STILLWATER – They are averaging 62-points scored per game, 531.5-yards of total offense per game and they are only allowing 343-yards of offense against them in two games. No, you know those aren’t the Oklahoma State Cowboys numbers. Those stats belong to the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions. Okay, the two wins 48-42 came against Division II Lane College and 76-3 over brand-new NAIA team North American University in Houston, Texas.
Many in the media are calling this a potential Savannah State type of blowout. The Cowboys defeated Savannah State 84-0 in the 2012 season opener. I don’t think that is what we’re looking at here. Yes, the Golden Lions were 2-9 in 2021, but they also went to Arkansas to play the Razorbacks and lost 45-3. Certainly not a nail biter, but I’ve seen bigger blowouts in conference play.
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UAPB quarterback Skyler Perry launches a pass at Arkamsas.
“We always tell the guys they have 85 scholarships, and we have 63, but they put their pants on just like we do, one leg at a time,” Arkansas-Pine Bluff head coach Doc Gamble said on today’s SWAC coaches Zoom. “As long as we don’t get caught up into the letters like Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and into the facilities, like all those schools have, then we’ve got a chance. We have to go play and I always refer back to our game (last season) with the Razorbacks. At times in that game last season at certain position we looked like the Power Five team. Those guys (his team) look forward to the game and we are looking forward to it as a staff. We’re going to go play.”
There is a danger on the Oklahoma State side of not taking the FCS opponent serious and then playing sloppy and right into the hands of the underdog. Gundy is determined not to let that happen and his trac record is he hasn’t. Oklahoma State is paying Arkansas-Pine Bluff $425,000 to come in and play. A relative bargain compared to the $1.5 million that Texas A&M paid Appalachian State to come in and embarrass them in Kyle Field last Saturday. Gundy said his team needs all the work they can get. Doesn’t matter whether it is practice, games, they have no time to waste.
“We’ve got a lot of sharpening to do, and we have a long way to go to be a sharp tool, as you know,” Gundy said of his team. “We need the practice. We still have youth. We are still inexperienced. We cut down on mistakes, but we still had more mistakes per week than we would have in a normally productive year. We’ve come up with a plan to cut down on those and we need good practices this week.”
Gundy isn’t going to act like the Golden Lions are the Detroit Lions or even the Penn State Nittany Lions. Gundy is honest with his team.
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Gundy hasn’t fudged or sugar coated UAPB. He doesn’t need to. They are vastly improved. Still not up to Power Five speed.
“I told them the truth; this is where we’re at and this is who we are. Then this is who they are,” he said in addressing the match-up or as others many want to emphasize the mismatch. “This is what we’ve accomplished, and this is what they’ve done this year. This is what we need to get done this week all while having a game plan for these guys just like we would anybody else.”
Oklahoma State is now ranked No. 7 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll and No. 8 in the Associated Press Poll, but Gundy said he puts no stock in those. He doesn’t believe a poll should come out until Oct. 1.
“We don’t know who anybody is yet,” he said. Numbers can be skewed both up and down, favorable and unfavorable. Arkansas-Pine Bluff looks pretty formidable based on the numbers. Others would say the most important numbers are five as in Power Five and the letter as in FBS of which Oklahoma State is one of while the Golden Lions are FCS. They there are the fans, 50,000 plus at Boone Pickens Stadium.
“They may have 50,000 fans but only 22 can play, so that is the only thing we’ll worry about is our 11 versus their 11 on each play,” Coach Gamble added. “Hopefully, we will get there early and look around and then we will focus on the game plan. We know they play fast, but we have to play at our max speed whatever that is.”
I bet we find out and as for anything else, we’ll wait and see Saturday night.
