October 25th, 2024 8:05am
It’s week eight in the Great American Conference and, thanks to Ouachita’s upset of Harding last week, there’s a lot of intrigue and uncertainty about the GAC title. Sure, the Tigers have the upper hand in the driver’s seat, but still plenty of football to play with challengers lurking nearby.
It should be a fun final four weeks of the year. Let’s take a look at the players of the week from week seven.
Offensive Player of the Week- Judd Barton, QB, Southern Arkansas, Jr., Alexandria, Louisiana
Barton led the Muleriders to a 42-19 victory against Henderson State in a meeting of two ranked teams. He completed 17-of-22 passes for 163 yards. He added 121 rushing yards on 11 attempts and he scored three touchdowns. He scored on a 30-yard run in the second quarter, a 59-yard run in the third quarter and a two-yard run later in the third quarter.
Defensive Player of the Week- Robert Iverson Jr., LB, Arkansas-Monticello, Jr., New Manchester, Georgia
Iverson, Jr. tailed 13 tackles - 10 solo - in the Weevils’ 24-13 home win against Arkansas Tech. He registered 3.0 tackles-for-loss, including a seven-yard sack. UAM defeated Tech for the sixth time in the last seven seasons as the Weevils recorded seven tackles for loss and three sacks.
Special Teams Player of the Week- Brandon Perez, K, East Central, So., Crandall, Texas
Perez made all four of his kicks in East Central’s 20-14 victory against Northwestern Oklahoma State. In the first quarter, he converted a 26-yard try. In the fourth quarter, he made a career-long 51-yard attempt as the Tigers extended their advantage to 20-7. He improved to 4-for-4 on field-goal attempts.
Game of the Week: No. 25 Southern Arkansas (6-1) at No. 8 Harding (6-1)
The Muleriders come into this one riding high off a big win over Henderson State last week and got a bonus confidence boost seeing Harding fall last week. You know the SAU defensive staff has been poring over the Ouachita-Harding tape to analyze what the Tigers did to shut the Bisons down. Here’s the deal. SAU has very good personnel on defense, so they have the ability to limit the Harding offense as well. Again, the question is to what degree? The Bisons will be out to make a statement after going 1-of-12 on third down last week in Arkadelphia. We’ll see what the bounce back factor is like for Harding, but I’d imagine it will be pretty good, given the number of veterans on this team. However, there’s also the fact the Bisons went through the Muleriders last year like a hot knife through butter. SAU will be looking to prove themselves more than that performance.
The Harding defense was certainly tested more last week than in the previous six weeks, but it still held the Tigers to less than 200 total yards and 17 points. Still a completely fine performance. SAU offensively is better than the Tigers, so we’ll see how much success they’ll be able to have against Harding. Establishing the run will obviously be key, but like last week, the performance of Judd Barton will go a long way in determining this one. He was splendid against Henderson State last week, and it resulted in a big win. I don’t know if good will be enough to topple the Bisons, but SAU for sure can’t do it if Barton doesn’t play another excellent game.
I think this will be less of a slobber-knocker game than last week’s game between the Bisons and Tigers. We’ll probably see a lot more scoring than the 30 combined points. Remember, the loser of this one is most likely out of the playoff picture. I think we’ll see the Bisons bounce back at home.
Harding 37, Southern Arkansas 24
Southeastern OSU (4-3) at Southwestern OSU (2-5)
The Savage Storm, after starting the year 0-2, have quietly won four of five to get to 4-3. The defense has been solid all year, but it was the offense that exploded all over Southern Nazarene last week, putting up 40 points and over 500 yards on the Crimson Storm. I’d expect the offense to have another strong showing against the Bulldogs, who are coming off a disappointing loss to Oklahoma Baptist. The loss itself wasn’t shocking, but giving up a lot of big plays was. We’ll see if the Bulldogs can button things up a little this week.
Offensively, SWOSU has gone as Kai Kunz has gone at quarterback. He’s had a few turnover issues in the last two weeks, and that’s resulted in a pair of losses at Arkansas Tech and in Shawnee. The run game has been pretty good for the Bulldogs, but SEOSU has been stout against the run, ranking third in the league with just 114 yards per game allowed. While the Bulldogs have rushed for 156 yards per game this year, they’re only averaging 3.8 yards per carry.
Southeastern has just kind of hung around the middle of the pack all year, and now, have a chance to finish the year strong and have a strong showing in the GAC standings. They’ll run the win streak to three in a row on Saturday.
