The UTPB football team will be looking for the carryover effect Saturday in Bolivar, Mo.
When the Falcons last took the field, Kobe Robinson cradled a two-point-conversion pass from quarterback Brayden Thomas for a 22-21 overtime victory against Midwestern State on March 27 at Grande Communications Stadium in Midland.
That capped a 5-0 run for UTPB in an abbreviated spring schedule, setting off a celebration along the sideline that carried on until well after the final whistle.
Now, as the Falcons get set to kickoff the 2021 season against Southwest Baptist, they are looking to build off a very successful, if unorthodox, spring.
“It’s always exciting getting to Game 1,” UTPB head coach Justin Carrigan said. “Our job as coaches is to kind of temper that a little bit so that when we get out on the field we’re not running around everywhere.
“But have the spring schedule, that helped a bunch, at least it seemed like it. It seemed to be more beneficial as far as retention and carryover when we started in August, speeding up being able to install stuff on a faster pace.”
The Falcons already have proven to be adept at adapting, changing opening-game opponents within a 24-hour period less than two weeks before kickoff.
UTPB was set to host the University of Fort Lauderdale on Friday at Ratliff Stadium.
Fort Lauderdale, however, found itself being forced into COVID-19 protocols and canceled the trip to the Permian Basin.
That put the Falcons in the position of possibly not having a game under their belt before hosting West Texas A&M on Sept. 11 at Ratliff Stadium in the Lone Star Conference opener.
The game against the Bearcats was quickly firmed up, allowing Carrigan and his staff to begin working on a game plan.
“We know more about Southwest than we did about Fort Lauderdale, which is a fairly new program and we couldn’t find anything on them,” he said. “Southwest has been more traditional, we traded three games and we have things we can watch and break down and have somewhat of a game plan.”
Offensively, quarterback Clayton Roberts is back to lead UTPB, with Midland High grad Suddin Sapien transferring into the program after redshirting last season at UTSA.
Roberts’ target returns as well Kobe Robinson and MJ Link. Both are threats to go the distance each time they touch the football, combining for 44 catches for 671 yards and nine scores in the five spring games.
“Clayton has done well as expected,” Carrigan said. “Suddin Sapien has done a great job coming in; he has a little bit of ability to run the back, but is a great deep-threat quarterback with his arm.”
Defensively, John O’Kelley is back and will play all over the field, standing up on the end to rush or dropping back into coverage.
The Falcons also return the entire defensive line, linebackers Miqoun Hayes and Derrian and defensive back D’Ondre Robinson.
Carrigan is excited about that side of the football heading into opening day.
“We have great leadership on that side of the ball,” he said. “We build on our defense, we rely on them; when you get the opportunities you have to complete them.
“The defense is the best part of the team right now. The number of time the defensive guys told me on the sideline to go for it on fourth down during the spring, we got your back, that means a lot. That was a different sideline than in years past.”
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