Even if the schools don't know each other, Lakeside football coach Jared McBride can do some reuniting when the Rams play Lincoln today in Fayetteville.
Former Arkansas teammates McBride and first-year Lincoln coach Scott Davenport will face each other in familiar confines, looking much differently these days, when the Rams and Wolves meet at 5:30 p.m. at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, launching Hootens.com Kickoff Week.
"Coach Davenport was my center at Arkansas, and he's a good friend of mine," McBride said. "This is his first head-coaching job, so I know they'll be excited. They'll be very well prepared, and they're from right down the road (in Washington County) so they'll have a good crowd following them."
McBride just missed the 2001 renovations that made stadium capacity soar to more than 70,000, but Davenport, a redshirt freshman during McBride's final Razorback season, got to play on both sides of the expansion.
Davenport, former defensive coordinator at Rogers Heritage and Heber Springs, is more than thrilled to make his head-coaching debut at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
"This is something I've looked forward to my whole life, and to get to do it at Razorback Stadium is like a dream come true," Davenport said.
This also marks the first time McBride is head coach of a team at his alma mater, assisting Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton during the Arkansas High School Coaches Association's final All-Star game in Fayetteville in 2012. McBride coordinated Patton's Fayetteville offense for three seasons, including the 2007 Class 7A championship, before taking the Lakeside post in 2010.
"It's going to be a lot of fun," McBride said. "I coached there in the All-Star game a couple of years ago, and it was a lot of fun to be in that stadium. I'm glad our kids get the chance to play in the biggest stadium in our state and where the Razorbacks play, so it'll be a lot of fun for everybody."
While McBride coached plenty of games in Washington County, assisting at Springdale prior to Fayetteville, he certainly never went up against Lincoln, a small school roughly five miles from the Oklahoma border on U.S. Highway 62. That intrigues the fifth-year Ram head coach.
Lakeside is much more knowledgable of a different brand of Wolves, rival Lake Hamilton.
"I think it's fun getting to play somebody new," McBride said. "There are no expectations about what we've done in the past or what they've done in the past. It's just good high-school football."
Lincoln is coming off its most successful football season, going 11-2 while reaching the Class 4A quarterfinals. Previously winless in the postseason, the Wolves knocked off two blue-blood teams, 27-14 against Nashville at home in the first round and 41-21 at Malvern.
But Lincoln graduated a massive senior class that won 23 games over the past three seasons, easily the school's most successful group. Included was senior running back Tyler Cummings, who rushed for more than 3,600 career yards and 45 touchdowns despite missing his junior season with a torn ACL in the first game.
Cummings was a finalist for the Farm Bureau Awards' 4A offensive player of the year, rushing for 415 yards and six scores in his final victory.
However, the Wolves are starting from scratch, further adding to the mystery of this season opener.
"We have to be constantly telling our kids that group is not here anymore. Last year is gone," Davenport said. "We can't get too caught up with the players from last year, or else we'll be in for some long nights."
Davenport also hopes his Wolves don't revert to their old form of 3-46-1 from 2006-10, losing 29 consecutive games at one point.
The Rams hope to bounce back from a disappointing 3-7 season that they missed the playoffs for the first time under McBride. Senior Clint Smedley, an all-state receiver last year, becomes the full-time quarterback. Smedley has been the Rams' "wildcat" quarterback and started one game at quarterback last year because of the starter's suspension.
Smedley gives ex-quarterback McBride his first mobile signal caller at Lakeside. Smedley gave a small glimpse of his skill with 51 yards on three carries in a 33-27 benefit win over Sheridan last week.
"We'll probably keep limiting his carries until we get into conference play," McBride said. "He's a guy we don't want to take too many hits if he doesn't have to. There'll be some situations where he has to run the football as smart as he can and then compete. But you can't hold him back forever. He's too good of an athlete to do that."
