Salt Bowl XV: More of the same or something different?

File photo by Rick Nation

Seven more; one at a time.

To get an idea how the Benton Panthers dominated the rivalry with the Bryant Hornets pre-1999, consider:

They led the series, 22-3, after the 17-14 win in 1998. It was their 13^th consecutive win.

So, when you consider that Bryant has won 13 of the last 16 meetings including 13 of the 14 Salt Bowl games since its inception in 2000 — well, ask any Bryant alum from the 1970’s, ‘80’s or 90’s — there’s still work to be done.

Hornets’ teams need seven more wins without a loss to draw even on the overall results over the last 40 years.

Of course, most of that was way before the current Hornets and Panthers were even born much less playing football and probably has no more significance to them that just a peripheral consideration.

These Hornets plan on keeping their recent domination going. And the current Panthers are determined to start the pendulum swinging back Benton’s way.

The two teams renew their rivalry in the 15^th Salt Bowl at War Memorial Stadium tonight at 7:30 p.m., with all kinds of festivities in the two hours leading up the to kickoff.

The game has been moved back to the season-opener for both teams. The last two years it was played on week 4 because the Arkansas Activities Association had moved Bryant back in the South Conference (the long-time home of the Panthers), the league the Hornets had moved out of after the 2001 campaign. (Back then, the two teams met in the final game of the year.)

Being at the first, it really creates a triple regular season for the two programs. There’s the Salt Bowl, a season unto itself; there’s the other two non-conference games; then the conference season, which will begin Sept. 26, for Bryant against Russellville and for Benton against Little Rock Parkview (the team that replaced Bryant in the South for the latest two-year classification cycle).

For the most part, Bryant head coach Paul Calley and Benton head coach Scott Neathery prefer the game to open the season. As the fourth game, the Salt Bowl was always looming in the back of the minds of the players and fans as the team worked through the non-conference slate. It had its effect on focus.

While it’s an advantage in that respect, the disadvantage is, the coaching staffs have little to game-plan for without video of previous games during the season to scout from. It requires the ability for a staff to prepare the team for a variety of schemes and, after the game starts, to adjust accordingly.

“It’ll be key,” acknowledged Hornets defensive coordinator Steve Griffith regarding the adjustments. “One of the things we’ve done — we started about the Pine Bluff game last year — Coach (John) Wells started going to the (press) box (during the game). We’ve always had some of our junior high coaches there but it gives a guy that’s been in practice all week and has been studying the film. When he sees something, he can get it to us on the sideline and, hopefully, we can make those changes and adjustments quicker, in a more timely manner, and get any holes plugged before the damage is too great.”

It complicates things when one of the team has changed its offense a bit, like Bryant, or hired a new defensive coordinator, like Benton.

“We have several packages that we think will, hopefully, slow them down a little bit. As it goes a lot of times, especially this first game when they’ve had so much time to prepare — we have a plan but we’re ready to switch into another plan if we have to. We’re trying not to bog our kids down with too many new things. I think that will help us be a little more successful.

“We think we have a good idea,” said Hornets offensive coordinator Lance Parker about the Benton defense under new coordinator Brad Harris, who was the head coach at Lincoln last year. “They kind of run one of those defenses that’s built around creating confusion. So we kind of expect the unexpected, try to prepare for whatever they’re going to throw at us and make sure we’re pretty safe. We hope to keep them out of some of those crazy looks but there’s no guarantee so we’re trying to prepare for worst-case scenarios, stuff we haven’t seen.”

Neathery said, “It’s the first ballgame. Our (scrimmage) with Mills got out of hand quick so Bryant didn’t see our first group play just a whole lot. Since they didn’t see that, you know, Bryant didn’t send us their whole film so we got kind of a half-a-game with them as well.

So it’s going to be one of those deals where you’ve got to be ready for anything,” he agreed. “At the end of the day, you just play your game, do what you do. Don’t try to do anything great or special or anything different. There’s no reason to. You just do what you do and, at the end of the day, it’s the team that executes that wins.”

Regarding what they did get to see of Benton, Griffith said, “It’s hard really to get a gauge. Coach Neathery always does a good job. They always do a good job of spreading the field, doubles and trips. Not only do they throw the ball out of that, they do a good job of running the ball. You have to defend the entire field.

“They’ve had great success with that so we anticipate those will be some of the things that they’ll do,” he continued. “They’ve run a lot of option game in the past and I anticipate that, at some point, they’ll run some option again. They had some success against us last year. Hopefully, we’ve gotten better prepared than we were last year. We look forward to a hard-nosed, competitive ballgame.”

In assessing his expectations for Bryant, Neathery said, “We feel like they’re going to go with what, I think, they feel like their strength is offensively and that’s running the football. Not that they’re not going to throw the ball, they will. But I think they really want to pound the ball. They’ve got good running backs, got a good o-line. They’re very solid all the way around.

“Defensively, the secondary’s very fast, very good,” he related. “They’re d-line is fast. They’re good.”

Bryant will be after their ninth consecutive winning season — with no fewer that seven wins. The Hornets haven’t had a losing record since that 1998 campaign. (They were 5-5-1 in 2005 and 5-5 in 2000.)

Benton was 6-6 last season snapping a string of seven losing seasons in a row. They’ve climbed from one win in 2009 to three in 2010 and 2011 to four in 2012.