Bears try to right themselves against Bearkats

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The dual focus of Southland Conference football this weekend will in Hammond, La., and San Marcos, Texas, where the four leaders play each other.

Stephen F. Austin will play at Southeastern Louisiana and McNeese State plays at Texas State. 

The contest between the University of Central Arkansas Bears and the Sam Houston State Bearkats — one of the glamour games of the conference season last year — is well away from the spotlight.

Both teams enter this afternoon’s contest with similar records: UCA (5-4, 2-3 SLC); Sam Houston (4-5, 2-3). 

UCA coach Clint Conque  and his staff have watched their team lose three conference games by a total of 10 points — all to one of the leaders and all in the final minutes — and don’t consider what will happen today to be trivial. Even though the Bears are out of the race for the top spot, the UCA coaches have challenged the team to a three-game season in order to complete their season with seven or eight victories, assuring a winning record.

“We’ve gone toe-to-toe with the best teams in the conference,” Conque said. “We’ve been close. We still believe we are an upper-division football team. We just haven’t made the plays under pressure. That sixth victory has been hard.”

Sam Houston, which lost to McNeese in basketball-type fashion (63-42) last week, is a slightly different team than the Bears have faced the last two years when Rhett Bomar was the quarterback. The Bearkats have more of a consistent rushing attack and are more aggressive on defense under new coordinator Scott Stoker, the head coach at Northwestern State for several years.

Quarterback play has not been a problem. The Bearkats are led by University of Houston transfer Blake Joseph. 

“This guy is good,” Conque said, noting it marks the third week the Bears have faced a quarterback who has thrown for 300 yards in a game.

“Central Arkansas has got the ingredients for a very good football team,” Sam Houstons coach Todd Whitten said. “What has impressed me and is making a difference is they are so good in red zone defense.”

The Bearkats have lost three starting offensive linemen since the beginning of the season. 

“But at times, we’ve moved the ball pretty well,” Whitten said. “We played pretty well in the kicking game.” 

For the first time, the Bears have lost two straight SLC games. They close the SLC season next week at McNeese State, then host North Dakota in their season finale.

“I’m concerned about the mindset of this football team coming off two losses in a row,” Conque said. “But this group has proved to be resilient. We’ll learn a lot about them this week.”