Two days after his Central Arkansas football team lost its Southland Conferenceopener 59-28 to McNeese State in Conway, Coach Clint Conque had to look at a picture of himself from 1982 when he was a senior linebacker at Nicholls State,complete with a full head of brown hair and a mustache.
“That’s twice I’ve been embarrassed now in the last 48 hours,” Conque said, drawing laughter from the Little Rock Touchdown Club luncheon crowd Monday afternoon at the Embassy Suites in Little Rock.
The 59 points scored by McNeese State ranks as the most allowed by UCA in a home game during Conque’s 14 seasons, and it was the most points the Bears have allowed in any game since giving up 53 at Arkansas State in 2011.
Conque’s Bears haven’t been embarrassed often since he left his offensive coordinator job at Louisiana Tech for Conway in 2000, especially in recent years.
UCA has won nine games each of the past two seasons, earning berths in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, where it lost second-round games at Montana and Georgia Southern, respectively.
This season, though, the defending Southland Conference champions have slipped to 2-3 overall, hampered by injuries and suspensions.
Cornerbacks Dominique Brown (knee), safety Karl Brady (knee) and linebacker Aum’Arie Wallace (ankle) are out for the season, linebacker Justin Heard is serving a suspension for a violation of team rules and offensive linemen Kyle Stouffer (knee) and Lance Kloker (hamstring) missed Saturday’s game against McNeese State, leaving the Bears with six linemen.Also, UCA will be without receiver Dezmin Lewis for a couple of weeks because of an ankle injury.
UCA was ranked as high as No. 5 earlier this season in the FCS coaches’ poll. But the Bears, whose two victories came against Incarnate Word (58-7 on Aug. 29) and at Missouri State (17-13 on Sept. 21) dropped to No. 20 in both the coaches’ and FCS Sports Network polls Monday, falling nine and six spots, respectively. Their 13-game home winning streak ended Saturday as they lost for the first time on Estes Stadium’s purple and gray artificial turf, which was installed in 2011. UCA was 12-0 entering Saturday on the turf.
The Bears practiced Sunday night and return to practice today to prepare for Division II member Nebraska-Kearney, which visits Estes Stadium on Saturday.
“We’re hurting,” Conque said. “It shows that they care. We’re all competitors. We were humbled by a good football team.
“You don’t need to help a good team. We did give a good bit of effort. It was a lack of execution. The tackling was not up to our standard.”
One topic of importance to Conque involves the evolution of high school football in Arkansas. Players are benefiting from better coaching and more extensive use of technology, Conque said, pointing to programs like Jonesboro in northeast Arkansas and Camden Fairview in southern Arkansas as examples.
Ultimately, Conque said he would like to see a high school football revival in central Arkansas , especially in the state’s largest city..
“What we need as a state is for Little Rock to come back in a big way,” Conque said. “When that happens, it’s going to help our football program and it’s going to give kids an opportunity across the state.
As it is, there are 25 Arkansas players on UCA’s roster, including tight end Chase Dixon (Fort Smith Southside) and strong safety Jestin Love (West Memphis).
UCA has averaged eight victories per season, and is 55-33 overall and 35-7 at home since beginning the transition from Division II to the FCS (formerly Division I-AA) in 2006.
And Conque said he is confident his team can turn things around and make their third consecutive FCS playoff appearance.
“The last several years, we’ve had a pretty good run,” Conque said. “This is an important week for us. We still have an opportunity to have a great football team this year. It’s not talentless. We just have to put it together in all three phases of the game.”
Up next Nebraska-Kearney at Central Arkansas WHEN 3 p.m. Saturday WHERE Estes Stadium, Conway RECORDS UCA 2-3; Nebraska-Kearney 1-4 RADIO KHLR-FM, 106.7, in Benton/Little Rock; KUCA-FM, 91.3, in Conway INTERNET ucasports.com
Sports, Pages 17 on 10/08/2013