UAPB moving on from last year

PINE BLUFF - Arkansas-Pine Bluff is four months removed from winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference title outright for the first time, and when the Golden Lions played their annual spring game Saturday, they were a day removed from seeing a UAPB player selected higher in the NFL Draft than ever before.

UAPB Coach Monte Coleman and his players are well aware of the momentum their program has gained in recent months - there just wasn’t much talk of it during the spring.

“What wedid last year was last year,” Coleman said. “We’ve got to move forward. Not forgetting what we did last year, but building off of what we did last year and putting ourselves in position to do it again this year.”

Coming off its best season in school history - its 10-2 finish was capped with an overtime victory over Jackson State to win the SWAC title - UAPB ended spring drills trying to find five new starters on defense and breaking in four new starters along the offensive line.

Backup quarterback Brandon Duncan led the Black team on three consecutive scoring drives Saturday and completed 10 of 15 passes for 135 yards with 1 touchdown to lead a 17-10 victory over the Gold team at Golden Lion Stadium.

Ben Anderson, a twoyear starter and last year’s All-SWAC first-team quarterback, completed 20 of 28 passes for 153 yards and 1 touchdown for the Gold and led only two scoring drives in a scrimmage controlled by the top two defensive units.

The defense did that thanks to a line consisting of four seasoned players.

Defensive ends Damien Lee and Demarcus Berry and tackles Sean Robison and Troy Goss combined for four of the nine sacks Saturday while taking advantage of a green offensive line.

Gone from that unit is left tackle Terron Armstead, a 3 ½ year starter who was chosen by New Orleans in the third round of the NFL Draft on Friday night, three-year starter Chris Wilson at center and two-year starters in left guard Ryan Savage and right tackle Lyron McClenney.

It’s the lone question mark for an offense that ranked third in the SWAC in total offense (401.5 yards per game), first in rushing (204.7) and returns Anderson, leading rusher Justin Billings and its top seven wide receivers.

“It’s just work,” said Anderson, who was sacked six times Saturday. “Got to work on the chemistry, the ins and outs. It’s a growing process with the O-line. They’ve got to have chemistry with each other. Some of them are playing new positions.”

The lone returning starter is left guard Kenny Eagle. Me’Kale Carter took Armstead’s spot at left tackle, Toddra Pamplin is the center while Trevon Regan played right guard and Keathric Brown played right tackle Saturday.

Coleman said the offensive line’s progress couldn’t be accurately judged this spring because UAPB had only six linemen on campus. All of them played for both teams and ran into inevitable fatigue Saturday, but Coleman acknowledged improvement is needed.

“We’ve got a ways to go,” Coleman said. “We lost some good ballplayers. Now we’ve got to find some guys to fill those shoes.”

Coleman also said he wasn’t pleased completely with his defense, even though it held both teams to 92 rushing yards combined.

The sixth-year coach said he felt a desired level of intensity was missing Saturday. He said it wasn’t a team coming off its best season getting complacent, but made for a bit of a disappointing end for a spring practice that he said never lacked for aggression.

“We’ve got to fly to the football. We’ve got to hit with a purpose and I didn’t see a whole lot of that today,” Coleman said. “We’ll work on it. We’ve got another great group of guys, got another great recruiting class. I suspect, with lots of work, we’ll be competitive.”

Sports, Pages 31 on 04/28/2013

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