Saturday afternoon, Siloam Springs head football coach Bryan Ross and I had our annual lunch meeting to discuss the upcoming football season for the Panthers.
Toward the end of the meeting, we were going through the 2014 schedule and I kept hearing either myself or Ross say great things about each of the Panthers' opponents.
I think the Panthers coach summed it up best when he said, "There's no easy game on this schedule."
He's right.
Take a look at the Panthers schedule and you'll see that Siloam Springs will be in for a fight each and every Friday night this season.
It'll start in Week 1 with a trip to Rogers, the first of five Class 7A schools on the schedule. The regular season will end in early November with a trip to Russellville, a team that has had its way with the Panthers the last two seasons.
In between those two games there are home games against Harrison, Conway, Van Buren, Greenwood and Bryant, and road games at Claremore (Okla.), Alma and a special Thursday night game against Little Rock Catholic at War Memorial Stadium.
Folks, that's a gauntlet, and the Panthers have to go through it.
Let's examine it a little more closely.
Rogers is picked by the conference coaches as the sixth best team in the 7A-West Conference coming off a 7-4 season. The Mounties run the dreaded triple option offense that can be hard to stop. The good news? The Panthers have all of fall camp to get ready for the triple option. The bad news? It still isn't easy.
You go from the ground attack of Rogers in Week 1 on Sept. 5 to the air attack of Harrison in Week 2 on Sept. 12. The Goblins are picked third in the 5A-West and showed this summer they can air it out with the best of them after having success in 7-on-7 competition.
The game at Claremore, Okla., on Sept. 19 is sort of an unknown at this point. The Zebras went 7-4 a year ago and this year's game will be in Claremore. No road game is easy.
The Panthers' home 7A/6A-Central game against Conway on Sept. 26 will feature the return of former Siloam Springs coach Clint Ashcraft and one of the better teams in Class 7A. The Wampus Cats are picked to win the conference and for good reason. They will be very good.
The Panthers travel to Alma on Oct. 3, and those familiar with Siloam Springs history know that success has not been on the Panthers' side in recent years when playing the Airedales. Alma is a terrific place to enjoy a football game. It just hasn't been very friendly to Siloam Springs.
Van Buren rolls into town on Oct. 10, and if the last two years' games against the Pointers are any indication, this year's game should be a shootout. The two teams have combined to score 182 points in those meetings. Don't expect a defensive battle in this year's game.
The Panthers will have a quick turnaround against Little Rock Catholic only six days later. It'll be played on Thursday, Oct. 16, because the Arkansas Razorbacks host Georgia in Little Rock that weekend, and WMS will be occupied on Friday in anticipation of that game.
The Panthers close out their home slate -- hopefully in brand new Panther Stadium -- against Greenwood on Oct. 24 and against Bryant on Halloween.
There's no need for me to toot Greenwood's horn any more than needed. They're awesome. Enough said. However, I will mention the last time the Bulldogs visited Siloam Springs in 2010 they left town with a loss. I guess I should also point out that they went on to win their next 50 games in a row before losing in the state semifinals last year to Pine Bluff.
Bryant is a dang good football team, too. They're picked third in the conference and will play hard-nosed, physical football.
And Russellville, well the Cyclones have speed and size.
It's a tough road, sports fans.
But as good as these teams are, it's not playing in the 7A-West Conference against the Springdales, Rogers, Bentonvilles and Fayettevilles.
Just like Coach Ross said Saturday, there's not a team on the schedule Siloam Springs can't beat, and it wasn't the Mexican food talking either. I believe it. He believes it. His staff believes it. I've got good reason to think the players believe it, too.
How about you?
Either way it should be an exciting football season.
-- Graham Thomas is the managing editor for the Herald-Leader. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Sports on 08/13/2014