By Rob Patrick
The seniors on this year’s Bryant Hornets football team have a chance on Friday night to experience something they haven’t before:
Beat the Russellville Cyclones.
Two years ago at Cyclones Stadium, the scene once again this week, Bryant held a 13-0 lead with the football with two minutes left in the game and wound up losing 14-13.
Last year, the Hornets came into the game undefeated and rolling. Russellville’s senior quarterback was injured and the Cyclones had a sophomore making his first start. In a quagmire, the Hornets moved the ball up and down the field but couldn’t get it in the end zone. The sophomore quarterback, Lane Reves, turned out to be more of a runner so the Cyclones went from being a passing team to a running team and stunned the Hornets 14-3.
No other team on the schedule held Bryant without a touchdown.[more]
Now, it would seem that Bryant’s chance to change that trend might be likely considering the Cyclones are 1-4 on the season to Bryant’s 4-1. Plus, Russellville is coming off a bitterly disappointing loss to Little Rock Central in overtime last week. It was Central’s first win in over two seasons.
But funny things happen when Bryant and Russellville meet on the football field.
“The trap is set for us,” declared Paul Calley. “They’ve beaten us two years in a row. They are coming off a loss to a team that had lost over 20 straight. They’re getting their quarterback back (Reves) who’s been suspended, from what I understand. They’re not a bad football team. They’ve just made mistakes in every game that have cost them. It’s going to be one of those typical Bryant-Russellville match-ups that’s going to go down to the wire.”
Asked why his teams have fared so well against Bryant in recent years, Cyclones coach Jeff Holt deadpanned, “I don’t know. It’s luck. That’s had a lot to do with it.”
“They’re a mirror-image of us offensively and defensively,” Calley explained. “We like to do the same things. They’re well coached, they play really hard and they don’t ever quit despite maybe being down two scores like they were two years ago. They keep fighting. It’s a credit to their coaching staff and their kids.”
Holt returned the compliment, saying of the Hornets, “They’re well coached. It’s always been a really tight ballgame and come down to a few plays. This year, they’ve probably got one of their better teams they’ve had in a long time. Offensively, they’re probably as good up front as they’ve been. They’ve got some explosive backs, got an explosive receiver so they’ll be difficult to handle.”
Of his own team, Holt said, “We’re very young. We’re trying to grow up really quick. We play hard. We’ve just got a lot of young kids having to play right now.
“We’ve gotten better,” he continued. “Last week was a tough one for us. We played well enough to win offensively and defensively. Our special teams kind of let us down. We’re usually pretty solid there. That was really the difference in the ballgame.”
On defense, the Cyclones have switched from a 3-4 alignment to a 4-3, Holt mentioned.
“You know, there’s some adjustment time for that,” he added. “We’ve had some growing pains with that and we’re trying to fight through those.”
He noted that his defense has been led by a trio of players.
“We’ve got a senior corner that’s playing pretty good, Marterius Gates. He saved the game last week, got us into overtime anyway. When Central was going in for the winning score, he created a turnover. He’s blocked some extra points and field goals for us. Ricky Collins and Levi Scott at linebacker are playing well.”
Offensively, the Cyclones are led by a veteran trio on the offensive line.
“Up front we’ve got some good seniors that are leading us,” Holt acknowledged. “Mitch Hall committed to Ole Miss. He’s our right tackle. Andrew Pollack is our center and Logan Purtle. Both tackles are three-year starters. They’ve played really well throughout the year. Our two backs are good, Antonius Davis and Kendall Bond. Those two guys pretty much lead us if we’re able to run the football. We usually have some success. Those guys will help us get to where we need to go on offense.”
It’s a spread offense mostly utilizing one-back sets, Holt said. “We like to spread the football around a little bit.”
The Cyclones have been using a rotation of two quarterbacks, junior Jordan Barrett and sophomore Mitch Mullen, during Reves’ suspension for an off-the-field incident.
“Really, who the quarterback is, shouldn’t be a big factor for us,” stated Hornets defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “We’re going to prepare as we do every week, making sure that we are sound in our alignment versus whatever formation they are in. Then we’re going to go through our read progression, which should put us in position to play whoever may be there. Now, with that said, the kid we anticipate playing quarterback (Reves) is a big strong kid, runs the ball very, very physical so we’re going to have to be ready to make tackles. We’ll find out Friday whether we can do that or not.
“They’re big offensive line is going to be one thing, just the fact that the two offensive tackles are huge,” he added. “One of them is about 6-5, 300 (Hall) and the other one’s about 6-2, 290 (Purtle). They make it difficult.
“One positive is that we worked all through the spring and all through summer against two pretty big offensive tackles ourselves with (Hornet seniors) Colby Maness (6-5, 285) and Austin Johnson (6-3, 290). So, we’ve had some work in practice with that. Hopefully, that’ll have some carryover and we’ll have a little better feel for how to handle those big guys and get ourselves in position to make plays.”
The Hornets won last week by outscoring the Van Buren Pointers, 49-26. After the game, Griffith was very disappointed with the defense’s play, particularly that it surrendered some big plays in the passing game.
“After we reviewed the film from Van Buren, we came back Monday with a couple of challenges for them,” Griffith said of his defenders. “No. 1, that we’ve got to do a better job of communicating, making sure we’re all on the same page, what the secondary coverage is and that the linebackers are doing their job.
“And then, focus and execution,” he continued. “The linebackers have got to roll, walling guys off and disrupting routes. We didn’t do a very good job of that. Then, we’ve got to be aware of reading our keys as routes develop.
“A couple of their big plays, the other night, were very simple,” the coach noted. “We didn’t take care of those things. So, we’ve got to have that and that’s where some of the focus comes in. We’ve got to have it every play. Every play. Some of the routes they ran were some of the same routes they ran earlier in the game and we were in great position then we just let our guard down for a play and they executed well and made a big play.
“So that’s been part of our focus this week, better communication, better focus and eliminating any of those bust plays where our mistakes allow them to have a big play. If they’re going to have a big play, we want them to earn the big play.”
The Bryant offense, meanwhile, produced over 500 yards of offense. Both running backs Karon Dismuke and Stephen Clark went over 100 yards rushing — Dismuke nearly reached 200 — with three touchdowns each.
“Offensively, I was proud of the way we ran the ball,” Calley acknowledged. “We played really hard, the backs ran hard and the receivers blocked well. I was especially pleased with our third-down conversions. We had four third-and-longs that we converted that I thought were keys to the victory. We had to have those and we got them. I was proud we made plays.”
The Hornets also performed well on special teams, which, considering Russellville’s recent struggles in that area, may again provide a telling advantage for Bryant.
But Calley remained wary.
“It’s going to be their homecoming,” he noted. “The trap is set and we’re walking into it. The good thing is, it’s not going to be an ambush. We know what it’s going to be like.”
Like Bryant, Russellville added a new artificial playing surface during the off-season.
