We were able to keep them off balance and from getting into an offensive rythm."

UCA’s offense put together a solid 12-play, 80-yard drive with key carries by Ross Brown. Olen Whiteley scored the only offensive touchdown of the game from one-yard out.

Photo Gallery

What we know about MoState

(writer’s note: please feel free to correct me on any MSU mistakes that aren’t opinions.)



With little to no help from their under-construction athletic Web site, it’s not easy to see what the UCA Bears will be up against when the Missouri State Bears make the under four-hour trek to Conway on Saturday.



Both teams come into the game with 1-1 records. Both have cruised to victories over Division II opponents. Both will start underclassmen quarterbacks, regardless of the injury to UCA qb Nathan Brown.



Missouri State, under the direction of first-year head coach Terry Allen and his pro-style offense and multiple defense, finished with a 4-6 record in 2005 and will be playing its first I-AA opponent of the year.



Game 1



You might expect some issues with a new coaching staff in place even if the first opponent wasn’t a D-IA program, and MSU was handled easily by Oklahoma State in game one.



The opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown, and MSU was down 0-7 just 19 seconds into the game.



After being shutout by the OSU defense for the first 44:20 of the game, MSU kicked a field goal to put their first points on the board. They only reached OSU territory two times in the opening half, once was a 58-yard reception by Jeremy Nicholson who then fumbled on the one.



In the second quarter, MSU only managed 30 yards of offense. They went to the locker room with a 38-0 deficit – thanks in part to OSU special teams looking like Virginia Tech’s – and it only got worse for MSU in the second half.



MSU went three-and-out on the first possession of the second half, had a punt blocked, and immediately saw OSU run it in from eight yards out.



Numbers-wise, punter Nathan Stokes had a good game outside of the blocked punt. But some of his punts were so long he possibly out-kicked his coverage. Stokes had three punts of 50 yards or more, but OSU averaged 26.3 yards per return.



MSU split time between Matt Krapfl and Garrett Congdon at quarterback and were without University of Georgia transfer Michael Cooper at the running back position and Tamarkus McElvane, a wide receiver transfer from Utah State. And, as is the case when playing up a division, MSU was never a threat.



Game 2



Southwest Baptist traveled to Springfield for MSU’s second game. It’s hard to get a read from this game, similar to that of UCA versus Henderson State.



SBU was just 3-8 last season, and was beaten by Arkansas’ own Harding University in week one of this year – and last year. Harding totaled 632 yards of offense against the Bearcats in a 42-30 win.



According to their Web site, MSU started the game with two turnovers but then set a school record with four, second-quarter touchdowns.



MSU never punted the entire night and finished with 508 yards of offense.



Cooper made his season debut, and the two quarterbacks mentioned above only threw two incompletions in the game, one was an interception though.



The only points given up by the MSU defense came in the last 19 minutes of the game. I’m assuming that they had put their subs in by that time.



Summary



It’s difficult to predict an outcome because of the wide range of MSU opponents. Anyone could have seen the results of the first two games beforehand, regardless of which players were missing.



It looks like both Cooper and McElvane should both be back on the field this Saturday. How much of a spark that will give to the MSU offense remains to be seen. And like the offense, the MSU defense is also a question mark.