Winless Pine Bluff faces Prairie View in SWAC contest

Prairie View can still win the Southwestern Athletic Conference West but needs help.

An old adage among lawyers suggests they should pound the facts or pound the law – whichever works in their favor – and if neither is a strength, then pound the table. 

Football coaches can revise that formula slightly when presenting their case to the public. They can pound the record or pound the statistics; if neither looks good, then pound the process.

“We’ve got an opportunity to finish this thing strong,” Arkansas-Pine Bluff head coach Alonzo Hampton said Monday on a media call. “The guys are playing hard. We went into every game thinking we could win, and it won’t be any different this week or any other week.”

The Golden Lions, losers of five consecutive games, are 1-7 overall and 0-5 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. They yield league-worst averages of 34 points and 472 yards per game in SWAC play. No team scores fewer points (12.4 ppg), and only two teams gain fewer yards (283 ypg). Hampton is undeterred, encouraged by his team’s consistent effort.

“We’re going to stay the course,” he said. “We’re building it day by day.”

The next shot at winning is Saturday when the Golden Lions visit Prairie View A&M for a game at Panther Stadium. Pine Bluff will be a homecoming opponent for the third time in its last four games, something that Hampton didn’t realize until a reporter brought it to his attention during the call. “They’ll be fired up,” he said. “They just got beat by a really good Florida A&M team.”

Entering last week’s game at Tallahassee, Florida, Prairie View controlled its destiny in the SWAC West. The contest against East-leading FAMU was a potential preview of the SWAC Championship, a good measuring stick for the Panthers under second-year head coach Bubba McDowell. But instead of giving the Rattlers a good fight, Prairie View (3-5, 3-2) watched them celebrate clinching the East in a 45-7 rout.

“We did OK in the first half, enough to stop a powerhouse like them and give ourselves a chance,” McDowell said during the media call. FAMU outscored Prairie View, 24-0, after intermission. “We came out in the second half, and it went downhill from there. They went straight down the field, played big-boy ball on us, and wore us down with those big guys.” 

The Panthers can still win the West and set up a rematch against FAMU, but they need multiple losses from Southern, Alcorn State, and Grambling. None of it will matter if they let Pine Bluff spoil homecoming.

“Our guys know we’re a good football team and now it’s just really about us,” McDowell said. “As a coaching staff and as players, we’re standing together, understanding what’s still at stake. We’re not out of it. They just got to come back out and make the corrections and not make the same mistakes.”

He cited missed tackles as prime examples against FAMU, which gained more yards in the second half (230) than Prairie View gained all game (220). It didn’t help that Panthers quarterback Trazon Connley threw three interceptions and the offense was only 5 of 17 on third-down conversions. 

Likewise, Pine Bluff has been plagued by inopportune miscues and untimely errors, too, particularly giving up big plays. In last week’s game at Jackson State, a 40-14 blowout, the Golden Lions allowed 15 plays of 10 yards or more. They gave up five passing touchdowns, including a 70-yarder on a short completion for the first score. 

But wideout Daemon Dawkins said a strong finish isn’t out of the question. “I feel like we got the right mindset,” Dawkins told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “We just gotta execute better. We go into every game thinking we can win it. I just feel like going into these last three games, we definitely need to lock in and hone in on what Coach has been preaching.”

The sermon isn’t about to change.

“We’re just going to continue to work,” Hampton said. “If our guys put the time in, watch the extra film and just trust the guy to his right and to his left, then we’re going to get some victories down the road. When I say down the road, I’m talking about this year; I’m not talking about next year.”

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