BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Football season this fall will feature a new lineup of SWAC games for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
In each of Alonzo Hampton’s first two years as head coach, UAPB played the same eight conference opponents. The schedule featured the rest of the West Division teams with Mississippi Valley State, Jackson State and Alabama A&M from the East.
The Golden Lions won’t see those last three teams this year. They will instead face the other half of the East Division. Florida A&M will travel to Pine Bluff, while UAPB will play Bethune-Cookman and Alabama State on the road.
Hampton said getting one of the SWAC’s powerhouses in Pine Bluff along with the opportunity to travel to Daytona Beach, Fla., and Montgomery, Ala., is exciting.
“You get a chance to play different teams and teams that you may not be as familiar with, but it’s an opportunity for our guys to be excited,” Hampton said. “After you play a team a couple of years, you kind of got a feel like who they are, right? But these teams, you don’t really know. So, our kids are excited about it. Our coaches are excited about it.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Bethune-Cookman joined the SWAC in the fall of 2021, but the Wildcats and Golden Lions have yet to play in football since. That changes when UAPB goes to Daytona Beach on Oct. 25.
The Wildcats have finished no better than fifth in the SWAC East since joining the league. Last year, they went 2-6 in SWAC games with victories against Grambling State and MVSU.
Like Hampton, Bethune coach Raymond Woodie Jr. is entering his third season in charge. They worked together as assistants under Willie Taggert at several schools before becoming head coaches.
Woodie’s squad is largely made up in the pre-transfer portal image. He has retained several of last year’s key players and attempts to develop players rather than bring in athletes from the portal.
“We recruit a lot of high school players,” Woodie said. “We don’t build this program off of transfer players. The reason why I say that is when I came in, I had to take that philosophy because of APR. It’s all about retention. So, I said, hey, the good thing about it is, let’s recruit high school players, mold them to where we want them to pretty much be in our program.”
The SWAC’s other Florida school has been much more of an instant success in the league. Florida A&M won the SWAC championship and the Celebration Bowl in 2023. The Rattlers are 2-0 against UAPB since joining the SWAC, winning in Pine Bluff in 2021 and Tallahassee, Fla., in 2022.
The Rattlers took a step back last year, finishing 7-5 in James Colzie III’s first season in charge. Colzie said they need their offensive and defensive lines to dominate this year, especially since they must replace SWAC Newcomer of the Year and first team All-SWAC quarterback Daniel Richardson.
“I think we got some guys that can come in there and do it,” Colzie said. “We may have to win a little bit differently this year as far as not maybe throwing the ball down the field as much. We’re going to have to be able to run the ball, stop the run. That’s what we’re going to have to be able to do if we want to be able to win the East and ultimately, hopefully, get a chance to host and win the SWAC Championship.”
Colzie said he hasn’t been to Pine Bluff before, but he anticipates it will be a challenge for the Rattlers on Nov. 8.
The final game of the season will pit Hampton, the longest-tenured coach in the West Division, against the SWAC’s longest-tenured coach overall.
Eddie Robinson Jr. has led Alabama State since the 2022 season. The Hornets finished tied for third in the East in Robinson’s first year and tied for second each year since.
ASU had the SWAC’s best defense last season but lost most of the leaders from that group, including former Golden Lion linebacker Rico Dozier. Robinson said despite the turnover, the standard remains the same for his defense.
“We’ll run to the football hard,” Robinson said. “We’ll be tough, physical. We’ll be violent, those type of things. Yeah, a lot of the guys that were there last year aren’t there, but we got a lot of young guys who are expecting to step up and make plays. Probably, we’ll play more people, and so, I think we can be the same level we were last year.”
The trip to Montgomery is a familiar one for UAPB, though it will be the first for Hampton and his coaching staff. The Hornets have hosted each of their past three games against the Golden Lions, with the most recent matchup also being a season finale in 2022.
ASU hasn’t been to Pine Bluff since 2015, though the Hornets were scheduled to make the trip in the Spring 2021 season for a game that was ultimately canceled.