Arkansas Tech University looked like an improved football team during a 32-10 season-opening win at Southwestern Oklahoma State University on Thursday, Sept. 4.
Head coach Roy Thompson hopes the Wonder Boys (1-0) are ready to take another leap forward when they make their home debut against Northwestern Oklahoma State University (0-1) on Thursday, Sept. 11.
“The biggest jump that most teams make is from week one to week two,” said Thompson. “This week, we’ve been talking about fundamentals and details. That jump from week one to week two is super important. Hopefully we’ll see that we took care of some little problems we had in game one so we can go out there and execute at a high level.”
Arkansas Tech and NWOSU will begin their 22nd all-time meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at Simmons Bank Field at Thone Stadium in Russellville. Party at the Plaza tailgating on Centennial Plaza will start at 4 p.m. Game tickets are available at www.arkansastechsports.com/tickets.
ATU forced four second-half turnovers and held SWOSU scoreless after halftime to pull away for a 22-point victory in the season opener.
How will the Wonder Boys respond to success?
“In the ‘Go to Work’ philosophy, every day you’re trying to be the best version of yourself,” said Thompson. “You’re not really worried about who your opponent is because you are your biggest opponent. You’re trying to be the best you can be every day. As a coaching staff, we’ve talked about pushing ourselves and making sure we avoid becoming complacent. It’s not really about Northwestern Oklahoma State. It’s about what we do and what we’ve done this week to prepare for this game.”
The NWOSU Rangers suffered a 49-7 loss to nationally second-ranked Harding University in week one. Northwestern Oklahoma State was held to 66 yards of total offense and three first downs.
“They do some zone read and zone read option,” said Thompson when asked about NWOSU. “It looks like they’ve taken some plays from the NFL they like to use in their run game, so we’ve been working on that and getting ready to defend those. They are multiple defensively. They’ll put five guys up front and play a lot of man coverage, so the box will be loaded to try to stop our run game. We’ve got to do a good job of getting on blocks, staying on blocks and moving people.”
Live coverage of the ATU-NWOSU game will be provided by KCJC 102.3 FM, the EAB Media Group app and www.arkansastechsports.com.
Talk to you on the radio.
Tech Tidbits is a column written by Sam Strasner, ATU director of university relations and radio play-by-play voice for ATU football and basketball.
