With a 6-5 record, most NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision teams are looking forward to the end of the season.
But in Conway, the Central Arkansas Bears maintain hope they can earn a spot in the playoffs. While the Bears are 6-5, they are 5-2 in the Southland Conference and play Sam Houston State (7-4, 6-1) on Saturday in Huntsville, Texas, with a chance to tie for the conference title and possibly earn a trip into the NCAA FCS playoffs.
"At UCA, we feel like we're very close," Central Arkansas Coach Steve Campbell said Monday when he spoke to the Little Rock Touchdown Club at the Embassy Suites in Little Rock. "This is our biggest game of the year since we started 1-3. We have a chance to go 6-2 in the conference, and we're excited about that."
Campbell replaced Clint Conque, who had coached the Bears to a 105-59 record over 14 seasons before taking the job at Stephen F. Austin, another Southland Conference school.
Under Campbell, the Bears started the season 1-3 , but have won 5 of 7 since, including a 44-41 overtime victory over Lamar before last week's open day.
"I'm very proud of this team for the fight they have shown," Campbell said Monday. "The big thing is at the end of the day, we have something to play for and hopefully, if we can win Saturday, we can still have our goal of playing for a national championship.
"The rewarding thing is getting to work with these kids and seeing how hard they've worked and the effort they've put in. Hopefully, we can take that next step."
While Campbell didn't talk much about individuals, he praised two players: wide receiver Dezmin Lewis and defensive end Jonathan Woodard. Lewis, a 6-4, 212-pound senior wide receiver, leads the Bears with 56 receptions for 840 yards and 8 touchdowns this season. Woodard, a 6-6, 271-pound defensive end, has 51 tackles, 18.5 for losses, and 10 sacks. Campbell said both players have the potential to play in the NFL.
Campbell devoted much of the discussion at the Touchdown Club to recruiting. He said at the top level programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, evaluation doesn't play that big of a role compared to recruiting. At the FCS level, Campbell said evaluation of an athlete is more important.
He told the story of recruiting Terrence Cody when he was at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Campbell said he needed a nose tackle who weighed more than 300 pounds. He got an email from a high school coach about Cody, saw video on him and faxed his high-school coach a scholarship. Cody went on to play at Alabama, helping the Crimson Tide win the 2009 national championship before being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens.
"You're looking at a player who didn't have any stars next to his name when he was being recruited and he earns All-American honors at Alabama," Campbell said. "When he arrived in junior college, he had one bag of clothes and four years later, he's wearing a bow tie at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York for the Lombardi Award banquet.
"Evaluation and being able to project is important when finding players at this level. You find same caliber players, but they don't have the stars next to their name in the recruiting process."
Sports on 11/18/2014