Today's opener also marks the third consecutive season the Rams have played early in the first week, facing Little Rock Christian in the First Security Kickoff Classic the last two seasons at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. The Warriors snapped Lakeside's season-opening win streak a year ago, rallying in the fourth quarter for a 39-35 victory.
"It's important to get started well any time," McBride said. "It's good to get started on the right foot. Nonconference for us is a progression into our tough conference schedule."
And McBride hopes it leads to more wins than last season.BILBAO, Spain -- They figured it would be simple, that they would just beat up on Turkey like they did Finland a night earlier.
Instead, the Americans were the ones on the ropes for nearly three quarters.
"I guess we felt like last night's game was pretty easy and tonight was going to be the same way, but Turkey came out and they gave us their punch from the beginning," forward James Harden said. "We took it and we were sluggish. That second half we played a lot better."
Kenneth Faried scored 22 points, Anthony Davis all of his 19 in the second half, and the U.S. rebounded from a rare deficit at halftime to beat Turkey 98-77 on Sunday in the Basketball World Cup.
A night after crushing Finland by 59 in its biggest rout ever while using NBA players in the former world championship, the Americans couldn't take control against Turkey until early in the fourth quarter after compiling a 17-1 run.
"I think we didn't come ready to play in the first half and we can't afford to do that if we want to win a gold medal," Davis said. "So we've got to come out ready to play no matter who we're playing against."
The Americans trailed 40-35 at halftime and Turkey led by six early in the third before the Americans could finally get the game into the quicker tempo they prefer and pull away to win the rematch of the 2010 gold-medal game in Istanbul.
But it was a much tougher one than expected after the Americans hammered Finland 114-55 while Turkey was being outplayed for most of its opener by New Zealand before pulling out the victory.
Harden added 14 points for the U.S. and Kyrie Irving added 13, playing extended minutes in the second half while struggling Derrick Rose sat.
It was tied at 59 with 3:10 left in the third before the Americans closed the period with a 7-1 burst to lead 66-60 after Faried's basket. The U.S. then ran off 10 in a row to open the fourth and open a 76-60 cushion.
The Americans haven't lost since the semifinals of the 2006 world championship and outside of their victories over Spain in the last two Olympic gold-medal games, haven't been in danger much since then.
But they needed a long time to start looking like the team that is so considered the tournament favorite by so many.
"Before the game we talked about we trying to keep the tempo low, in fact slow down the game and we did it very well first half. I think actually three quarters we did it very well," Turkey's Ender Arslan said. "But after, physically United States team is great, they played 40 minutes ... so we get a little bit tired after third quarter and they still played at the same level."
The U.S. beat Turkey 81-64 four years ago to win gold, and though the Turks have eight players remaining from that team, they no longer have their best player, Hedo Turkoglu, or fellow NBA veteran Ersan Ilyasova.
Cenk Akyol led Turkey with 12 points.
The Americans had to break from their pregame warmups to retake the official team picture that every team took Saturday before their opening games, because they were still wearing sweats instead of their uniforms.
They soon had bigger problems than a fashion faux pas.
It was 16-all after one, and Turkey controlled the tempo in the second quarter, getting to the foul line as the Americans showed moments of frustration with the pace and some calls that went against them. Baris Hersek and Emir Preldzic made consecutive 3-pointers late in the half to give Turkey a 38-32 lead.
Unable to force the turnovers or missed shots to get their transition game going, the Americans looked ordinary in the halfcourt. Davis, who scored 17 points in the opener and had been the Americans' best player this summer, was scoreless with one rebound in the half, playing just 10 ½ minutes while picking up two fouls.
"I tried to come out in the second half and just be a different player, just be the player I'm used to being," he said.
Rose showed his timing still isn't back after a nearly two-year absence, missing both shots, turning it over twice and not getting an assist in the first half. He didn't get back into the game until the U.S. had opened the big fourth-quarter lead.
The Americans are off Monday before continuing pool play Tuesday against winless New Zealand.
Sports on 09/01/2014