Don’t tell Monte Coleman that his team doesn’t have anything to play for. After Coleman’s Golden Lions started the season 0-5, the first-year UAPB coach said his team is still in the thick of the Southwest Athletic Conference hunt.

“Nobody has given up. It’s about the big picture right now,” Coleman said. “The big picture is all we have to do is win our (SWAC) Western Division games and we can make it to the show. The thing I’m trying to convey is…take it one game at a time.”

And that starts today when UAPB will host Jackson State. And while the Tigers are not in the same division as UAPB, Coleman still knows the importance of a victory for his team.

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“The thing I’m trying to convey to them now is to not worry about what other teams are doing or what the standing are,” Coleman said. “Don’t worry about any games past. Just worry about Jackson State. Let’s win this football game.”

To do so, UAPB will have to shut down Jackson State quarterback Trae Rutland. Through five games this season, Rutland has thrown for 748 yards and rushed for 237 more. While Rutland’s stats aren’t eye-popping, it’s enough to keep the Golden Lions’ defense worried, as UAPB has struggled with mobile quarterbacks this season.

Against Arkansas-Monticello on Aug. 30, UAPB allowed Boll Weevils’ quarterback Scott Buisson to rush for 95 yards and pass for 193 more.

Two weeks later, Central Arkansas quarterback Nathan Brown gained 60 yards on the ground on only 10 carries.

UAPB senior linebacker Tim Turner said the Golden Lions are a better defense at this point in the season than they were in the season’s early stages.

“We’re past that,” said Turner of the mental mistakes made by UAPB early in the season. “It was our fault early in the season. Guys are a lot more focused now. We are past all the mental mistakes, we just can’t give up the big play.”

Turner, and the rest of the Golden Lions, hope the offense can follow suit. While Coleman has said that the mistakes by the defense in the early games of the season were subtle, mistakes by the offense have been a glaring problem this season. Most notable are the turnovers. Through the first five games of the season, UAPB has committed 21 fumbles and thrown seven interceptions.

As a result, the Golden Lions’ offense has struggled to score points this season. They enter their contest with Jackson State last in the SWAC averaging only 8.8 points per game. The Golden Lions 8th out of 10 teams, averaging 252.4 yards per contest.

Coleman credits the offensive struggles to an abundance of youth at key positions.

“We’re young at skill positions. Pretty much all the receivers with the exception to Bruce Peters are walk-ons,” Coleman said. “So, we’re still a relatively young football team. The thing I’m saying is ‘hey, let’s go out and fight.’ All I want them to do is fight. And that’s what they’re showing, especially in practice. They’re starting to bye in. If we fight, we’ll see the Mickey Deans and Martell Malletts (both running backs) get the yards like we expected them to do before the season. After that, the sky is the limit.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. today at Golden Lion stadium. A performance by both marching bands will immediately follow the game.

Goals Still in Sight for UAPB Golden Lions
By Josh Tinker,The Pine Bluff Commercial
Photo Credit: Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald
http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2008/10/11/sports/sports1.txt