UCA report

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

— Time off concerns Conque

Earning a first-round bye in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs was important for Central Arkansas, but Coach Clint Conque said Tuesday he is concerned about the layoff.

The Bears have played only two games this month - Nov. 3 against Northwestern (La.) State and Nov. 17 against Eastern Illinois, both at Estes Stadium. UCA was off Nov.

10, and the Bears were idle for another week after learning Nov. 18 they had a first-round bye.

UCA (9-2), cochampions of the Southland Conference, will travel to Statesboro, Ga., to face Southern Conference automatic qualifier Georgia Southern (8-3) in a secondround matchup at 1 p.m.

Central Saturday. The winner will face Coastal Carolina or Old Dominion in the quarterfinals Dec. 7 or Dec. 8.

“We’ve actually had more days off in the last three weeks than we’ve practiced and played for our frontlineguys, but it’s been wonderful to work with our younger kids on some of those days and our redshirts,” Conque said. “That’s sustaining a program, to develop your players, because they’re the future.”

After their first bye earlier this month, the Bears committed three turnovers in the first half against Eastern Illinois. But they rebounded and beat the Ohio Valley Conference champions 48-30 to finish the regular season.

“We didn’t play very physical and ball security was an issue,” Conque said.

“It hadn’t been an issue all year. It led to 21 points. We can’t do that against this team [Georgia Southern].” Option prep

UCA turned to freshman running back Cody Dauksch on Tuesday to prepare forGeorgia Southern’s triple option offense.

Dauksch is being used to replicate Eagles quarterback Jerick McKinnon, 5-9, on the scout team.

Dauksch, 6-1, 215 pounds, is bigger than McKinnon but was a quarterback at West Memphis under his father Lanny, who runs the Wing-T offense.

Senior wide receiver Jesse Grandy, a former quarterback at Pine Bluff Dollarway, also played quarterback during 7-on-7 drills.

Statue of Erk

Georgia Southern will unveil a statue of former football coach Erk Russell, who led the Eagles to three Football Championship Subdivision national championships (1985, 1986, 1989), before Saturday’s game.

Russell, who died in 2006 at 80, coached at Georgia Southern in 1982-1989 after serving 17 seasons (1964-1980) as defensive coordinator at Georgia.

The statue will be unveiled at 11:30 a.m. Central in front of the Bishop Field House, which is adjacent to Paulson Stadium.

Landing spot

Former Arkansas State assistant coaches Jack Curtis and Kevin Corless are on Coach Jeff Monken’s staff at Georgia Southern.

Curtis, who was ASU’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach in 2002-2008, has been the Eagles’ defensive coordinator since 2011.

Corless was hired as Georgia Southern’s linebackers coach this year.

He served as associate head coach, co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at ASU in 2002-2010.

Weather report

According to the National Weather Service, the expected high Saturday in Statesboro, Ga., is 73 degrees.

When UCA traveled to Missoula, Mont., to face Montana last December, the game time temperature was 24 degrees.

Overheard

The major-league baseball season has been over for a month, but that didn’t stop UCA linebacker Justin Heard from referencing the St.

Louis Cardinals’ 6-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves in the National League wildcard playoff game in which a disputed infield fly rule call on a fly ball cost the Braves a scoring chance.

“You all better be ready for Georgia,” Heard told several players during Tuesday’s practice. “They don’t like St. Louis people.”Up next CENTRAL ARKANSAS AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN WHAT Second round of FCS playoffs WHEN 1 p.m. Central Saturday WHERE Paulson Stadium, Statesboro, Ga.

RECORDS Central Arkansas 9-2, 6-1 Southland Conference; Georgia Southern 8-3, 6-2 Southern Conference 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; KCNYFM, 107.1, in Conway INTERNET ESPN3.com, ucasports.com

Sports, Pages 23 on 11/28/2012