Hampton frustrated with loss

It didn’t take much to realize that University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Coach Alonzo Hampton wasn’t at all pleased with the Golden Lions’ overall play in their game last week against Mississippi Valley State.

The tone in his voice spoke volumes when he recently revisited what went wrong during his team’s 4217 loss to the Delta Devils.

“Obviously, a disappointing performance by our football team,” Hampton said. “I thought going into the game that we had a good game plan, and we just didn’t execute it. We give [Mississippi Valley State] credit, they won the game.

“Now we’ve just got to bounce back and get ready for the next game.”

That next game is Saturday against Alcorn State, which has won four Southwestern Athletic Conference titles since 2014, for what will be the Golden Lions’ homecoming. But this week’s annual event couldn’t go any worse for UAPB (1-5, 0-3) than it did during Mississippi Valley State’s homecoming.

The Golden Lions never got into a groove offensively despite rushing for a seasonhigh 234 yards, and they misfired on several scoring opportunities whenever they moved deep inside Delta Devils’ territory — an aspect that has plagued them for much of the season.

“Take the first drive down the field, and we miss a field goal,” Hampton said. “We’ve done that the last couple of weeks. We were in the red zone three times in the first quarter and went 1 for 3 on field goals, just couldn’t punch the ball in. So that’s frustrating. And then we go in at half down 14-3, we come back out, get a stop and we score to make it 14-10.

“Then they’re driving, we punch the ball out with an opportunity to fall on [ball], and we don’t. Two plays later, we lose leverage and they score. Then they kick the ball off, and we throw an interception for a pick-six. So it’s frustrating.”

Those woes essentially put even more pressure on UAPB’s defense, which had a tough time slowing down Mississippi Valley State once its offense got going. The Delta Devils had been outscored 166-50 in their first five games, all losses. But against UAPB, they were eight points shy of equaling their point total for the season. Mississippi Valley State also had a season-high 414 yards of offense, which shattered their previous best of 296 that occurred in its opener against Central (Ohio) State.

But UAPB’s first-year coach has never been one to shield himself or any of his previous teams at any level from any kind of adversity. He’s previously said that in order for the Golden Lions to consistently compete atop SWAC, they’ve got to occasionally endure some growing pains.

Those aches were more than evident against the Delta Devils.

“But again, when you’re building a program, it’s part of it,” Hampton said. “It’s part of the process, got to be able to persevere. Like I told the players, no man puts his hand to the plow, and turn around and looks back. You’re not going to be fit to win these games.”