After an 0-2 start to the season, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff football coach Alonzo Hampton said Monday the Golden Lions need to simplify their game plan.
“Some things that we did offensively, defensively, we felt that it would work,” Hampton said. “It didn’t work. So as coaches, man, you kinda do self-scout and figure out, ‘How can we make this thing better for our players moving forward?’ A lot of things we had in since day one, and those are the busts, it’s hard to explain those. As a head coach, that’s where you kind of have to be, ‘Hey man, are we doing too much?’ We need to do less. Sometimes, less is more.”
UAPB will try to correct the mistakes of the past two weeks when it hosts Lincoln (Calif.) for its home opener at Simmons Bank Field at 5 p.m. Saturday.
The Golden Lions have played two challenging road games thus far, losing 67-7 at then-No. 23 Texas Tech and 41-17 last week at Central Arkansas.
In those two games, UAPB’s offense had to punt after three plays on nine possessions. Defensively, UAPB has gotten stops on four possessions, all of them against UCA. Three of those were Bear turnovers with one fourth down stop.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Hampton said this isn’t the time of year to make significant changes to the playbook. Instead, he wants to simply cut out things the team has struggled to execute.
“We need to do the things that our players can do over and over without making mistakes,” Hampton said. “So, we’re starting to eliminate things that we’re having errors in that we haven’t corrected. We’re not going to add anything. I was listening to the Georgia Tech coach talk, he said ‘We only run four plays.’ So, why does everybody want to run a lot of plays or call a lot of defenses if your kids are messing it up?”
Against UCA, the Golden Lions allowed 614 yards of offense, including 318 rushing yards. Six UCA players had at least one run of 10 yards or more. Texas Tech averaged 10.1 yards per rush and finished with 294 yards.
Although those numbers came against a Power Four team and a UCA team known for its rushing prowess, struggling to stop the run was a big issue all last season and is something the Golden Lions must fix to be competitive come SWAC play.
Hampton said UAPB has done a lot of things right, but a mistake here or there leads to explosive runs.
“A lot of it is just, we had one guy not doing his job,” Hampton said. “He’s supposed to be a box player; he’s spilling it to nobody. Supposed to be a spill player, he’s boxing it. So, now you’re cutting guys out of the gaps, things like that. We gotta eliminate the explosive pass. (UCA) had like three or four of those. Those are just eye violations. You’re a cover three corner, just stay in your deep third.”
Lincoln (0-2) should provide UAPB with a good chance to reset two weeks ahead of the SWAC opener against Alcorn State in the Southern Heritage Classic.
The Oaklanders have lost 55-6 and 60-12 to Division II competition so far this season. They rushed for 66 yards total between those games.