In last week’s season opener, Southern Arkansas recored its first shutout on defense in six years while the offense showed it will again be one of the top units in the GAC.
The Muleriders dominated the Wonder Boys during the 38-0 victory.
“We had a good fall camp and we felt pretty good. It was great to see us go out and perform the way we did against Tech,” said Muleriders’ head coach Bill Keopple. “I am very proud and very happy to be where we are, with is 1-0.”
Though SAU was led by returning leaders on both offense and defense, a pair of former Magnolia Panthers made their presence known in the game.
Senior academic All-American Kile Pletcher had four catches for 54 yards. Three of them came on a pair of third-quarter drives where the Muleriders kept the ball for a combined 13 minutes and 10 seconds.
On the other side of the ball, sophomore starting middle linebacker Kobe McDonald had five tackles, only one behind a pair of leaders who finished with six.
McDonald and the SAU defense held the Wonder Boys to only 98 yards rushing.
As much as he would like to savor the overall great effort, Keopple said the win over Tech is now a distant memory.
He gave the Muleriders the day off on Saturday and they are back at work preparing for No. 6 Harding, who rolled over Henderson State 41-17 in Arkadelphia last week.
“We want to take one game at a time and push towards a conference championship. This football team wants a championship bad and I want the postseason,” said the coach.
The coach said his team has to be focus and ready to face a Harding unit that went to the NCAA Division II semifinals a year ago.
SAU’s defense will get its biggest challenge of the season in stopping Harding’s option game.
“I knew we had some talent on the defensive side of the ball. I just needed a leader with a great scheme and plan,” Keopple said, referring to SAU’s new defensive coordinator Chad Davis. “I’m excited about our defensive staff and the players. They are going to gain more confidence as the season goes.”
In another matter, Keopple said it was great to see place-kicker Austin Wilkerson boot the first balls into the end zone.
Wilkerson was also 5-of-5 on PATs and had a 29-yard field.
“Our kicking game has some promise looking forward, and I thought Jordan White did a good job punting the ball,” added Keopple.
Also, quarterback Barrett Renner (25-of-36 for 299 yards and 3 TDs) finished a single yard shy of his 17th career 300-yard passing game. His three scores marked the 18th game in his career with three-plus passing strikes and currently has 98 scoring tosses in his career. He has now thrown for 10,204 yards and is just the fourth collegiate quarterback in the state to ever reach that and is 3,474 from Arkansas’ all-time record held by Henderson State’s Kevin Rodgers.