File photo by Rick Nation
Editor’s note: Tonight’s game will be streamed live at https://youtu.be/UEYu7ymTphs
So, you’ve got a team that’s been ranked number one in the state since they won the Class 7A State championship last year, has invoked the mercy rule on all six of its opponents, four of them by halftime, and is now ranked number 16 in the country by MaxPreps.
The team has outscored its opponents 275-55 overall and 237-20 in the first half.
And they’re playing at homecoming tonight against a Fort Smith Southside Mavericks team that is 1-5 on the season and 0-3 in 7A-Central Conference play.
And Hooten’s Arkansas Football has made the Bryant Hornets a 36-point favorite.
“I don’t even look at that stuff to be honest with you,” said Hornets head coach Buck James. “What I tell our kids every week is we’re trying to compete against ourselves first. We’ve got jobs that we’ve got to do and we’ve got to play at a high level and we’ve got to pay attention to detail and we’ve got to win our battles, play with discipline, play like we practice and we’ve got to be able to do things in a disciplined fashion to be able to compete with anybody we play
“Our opponent is our secondary priority,” he stated. “We prepare for what they do, and we show (the players) what they do but we don’t talk about who they are or their scores or their rankings or anything else. It’s us versus that guy that night on the field.
“We approach it like that every week,” he asserted. “We don’t talk about one game being bigger than the next. It’s about us competing against the team that we’re playing. It’s about that night. It’s cliché but we look to go 1-0.”
In other words, the Bryant Hornets, despite it all, are still working to get better.
And they’re not just preparing for the Mavericks, they’re preparing for every team they’ve got left on their schedule and in the playoffs.
“We’re focusing on the minors, as you would say, majoring on the minors,” is the way James put it. “We’re talking about steps, hand placement, head placement, where we run our rout, protecting our quarterback, playing the 50-50 balls on defense, tackling better, where we fit, how we fit with our players, how we get off blocks. Definitely, we worked on kickoff team and punt team. Those things matter to us. It’s an accumulation of a lot of little things that make the big things. We just major on what we’ve got to do to be better.”
So, you don’t care that the Mavericks had a chance to beat the highly regarded North Little Rock Charging Wildcats last Friday night?
“As a coaching staff, we do,” James allowed. “We try to tell our kids that we feel like we’re going to get everybody’s best shot. I think that’s what Southside did with North Little Rock. I mean, (North Little Rock is) sitting there up 21-14 and had a scoop-and-score for a touchdown and (Southside) was inside the 30 twice and didn’t score. You’re looking at a team that really played with one of the better teams in the state of Arkansas and they have a 1-5 record.
“This is a very well-coached team,” he continued. “They’re young. They’re inexperienced in some places. But, as far as execution, they do a heck of a job. They have great sequencing of plays and they do a good job of running great concepts and setting you up for plays and stuff. If you’re not well-schooled —
“If you look back on the last two or three years, this team has scored on us probably easier than anybody else has,” the coach recalled. “They’re very capable of playing with anybody on our schedule. It’s just that they’re young and they’ve made some mistakes. They’ve got some young players they’re having to play that aren’t ready yet. As the season goes on, they’ll get better. I think that’s what’s going on, they’re getting better.”
The Mavs finish the season with three very winnable games, which would give them a shot to return to the playoffs.
And they’ve always played both Bryant and North Little Rock tough. Last year, in the playoffs, the Charging Wildcats had to rally to pull out a 48-45 win. In the last two regular-season meetings, the Hornets have defeated them by 17 and 11.
But James emphasized that he and his staff and players tend to take the long view, the big picture.
“That’s what we do, really, throughout the summer,” he explained. “It’s just that Southside might run a 4-1. They might play cover-three, or they might play cover-four against this set or whatever. We work on that, but we don’t talk about their players or what they’re doing or how they’re doing it. We’re concentrating on what we do and what we’re going to see versus what we try to do. I think if you do it that way, you don’t get caught up in one game being too big or another game not being big enough.
“Hopefully, that continues to work for us,” he concluded. “I think that doing things right, playing hard, giving your best effort on every play then coming back and doing it again over and over, that’s what constitutes a good football team regardless of who’s on the other side.”
Southside’s offense is led by junior quarterback Parker Wehunt, who is 61 of 121 for nine touchdowns, 693 yards and four interceptions. Jay Washington is their leading rusher with 420 yards and four touchdowns on 104 carries. Jake Tyler is the team’s top receiver with 24 receptions for 273 yards and three touchdowns.
The Mavericks’ defense is anchored by a pair of returning starters on the line, tackle Shawn Rogers and end Jeremiah Van Hook. Linebackers Leighton Johnson and Landen Chaffey along with safety Dakota Wareham make a lot of tackles.
For Bryant, junior quarterback Austin Ledbetter has completed 85 of 132 passes for 1,652 yards and 16 touchdowns with just two interceptions. Ahmad Adams has rushed just 60 times for 531 yards, and 12 TDs. Hayden Schrader, Jake Meaders, Tre’vun Herron and Joseph Young each as double digits in receptions.
Defesnively, the Hornets’ linebackers lead the team in tackles, led by Cameron Scarlett (in on 35), Tristan Sehika, Catrell Wallace, Daylon Land and Hart Penfield. Senior Austin Bailey has been much more involved in making stops since moving from end to tackle.
