McCollum's Column: Bears change tactics and go old school
BEAUMONT, Texas — The national champion 1991 University of Central Arkansas football team had its 20th reunion last week.
They would appreciate the throwback approach that turned the game around in the Bears’ 38-24 victory Saturday.
UCA dipped into former coach Harold Horton’s batch of plain vanilla.
With finesse back Jackie Hinton being held out the second half with an ankle injury, UCA went to power backs Terence Bobo and Anthony Blackmon and pounded Lamar with classic field-position football.
Give the ball to the back between the tackles.
Over and over and over.
Classic UCA football. Give the ball to the back until they stop him. Blackmon and Bobo combined for 116 yards on 23 carries. Modest but effective.
“We showed some physical-ness up front,” UCA coach Conque said. “We have it ready every week. You just never know when you need to use it. We thought coming in we had an advantage throwing the football. But we were able to change tempos the second half, probably getting them a little bit tired and on their heels. The run game was a real key to that.”
The decision to go to the run game?
“We ran it two or three times the first half and it was effective,” Conque said. “We just felt we could lock on them and those backs could make those blocks good. We got a couple of play-action opportunities. One on a key first down to Chris McKnight and we went big ball to Al Lasker (for a touchdown) off play action. As they were committed more to the run, we had the opportunity to take some shots downfield.
“It wasn’t always pretty but our backs made it good.”
So, a traditional passing team with receivers all over the field played a different game. The Bears got down, dirty and old school.
“But don’t confuse us with Alabama,” said Conque. But the change of pace did turn the tide.
(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)
