Lineman hears from old friends HOUSTON — The smack talk has begun.
In a taped segment on KATV, Channel 7, several Arkansas-Pine Bluff players called out their former Little Rock Central teammate, Central Arkansas offensive lineman Brad Gordon.
UAPB running back Mickey Dean and defensive back Michael Witherspoon said they were looking forward to sticking it to their former teammate. UAPB defensive back Kevin Thornton, also a former teammate of Gordon’s at Central, said he was looking forward to picking off a pass from Central Arkansas quarterback Nathan Brown.
“Look, man, I’ll always be a Tiger,” Gordon said. “But, I’m a Bear at heart and we’ve got a game to play. Besides, once the game starts, they’ll find out who the big Tiger is.” Different set of rules On Tuesday, Southland Conference director of officiating Byron Boston went over several rules changes.
One stands out.
The so-called 40-25 rule basically states that once a play is completed and the official has signaled the play dead — whether it be a completed play inbounds or an incomplete pass — a 40-second clock starts.
“It’s designed to put consistency in the game for putting the ball in play,” said Boston, who also officiates NFL games. “The ball will be put in play. It makes putting the ball in play consistent throughout the entire game. If a runner is down in bounds, as soon as his knee touches, the game official will raise his hands and the play clock will run from 40 seconds. If a runner goes out of bounds, as soon as the official signals the stop of clock, the 40 seconds will start. The ball has to be snapped by the end of the 40 seconds. Otherwise it’s a delay of game.” Central Arkansas Coach Clint Conque said he was concerned about the new rules and had devoted time this spring to ensuring that his players understood. “It’s a big deal because you have to be aware of how long it’s taking to get back to the line of scrimmage,” Conque said.
New kid in town Lamar Coach Ray Woodard showed up for the Southland Conference Media Days despite missing one crucial thing — a football team. The Cardinals, who ceased playing football after the 1988 season, have resumed football but won’t begin playing until 2010. The program has yet to recruit a player. “We’re out there recruiting right now, but we’re also building a facility, putting the final touches on the architectural design and all that,” Woodard said. Woodard said he has a skeleton staff in place and the rest of his staff will begin work Sept. 1.
Consistency For the first time since 2001, the Southland Conference has every head football coach from the previous season returning.
That’s a big improvement, according to the longesttenured coach in the conference, Northwestern (La. ) State’s Scott Stocker.
“There’s a lot of good coaches in this league,” said Stocker, who’s been in Natchitoches, La., since 2002. “That’s what makes it so tough to win in this conference is everybody knows each other. Even if a coach is a new coach, you know him because he was probably an assistant somewhere in this conference.
“ It’s what makes this conference so good and so tough.”
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