CONWAY -- Sons of coaches tend to bring intangibles that are immeasurable by stopwatches or scales.
Consider Jakari Dillard, a senior wide receiver for the University of Central Arkansas and the son of Stacey Dillard, a former head football coach and current athletic director at Princeton High School in Princeton, Texas.
UCA Coach Nathan Brown said Jakari Dillard's pedigree is clear.
"He understands what you're trying to attack," Brown said. "He understands what a defense is doing. He's a very educated football player that you can talk to from a coach's level."
Jakari Dillard is in his final of three seasons at UCA, which is scheduled to host Murray State at Estes Stadium at 6 tonight. His college career started at Texas Tech, where he appeared in one game as a redshirt freshman in 2015.
Jakari Dillard has carried lessons delivered from the same source, which he learned at home as well as on practice fields and stadiums when he played for his father at Princeton.
"I know the game," Jakari Dillard said. "I know what coaches want. I can see what goes into the game for other people, too."
Stacey Dillard said his son has the advantage of having information around him since he was old enough to reason.
"He understands the expectations of a coach," said Dillard, who the New York Giants drafted from the Oklahoma Sooners in the sixth round of the 1992 NFL Draft. He played nose tackle with the Giants for four seasons. "When you're around it, and you hear it all the time, you know what's expected.
"He would hear me come home and talk about kids not hustling, not putting out the effort, not sacrificing things for the team. I think that becomes the way a coach's son plays. They know what their dads expect, and they've heard it all their lives."
Jakari Dillard, 6-2, 210, said he was unhappy at Texas Tech and saw little chance for playing time. Once he decided to transfer, word got out and UCA was interested. It was an interest generated three years earlier when Dillard still played under his father at Princeton.
Dillard said he was impressed by UCA from his high school days.
"Once I got cleared by Tech to talk, I came here on a visit, and I committed," Dillard said. "I just felt like they wanted me, and that UCA was the best spot for me."
Dillard said he was convinced he had made the right decision about two games into his first season.
"I knew this was where I wanted to be," he said. "I thought, 'I'm glad I picked this spot.' ''
Dillard has had to rely on patience at UCA as well. He played in all 13 games as a sophomore in 2016 but caught just 5 passes for 23 yards. Last season, Dillard again appeared in each of UCA's games, and though still a reserve, his production increased to 23 catches for 321 yards and 1 touchdown.
The payoff for Dillard has come this season. He responded in his first start with a career-high 6 receptions for 61 yards in UCA's 38-27 loss at Tulsa last Saturday.
No matter the numbers, Brown said Dillard's background is among his strongest assets.
"I'd take a team full of coaches' sons," Brown said. "They understand the game. They've been around it. They understand the time and effort it takes. They lived around the field house growing up. They were around practice all the time. Give me a team full of coaches' sons, or even kids who want to be a coach and understand the process, and I'm usually going to have a pretty good football team."
Sports on 09/08/2018