UWF Football: Argos hit the road with familiar long-trip routine
The bus trip will take two days, more than 750 miles and pass through parts of six states.
Just another road game with the University of West Florida football team.
“Yeah, we’ve gotten pretty good at this,” said Argos coach Pete Shinnick with a wry smile.
As the program’s road success has shown, the Argos have been proficient with both logistics and performance.
After bursting into the top 10 of both NCAA Division II football polls this week, following their season-opening, blowout win last Saturday against Warner University, the Argos on Thursday hit the highway. They loaded gear, pillows and anything to distract from hours of sitting to begin a trip to Bolivar, Missouri for Saturday’s 6 p.m. game against Southwest Baptist University.
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It’s a return game from playing the Bearcats – a D-2 member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference – a year ago in Pensacola in the first-ever, on-campus game at UWF. The Argos won 63-14 in the opener for both teams.
Shinnick believes how his team handles a long trip and the opponent’s improvement presents a much different challenge.
“I think they are playing very well when comparing their first game a year ago to the first game this year,” said Shinnick, referring to Southwest Baptist’s 41-17 win against the University of Texas-Permian Basin last Saturday. “They have about 17 starters back. They have a lot of guys who have played a lot of football for them.
“I think they are sitting there feeling this is a great year for them and they have a ranked opponent coming into their house. I think we are going to get their best and we are going to be challenged. We are going to have to be at our best.”
The matchup itself reinforces the difficulty UWF has encountered in getting non-conference opponents. The Argos will play only 10 games this season. The eight-game Gulf South Conference schedule, which includes a home-and-away pair of games against Mississippi College, begins Sept. 24 against Delta State. The Argos will have an open week after Saturday’s game, providing two weeks to prepare.
And recover from a trip that will be about 12 hours long after Saturday’s game The Argos are breaking up the front part of the journey by staying Thursday night in Tupelo, Miss., then stopping to have a workout on Friday at Arkansas State University, before getting to the team hotel in Springfield, Missouri.
“We’re going to drive through so many places (and D-2 school locations) that don’t want to play us that it’s crazy,” he said.
But they are used to it. Trips of eight hours or longer have been commonplace in the Argos first five seasons.
“We have traveled a long way before for so many games,” Shinnick said. “And so, we break it up and try to give our guys as many breaks as we can, so we are not sitting on a bus for 11 hours straight.
“Coming back, we will travel all night. Because we have the bye week. And we will take some time to relax a little bit.
“We have a pretty good routine, what it looks like, how we do it and why we do it. All of those type of things. It is just getting the guys psyched up to do what we want to do and what all that means.”
The Argos had an overflow crowd at their game last Saturday, which began a new era of playing the entire home schedule at Pen-Air Field on campus. The venue has been transformed with seating on both sides, a video board brought in, food trucks, tailgate tents and other activities to give a campus stadium feel.
“Just a tremendous job by our administration to get us in this position,” Shinnick said. “That was wonderful. We actually had a student section. I’m pretty sure our students may not have known who Warner was, but I did hear them boo (visiting team). So, we haven’t had that. That was different and fun for our guys.”
For Saturday’s game, the Argos will have receiver David Durden back, who led the team in receptions a year ago. They will also have back tight end Maverick Wolfley, a redshirt senior. Both players missed the first game to fully heal from injuries, Shinnick said.
“David is 100 percent, so that is exciting,” he said. “Getting him back is and getting Mav back. We started a redshirt freshman Logan Heiter at tight end, who had never played in a game before.
“And I thought he played really well for his first time, but Mav gives us a guy who has a lot of experience.”
Both of those additions provide more arsenal for quarterback Byron Jarrett, who dazzled in his debut, after being a first team junior college All-American last year at Iowa Central Community College.
“I thought he was extremely accurate,” Shinnick said. “He was 12 for 20 and he probably had five or six drops, so those stats could have been even greater, but that is all part of the growth.”
Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com.
WANT TO FOLLOW?
WHO: UWF Argos vs. Southwest Baptist Bearcats
WHERE: Plaster Stadium (capacity 3,000), Bolivar, Missouri
WHEN: Saturday, 6 p.m.
RADIO: ESPN-Pensacola (99.1 FM, 1330 AM).
LIVE STREAM: GLVC Sports Network
ON WEB: www.goargos.com
NEXT GAME: Sept 24 vs. Delta State at Pen-Air Field.