Coaches, SIDs put Bears 2nd

Central Arkansas won a share of the Southland Conference championship and advanced to its second consecutive Football Championship Subdivision postseason last season, and none of that has been lost on the league’s coaches and sports information directors.

UCA was picked to finish second behind Sam Houston State in the coaches and SID polls, which were released Wednesday at Southland Conference media day in Lake Charles, La.

The Bears received one first-place vote and 42 points in the coaches’ poll while getting two first-place votes and 44 points in the SID poll. Sam Houston State earned six of the eight first-place votes in both polls, and Stephen F. Austin received one-first-place vote from the coaches.

“Preseason polls and preseason honors, they are obviously very encouraging to our team and our coaching staff, to give us motivation,” UCA Coach Clint Conque said in a release. “But at the end of the day, this league is so balanced from top to bottom, and the gap continues to close each and every year. … The team that’s going to win this conference is the team that can stay healthy and that can execute at a high level week in and week out.”

When it comes to the hierarchy of the Southland Conference, it’s been UCA and Sam Houston State leading the way since 2011. The Bears and Bearkats are the only teams to represent the league in the FCS playoffs the past two seasons. While the Bears (9-3 in 2012) have lost in the second round two years in a row - at Montana in 2011 and at Georgia Southern in 2012- the Bearkats have played in the FCS championship game the past two seasons, losing to North Dakota State in both games.

UCA - which beat Sam Houston State 24-20 Sept. 22, 2012, at Estes Stadium in Conway after trailing 20-10 with 5:24 remaining - hosts the Bearkats in the 2013 regular-season finale Nov. 23.

“By the time we get to Sam Houston, it will be the most hyped game of the Southland Conference,” senior quarterback Wynrick Smothers said. “We’ll be ready to play.”

The Bears, who finished No. 10 in the final FCS Sports Network poll, return 20 starters, including Smothers, junior receiver Dezmin Lewis and senior safety Jestin Love. Smothers threw for 3,103 yards and 31 touchdowns in his first season as the Bears’ starter. Lewis (56 catches, 616 yards, 6 touchdowns) is UCA’s leading returner at receiver after Dominique Croom and Jesse Grandy exhausted their eligibility. Love is a three-year starter at safety and has 12 career interceptions.

Expectations at UCA have increased steadily in the past two seasons. For Conque, it’s a matter of his players sustaining their success and possibly getting past the FCS second round for the first time in program history.

“We probably have a little bit of a bull’s-eye on our back,” Conque said. “We need to embrace that and have confidence in our abilities and what our potential is, and then work every day to reach that.”

UCA reports Aug. 2 and will hold its first practice Aug. 3. The Bears host Incarnate Word - a newcomer to Division I and a provisional member of the Southland Conference - on Aug. 29 before traveling to Colorado on Sept. 7.

UCA’s conference opener is Oct. 5 against McNeese State at home.

Sports, Pages 17 on 07/25/2013

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