OBU gets a surprise very early

Harding lost to Ouachita Baptist 16-14 on Sept 12 in Arkadelphia, but the Bisons’ first offensive play was one to remember.

It was first and 10 at the Harding 15 after the Bisons forced a Jake Ford punt on OBU’s first offensive series, and quarterback Preston Paden acted as if he were handing it off to fullback Cole Chancey with 13:34 to play in the first quarter.

That’s what the Bisons do a heavy majority of the time on their first play of the game in their Flexbone offense.

Instead, Paden pulled the ball out of Chancey’s belly, faded back and waited for wide receiver Bobby Green to angle toward the center of the new artificial turf field at Cliff Harris Stadium.

Green, caught the ball in full stride at the Harding 45, with three OBU defenders in desperate pursuit, and swiped the football over the pylon in the left corner of the north end zone ahead of Keandre Evans’ lunging tackle attempt.

“That was fun,” Harding Coach Paul Simmons said of the unexpected opening play from the run-first, runalmost-always Bisons.

Simmons, who spends much of his time with defense, said he walked into the office on the Monday before the opener and joked that the Bisons should “throw it big” on first down.

“The offensive coaches said, ‘Hey, keep it down. We’re already planning to do that,’ ” Simmons said.

That play was a stunner, considering that the Bisons threw five touchdown passes all of last season while averaging 2.1 completions per game, and that it came at the beginning of a muchanticipated matchup between the teams picked to finish first and second in the Great American Conference.

The game was streamed live on ESPN3.

OBU Coach Todd Knight had a surprising take on the play, which gave the Bisons a 7-0 lead with 13:20 to play in the first quarter.

“That may have been the best thing to ever happen to us,” Knight said. “The way they responded was pretty incredible. … It was like, ‘OK, OK, we blew a coverage. Let’s play football.’

“If you can keep your poise when everything is exploding around you, that’s a good sign.”