LITTLE ROCK — When he made a commitment during the summer to speak at the Little Rock Touchdown Club, Central Arkansas Coach Clint Conque told Athletic Director Brad Teague he wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea or not.
“What if we’re 3-7?” Conque said jokingly.
But two days after the Bears (8-2, 6-1) clinched a share of the Southland Conference title with a 35-14 victory over Northwestern (La.) State in Conway, Conque was in a joyful mood Monday when he spoke to the LRTD crowd at the Embassy Suites hotel in Little Rock.
“This team has met expectations, has exceeded expectations,” said Conque, whose Bears became the first team this season to secure a Football Championship Subdivision playoff berth.
In his 13th season at UCA, Conque is the school’s all time winningest coach at 97-53. He led the Bears to two NCAA Division II playoff appearances (2001, 2005) and a Gulf South Conference title in 2005 before the program moved up to Division I. Last season, UCA finished 9-4 and earned an at-large berth in the FCS playoffs, winning at Tennessee Tech before losing at Montana.
Under Conque, UCA has had nine winning seasons, including six since 2006, the school’s first year in Division I.
“One of our baseline goals is to have a winning season,” Conque said. “It’s bigger than Coach Conque, it’s bigger than the 2012 season, it’s bigger than any of us involved in our football program. The first goal is to have a winning season. We take that for granted sometimes. We want our seniors to go out winners. That’s just the baseline.
“For 13 years, we haven’t won them all. But for 70 percent of the time, we’ve won.”
Conque, who is the longest tenured Southland Conference coach, praised first-year starting quarterback Wynrick Smothers, who took over for Nathan Dick. The Destrehan, La., native has completed 226 of 337 passes (67.0 percent) for 2,517 yards and a league leading 27 touchdown passes and 9 interceptions.
“There were a lot of question marks across our state, our community and within our own football family about Wynrick Smothers,” Conque said. “Listen, when a guy’s name starts with ‘Wyn’, you’ve got a shot, you know what I’m saying?”
Smothers earned the Southland Conference offensive player of the week award Monday after finishing 18 of 27 passing for 225 yards and4 touchdowns and rushing for 97 yards and a touchdown against Northwestern State on Saturday.
UCA, which is ranked 13th in the FCS Coaches top 25 poll and 14th in The Sports Network poll, is off this week and hosts Eastern Illinois in its regular-season finale Nov. 17 at Estes Stadium in Conway. Conque credits his assistant coaches for getting the Bears through the first 10 weeks, in which they didn’t have an off week.
“We’ve been there long enough to set the bar at a level to where we expect our players to compete and play,” Conque said. “We really don’t waver from that. I think young people in general will attempt to reach whatever level of expectation or bar you set.
“We’ve had a couple of fortuitous bounces throughout the year. But most championship teams do.”
Other highlights from Conque’s speech:
Conque’s introduction to the LRTD crowd, recalling Arkansas Coach John L. Smith’s comment earlier this year at the club that the Razorbacks were a “state of Alabama program:” “It is great to be back in Little Rock, Alaska.”
On preparing for his speech: “I’ll look OK today. David will be dressed up as a pilgrim, since Thanksgiving is next week.” (When Conque spoke at the LRTD last year on Halloween, Bazzel dressed up as Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.)
Sports, Pages 19 on 11/06/2012