Opponent Preview: Central Arkansas
10/3/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - After enjoying a bye week, Stephen F. Austin returns to the field Saturday evening hosting Central Arkansas in the Lumberjacks' 2014 Southland Conference opener. It marks the ninth meeting between the two teams as UCA holds a 5-3 edge in the all-time series, but will be the first meeting between the two with head coach Clint Conque on the SFA sideline.
The game will be broadcast live on ESPN3, kicking off at 6:04 from Homer Bryce Stadium. Lincoln Rose and Lemont Williams will have the call as the game can be accessed anywhere an internet connection is available by logging on to ESPN3.com. Fans can also listen online as Rob Meyers will have the call on Q107.7 FM as well as online at Q1077.com. Live stats will be available at SFAJacks.com with in-game Twitter updates @SFA_Football.
Game Storylines
• It will be a clash of familiar faces for the Lumberjacks as head coach Clint Conque goes head-to-head against his former school. Conque spent 14 years at Central Arkansas, compiling a 105-59 record and capturing a pair of SLC titles with the Bears. He made four postseason appearances during his time in Conway and ranks as the second-winningest college football coach in Arkansas history behind legendary Razorback coach Frank Broyles. Conque won’t be the only one looking across the field at familiar faces as offensive coordinator Matt Kubik, defensive coordinator Matt Williamson, run game coordinator Bill Best and co-special teams coordinator Jeremy Hammock also made the move to Nacogdoches after serving along side coach Conque at Central Arkansas.
• Saturday's game will be the 2014 "Pink Out" as SFA will team up with Zeta Tau Alpha. The Lumberjacks will be wearing pink bracelets while the coaching staff will have pink ribbons as breast cancer survivors will be recognized at the game with one survivor being named SFA’s honorary captain for the night. Zeta Tau Alpha will also have volunteers throughout the night taking donations with 100 percent of the donations aiding in finding a cure for the disease.
• The SFA Athletics Student Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) will present Julia Jones, founder of Impact Nac, with a check at halftime. The SAAC committed raised over $1,000 internally, through donations from student athletes, coaches, and faculty of the athletic department to aid their cause. Impact Nac purchases clothes, school uniforms and school supplies for children when they are placed into foster care. Impact Nac is a non-profit 501c3. Donations (including monetary) are tax deductable and a receipt can be provided.
• Earlier this week, senior running back Gus Johnson was named to the Walter Payton Award Watch List for 2014. Beginning this weekend, SFA Athletics will begin promoting the senior by using the hashtag #GusForPayton, trying to bring as much national attention to Johnson's achievements as possible.
Head coach Clint Conque held his weekly media press conference earlier this week, looking back on the progress that was made during SFA's bye week and previewing this weekend's showdown against Central Arkansas:
On how the team made use of the bye week:
“I think it was a really good week. We obviously took a couple of days to work with our young players earlier in the week and I think that’s very important as you are attempting to build a program. Not just short-term but long-term to keep those young people engaged. It presents an opportunity to see how they’ve grown since camp, as well as some of the back ups and some of the down the line guys. We were able to rest for a couple of days, maybe our top 33-35 guys. We all got in the weight room really hard, hopefully we did some academic rehabilitation and healing and growing there, but then at the end of the week we started prep work on our first conference opponent. Sunday we came back and had a great workout session in the weight room and had a real high-energy practice. We’ve had three or four really great days to continue to clean up some things, and again, last week was really more focus on ourselves, and our growth. Certainly this week we open up conference play and everything gets a little bit tighter.”
On any concerns about a bye week lull:
“The thing I am concerned about is the players have some confidence from the first month of the season, and even from the Kansas State game. We left with a little confidence in certain areas, but we had a week off of competitiveness. Even though you try and raise the intensity in practice, we still have not been on the field where they are keeping score for two weeks now, and so you do worry about that a little bit. We came out and had a great week of preparation and I think it will be real key that we get off to a fast start. That’s always something coming off an open date that you worry about.”
