Coming off of a bye week, the Lions football team will spend this week preparing to defend their undefeated conference record in Saturday’s homecoming game against the Central Arkansas Bears.
Homecoming is always a big game, but according to head coach Ron Roberts, it’s more important as a conference game than a homecoming game.
“Our job is to go out there and win a football game, and the part that has a lot more importance is really in the conference race for us as a football team,” said Roberts.
This is the first year since joining the Southland Conference that the Lions have gone 3-0 in the conference, and the team hopes to continue that conference record this weekend.
“If we go out there and do the things we’re capable of doing, and play as good as we’re capable of playing, then I think we’ll be sitting on a solid foundation to win the game,” said Roberts.
The Lions will spend the week leading up to Homecoming preparing for it like they would any other game.
“The motto we go by: ‘the most important game is the next game’ and it happens to be that the next game is Homecoming,” said senior linebacker Tay Alford.
“We’re just taking it day by day right now, working on fundamentals, tightening things up, making a couple things better, making improvements, just taking it day by day,” said offensive lineman Gasten Gabriel.
As always, Homecoming is a time when a lot of alumni and supporters come to cheer on the Lions.
“It’s a big opportunity for us to play in front of a lot of alumni, a lot of supporters, and it’s important that we represent our program as well as we can,” said Roberts.
Besides the big Homecoming game, the players also look forward to the activities that go on during homecoming week while still focusing on getting ready for the game.
“Homecoming is going to be exciting,” said Gabriel. “We got a lot of activities going on, a lot of spirit. We treat the week as to have fun, but also stay focused, and be focused on the task at hand. We have big business to handle this week, so we need to stay focused.”
Even though their mindset is to treat this game like any other, the excitement of a Homecoming game is there regardless, especially with the senior players.
“We know there’s an extra excitement, especially for me, since I’m a senior and this is my last Homecoming,” said Alford. “Everybody’s just really excited. You can tell just around the school, the football field, practice, everything.”
The Lions have not won a Homecoming game since the 2009 season when they beat Sam Houston State 36-21. A win Saturday would end a three year drought.
The Homecoming game against Central Arkansas Bears kicks off Saturday at 7 p.m. in Strawberry Stadium.