CONWAY -- Taylor Reed was expecting hanging heads and sour faces around the Central Arkansas football program over the past 13 days, but the Bears' senior quarterback insists there haven't been any.
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CENTRAL ARKANSAS AT NORTHWESTERN STATE
WHEN 6 p.m. Central Saturday
WHERE Turpin Stadium, Natchitoches, La.
RECORDS Central Arkansas 0-2, 0-0; Northwestern State 0-3, 0-1
SERIES UCA leads 5-3
RADIO KUCA-91.3, in Conway; KKPT-FM, 94.1, in Little Rock
INTERNET ESPN3.com
UCA is three weeks into a season that has already included a bye week but hasn't included a victory or a home game.
So the Bears (0-2) will use the start of its Southland Conference schedule as a chance for a restart after losses at Samford and nationally ranked Oklahoma State.
"You would think going 0-2 going into a bye week everybody would hold their heads down," Reed said. "It's not like that. Everyone knows that we have to improve. We know that we are 0-2, but we're starting conference and we really believe that we're 0-0 and trying to get our first win."
Earlier this week Coach Steve Campbell reiterated his primary message to players.
"Clean slate," said Campbell, whose team opens the Southland Conference season at 6 p.m. Saturday at Northwestern (La.) State.
That phrase could be used for the offense specifically.
The Bears returned five starters from a unit that ranked fourth in the FCS in scoring last season, but through two games they rank 107th in scoring (12.0 points per game), 90th in rushing (105.5) and 70th in total offense (341.0 yards per game).
UCA attempted 94 passes -- more than twice as many as Campbell would like -- in the 45-16 season-opening loss to Samford, a game in which one of UCA's top rushers left with a minor knee injury. Then the Bears were held to 220 total yards and a single touchdown in the 32-8 loss at Oklahoma State, which broke into the national polls this past week at No. 24.
UCA has spent the past two weeks trying to get an offense going that is missing one potential play-maker.
Wide receiver Courtney Whitehead caught 36 passes for 503 yards last year but will miss about six weeks after breaking a bone in his foot against Samford. Running back Dominique Thomas left that game, too, but was back last week after learning he had only strained his MCL.
"We've got to make more plays," Campbell said. "We've got to do a better job of blocking, and we've got to open up some holes."
The running game, which Campbell wants to be the backbone of the offense, has struggled to get going so far. The Bears gained 119 yards against Samford and 92 against Oklahoma State.
Thomas has been held to 118 yards in 2 games, but he's averaging 5.1 yards per carry and nobody seems to have lost confidence in the Bears' ability to run the ball.
"It's not like we haven't been doing stuff right," Thomas said. "It's just little stuff here and there that we have to get cleaned up, and I think we will get it cleaned up."
Thomas, like Reed, said the early bye week looked daunting at first glance but that it might end up working in the Bears' favor. UCA played 11 consecutive weeks last year before its open date before the final game of the season. This season, they'll play nine consecutive weeks and all of those games will be against Southland Conference opponents.
That made it easy for Campbell to re-establish his team's focus this week.
"It's a nine-week sprint to compete for a chance to go to the NCAA playoffs," Campbell said. "Nobody is excited about the 0-2 start, but our deal is get better every day, do the little things right and be unselfish."
Sports on 09/25/2015