Countdown to Kickoff – Week 7

UCA hopes to rebound from poor finish

Coming off a 10-2 year in 2008, the 2009 season had all the makings of a special one for the Central Arkansas football team.

Following a 42-13 victory against Nicholls State, the Bears were 5-2 with a 2-1 record in Southland Conference play.

Then the second half of the season came around and the Bears’ luck went in reverse.

The victory against the Colonels would be the team’s last of the season, as they lost five-straight games to close the year – all by four points or less.

But with a spring to dissolve 2009’s bitter end, Central Arkansas head coach Clint Conque believes his team will get back to winning ways in 2010 and again make a push for a Southland Conference title.

“I’m very pleased with their attitude and their work ethic this spring,” Conque told Central Arkansas’ website this spring. “But that alone is not going to win football games. We have to continue to get better every day, every practice.”

The health of the Bears may be what ultimately decides Central Arkansas’ 2010 season.

Several of the team’s contributors missed either some or all of spring practices with various ailments.

Among those on the injured list were offensive lineman Matt Dickerson, defensive lineman Marshall Loyd, tight end Rico Moss and receivers Willie Landers and Dominique Croom.

But while some view the injury concerns as a problem, Conque said it was a source of team unity all throughout the spring.

“This has actually been enormously valuable for our young players,” Conque said. “A lot of them have gotten a full spring of coaching and film evaluation that they might not have otherwise.”

Even when the starters do return to health, the Bears figure to be one of the more youthful teams in the Southland Conference this season.

Central Arkansas will be asked to replace their 2009 starting quarterback, Robbie Park and two top halfbacks from last year’s roster, Brent Grimes and Leonard Ceaser.

That trio raked in more than 4,000 yards of total offense and 36 combined touchdowns last season.

Replacing last year’s offensive stalwarts will be former Arkansas quarterback Nathan Dick and halfback Jackie Hinton.

Returning receiver TJ Adams is also expected to provide a lift to the team’s offense.

“Jackie Hinton and TJ Adams are electric players,” Conque said following the team’s spring game. “They give us big play ability that we missed last year. Those two are playmakers.”

Hinton and Adams proved that proclamation to be true even further in the spring game. Hinton rushed for a pair of touchdowns and Adams grabbed four catches for 87 yards.

On defense, some of the pieces to the puzzle will also need to be filled, as the Bears will be without linebackers Jacob Bane and James Lancaster, who each recorded more than 70 tackles last season.

Defense was the strength of the Bears’ attack all throughout 2009, as the team held opponents to 20 points or fewer in seven of 12 games.

Where rushing defense was the strength of the unit a year ago, Conque said a now experienced defensive backfield is what he plans to ride into the new season.

“I like the overall athleticism of our secondary,” said Conque. “We just have to be more consistent with our young players, getting to the right spots and making plays.”

The Bears’ early-season schedule sets up favorable for another quick start in 2010.

With a youthful roster, Conque said he believes he’s already seen signs that will be coming based on the team’s spring performances.

“With a young team like we have, those things are important,” Conque said of the team’s successful spring. “And maybe we can have some carryover to the fall.”

Central Arkansas

2009 Record: 5-7

Starters Returning: 14

Key Returners: Quarterback Nathan Dick, defensive end Markell Carter, kicker Eddie Carmona

2009 STATS

Scoring Offense: 26.2 points per game

Scoring Defense: 17.1 points allowed per game

Total Offense: 391 yards per game

Total Defense: 298 yards allowed per game

New-look Browns hope to buck losing culture

To say the 2010 offseason was an eventful one for the Cleveland Browns might be a bit of an understatement.

The team started the fireworks in December and hired former Super Bowl champion coach Mike Holmgren to serve as team president – a role he immediately dubbed the “Czar of football operations.”

Upon taking control of the team, the “czar” immediately showed his teeth, spending the better part of the winter months revamping a franchise that has lost 10 or more games in six of the past seven seasons.

“The challenge of rebuilding is kind of in my blood,” Holmgren told ESPN upon taking the job.

The first piece of the team Holmgren sunk his teeth into was the Browns’ anemic offense – a unit that scored just 245 points all of last year, good for the second worst mark in all of the AFC.

Out are former quarterbacks Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson, who shared time under center last year. In is veteran Jake Delhomme, who Cleveland coach Eric Mangini said would provide a stabilizing effect to the offense in 2010.

“What I like about him … is just the way that he runs the offense,” Mangini said. “There’s no doubt who is in control, there’s no doubt what we are doing. If we are wrong, we are all wrong together and that’s what you want. He’s really bright.”

But even with Delhomme, questions still remain. The longtime Carolina Panther was benched at the end of the 2009 season after throwing 18 interceptions in the first 11 games of the season.

So as a backup plan, the team also picked up veteran quarterback Seneca Wallace, who Mangini also said is prepared to play if anything happens to Delhomme. The team also drafted former Texas star Colt McCoy for the future, with both Delhomme and Wallace reaching the back halves of their careers.

Regardless of who’s under center, the Browns do return two of the most dynamic playmakers in all of football: halfback Jerome Harrison and receiver/returner Joshua Cribbs.

Harrison rushed for 561 yards and five touchdowns in the final three games last year.

Cribbs was just as explosive and took three kickoffs and one punt for a touchdown.

