Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

7/13/2010 at 11:59am

Image by UAPB Media

Dhabion Woodfin is being called on to replace RB Mickey Dean, who ran for 501 yards last season.

PINE BLUFF — A year ago, UA-Pine Bluff was anxiously awaiting the opening of the football season hoping some late success from the previous fall would carry over into a big 2009.

Just the opposite is true this year. UAPB is looking forward to the season, but hoping it starts much better than how 2009 ended.

In Coach Monte Coleman’s second year as head coach, after previously serving as Mo Forte’s defensive coordinator, his Golden Lions stubbed their toes late in the season after a 4-2 start that included a monumental 20-13 overtime win at Jackson State.

Starting with a home loss against Southern, UAPB dropped three of its last four games. Even Texas Southern got the better of the Golden Lions in Dallas’ Cotton Bowl Stadium at season’s end, 14-10. A 49-42 win over Grambling State in Little Rock in that four-game stretch could not mask the overall disappointment within the program in the last month.

A struggling offense for two seasons, a fall-off defensively, and no winning record in two seasons for a first-time head coach will lead to staff changes, and it did at UAPB.

Coleman parted with three assistants – offensive coordinator Jonathan Cannon, defensive line coach Gary Harper and linebackers coach Carl Kidd.

The new offensive coordinator is Jerry Mack, who moved over from Clint Conque’s UCA staff, where for two years he was wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator.

UAPB improved offensively in 2009 to average 22.6 points per game (while allowing 24.6 at the same time), but that wasn’t enough.

Coleman’s side of the ball — defense, where he excelled as an NAIA All-American at Central Arkansas and then over 15 years in the NFL with the Washington Redskins — has not been UAPB’s downfall, but with the exception of strong secondary play it wasn’t as good as it’s been. Coleman has brought aboard legendary Arkansas player and coach Dennis Winston back from Toledo to coach the defensive line and former NFL player Vernon Dean to direct the linebackers for defensive coordinator and secondary coach Alonzo Hampton.

Except for a breakthrough 2006 season, when UAPB shocked everyone and made the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game for the first time, the offense hasn’t been consistent enough to keep the Lions among the league contenders. But improvements were noted on both sides of the ball in the April spring drills, and Coleman saw hope with the new offense.

“Overall we’re pleased with what we saw out of our players over the course of the past few weeks,” Coleman said at the conclusion of the spring session. “Offensively we feel that we’re right on pace with where we need to be going into next season. Defensively we had guys out there flying around and making plays and that’s exactly what we wanted to see.”

Spring pluses included the place-kicking of Chris Ewald, who hit field goals of 27 and 43 yards in the Black-Gold Game. UAPB hit 12 of 18 field goals last season. And senior wideout Raymond Webber was on the receiving end of two long touchdowns passes from senior QB Josh Boudreaux, one covering 99 yards.

Running back Dhabion Woodfin also had a good spring. UAPB has been in good hands the past four years at running back, but looks now to Woodfin to replace Mickey Dean.

“We’re very excited about a lot of the things we saw out of our football team this spring,” Coleman said. “Moving forward we feel like we will have all the tools needed for success with the progress we made during these spring drills. We challenged our guys to continue to improve over the summer by getting bigger, faster and stronger in addition to staying sharp mentally.”

UAPB will have to be ready for the big time quickly. The basketball team became nationally renowned for taking a non-conference road beatdown for money before winning the SWAC postseason tournament and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. The football team will also play the payday game, traveling to UTEP on Sept. 4. UAPB and Grambling renew their yearly rivalry in Little Rock on Oct. 30.

Tagged: Monte Coleman, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Southwest Athletic Conference, Dhabion Woodfin, Josh Boudreaux, Raymond Webber, Chris Ewald, Alonzo Hampton, Vernon Dean, Dennis Winston, UCA, Clint Conque, Jerry Mack, UAPB Golden Lions, UAPB