Weevil veterans taking field after lost season
Thirty-one lettermen from the 2019 University of Arkansas at Monticello football team have returned for the 2021 season, which kicks off at 6 p.m. tonight at Convoy Leslie Cotton Boll Stadium against Southern Nazarene University of Oklahoma.
Southern Nazarene is the most recent team UAM defeated, as the Boll Weevils won 3128 during their homecoming game on Oct. 19, 2019. The Weevils closed that season, however, with four straight losses, three of them decided by seven or fewer points.
The Great American Conference suspended all sports during the fall of 2020 as a precaution against coronavirus, and the football season was not made up.
But Coach Hud Jackson has returned for his 11th season at the helm following a busy preseason in Monticello. He has doubled up as interim athletic director since mid-July and has since hired a golf coach for the men’s and women’s teams and a men’s basketball head coach.
Demilon Brown is among the Weevils’ returning starters and was GAC Freshman of the Year in 2019. He led an offense that finished eighth in the conference in scoring (22.6 points per game) and total offense (372.4 yards per game).
Brown also ranked fourth in rushing average (80.3 yards per game), with running back Devontae Dean fifth at 79.9. Brown passed for 1,202 yards and 12 touchdowns, with C.J. Parham and DeAndre Washington his top two targets.
Washington, of Shreveport, La., was named a second-team preseason All-American by D2Football.com on Tuesday after earning two postseason selections to the Don Hansen All-American team.
In 2019, Washington had 39 receptions for 626 yards and seven touchdowns. He and two other GAC players were picked to the 2021 D2football.com list.
Seniors Justin Legier (65 tackles, 11.5 for losses) and Chason Traylor (28 tackles, two forced fumbles) have returned to anchor the UAM defense.
UAM leads the all-time series against Southern Nazarene 6-1, having won the last three meetings. UAM has never lost to the Crimson Storm in four previous meetings in Monticello.
The game can be heard on Monticello radio station KHBM-FM 93.7.