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Harding University aims to set the record for rushing yardage, and Texas A&M UniversityCommerce will be shooting for the passing yardage record during the inaugural Live United Bowl.
How high each of the teams set those bars, and how well the defenses perform against their opponents’ strength, will likely have an impact on which team claims the championship trophy in the NCAA Division II bowl game, set for Saturday, Dec. 7 at Arkansas High School’s Razorback Stadium.
The Bison (8-2) were third in the nation in rushing with a 366.0 yard-per-game average and also have thrown for 122.7 yards per game. They scored 43 points per game and also led Division II with a 22.7-yard average per pass completion.
Harding, the representative from the Great American Conference, will be the home team.
The Lions (7-4) average 325.5 yards passing per game, 74.5 yards rushing per game and 37.3 points per game—the latter a school record. TAMUC, a member of the Lone Star Conference, ranks first in the nation in blocked kicks, second in Division II in sacks and third
in tackles for a loss.
As different as the teams’ styles are, so are the coaches’ experience with their respective programs. Harding’s Ronnie Huckeba has been a coach for the school for 28 years. He served 11 years as defensive coordinator, two as offensive coordinator and the last seven as head football coach.
The Bison had back-to-back 8-win seasons for the first time in school history and have gone 17-4 the past two years, reaching the Division II playoffs last fall.
“After an unexpected road loss to start the season, we knew it was going to be tough to make the playoffs (in Division II),” Huckeba said. “This bowl game really gave our kids something else to shoot for. When it came to the end of the season, we said ‘ OK, if we take care of our business, we’ll be in the bowl game in Texarkana on December 7.’ You could feel the energy from our team.
“Thank you for putting this bowl together and for the firstclass way that you’ve done it. We’re really looking forward to playing a quality opponent in Texas A&M-Commerce.”
A& M- Commerce head coach Colby Carthel was also a Division II player, playing against Harding defenses led by Huckeba. Carthel has spent the last eight years on his father’s staff at West Texas A&M, another Lone Star Conference team, and qualified for the postseason all eight seasons, including two at the Kanza Bowl in Topeka, Kan.
“They did a good job with the Kanza Bowl in Topeka,” Carthel said. “As good as that experience was, you guys are way ahead of where they were. For a first-year start-up bowl, it’s very impressive. We were hauling down State Line (Avenue), Ryan (Ivey) was on the Arkansas side and I was on the Texas side, we had a police escort, and I said, ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore.’
“This is going to be a lot of fun. Harding is a great team; I think it’s going to be a very exciting game. I believe Harding leads the nation in rushing, and they are very, very good at what they do.”
Carthel joked that as many times as Harding will run the ball, the Lions won’t.
“This is exciting: it’s exciting for us football fanatics to have the opportunity to do something like this in Texarkana,” Live United Bowl Chairman Allen Brown said. “We’re working hard to make this a community event. We’re working hard to make sure these teams have a Division I experience. These guys don’t have many opportunities (for postseason play), and that’s why we’re here.”
The Lions will use Texas High’s facilities for practice leading up to the bowl game. The Bison will use Arkansas High’s.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for Texas A&MCommerce and East Texas. It has been a long time since East Texas State has been a part of a postseason football game. In fact, Texas A&M-Commerce (which used to be named East Texas State) has never been a part of a postseason football game.”
Ivey was hired at the beginning of the year as the TAMUC Athletic Director, and one of his first obligations was to hire a new football coach. The team’s selection to the Live United Bowl only justified more that he had made the right decision.
The last time the school was in the postseason was in 1995, and this was the first winning season since 2001. The Lions’ last bowl appearance was in 1974.
Harding’s only previous bowl appearances came in 1974 and 1972, but the Bison were one of the 24 teams selected to the Division II playoffs last year.
Jerical Hardeman, a freshmen defensive lineman from New Boston, is with Harding’s football program. Texas High graduate Jalen Jones is a redshirt freshman in the Lions’ secondary, and Daingerfield’s Malik Ellis is a freshman on the offensive line.
“While our student-athletes are there to get their educations, very few will go past playing beyond the college level,” Harding University Athletic Director Greg Harnden said. “This is an experience that you’re giving our athletes that didn’t exist before you decided to make this happen.”
The Great American Conference is only in its third year of existence. It started with nine schools in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and it has grown to 11 member schools.
“I can almost guarantee you we will never have a problem picking an opponent (against a GAC team) for this game,” Brown said. “We’ll always have a Great American Conference team on the home side, and we could’ve picked a team from Indiana, Missouri, California, really anywhere we wanted to go to select another team.
“One of the greatest things about this bowl game is being able to support the United Way. Everything this bowl committee has needed from the United Way has been provided. I hope we can raise a lot of money for the United Way.”