Showdown at SE Louisiana sets stage for run to playoffs

CONWAY — Central Arkansas seniors T.J. Randall and Cole Caruthers fretted during the summer when they sat in their apartment and tried to predict how the Bears’ season would unfold.

It was difficult to pin down expectations, they said, with a new coaching staff having installed new offensive and defensive systems after an injury-filled 7-5 season left the Bears short of the FCS playoffs.

“I anticipated that we were going to be either really, really good or middle of the pack,” Randall said.

The Bears (4-3, 3-0 Southland Conference) are more than halfway through this sea- son and a case could be made that they’re closer to being really good than anything else.

Tonight, they’ll take a three-game winning streak into Hammond, La., and find out just how good.

UCA visits FCS No. 8 Southeastern Louisiana (5-2, 3-0), the defending Southland champion, at 7 p.m. with a chance to be the first Southland team to win its fourth conference game and create a path pointed directly at a return to the FCS playoffs.

“This kind of sets the stage for the conference,” said Randall, a 6-3, 290-pound defensive lineman. “Back of your

mind, you want to come out and win this one, for sure.”

Bears Coach Steve Campbell said the Bears’ current standing is a credit to his players buying into his most basic coaching tenant, a one- gameat-a-time approach, and it has placed t hem with Southeastern Louisiana and Sam Houston State as teams yet to lose a Southland game.

But some of his most experienced players know it typically takes victories over one of the league’s top teams in order to reach to the playoffs.

“Like Coach says every week, it’s the biggest game that we have,” said Caruthers, a senior offensive tackle who helped the Bears to the playoffs in 2011 and 2012. “But we’re definitely focused this week. We know what’s on the line.”

Part of Caruthers’ incentive for tonight goes back to last year’s game against the Lions. UCA was ranked No. 24 in FCS last Nov. 9 when No. 16 Southeast Louisiana came into Estes Stadium and exited with a 58-31 victory, thanks to 344 yards of total offense by quarterback Bryan Bennett.

That l oss essentially knocked UCA out of playoff contention, and slowing Bennett, who transferred from Oregon, is key to making sure the Lions don’t hurt the Bears’ resume again.

Bennett, last year’s Southland player of the year, is averaging 265.7 yards of total offense per game this season, and has passed for 10 touchdowns and rushed for nine.

“He’s the straw that stirs the drink,” Campbell said. “They’ve got great players around him, but he’s the Dak Prescott, that makes it all happen for them.”

The Southland Conference title can’t be won with a victory over Southeast Louisiana. UCA has four games remaining after tonight, including the season-finale at Sam Houston State. But a victory tonight and the Bears will continue to control their path to a conference title and a playoff appearance.

UCA can reach the playoffs without a conference title, like it did in 2012, and it might be easier this year considering the FCS playoff field has been expanded to 32 teams. But Caruthers said the Bears don’t want to take any chanc- es and can eliminate what-ifs by keeping their minds on the immediate task.

“We look at it like, we’re in the playoffs right now,” Caruthers said. “We pretty much need to win out to get to the playoffs, and that’s our ultimate goal. We want a surething. We don’t want to be waiting on a television show.”

Campbell