STATESBORO, Ga. — Georgia Southern Coach Jeff Monken wasn’t holding back.
Georgia Southern faces Central Arkansas today in the second round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs at Paulson Stadium, and Monken didn’t mince words earlier this week when it came to the Bears.
“They may be the best team in the tournament,” Monken said of UCA, which has won six consecutive games. “They lost at Ole Miss and lost in 10 inches of rain at Stephen F. Austin, which I’m not sure that’s fair to count it. They’re a team that has beaten Sam Houston State, who went to the national title game last year.They’ve scored a bunch of points. They’ve won a bunch of games.”
UCA (9-2) won a share of the Southland Conference championship with Sam Houston State, while Georgia Southern (8-3) won the tiebreaker for the Southern Conference title with Appalachian State and Wofford.
Today’s winner will face Coastal Carolina or Old Dominion on Dec. 7 or Dec. 8 in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs.
Today’s game is a matchup of contrasting styles. UCA is primarily a passing team, averaging 268.0 yards per game, while the Eagles lead the FCS in rushing (392.2 ypg) out of their tripleoption attack.
“The uniqueness of what they do does cause some matchup and assignment concerns,” UCA Coach Clint Conque said. “Having the bye week really helped our coaching staff and our players to be able to get a few extra days of preparation. The thing that’s difficult to simulate is the speed of it.
“We’ll have to get adjusted to it very quickly once we get into the game.”
Georgia Southern, which has won a FCS-record six national championships, is making its 19th playoff appearance and is 43-12 in the playoffs, including 32-3 at home.
Junior quarterback Jerick McKinnon, 5-9, 208 pounds, leads the Eagles’ triple-option attack, rushing for 1,162 yards and 13 touchdowns on 175 carries while completing 15 of 30 passes for 412 yards with 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
“McKinnon is a terrific athlete,” Conque said. “He’s a powerful guy. He seems to make good decisions the majority of the time.”
Junior linebacker Justin Heard, who leads UCA with 87 tackles, said the Bearshave to be disciplined against the option.
“We’re not going to shut it down,” Heard said. “We’ve got to slow it down.”
UCA’s opponents, meanwhile, haven’t come close to stopping Bears junior quarterback Wynrick Smothers, the Southland’s offensive player of the year.
Smothers has completed 261 of 386 passes for 2,852 yards with 31 touchdowns and 9 interceptions in his first year as the starter.
Smothers said he was relaxed heading into his first playoff game as a starter.
“I’ve spent more time in the film room, but other than that I’m coming out here, doing the same thing I’ve been doing every week,” Smothers said. “If you try to change stuff, then things will be bad for you.”
The Bears’ offense is going up against a defense that is led by Southern Conference first-team defensive tackleBrent Russell (35 tackles, 3 1/2 sacks) and linebacker John Stevenson (94 tackles).
“It’s the best defense we’ll see all year,” Smothers said. “We see that they have goodplayers at every level. We have to play a little faster.”
UCA has exceeded the preseason expectations of Southland Conference coaches and sports information directors, who tabbed the Bears to f inish third, winning nine games - including victories over nationally ranked Sam Houston State, McNeese State and Eastern Illinois - even though it had to replace its starting quarterback and four offensive linemen.
“We’re a younger teamthan we were last year,” said Conque, whose team lost at Montana in the second round of the playoffs last season. “This isn’t to take anything away from Georgia Southern or even Montana, but that playoff experience last year sets an expectation for this year.
“They know that they’re good. They’re in the playoffs. Everybody’s very good. Everybody has an opportunity to win the national championship. I don’t think the moment is going to be too big for them.”
Today’s game CENTRAL ARKANSAS AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN
WHAT Second round of NCAA FCS playoffs WHEN 1 p.m. Central today WHERE Paulson Stadium, Statesboro, Ga.
RECORDS Central Arkansas 9-2;
Georgia Southern 8-3 COACHES Central Arkansas: Clint Conque (98-53 in 13 seasons);
Georgia Southern: Jeff Monken (29-11 in three seasons) SERIES Central Arkansas leads 1-0 RADIO KHLR-FM, 106.7, in Benton/ Little Rock; KUCA-FM, 91.3, in Conway; KCNY-FM, 107.1, in Conway INTERNET ESPN3.com, ucasports.com
Sports, Pages 23 on 12/01/2012