Southland Football News, Notes and Weekly Awards

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There is still plenty of football left to play in the Southland and we have several teams still in the mix for the conference title. Let’s see who made moves and take a look at this past week’s award winners.

Central Arkansas (5-4, 4-2) is one of the front runners in the conference and they stayed there with a huge come from behind win at home against Sam Houston St (5-4, 4-2). In the game, QB Breylin Smith would throw for a career-high 405 yards and win the Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career. His team was down 16-0 at the half and he led the Bears to 29 second-half points on the strength of his career-tying four touchdown passes. Smith stays in the Top 10 in passing yards and now has 2414 for the season.

The Defensive Player of the Week was Jr. LB, Ja’Quay Pough of Northwestern St. (1-7, 1-4). In the NSU 44-41 overtime victory, Pough was a monster. He had a career-high 21 tackles including 11 that were solo. He was key in stopping a goal-line stand that held UIW (5-3, 4-2) to a field goal that would make the difference in the game. The teams traded scores in a game marred by penalties.

The Special Teams Player of the Week came out of McNeese (5-4, 3-3) and he is Jr. K/P Bailey Raborn. His team’s easy 33-10 victory over Stephen F. Austin (1-7, 1-4) was keyed by him going 3-4 on extra points and his 45.8 average per punt. One of those punts went for 63 yards SFA never had great field position in the entire game.

Other News in the Southland

Sam Houston St is the top scoring defense in the league giving up just 17.6 points per game and the top rushing defense allowing just 69.8 yards per game. They are also the top defense in the league giving up 324.3 yards per game.

UCA’s WR, Lujuan Winningham is the only player in the league averaging over 100 receiving yards per game (101.8).

HBU’s Brennan Young is the only player in the league with over 100 tackles to this point. He has 102 so far on the year.

UCA is on a three-game winning streak and now holds the conference lead at 4-1. On the other side of the coin, Nicholls, who had the best record a few weeks ago, has lost two in a row to fall to 3-2 and third place.

Stay tuned for more from the Southland Football Conference next on NGSC Sports where we never stop.