FAYETTEVILLE -- Alcorn State's visit to Little Rock Saturday to play No. 20 Arkansas looks to fall in a good spot for the Braves considering it's between the Razorbacks' first two SEC games against No. 9 Texas A&M and No. 1 Alabama.
The possible edge for the Braves (1-2) is that the Razorbacks (3-1) still could be trying to get over their 45-24 loss to the Aggies or looking ahead to playing the Crimson Tide and dismiss an opponent that plays on the Football Championship Subdivision level, where programs can not exceed 63 scholarships as to 85 at the FBS level.
Alcorn State Coach Fred McNair doesn't necessarily buy into the theory the Razorbacks won't be focused on playing his team.
"Maybe it's a good time to play them before they play Alabama, but they're going to keep their tools sharp," McNair said. "They're going to come out and play.
"I don't think the coaches are going to let them just take the day off."
The Braves have won back-to-back Southwestern Athletic Conference Championships, going 10-3 in 2014 and 9-4 in 2015 under Coach Jay Hopson, who is now at Southern Mississippi.
McNair, the Braves' offensive coordinator the previous four seasons, was promoted to replace Hopson.
Alcorn State was picked to win the SWAC Eastern Division in a preseason poll, but the Braves have lost to Arkansas-Pine Bluff 45-43 in triple overtime and 43-18 at Grambling State after opening with a 21-18 victory over Alabama State.
Braves junior quarterback Lenorris Footman, a returning starter, didn't play against UAPB because of an ankle injury. He replaced redshirt freshman Noah Johnson -- the starting quarterback the last two games -- in the second quarter at Grambling State, but was "hopping around" on his ankle according to McNair.
Footman completed 11 of 20 passes for 137 yards with 1 interception against Grambling State. Johnson completed 8 of 17 passes for 65 yards and 1 touchdown.
McNair put Footman in the game after Johnson lost 16 yards scrambling -- with the Braves having second and 10 at the Tigers 20 -- and fumbled with Grambling State recovering.
McNair said Johnson played well against UAPB, but struggled last week.
"That's just being a freshman and not spending much time in there," McNair said. "Hopefully, we'll get Lenorris healthy and he'll come back and make this run."
Johnson has completed 43 of 69 passes for 483 yards and 4 touchdowns without an interception and rushed 29 times for 128 yards and 4 touchdowns. Footman has completed 16 of 32 passes for 199 yards with 1 interception and rushed 9 times for 39 yards.
The Braves' top two rushers are juniors Arron Baker (25 carries for 176 yards) and De'Lance Turner (36 for 138). Senior Jaborian McKenzie has a team-leading 21 receptions for 226 yards.
Senior linebacker Darien Anderson has 30 tackles, including 6½ sacks for 42 yards in losses.
Kenyon Brantley, a senior from Crossett, is a starting defensive tackle.
"It'll be big for him to go back home," McNair said. "He's excited about playing Arkansas.
"He's a senior and he knows what to expect. He's been there before and played in some big games."
The Braves, who are reportedly receiving a $575,000 guarantee for the game, are hoping for a better outcome than their last game against a nationally-ranked FBS team, when they opened with a 69-6 loss at No. 18 Georgia Tech last season.
"The biggest thing is trying to go and play our brand of football," McNair said. "Play the whole game instead of one half.
"We're just still plugging away, man, trying to get these guys to jell together."
Four FCS teams have beaten opponents from Power 5 conferences this season with North Dakota State winning at Iowa 23-21, Richmond winning at Virginia 37-20, Northern Iowa winning at Iowa State 25-20 and Eastern Washington winning at Washington State 45-42.
Arkansas suffered one the most notable upsets at the hands of an FCS team when The Citadel beat the Razorbacks 10-3 to open the 1992 season, resulting in Jack Crowe being fired as head coach.
"Upsets happen all the time," McNair said. "That's the thing we've got to hone in on -- make our guys understand it can happen.
"We just have to believe in what we can do as a football team right now. If we do that, I think we'll be OK going into this game."
McNair was asked what needs to happen for the Braves to have a shot to beat Arkansas.
"We have to play our A-plus game on offense, special teams and defense, and things have to go our way," he said. "Then we have to hope they make mistakes on the other side and we can capitalize on those.
"That's the way it's going to have to be this weekend."
Sports on 09/28/2016