Warriors know the ins and outs

CONWAY — Gray Stanton was shown a patch of grass four years ago on a recruiting visit to Hendrix College.

The Hendrix soccer and field hockey teams shared that area at the time, but Stanton was told to imagine new field turf, a grandstand, locker room and weight facilities.

Sure enough, the football program’s physical structures have gone up in Stanton’s four years, while he and almost 30 other seniors worked to lay a foundation for the program.

“We all just really bought into the idea of what we could accomplish,” said Stanton, a senior defensive end for the Warriors. “We’ve done the best we could to make the best of it — and that doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop.”

Stanton and his fellow seniors have not only kick-started a program that had been dormant for more than 50 years, but they immediately made the Warriors competitive.

They were lured to campus by Coach Buck Buchanan’s promises of early playing time, and they made the most of it.

At 1 p.m. today, the Warriors open their fourth football season under Buchanan against Austin College of Sherman, Texas, in Conway. They’ll take the field with 28 seniors and 21 returning starters from a team that went 8-3 last year, while winning the Southern Athletic Association title and reaching the NCAA Division III playoffs.

The seniors credit Buchanan’s outlook with the early success.

“He’s always told us, don’t wait around to be good,” said senior running back Dayton Winn, a Division III All-American last year.

Buchanan said he knew his first recruiting class would be key. He also knew he didn’t want to add players just to add them. They needed bodies, but he wanted good ones, too. He set a cap, and ended up taking about 56 players.

“If we brought in 100 guys, we’d still end up having 45 guys staying,” he said. “And that just creates negative energy.”

He promised early playing time, and found about 56 players who fit Hendrix’ academics-first philosophy. Then, without upperclassmen to take all the spots in practice, he let them get as many reps as possible.

Quarterback Seth Peters will start his 24th game today. Winn, whose 6,423 all-purpose yards are the most of active players regardless of division, has started 29 games. Buchanan’s offensive line is made up

of five seniors who have started 31 consecutive games.

Ten starters return defensively, including seven players who started 10 or more games last year. Together, the class has helped Hendrix go from 3-7 in 2013, to 6-4 in 2014 and 8-3 last season.

“Words can’t express how I feel about them,” Buchanan said. “They were the perfect fit for us and for Hendrix. They really bought into not just what we were doing footballwise but making this a great place for us and the school and community. They bought into the whole picture.”

One more season together gives Hendrix an opportunity for a breakthrough, too.

Hendrix is the only team in the SAA with two Players of the Year on its roster, with Winn and Peters. Winn was Player of the Year last season when his 248.4 all-purpose yards per game led the nation. Peters did it the year before when he passed for 2,494 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Buchanan said having both on the field will have defenses guessing all season, but he expects them to try to stop Winn first. Buchanan said he is fine with that, because he likes his receivers, too, most notably senior Ethan Hoppe.

“Our job is to make sure we give the ball to the right guy at the right time,” Buchanan said.

A return trip to the Division III playoffs, Buchanan said, could be viewed as a fitting end for a class that’s meant so much to the program’s restart.

“The better we do the more time we get to spend together,” he said. “And we’re trying to spend as much time together as we can. Because these guys are a really special group.”