UAPB’s Hampton hoping Lions can make Arkansas feel some pressure early

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – UAPB head football coach Alonzo Hampton knows the daunting challenge his rebuilding SWAC team faces Thursday night against SEC foe Arkansas, but he and his Lions are excited about doing so on the national stage.

The Razorbacks and Lions will open the season against other in a 6:30 p.m. game at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium.

The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU and is just the second match-up between the two with Arkansas winning 45-3 in 2021 at War Memorial.

“It’s football,” Hampton said on the SWAC Teleconference earlier this week. “It’s 11 men against 11 men and…you have got to look that man in the eyes for 60 minutes and whup him time and time again.

“As I told our players, we are going to take it one play at a time, we are going to play as hard as we can for as long as we can and don’t ever quit.”

Hampton, who was a defensive analyst for the Razorbacks in 2019, has a team that has just 63 scholarship players compared to Arkansas’ 85.

“Obviously for us just like kind of university coaches say when they playing a bigger opponent, obviously we are going to be men down,” Hampton said.

“…Again, we feel good about our football team as everybody does the first game of the year, right?…As I told our kids and told our coaches, this one game won’t define us.

“Obviously you don’t want to play an SEC opponent the first game of the year, but that’s the hand we have been dealt. Our kids are excited about the opportunity to go out there and showcase our brand.”

UAPB went 2-9 last season in its first year as head coach for Hampton, a Warren native who had previously been an assistant coach at Oregon, Florida State, South Florida and his alma mater Louisiana-Monroe.

The highlight of the year was a 22-point fourth quarter in which the Lions rallied to win at Texas Southern 35-34 in the season finale.

Hampton realizes the UAPB fan base is fired up to face Arkansas, who only recently decided to schedule in-state foes and is set to play Arkansas State in Little Rock on Sept. 6, 2025.

“Obviously for our fan base, it is important to them,” Hampton said. “I think some of them have expectations that we are going to go in and score 100 points and we are going to shut them down.

“Obviously, I want them to keep that confidence and I want expect great things from us, but we are just trying to go in there and shorten the game and make us some plays to put a little pressure on them.”

Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman also expressed excitement about getting the 2024 campaign going after struggling to a 4-8 season last year.

“Looking forward to playing Pine Bluff,” Pittman said. “Looking forward to playing an in-state opponent. We know that Coach Hampton has done a good job.

“As he goes into this year he’ll know more about his team and they’ll have a better team as I hope we do as well. But we have a lot of respect for Pine Bluff, or UAPB, and we’re looking forward to getting over there.”

UAPB offense is led by quarterback Mehki Hagens (6-3, 204), who had 700 yards total offense last season while playing through an injury-plagued campaign.

“We’ve got to stop the stretch play,” Pittman said, The quarterback is athletic, so he can throw and pass….I like their left tackle, Christian Love, he’s a good player. I like that.

“Schematically, they’re going to throw the bubble; they’re going to run their quarterback. I expect some RPO-type situations out of them.

“…Defensively, haven’t seen a lot of pressure out of them…Not a ton of blitzing, I expect to see more of that. We are taking what we saw from them last year and amping it up.”

Photo by John D. James