BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Monte Coleman was cruising through Pine Bluff in his black Chevrolet Avalanche earlier this week when it finally hit him.
“We’re 9-2!” the fifth-year Arkansas-Pine Bluff football coach shouted out loud to nobody in particular.
The point was that no matter the result of today’s Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game, UAPB has completed its best season in two decades.
“I don’t think that’s really sunk in yet,” said Coleman, who knows a little bit about winning after he won three Super Bowls in 16 seasons as a linebacker for the Washington Redskins.
Another victory today and this season’s Golden Lions will go down as the school’s winningest team.
UAPB (9-2) plays Jackson State (7-4) for the conference championship at noon today at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
Sparked by a stout running game and a steady defense stocked full of veterans, UAPB won its final six games of the season to advance to this point.
Also at stake today:
The school’s first 10-victory season.
The school’s first outright conference title (UAPB shared the 1966 SWAC title with three other schools).
Its highest final ranking in the Sheridan Broadcasting Network Black College poll (UAPB is currently No. 2 behind NCAA Division II Winston-Salem State).
“We can make history,” senior linebacker Bill Ross said. “We’re not satisfied yet.”
Ross has served as one of the defense’s mainstays. His 117 tackles led the SWAC, andhe’s one of nine Golden Lions who have started 20 or more games on defense. He is one of five seniors on the defense.
It’s a group that includes NCAA Football Championship Subdivision sacks leader Brandon Thurmond, who has 15 1/2 and was named the SWAC’s defensive player of the year.
Three defenders were named first-team All-SWAC, and two more were named second-team. UAPB finished first in the conference in scoring defense (18.7 points per game) and second in total defense (307.7 yards per game).
Coleman, who also serves as the team’s defensive coordinator, has been excited about this group since he started spring practice with 10 players returning with starting experience. Linebacker Joe Dalton was lost for the year with a foot injury in the preseason, but junior Xavier Lofton slid into that spot and has made 93 tackles, third-best in the conference.
“We didn’t have to do a lot of unnecessary coaching because the guys knew my style,” Coleman said. “They knew what I was going to call. They knew before I even made the call in a lot of cases.”
That’s not to say there hasn’t been hiccups.
Prairie View A&M gained 476 yards in UAPB’s 42-41 victory in the regular-season finale at Pine Bluff. In the first meeting with Jackson State, a 34-24 victory for UAPB on Oct. 6, the Golden Lions allowed 319 yards rushing as three Jackson State players rushed for at least 100 yards.
“That’s not the type of defense we play,” Thurmond said.
They figured it out. In the five games since UAPB last saw Jackson State, it’s given up an average of 103.4 rushing yards per game.
That’s the big question going into today’s game: Will Jackson State be able to run the ball effectively again in it second meeting with UAPB?
“We sat down and we examined what we were doing and tried to decide what’s the best product we could put out there,” Jackson State Coach Rick Comegy said of the switch. “It turned out to be our running game was not bad, and we decided to bow that up a bit more.”
Jackson State averaged 234.4 rushing yards over its past seven games, and its average of 186.5 rushing yards per game for the season ranks it third in the SWAC. Runningbacks Rakeem Sims (714 yards) and Tommy Gooden (548 yards) and quarterback Clayton Moore (564 yards) all rank among the top nine in the SWAC in rushing and have combined for 23 rushing touchdowns.
“I’ll be glad when this game is over,” Coleman said with a laugh. “I sleep well at night, but I’ve woken up coaching in my sleep.”
Having a defense with so much experience has helped keep Coleman at relative ease.
“Our goal this week is a shutout,” Thurmond said. “We want to pitch a shutout in a big game like this.”SWAC Championship Game ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF VS. JACKSON STATEWHEN Noon Central today WHERE Legion Field, Birmingham, Ala.
RECORDS UAPB 9-2, Jackson State 7-4 COACHES UAPB: Monte Coleman (28-27 in fifth season at UAPB and over
all); Jackson State: Rick Comegy (48-
30 in seventh season at Jackson State
and 156-81 in 21st season overall)
RADIO KUAP-FM, 89.7, in Pine Bluff
TV ESPNU
Sports, Pages 20 on 12/08/2012