Despite back-to-back heartbreaking losses, the Bisons football team has not lost faith in themselves or in their ability to win the Great American Conference (GAC) title.
“We’re just a few plays away from being 6-0 and probably ranked as one of the top teams in the country, but the reality is we’re not,” head coach Ronnie Huckeba said. “Both of these games (Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University) were extremely close and one or two plays were the difference. We needed to play a close to perfect football game, and we didn’t do it.”
For the second straight week, the Bisons fell flat in the fourth quarter after holding the lead in the final minutes. It was another bitter ending to a game they felt was within their grasp, but Huckeba said that he still believes in his squad and that there is no time for them to get down on themselves.
“We need to get better fundamentally in every phase of the game, but I have not lost faith in this team,” Huckeba said. “Regardless of the mistakes, they played their tails off and competed at a very high level. I’m very proud of them, I’m not discouraged in the least. I’m disappointed that we lost, but I’m not discouraged. We don’t have time to be discouraged when you look at the conference race, because we’re still in it.”
Although they have lost their last two games, the Bisons still sit in a four-way tie for second place in the conference at 4-2, one game behind Arkansas Tech University and Henderson State University who are tied for first place at 5-1 in the GAC. The Bisons’ goals are right in front of them, and sophomore running back Zach Shelley said that at this point, it is all about execution.
“We don’t have a choice but to put the loss behind us and keep pushing forward,” Shelley said. “In order for us to win out we have to pay more attention to detail, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The triple option is a very detail-oriented offense, so once we understand that we will be 10 times better. Our effort is fantastic, but we need to execute better.”
Junior defensive end Madison Firmin agreed with his teammate, and said that now it is important to not think negatively, but get to work instead.
“We just have to get back to the basics and do what we do best,” Firmin said. “It would be easy for us to listen to all the negative stuff, but we just have to try to go out and win these next five games, because that’s really all that matters. We don’t dwell on losses-we can’t. There are too many games in the season, and if we were to dwell on them we would just end up making more mistakes. We have to learn from it. It’s not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get back up that matters.”
The Bisons will look to get back on track this Saturday on the road against Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Kickoff is at 2 p.m. in Durant, Oklahoma.
