Great American Conference report New QB steps up for Tech
Quarterback Jack Grissom hasn’t seen much action at Arkansas Tech since he transferred from Mississippi College in 2019, but Wonder Boys Coach Kyle Shipp said the redshirt senior has always made sure to stay ready in case his name was called.
That readiness was on full display last week when Grissom answered by going 15 of 22 for 184 yards in his first start to lead Arkansas Tech (23, 2-3) to a muchneeded 48-35 victory over Southern Nazarene.
“Jack has been in our program for four years, and he knows what we’re doing,” said Shipp, who noted that he opened up a competition at quarterback following his team’s 35-14 loss to the University of Arkansas at Monticello on Sept. 24. “He had a great week of practice, prepared well and played well.”
Grissom replaced Taye Gatewood as the starter and guided the Wonder Boys to touchdowns on four of their six first-half series. He later led them to scores on three second-half possessions to help the Wonder Boys put an end to a two-game losing streak.
“It’ll be his job going forward unless he can’t take care of the ball,” Shipp said of Grissom. “But I was very, very proud of him because he’s put in a lot of time and effort. This is the first year he’s gotten to play, and a lot of kids in today’s age would’ve quit.
“But not Jack. He stuck with it, and is taking full advantage of this opportunity.”
HARDING On the cusp
A strong showing in its previous game has Harding on the verge of making its return to the top 10.
The Bisons were ranked as high as No. 7 before dropping to 16th after suffering their first loss to No. 5 Ouachita Baptist. After rolling to a 38-23 victory over Oklahoma Baptist last week behind Will Fitzhugh’s 90-yard, 2-touchdown performance, Harding (4-1, 4-1) has shot up five spots to No. 11 ahead of Saturday’s road trip to Bethany, Okla., to face Southern Nazarene (1-4, 1-4).
A victory over the Crimson Storm, who are ranked next to last in the GAC on both offense and defense and have lost eight of the last nine head-to-head meetings, could potentially put the Bisons back in the top 10 just in time for a pivotal conference clash at home against Henderson State on Oct. 15. The Reddies received 17 votes in this week’s poll.
OUACHITA BAPTIST Yearning for more
According to Ouachita Baptist Coach Todd Knight, there’s still plenty of room for improvement for his undefeated and No. 5-ranked Tigers.
For the rest of the Great American Conference, that may be a scary notion.
OBU (5-0, 5-0) has outscored its opposition 219-66, ranks No. 6 in the country in total offense at 479.2 yards per game and is second in the league in total defense with a shade over 345 yards allowed. But Knight believes growth is possible.
“We know that for us to be successful, we need to be good in all three phases,” he explained. “We’re doing some good things, but we still have some weaknesses that we’re trying to address. If we can get some of those things corrected, we have a chance to have a pretty good football team.”
The Tigers were more than adequate last week in their 48-7 blowout of Northwestern Oklahoma State. OBU ran for 345 yards and had six different players score a touchdown.
Defensively, the Tigers took advantage of a pair turnovers and had 14 players finish with multiple tackles. Still, all wasn’t perfect.
“Honestly, turnover ratio is an issue, and we have some special teams problems we want to correct,” Knight said. “Also, we definitely feel like we can stay on blocks longer and tackling can be better. But the guys are playing hard.”
Despite those complications, the Tigers have won their first five games of a season for the 13th time in school history and will celebrate homecoming Saturday against surging Southwestern Oklahoma State (3-2, 3-2).
ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO Weatherford woes
Outcomes just haven’t gone the University of Arkansas at Monticello’s way whenever it plays in Weatherford, Okla.
The Boll Weevils dropped to 0-5 in games played inside Southwestern Oklahoma State’s hometown after their 37-27 defeat last week. All of those losses have been by at least 10 points.
Plenty of things went wrong for UAM (3-2, 3-2) in its most recent trip to FlexChem Field.
The Boll Weevils turned the ball over three times, all interceptions, and allowed the Bulldogs to run up a season-high 522 yards of total offense. Also, UAM, which went into the game averaging 281 yards rushing and was coming off a 355yard effort on the ground the week before in a win over Arkansas Tech, was limited to a season-low 94.
Quarterback Demilon Brown did throw for 302 yards but accounted for all three of the team’s turnovers while being sacked 6 times. The junior was also held to 41 yards rushing — 95 below his season average.
HENDERSON STATE Switching it up
Prior to last week’s matchup, Henderson State Coach Scott Maxfield was leery about this year’s Southeastern Oklahoma State team, in particular the threats the Savage Storm posed offensively.
The Reddies dealt with those issues accordingly and ran to a 31-23 win to remain tied with No. 11 Harding for second place in the conference.
“They can really throw the ball, very accurate,” Maxfield said of Southeastern Oklahoma State. “Those guys can cause you a lot of problems, but I thought we played a pretty good game, especially in the second half.”
Savage Storm quarterback Daulton Hatley, the GAC’s leading passer, threw for 316 yards and fired two touchdowns to Marquis Gray, who had 154 yards receiving. But Henderson State (4-1, 4-1) poured it on offensively, itself.
Korien Burrell had 119 yards rushing, and backup quarterback Landon Ledbetter, who’d been nursing an injury since Week 1, carried for 103 yards, passed for 84 and accounted for 2 touchdowns. In addition, starting quarterback Andrew Edwards also threw for 113 yards, while Xavier Malone, the league’s reigning cooffensive player of the week, caught 5 passes for 163 yards and 2 scores.
“We pretty much stuck with our gameplan in the first half with Andrew,” Maxfield said. “Then we kind of bogged down a couple of times in the second quarter, and just as a changeup, we put Landon in and he broke off three or four really good runs.
… gave us an added dimension back there with the threat of the run.
“It was change-up that gave us an offensive spark, and it turned out really well.”
SOUTHERN ARKANSAS Ambushed by Tigers
A week after getting Henderson State off the field consistently on third down, Southern Arkansas had a tough time doing the same Saturday against East Central (Okla.), and it cost the Muleriders.
The Tigers were 8 of
15 on third downs against SAU (2-3, 2-3), helping them pull out a key 34-22 win. The Muleriders, too, were successful at times on third down by going 7 of 16, but that wasn’t enough to yield a win in a game they needed to have in order to remain in the league title race.
SAU scored just once on its seven possessions after halftime, and that came on a blistering 60-yard touchdown run from Jariq Scales midway through the third quarter. The other six trips by the Muleriders resulted in two punts, two turnovers on downs, a punt and a game-ending completion inside the Tigers’ 40.
The loss dropped SAU into a three-way tie for seventh with Arkansas Tech and Southeastern Oklahoma State. The Muleriders will play both of those teams in their next two games.