On the health of the team:
“Robert Sylvester, one of our backup receivers, broke his hand, so he’s out for an indefinite period of time. We’ve had some bumps and bruises and some guys are still on the mend, but everyone that could practice has practiced. We’ve seemed to have high-energy practices and everybody knows what’s at stake here moving forward week in and week out for the rest of the season. I feel good about the things we accomplished in the non-conference part of our schedule and conference play brings on a different level of intensity, and so it’s good we’re hitting it relatively healthy.”
On the emotions getting ready to face his old team:
“Well, it’s a little bit different, but again, it’s a football game. It’s not about the coaches, it’s about the coaching, it’s about the players, and you’ve got to be able to go out and execute and have a good plan. As I told the team and our coaching staff, which about half of our full-time staff came down from Central Arkansas, there is no additional pressure. We are going to prepare for this game like we did for Weber State, and like we will for the next game and focus on us and how we execute and how we block and tackle. We know that this is a huge challenge. This is a program that has averaged right at eight wins a season for the last 14 years and has recently won some conference championships and some postseason games. They are picked fairly high in the conference so we know we’ve got a huge challenge ahead of us. Our program is not at that point yet, but that’s something that we are building upon and hope to get to very quickly but our young men see it as the next opportunity to go out and compete in conference play. We are excited to be playing at home. This is the last game of a four game stretch, and (our players) know that to be a factor in the conference race in November we need to hold serve at home, because if you don’t you make it a little bit more difficult on yourself. But we certainly know (UCA’s players) very well. They are very talented and very skilled in all three phases of the game, and very well coached, so we know we’ll have our hands full.”
On what SFA’s game plan will be against UCA:
“Try and score as many as we can and hold them to as few as we can. I know that’s easier said than done. Offensively they have playmakers all over the field and a big physical offensive line. The running backs are running really hard and there are five or six wide receivers that just make contested catch after contested catch and big play after big play. That bleeds over to the kicking game. You can see their athleticism and speed at every position. Defensively their front, led by an All-American Jonathan Woodard, along with Derek Floyd, T.J. Randall and some others. Their linebackers are very solid, led by Ricky Wyatt. Their secondary - they get back a young man, Dominique Brown, that we had lost last year in the Colorado game. He’s back for his fifth year and he’s been a four year starter there. Their safeties are very physical, so we know that we are going to have to execute at a high level and play probably our cleanest game to date. We want to value the football and when you get opportunities to get off the field, we have to get off the field. They are very explosive on offense and we can’t allow them to extend drive.”
On the test the defensive unit is in for against UCA:
“Well, SFA gave up 66 points last year in this game so we obviously need to do a lot better than that to have a chance to be competitive. I think each and every week you’ve got to stop the run and they have a power running game. They can hit you with speed and quickness on the perimeter, so it’s a tough offense to prepare for. They have three very quality quarterbacks that we are obviously familiar with, and they can all throw it, they can dissect you in the pass game. What is impressive is just how competitive the wide receivers are when the ball is in the air. They make contested catch after contested catch, so not only are we going to have to cover them well, but we are going to have to wrestle the ball away from. They have a lot of strength and they are able to make big play after big play. We have to stop the run and force them to be one dimensional because they can really hurt you in the pass game if you don’t get them covered up and put some pressure on the quarterback.”
On opening SLC play at home:
“Any time that you play at home it is an awesome feeling, and our crowds have been fantastic. They have grown each and every week, and we certainly hope that we have our biggest crowd of the season this week. We’ve had a five week stretch where we have not had to travel and that’s been a real luxury for us as we are building a program and getting to know the players even better. When you get a chance to play at home in front of the home crowd it does give you that spark. We’ll need the Purple Haze and the 12th man of the big crowd to help push us and continue to motivate us along. We know there is going to be adversity, but we just have to keep playing through it, and generally when you do that good things will happen. But this will be a huge challenge, our biggest test to date and at home against a team that was picked in the top three or four of the conference. Our young men understand exactly what’s at stake here playing a home conference game, and certainly we’ll need to play at a high-level this week to have a chance for success.”
-SFA-
