Bryant walks into title tilt looking for fourth in row
When asked earlier this week about his team’s opponent today in the Class 7A championship game, Bryant Coach Buck James was quick to talk about North Little Rock, which the Hornets defeated 28-13 last week to advance to their fourth consecutive title appearance.
There’s much well-documented history between the Hornets and Charging Wildcats, but James and his Bryant program have an earlier history with Fayetteville, today’s opponent, that’s nearly as prolific.
In James’ six years at Bryant, he’s faced the Bulldogs seven times, with an 5-2 record against them. Three of those seven games came in the postseason, and three of them had one-point finishes.
Despite not playing the Bulldogs since 2019, today’s contest brings James and the Hornets full circle as they compete for a fourth consecutive championship.
“It’s been a lot of fun competing against them,” James said about North Little Rock. “It’s going to be a lot of fun competing against Fayetteville, and we’re excited about the opportunity.”
The recent Bryant-Fayetteville history has favored the Hornets, with them winning the past three contests by an average of 20 points.
The Bulldogs (10-2) are led by 43 seniors, according to Coach Casey Dick. Most notable is senior quarterback Bladen Fike, who’s No. 2 in the state in passing yards, and the state’s leading receiver and University of Arkansas commit Isaiah Sategna.
“There’s a lot of experience out there,” Dick said. “There’s a lot of leadership out there which is very good from this perspective. They’ve grown up in our program and know exactly what we want from them and expect of them.”
The Bulldogs finished the regular season 8-2, with non-conference losses to Owasso (Okla.) and North Little Rock. The highlights of their season have come in the past two weeks, though, with two thrilling playoff victories.
In a 34-27 win against Cabot, Fayetteville managed to erase a 27-6 deficit with just over a quarter left. The week following, it got another dramatic win, a 29-21 defeat of Conway, after pulling ahead 23-21 with 4 seconds left on a 40-yard field.
“They’ve been in those situations,” Dick said. “They don’t get uncomfortable. They just stay even-keel, which is what I love about the group, and they just keep fighting.”
For Bryant (11-1), this year hasn’t been the pleasure cruise of seasons past. Still, it has continued with as much success record-wise, and done so with significant roster turnover.
“I don’t know why,” James said when he asked about his program’s consistent success. “If I did, I’d have been doing it the other 34 years I’ve been coaching. Our kids have bought in. Our coaches do an unbelievable job.”
James credited his coordinators, Kirk Bock and Quad Sanders, as two of the best coordinators “in the country,” and said his program has consistent coaching that’s led to his players being “comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Much like Fayetteville, the Hornets have shown that comfortable discomfort multiple times this season, whether it was in two close contests with North Little Rock, a comeback win against Conway or a near road victory at Longview (Texas) earlier in the year.
“What we’ve been able to do with the guys who had no experience, but played a lot in games, [because] we had a lot of blowouts last year, really [they’re] a bunch of guys who really surprised us,” James said. “But we have peaks and valleys … the thing we’ve got to do is we’ve got to eliminate, in a big game like this, the times that we play really bad.”