Speed Bump?

The skipping record of Western Conference volleyball action where the UT Arlington squad lands two wins in the week continued this past week. It wasn't the flawless victory seen in past weeks but in volleyball, sets matter, though matches matter the most. A sweep is the same mark in the win column as a five-set match. As UTA won the most in both scenarios making another post starts and ends with UTA atop the WAC standings.

It was road-trip week starting in Seattle on Thursday. Much like the 3-0 sweep a couple weeks ago in Arlington, the Redhawks were met the same fate but unlike the Arlington affair, SU was not an easy out in the first two sets. While UTA scored 25 in both, the Redhawks got the maximum points a set loser can have each time. In the third, UTA pushed aside two straight 25-23 wins and secured the match with a comfy 25-13 win, I'll save the individual accolades for later, but it was the same ladies who have been doing the same damage all year.

On Saturday, the Mavericks faced their first real stress in conference play as the Utah Valley Wolverines hosted UTA. After six straight sweeps prior to that affair, UTA lost the first two sets to UVU. You'd have to go back to the second conference match to get to a five-set contest involving UTA. That is what they would be shooting for to keep their perfect conference mark. 

UTA FB History: Vol. 8 Gm. 8 - I Just Wanna Go Home

It's been a while since On This Day in UTA Football History checked in with the 1974 season. In 2013, I opened the entire series with the season opener, a 33-6 loss to Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. In this year's version, the second week of the season was the first feature for the 1974 UT Arlington football team. In that game, the score was closer, but a 12-3 loss is still a loss, even if it was against a Southwest Conference school in TCU. 

There's not much of a spoiler alert, but 1974 was a bad season. There is only one season in the UTA books worse than 1974, and that was a winless mark in 1970. A look at the 129-150-2 overall record of UTA as a University and the .463 winning percentage looks a little below average. Factoring out the two seasons mentioned and all of a sudden, the winning percentage rises to .496, or two games below .500. It was just an incredible amount of poor performance.

And that really was the mark of Head Coach Harold "Bud" Elliott. He was competitive, but ultimately mediocre. He'd win more in 1975 and improve again to a game below .500 in '76. That year, he was a win away from the Independence Bowl, which debuted that year. '76 was also the first year in the 1970's where the offense scored more points than the defense gave up. 

Another Large Step

At some point, I'd expect the record to stop skipping, but another week is done in Western Athletic Conference volleyball action and another 2-0 week for UT Arlington. The opponents are likely the toughest the conference will have to offer and the Mavericks aced the test.

The Mavs are now in the driver's seat for their first conference regular season title in 22 years. Weird to say, but the team sport with the best history, most conference titles and NCAA tournament appearances and wins has had a drought so long that students on campus were not alive for the last titles. 

The conference season is half complete and UTA is up on second-place Grand Canyon by two matches, three games up on third-place Utah Valley and three-and-a-half up on fourth-place Utah Tech and Southern Utah. UTA in now 2-0 against Grand Canyon, while they are 1-0 versus UT and SUU.

They got to two of those three records this past week with two dominant performances, both sweeps. First up was the 'lopes in Arlington. After a 3-1 win in Phoenix, including a 25-8 shellacking in the first set. I firmly expected a tough, hard-fought match.

UTA FB History: Vol. 8 Gm. 7 - Regionality

The halfway mark to the standard football season has passed, so as we start the second half of the season, let's revisit the 1963 season. When we last checked in with that version of the Arlington State Rebels, they lost to one of the best rivals of the 1960's, East Texas State, 8-17. That outcome dropped their record to 0-2.

The following week, the home opener against Sam Houston State, was a close, high-scoring affair where the Rebs had the lead in the third quarter before losing it, regained it in the fourth before losing it and eventually ended the game with a potential game-winning pass broken up at the goal line. In the end it was a 34-28 Bearkat win. Sam Houston would go on to have a winning season at 4-3-1. Proving odds and Vegas lines mean little, it was an interesting dynamic as the Rebels were actually favored in that game.

ASC also set a record they didn't want at the time, but would be broken in 1970 as this was the fourth straight loss for the program, dating back to the prior year. It would be broken later this year and eventually shattered in 1970 to '71.

Big Showdown Looming

 Another Western Athletic Conference week is in the book for the UT Arlington volleyball squad and they repeated the same formula from the previous two conference weeks as they went undefeated, going 2-0.

It would have been easier to stumble in the third week of WAC play than in any other week due what's on tap this week. But as it is, other than some brief hiccups, the Mavericks did not drop a set in two sweeps. The wins moved their conference mark to 6-0 and 16-2 overall.

On Thursday, the Seattle Redhawks came to town and until SU went on a brief 4-0 run near the end of the third set, the Mavericks never took a timeout. That is pretty significant as coaches use timeouts to manage the runs by their opponents. Seattle made mild runs here and there and held brief, small leads. But the Mavs never looked stressed or out of control. By contrast, prior to the SU run / timeout in the third, UTA was leading 24-17 and Seattle looked demoralized. It has been a while since I have seen a Maverick opponent look like they were readily waving the white flag, but I did on Thursday.

Realignment Rumors

At the beginning of the month, I opined on the current state of the UT Arlington Athletic Department's place in the current landscape of college athletics, specifically in regard to their lack of a football program limiting the potential conference landing spots should the Western Athletic Conference lose one more member.

In it, I mentioned the few, limited possibilities as California Baptist is likely a prime target for the West Coast Conference and Tarleton State's Football Bowl Subdivision aspirations will likely lead to a Conference USA spot at a minimum. With few to no institutions willing to join, the WAC is in a rough spot. 

UTA potential could have a home in the Ohio Valley Conference, joining fellow Sun Belt Conference cast-off Little Rock. The Missouri Valley Conference and UTA briefly flirted before nothing formal advanced prior to UTA joining the WAC. The Atlantic Sun Conference likely would be receptive too, but I know of nothing actually occurring between the two. 

