Title foremost in UCA’S plans
CONWAY — Homecoming festivities may take a back seat this week to what’s on the line for Central Arkansas’ football team.
UCA (7-2, 5-1 Southland) can clinch the conference championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs with a victory over Northwestern (La.) State on Saturday at Estes Stadium.
The Bears, who have won 10 consecutive at home, own the head-to-head tiebreakers over Sam Houston State and Southeastern Louisiana, the other one-loss teams in the conference.
Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett will be at Saturday’s game. He also attended UCA’s 24-20 victory over Sam Houston State earlier this season.
“It doesn’t get any bigger than this game,” said Conque, whose Bears won 34-14 at Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday. “There’s so much on the line for this game. The trophy will be in the stadium. They’re hard to win. Rings are hard to get. I’ve coached 30 years and got five at different schools.
“We need to pack this place out and make it a violent environment for our opponent this week.”
UCA, which is No. 13 in the FCS Coaches and The Sports Network’s top 25 polls, has won four consecutive and seven of eight since its season-opening 49-27 loss at SEC member Ole Miss.
Against the Rebels, the Bears led 20-14 at halftime but were outscored 35-7 in the second half. UCA led 14-0 at halftime Saturday at Southeastern Louisiana, but the Lions pulled within 21-14 late in the third quarter before the Bears pulled away by scoring the final 13 points.
“From the Ole Miss game until now, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth in our football team,” Conque said Monday at a boosters luncheon at Estes Stadium. “Experience is a great teacher. You’ve got to give credit to our players, because they’re investing in our vision and our philosophy.
“It’s not always perfect, but they’re certainly executing at a pretty high level. That was a fairly complete game we played on Saturday.”
The Bears finished with 355 yards of total offense, forced three turnovers and never trailed against the Lions. Junior quarterback Wynrick Smothers completed 21 of 33 passes for 261 yards and 3 touchdowns and threw 1 interception, and senior receiver Jesse Grandy caught 3 passes for 108 yards and 2 touchdowns. Senior linebacker Seth Allison had eight tackles and two interceptions, earning the Southland’s defensive player of the week award Monday.
UCA advanced to the FCS playoffs last season, winning at Tennessee Tech before losing at Montana in the second round. If UCA were to win the Southland title, it will likely host a first- or second-round game. (The FCS bracket will be released Nov. 18, one day after UCA’s regular-season finale against Eastern Illinois.)
“We can punch our ticket to consecutive NCAA championships,” said Conque, who led UCA to a Southland title in 2008 but the Bears were not eligible for the postseason because of the school’s transition from Division II to Division I. “That gets me excited.
“We just need to find about 12,000 other folks to be excited the same way.”