Despite No Playoff Bids, the Gulf South Arkansas Teams Offered Surprises

OBU/Dr. Wesley Kluck Ouachita Baptist Receiver Julius Pruitt hauls in a pass during action this season.

One thing remained constant in the Gulf South Conference during the 2008 football season: The top three teams in the league were again the University of North Alabama, Valdosta State University from Georgia and Delta State University from Mississippi. For a second consecutive season, those were the teams selected to represent the conference in the NCAA Division II playoffs. And for a second consecutive season, no Arkansas teams earned a postseason bid.

When it came to the six Arkansas teams, however, there were some big surprises. The two schools picked during the preseason to finish worst among the Arkansas GSC members – Ouachita Baptist University and the University of Arkansas at Monticello – ended the season with the best records. Ouachita was 7-3, while UAM finished 7-4.

What follows is the ArkansasSports360.com list of the best, the worst, the most surprising and the most disappointing performances among the six Arkansas GSC schools in 2008:

Most Surprising Team Performances

1. University of Arkansas at Monticello – This was the year that Gwaine Mathews' UAM program came of age. The Boll Weevils, trailing the rest of the conference in facilities and talent, went 1-10 during each of Mathews' first two seasons at the helm in 2005-06. Mathews, in fact, looked downright silly to some conference observers as he constantly predicted that success was just around the corner. He says now he was simply trying to instill optimism in his players while trying to find talented recruits. UAM improved to 4-7 in 2007 under the direction of a soft-spoken freshman quarterback from south Louisiana named Scott Buisson. He was named the conference's freshman of the year after accounting for 2,926 yards of offense, the third best single-season total in UAM history. As a sophomore, Buisson continued to improve. He led the conference in rushing with an average of 119.9 yards per game while averaging 245.5 yards per game through the air. The Boll Weevils had four straight victories at one point – 44-24 over Ouachita, 50-17 over West Georgia, 27-14 over West Alabama and 46-43 over Harding University – and appeared headed to the playoffs. But UAM was crushed the next week at North Alabama, 45-14, and suffered a disappointing 23-16 loss to Southern Arkansas University to close the season. It was one of only two wins this season for SAU.

 2. Ouachita Baptist University – It's often said that the GSC is the Southeastern Conference of NCAA Division II. If that's the case, then Ouachita is Vanderbilt – a small, private school with a high cost of tuition and rigid academic standards. Yet Todd Knight's Tigers overcame the odds and surprised the experts in 2008 with a 7-3 record, the best season for a Ouachita team since 1985. The team looked promising at the start of the year with wins at home of 58-7 over Fort Lewis College out of Colorado and 41-17 over West Georgia. But the Tigers then lost three straight games – Valdosta State on the road, Delta State on the road and UAM at home – to fall to 2-3. Ouachita then went on a magical five-game run, scoring 30 or more points in each of its final five contests. Four of those five wins were decided by seven points or less. Ouachita hung on to defeat Harding in Searcy, 30-27, and then had a 30-14 homecoming win over Southern Arkansas. That was followed by victories of 47-45 over Southwest Baptist on the road, 45-43 over West Alabama at home in three overtimes and 43-37 over Henderson State University across the highway at Henderson's Carpenter-Haygood Stadium. It was the first winning season at Ouachita since 1989.

Game of the Year

Ouachita 43, Henderson 36, Nov. 6 – The Battle of the Ravine is always special. It's the oldest rivalry in NCAA Division II (the two Arkadelphia schools first played in 1895) and the only game in all of college football in which the visiting team walks to a road game. The police stop traffic on U.S. Highway 67 so the visiting team can trudge across the highway before and after the game. Add to this the fact that after 82 games through the years, the series is dead even at 38-38-6.

This year's game was special, however, even by Battle of the Ravine standards. Before a large Thursday night crowd at Henderson's Carpenter-Haygood Stadium and a regional television audience, Ouachita battled back from a 13-point deficit with 27 fourth-quarter points. The Tigers cut the Reddie lead to six at 29-23 when senior Lance Parker passed to Julius Pruitt for a 15-yard score with 12:10 left. Parker then hit Pruitt on a 64-yard touchdown pass with 9:23 remaining. The extra point attempt was no good, leaving the score tied at 29-29.

Bernard Palmer gave Henderson the lead back with a 36-yard run with 6:40 left. But Ouachita's Jeremy Young had a 55-yard kickoff return, and Parker passed 30 yards to Pruitt on the next play to tie the game, 36-36. After forcing a Henderson punt, Ouachita marched 67 yards in five plays to take its first lead of the half at 43-36 with 3:13 on the clock. Henderson drove to the Ouachita 4-yard line, but Jamerson Tolbert intercepted a pass in the end zone with 1:13 left. The Reddies got the ball back, but Denszell Brown came up with an interception in the end zone on the game's final play to preserve the victory and set off a wild celebration as the Ouachita student body stormed the field.