McCollum's Column: Bears can’t seem to cover up recurring blemishes

Two major questions now override the University of Central Arkansas football program.

What’s wrong with the Bears? Can things be cured this season?

The answers to both are complicated.

The Bears are a good football team, capable of spectacular plays. They have character, ability and spunk, or they wouldn’t have been able to come back to the cusp of victory in four games.

Part of the problem could be the UCA players, though their success in their first two full seasons in the league, possibly got a false sense of security and confidence about the league. They may have figured they will always somehow defeat Texas teams and win TV games and win home games. They haven’t been in the league long enough to realize how tough it is, what a fine line that separates a great team at the top from a pretty good one at the bottom.

Week in and week out, against the top teams in the league, UCA probably has the least overall athletic talent. The Bears overall are not as good as they were last year.

But that’s the obvious.

There is more to it than that. The tough part for the UCA coaching staff is there is nothing terribly big that is wrong but there are several little things that together creates something big.

It’s misdirected to toss all the venom at quarterback Robbie Park, who is clearly in all aspects the best quarterback the Bears have available. Park has generally managed the game well, is getting better in his decision-making process, has led the team well and has made some bigtime throws.

Unfortunately, he is saddled with probably the least-efficient, least-dependable and least-dynamic collective receiving corps for a UCA team in recent history. The Bears have no consistent home run threat at receiver. To be perfectly blunt, most of the UCA receivers could not start for most teams in the conference. It’s a very average group. Park is operating the offense with his hands tied more than most UCA quarterbacks at the position.

He has to pick his spot. The best playmaker at receiver is Brent Grimes, who is also the best running back.

UCA’s linebacker corps is average and, with a couple of exceptions, not great tacklers. The defensive backs are not good tacklers and do not play the ball very well. On several critical receptions by the Bears’ opponents in most every game, the other guys just went for the ball and played the ball much better. That has given an opponent the confidence they can win many one-on-one battles at selected times. The inability to make tackles or played the ball has resulted in a shortage of forced turnovers, which the UCA defense needed to do this year to fuel the offense.

But the biggest problem may be football savvy and basic discipline.

The disturbing part to fans and coaches is they are seeing the same mistakes (selfish, dumb, inexcusable, pick the adjective) in game nine that they saw in the season-opening loss at Hawaii. Sometimes, there are mirror images of the same plays — particularly during “in the grasp, out of the grasp” losses to Hawaii, Stephen F. Austin, Southeastern Louisiana and Texas State.

It’s like a student taking a test in September then taking the same test in November after two months of instruction and missing the same questions. What’s more frustrating to UCA coaches are many of the problems are being created by experienced players (some of the best kids in the program) who somehow are transformed to undisciplined, uncontrollable monsters in pivotal situations.

What is wrong with Bears? You start with inexcusable and selfish penalties (personal fouls), busted assignments and the inability to make a play when a player is in position to make a play. It’s the same stuff in November as it has been in September.

Many of the problems are being created.

Can that be fixed in three games?

The knee-jerk answer is, with the coaches pulling every string possible, it hasn’t been fixed in nine games.

“I told the football team Sunday night that we won’t win another football game until some of theses areas are corrected,” UCA coach Clint Conque said. “That doesn’t mean we have to make every tackle, make every assignment. But we have to do better. Can we fix it? We’re going to work like hell to do so. That’s all I can say.”

It still is a good football team, one that has been in a position to defeat three of the four teams currently leading the conference.

But it seems UCA is discovering this year how fine a difference there is in a good 6-1 football team at the top and a no-slouch 4-3, 3-4, 2-5 one near the bottom.

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)