But punting is not something Cleveland forced their opponents to do too often a year ago, as the Browns allowed 30 or more points in seven of 16 games last season.

Brought in to stop the bleeding are veteran linebacker Scott Fujita and cornerback Sheldon Brown.

Fujita was a starter on the Saints’ 2009 Super Bowl team and Cleveland General Manager Tom Heckert said he hopes his winning ways rub off on Cleveland’s youthful roster.

“He is a great leader and played a big part in the success that the Saints achieved last year,” Heckert said.

The team also spent their top two picks in the 2010 NFL Draft on their secondary, drafting Florida cornerback Joe Haden with the No. 7 overall pick and Oregon safety T.J. Ward in the second round.

Mangini’s initial impression of his rookies? There’s still a little work to do.

“Those safeties and corners they have a lot to do,” he said. “Some days it was really good and other days it was not quite as good.”

The Browns will play the Buccaneers and Chiefs to open the 2010 season, two games they will likely be favored to win.

Getting a good start will be key, according to Mangini, who urges people to not write off the Browns just because of the new faces they currently employ.

“It happens a lot of times in the league where a guy is in one place for a long time and then changes scenery and may blossom a little bit or may get back to his old form,” the coach said. “There are a lot of guys like that in this league.”

Cleveland Browns

2009 Record: 5-11

Starters Returning: 17

Key Returners: Halfback Jerome Harrison, wide receiver Josh Cribbs, Mohamed Massaquoi, safety Abram Elam

2009 STATS

Scoring Offense: 15.3 ppg

Scoring Defense: 23.4 papg

Total Offense: 260.2 ypg

Total Defense: 389.3 yapg

McNeese looks to replace most of offensive production in 2010

After LSU heads to the Swamp and before they head to the Plains, the Tigers will take a break from league play to face in-state foe McNeese St.

With two victories by a combined score of 65-13 over FCS schools in the Les Miles era, the letdown many teams see in a “sandwich game” may not be much of a factor here.

But don’t tell that to McNeese head coach Matt Viator who feels the LSU game is sandwiched between two difficult games of their own.

“The week before we’ve got a big game against Stephen F. Austin and the week after we’ve got to go to Southeastern [Louisiana], who I think is going to be pretty good in our conference,” Viator said during the Cowboy Roundup Tour in Baton Rouge, reported by The Advocate.

And although the Cowboys would love to have a great showing in Tiger Stadium, Stephen F. Austin may be the game circled on their calendars.

The reason: revenge.

A three-point loss to Stephen F. Austin cost the 8-3 Cowboys an outright Southland Conference Championship last season.

Despite the early-season loss, the Cowboys rattled off six-straight conference victories to finish tied for first and qualify for the FCS playoffs, where they lost in the first round to New Hampshire.

But in an improving Southland Conference, the graduation of their starting quarterback Derrick Fourroux (25 TDs in 2009), starting running back Todd Pendland (19 TDs in 2009) and three of their top four pass catchers Immanuel Friddle, Chad Davis and Wes Mangan (7 TDs in 2009) could prove to be too much for the Cowboys to overcome.

Five quarterbacks entered spring football with an opportunity to compete for the starting job, and things got even more muddled when Jacob Bower transferred from Tulsa to McNeese in June.

Because Bower is transferring from an FBS to an FCS school, he is allowed to play immediately.

With no starting quarterback named at the conclusion of the spring season, the previously highly touted Bower doesn’t have the luxury of being able to focus on just beating out one guy.

“So far I think that all of them have distinguished themselves in some way,” Viator said to mcneesesports.com after a spring practice. “It’s a work in progress.”

In McNeese’s annual Blue/Gold game, redshirt freshman and Florida transfer Zack O’Quinn started for the Blue and went 7-for-14 for 130 yards, a touchdown and an interception while fellow redshirt freshman Cody Stroud started for the Gold and went 16-for-23 for163 yards and a touchdown.

Other quarterback competitors Blake Barousse and Trent Whitley saw limited playing time while Zack Fourroux, younger brother of former starter Derrick Fourroux, missed the spring game due to injury.

Although the Cowboys must replace Pendland’s more than 1,000 yards and almost 20 touchdowns at halfback, the Cowboys run-oriented attack allowed a pair of freshmen to get a piece of the pie and experience last year.

Donaldsonville native Champlain Babin had five touchdowns and 395 yards on 66 carries while Javaris Murray had two touchdowns and 251 yards on 42 carries last year.

On defense, the Cowboys will rely on the return of 10 starters, including junior defensive end Desmund Lighten, who made 77 tackles last year and earned an All-Southland Conference First Team award.

Additionally, the Cowboys entire starting defensive backfield is back for another crack at the conference championship.

This year’s defense, comprised mostly of underclassmen who started for the first time last year, will look to gel in 2010 and improve upon their 25.2 points allowed per game average.

However, they may not have the luxury of an offense that put up an average of 37 points per game like the Cowboys did last year.

McNeese State

2009 Record: 9-3 (6-1 Southland Conference)

Starters Returning: 14

Key Returners: Tight end Corday Clark, defensive end Desmund Lighten, safeties Malcolm Bronson and Darrell Jenkins

2009 STATS

Scoring Offense: 27 ppg

Scoring Defense: 25.2 papg

Total Offense: 443 ypg

Total Defense: 349.5 yapg