GAMEDAY INFORMATION
CONWAY, Ark. _ This time a year ago, the University of Central Arkansas Bears were preparing for three consecutive road games to open the 2015 football season.
Now they are gearing up to host three straight home games, beginning with a Southland Conference matchup with the Houston Baptist Huskies at 6 p.m. Thursday night on "The Stripes" of First Security Field at Estes Stadium.
"This is a game we are really looking forward to,' said UCA's third-year head coach Steve Campbell. "We get to open up at home, which is great. We're excited about opening up at home, and with a conference game. Then the following week, we're at home with Samford, then we're at home with another conference game (vs. Northwestern State).
"So we're excited about the way the season sets up for a young football team. I don't have a senior on the offensive line, we don't have a senior at quarterback. We're not a senior-laden football team, but we do have some experience at key positions, and that's exciting. It makes for a very exciting season and one that we're really looking forward to get kicked off.'
The Bears have dominated the first two meetings with the Huskies since HBU joined the SLC, winning 70-0 in 2014 in Conway and 43-7 last year in Houston. Campbell said don't let that fool you, though.
"Houston Baptist, they have everybody back, so they have to be a better football team,' he said. "They made a lot of improvement from two years ago, when they just started their program, to last year. Now they have everybody back, so you know they will be an even better football team this fall. They are building their program and making it better every day.'
That yearly progression and a little bit of an unknown factor have Campbell's attention heading into the opener.
"You never know what you're going to see in Game 1,' he said. "But they pretty much kept their coaching staff intact, so we know philisophically what they are going to want to do. But again, you never know from one year to the next schematically what you're going to see.'
Campbell's Bears, who tied for second in the conference last year with a 7-2 mark, are a bit of a mystery team, too.
"We have our knowns and we have our unknowns,' Campbell said. "Our knowns are at our skill positions. I really, really like our skill guys. They are a known commodity. You start with (senior receivers) Desmond Smith and Jatavious Wilson. You also have (junior receiver) Brandon Cox from right here in Conway. You have Jacquez McMillian, who played a lot of football last year, then had a great spring and a really good summer.
"Brady Moore, who redshirted last year is back and ready to play this year, and we're excited about him. Roman Gordon, he's kind of been waiting his turn and really had a good spring and has shown that he's ready to take that next step. And Jose Moore has played a lot over the past two years. So we are deep at the receiver position and that is very much a known commodity.
"At quarterback, Hayden Hildebrand is back. He wound up last year probably starting eight games. Hayden played a lot and played really, really well. He was very efficient with the football and had a good year. It's great to have your starting quarterback back.'
Campbell went on to list the offensive line, minus five graduated seniors, and running back as unknowns for the Bears on the offensive side. The "knowns" on defense are Terrence Partee, Dawson Hadnot, Jordan Toliver and Cardell Best up front, along with Tremon Smith, Tyler Williams, Devin Spurlock and Brandon Porter on the back end.
Defensively, UCA returns four of its top five tacklers from a year ago, including All-SLC cornerback Smith and leading tackler Spurlock.
Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. on American Sports Network. The game can be seen locally on Conway Corporation channels 148 and 176, along with KATV-DT3 (7.3), DirecTV 640 and Dish 432.
