Older 'Riders getting a shot

Bill Keopple pulled his seniors aside nine days ago and gave them the freedom to decide how they would proceed toward Southern Arkansas' opener.

Keopple's meeting happened a day after Brandon Hobdy, who would have been a senior wide receiver for the Muleriders, was shot and killed at the Veteran of Foreign Wars building during a back-to-school party Aug. 25 in Magnolia. Keopple met with his seniors to see how much time they needed, and allowed them to talk among themselves to make the decision.

"Do you want a day, do you need two days, do you need three days?" Keopple said. "It didn't take them two minutes to come out of the door and say 'Coach we're practicing tomorrow.'"

As best as they can, Keopple and the Muleriders are moving on without a teammate and toward Saturday's 6 p.m. season-opener against Southeastern Oklahoma State at Wilkins Stadium, a game that will include some memorial of Hobdy, who caught nine passes for 108 yards last year.

The Muleriders are trying to bounce back from a disappointing 6-4 season. Though it's true that, after an 8-3 finish in 2012, SAU is coming off consecutive winning seasons for the first time in a decade, but the Muleriders were picked to finish second in the Great American Conference last season powered by senior quarterback Tyler Sykora and senior running back Mark Johnson.

But the Muleriders lost an opening night shootout to Southwestern Oklahoma State and also lost to Arkansas Tech, Harding and Henderson State.

Keopple said there were some "very disappointing losses last year," but he did learn a lesson from last year's finish.

"Sometimes, seniors aren't always the best," he said. "Sometimes they feel like they've got it all figured out and get to the point where they don't take to coaching. Seniors are scary things in some aspect."

Keopple is trotting out a group of fresh faces on offense for the Muleriders. Taking over for Sykora, who passed for 9,010 yards and 82 touchdowns in three seasons, is Si Blackshire. Saturday will be his first career start, but he's a senior in his third year in the program who transferred from Sam Houston State.

While backing up Sykora last year, Blackshire completed 11 of 18 passes for 165 yards with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. Keopple said he possesses similar skills as Sykora, if not the experience.

"He can throw the ball as well as anyone you'd want to see throwing it," Keopple said. "You never know as a coach how they're going to react. But, I think this young man has everything you'd want. I think there's going to be a lot of teams in our league going 'Man, this guy is pretty good.' "

At running back, SAU won't have the benefit of Johnson, who rushed for 990 yards and scored 11 touchdowns last year to cap a career in which he rushed for 3,842 yards and 42 touchdowns. Johnson carried 217 times last year, his third season in a row he had 200 or more carries.

Keopple doesn't expect to follow a similar strategy in terms of workload for his backs this year. He mentioned Deandre Jenkins, Deion Williams and Dwight Smith as backs who will share carries, and they all possess what previous Mulerider backs didn't: Speed.

"The fastest three running backs we've ever had here," Keopple said. "Speed has kind of been our Achilles' heel on offense from a running back position. We're excited about our new look."

The Muleriders are having to replace six starters, including three on the line, on a defense that finished in the middle of the pack of most statistical categories in the GAC last year.

But, as Keopple said, a little turnover isn't the worst thing.

"This team has a really nice mix of seniors and young players," he said. "Those are very positive things for us this year. A lot of older guys are finally getting their shot."

Sports on 09/02/2014