Southeastern OSU 34, Southwestern OSU 17
No. 7 Ouachita Baptist (7-0) at Arkansas Tech (4-3)
Obviously, the vibes are high in Arkadelphia this week, but coming down from the mountain top is always where we find out about a team. The Tigers have a tough test at Arkansas Tech, which is coming off a disappointing loss and looking to rebound with an upset at home. The Tigers defense has been great and I’d expect them to limit the Tech offense pretty substantially. The Wonder Boys have been pretty good on offense this year, but up and down in the run game. The passing attack ranks third in the league. So the Ouachita defense will have to play well, but they’ve shown throughout the year they are more than capable.
The Tigers’ offense did just enough to get the win last week against Harding, but even against Tech, they probably won’t just be rolling all over the Wonder Boys. Tech ranks third in the conference in total defense and has one of the best defensive players in the league in linebacker Jyrin Steward, who leads the league with 14.5 tackles for loss. The Ouachita run game has to account for him on every snap, or he will personally wreck the game plan. Eli Livingston’s ability to run will be very important in this one as they try to stretch Tech from side to side.
I think it would be unreasonable to expect a bunch of 18- to 23-year olds to come out and be perfectly locked in and unaffected by last week’s win. I bet this one will be tight early, maybe even up for grabs in the second half. But I do think the Tigers will take care of business eventually.
Ouachita Baptist 38, Arkansas Tech 14
Arkansas-Monticello (3-4) at Henderson State (5-2)
Interesting situation in this one on Saturday. On one side is the Weevils, coming off a momentum-boosting win over Arkansas Tech that snapped a four-game losing streak. On the other side is a Henderson State team reduced to playing spoiler after getting thumped by Southern Arkansas. Not sure if the emotions of last week will bleed over to this week. On paper, Henderson State has the upper hand in every way. Their offense should be able to be effective against a UAM team that hasn’t been great on that side of the ball. However, the Weevils are third in pass defense, allowing less than 150 yards per game. But the lack of success in stopping the run should allow the Reddies to lean on that and then pick their spots through the air.
Containing UAM quarterback Demilon Brown will be priority No. 1 for the Reddies after Brown eclipsed the 200-yard mark on the ground last week against the Wonder Boys. HSU allowed Southern Arkansas to have a lot of success on the ground last week, so they’ll need to shore things up to keep that from happening again. I think the HSU pass rush should be able to get after Brown a bit and maybe force some errant throws for an experienced group in the secondary.
Emotions will play a big factor in this one. If all things were neutral, I think the Reddies could win in a rout. With the loss of playoffs sinking in, I’m curious about the Henderson State mindset. I think they’ll win, but it could be interesting.
Henderson State 35, Arkansas-Monticello 21
Oklahoma Baptist (2-5) at Northwestern OSU (1-6)
The Bison looked pretty good against Southwestern last week, while Northwestern looked about the same. Don’t think there’s a whole lot here. The Bison have a chance to string a couple of wins together and gain some confidence. Quarterback Kenny Rosenthal had the best game of his career last week, tossing four touchdown passes. It appears losing the starting job earlier in the season has been a good thing for the Bison signal-caller. Now, he’ll have to deal with the Rangers’ defensive line, which is talented enough to cause some problems.
The Rangers weren’t able to move the ball enough on East Central to win last week, but they might find a bit more success against Oklahoma Baptist. The Bison defense is not good, so there’s an opportunity there. But does Northwestern have the personnel to take advantage? I’m not sure.
Probably another low-scoring, even, but not quality football game in Alva. Bison get it done on the road.
Oklahoma Baptist 27, Northwestern OSU 17
East Central (2-5) at Southern Nazarene (0-7)
The Tigers’ two wins have come when they were a combined 50 percent on third down. The five losses produced a 31 percent conversion rate. It might be as simple for the SNU defense to get the Tigers off the field to have a chance in this one. However, even the positive signs for the Crimson Storm defense have been tarnished the past few weeks, especially the rushing defense. We’ll see if the Storm can get things right.
However, it might not matter all that much because the SNU offense continues to sputter. And while East Central’s defense isn’t great, it’s decent enough to win. In their two wins, the Tigers have held the opponent under 100 yards rushing. We’ll see if SNU can get things going. The season is getting late and chances to erase that goose egg in the loss column are dwindling. There have been a lot of execution issues for SNU this year, so maybe this is the week some things click into place.
I’d expect this one to be close, but I don’t see a lot of points. I’m an optimist and a homer at times, so give me SNU to get their first win.
Southern Nazarene 24, East Central 21