Attention isn’t issue for UCA
Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008
HOUSTON — Everyone welcomed in first-year member Central Arkansas last year at Southland Conference media days, introducing the Bears to all the right people and voting them to finish second-tolast in the coaches’ and sports information directors’ polls.
There is no need to show them around this time. The Bears seem to have the hang of things after going 5-2 in conference play last year and finishing in a tie for second with Sam Houston State.
“People are going to say I’m just saying this, but to me, there was nothing surprising about what Central Arkansas did last year,” said McNeese State Coach Matt Viator, whose Cowboys are picked to win the Southland Conference for a third consecutive season. “If you look at the coaching staff they have in Conway, plus the caliber of athletes they’ve been able to recruit, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that they’re already competing for a conference championship.” The Bears were picked to finish second in the conference by the sports information directors and fourth by the coaches in polls released Tuesday.
Central Arkansas Coach Clint Conque said he was flattered by the picks, but he learned long ago to put little stock in preseason projections.
“Look at where they had us last year,” Conque said. “It’s nice to be thought of so highly, but we have to take those things with a grain of salt.” Preseason first-team All-Southland Conference offensive lineman Brad Gordon of Little Rock Central agreed that the Bears can’t worry too much about where they are picked.
“How we do on the field is the only kind of measure we worry about,” Gordon said. “We can’t worry about what someone’s opinion of us is.” The Bears tied for second place in the conference last season with Sam Houston State — one of the three teams picked to finish ahead of Central Arkansas this year.
Sam Houston State Coach Todd Whitten thinks he knows why his team is picked higher than UCA.
“We’re playing them at their place this time. Maybe we’ll have a little more success,” Whitten said, alluding to the fact Central Arkansas has beaten Sam Houston State the past two seasons in Huntsville, Texas. “Seriously, though, my staff and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Conque and his staff. They’ve gone about the move to Division I the right way, and it doesn’t come as a surprise to me that they’ve been so successful.” Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett said the Bears’ immediate success was one of the reasons he was ecstatic about Central Arkansas’ move into the conference.
“Central Arkansas has only made the conference better,” Burnett said. “I think that their move has been very similar to that of North Dakota State.” North Dakota State finished ninth in the final Football Championship Subdivision poll at the end of last season, their fourth season in Division I FCS, formerly Division I-AA.
Making that kind of move up in the rankings and being a player on a conference level and on the national stage is something Conque is hopeful the Bears can do.
“We got a chance to play two benchmarks at the FCS level last year,” Conque said. “We played South Dakota State, which went to North Dakota State two weeks later and knocked off the No. 2 team in the nation. Then, at the end of the season, we go to Mc-Neese State — a team that’s won 12 Southland Conference titles — with a chance to win the conference.
“ I think we learned a lot in those two weeks about what it takes to compete at this level.”
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