UTA FB History: Vol. 8 Gm. 6 - We're About to be Good Friends

The 1960's were unquestionably the best time to be an Arlington State College / UT Arlington football fan. The team was riding momentum from a highly successful decade as a junior college program, flirted with a bowl within two years of moving up, went to and won a bowl game, had a winning percentage of .575, a home winning percentage of two-thirds, formation of the Southland Conference, attendance that led the SLC, sent players to the National Football League, etc.

I looked up attendance for a post last week and the top five highest average attended seasons were from this decade and 13 of the top 14 attended games were from this time period. That is due to so many reasons listed above, but it is just jarring to see attendance records hold 50 plus years later. Considering what occurred in the 1970's and ultimately the disbandment of the program, obviously it is understandable, but the duality of the University in the 1960's into the 1970's is evident in the football program too.

When we last checked in with the 1968 squad, they picked up their first win of the season against Northeast Louisiana. After notching a 1-1 record, they hit the road again and traveled to the University Division's New Mexico State.

Keep Rolling

 I'm going to shake up how I cover the UT Arlington volleyball squad this week. The last few weeks I have covered it set by set however, it feels long and congested to me. Proofreading it sometimes feels like a slog, so I'm not sure what it feels like to the average reader. I'll let you judge how it flows and tell me in the comments which you prefer, or if it matters.

This past week was like most of the rest of the 2024 season. There wasn't much that was left in doubt. So far, the Western Athletic Conference race isn't shaping up as predicted but that's a common occurrence.

Southern Utah, predicted eighth in the nine-team WAC, visited College Park Center for an early season test for number one. The Thunderbirds defeated Abilene Christian and Tarleton State in week one. ACU (6) and Tarleton (5) were predicted middle of the pack, so while they weren't world beating wins, SUU was hitting above their projections. 

Despite a third set hiccup, the Mavericks won handily in four, 25-13, 25-14, 19-25, 25-14. There was no real sweat in either set save the third. The Mavs took control early and kept it handily. In three set wins, if your opponent didn't surpass 14, that is a blowout.

UTA FB History: Vol. 8 Gm. 5 - Not Shocked

September was rarely a good month for the UT Arlington football program. As today's edition of This Day in UTA Football History enters October, fortunes start to look up, though at the time, no one knows it of course. Which is ultimately what I think was the biggest fan suppressor. 

Of the four decades that Arlington State College / UTA sponsored a football program, from 1959-85, only one had a winning record in the September months. The lone winning decade was '59's 1-0 mark. The '60's saw a 12-13 total September mark. Not good, but not terrible. What is terrible would be the next two decades. The 1970's were a dismal 7-29. They averaged less than one win a year in the first month of the season. The 1980's were a bit better but still far below where they really needed to be. They had the same number of wins in near half the games with fewer losses. 7-13 is an improvement, but certainly needed to be better.  

Speaking of the 1980's, Head Coach Harold "Bud" Elliott was a terrible 3-11 in September from 1980 to 1983. Today's Head Coach, Chuck Curtis fared much better in 1984. At 3-1, it was the best start since 1979, also 3-1. As an aside, hard to imagine three of the seven September wins in the 1970's came in one season.

1985 was a different story for Coach Curtis. After the opening season loss to Angelo State, they went on the road to Huntsville. Sam Houston State was one of the better teams in the Gulf Star Conference, as they'd win two of the three football titles awarded by the now defunct conference. One of those years was in 1985 and though the Mavs played much better than how they started the season, the Bearkats came out on top, 38-23. After a rough start to the season, and a rough start to the game, UTA found out who they were in the second half. They trailed 24-0 at one point. Quarterback David Bates had a breakout half, was 14 of 27 for 180 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for more than 80 yards. 

If Not Now?

If you have a high-level whiplash injury or extreme fatigue from the constant conference reshuffling dubbed conference realignment, you are not alone. I miss the days were college sports were about competition and money wasn't so prominent. Unless it directly touches the UT Arlington Mavericks, I tend to avoid it here on the Maverick Rambler. 

With that setup, guess what is around the corner?

Recently, the remaining two schools of the old Pac-12 (Pac-2?) invited and received acceptance from Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. Coupled with Oregon State and Washington State, that gave the Pac-2 seven schools (Pac-7?). The five schools departed the Mountain West, who also were left with seven members. Since the NCAA requires eight full-time members in a conference to play at the Football Bowl Subdivision, obviously, each conference needs at least one more FBS school. Meaning more moves are on the horizon.

So what does this all mean for the Maverick Rambler?

Almost a Letdown

 There will not be as many matches to talk about for the UT Arlington volleyball team now that conference play has started. At most there will be two matches a week, and occasionally, thanks to the odd number of Western Athletic Conference teams, one match to talk about.

But what a week it was. Conference play started with the conference preseason one and two going at it. The experienced Mavs, forecasted second to Grand Canyon's preseason prognostication of first, were playing their supposed betters. On top of that, UTA was on the road at their place. And, after winning the first two matches of the series, UTA had lost three straight entering Thursday.

There clearly was a chip on the Mavericks shoulder. It had to be some combo of underdog, away team and losing streak. The first set deceptively started as a slugfest the match was thought to be, as UTA led 1-0, tied 1-1, then another Mav lead at 3-1. 3-2. then 5-3. While still close at 8-5, the Mavs used runs of 5-0. 3-0. and 7-0, the latter ended the set, for an unpredicted 25-8 win. Graduate Student Brianna Ford scored two aces in that clinching run to go with three kills in the set, below her kill per set average. With such a dominating performance, and only three from the offensive engine, speaks to the depth this offense possesses.