Bears at Abilene Christian could decide which way 2026 goes

Central Arkansas got a week off to fix whatever needed fixing.

We’ll find out Saturday night in Abilene, Texas, how much of it got fixed.

UCA is 2-3. It’s already 0-1 in the United Athletic Conference.

The 7 p.m. kickoff at Abilene Christian comes against a team that has won the last two games in this series.

Anybody who’s watched the Bears the last couple of years knows where this can go.

Those seasons were disappointing. Nobody around the program needs a third one to confirm the pattern.

A 2-4 record with two league losses would get them most of the way there by mid-October.

A series that used to be automatic

There was a time this game didn’t cause much worry.

UCA won seven in a row over the Wildcats from 2015 through 2023.

The overall series sits at 12-3-1 after 16 meetings, and the very first one in 1939 ended 0-0. Apparently nobody wanted it that day.

Things have changed. Abilene Christian took the last two.

The Wildcats are 2-4 this year, which doesn’t sound like much until you see they opened conference play by beating West Florida 35-7.

So the team with the worse record is the one sitting at 1-0 in the league. Funny how that works.

Keith Patterson is in his fifth season as their coach and his quarterback, Tucker Parks, has 563 passing yards and five touchdowns.

Rovaughn Banks Jr. does most of the running at 347 yards on 72 carries with one touchdown. Cristian Driver has caught 18 balls for 224 yards and a score.

The legs are carrying this offense

The Bears have one thing they can count on, and it’s the run game.

Jalen Washington has 369 yards and three touchdowns on 55 carries.

Quarterback Donovyn Omolo has the exact same number of carries. He’s turned his into 358 yards and two scores.

When your quarterback is 11 yards behind your lead back, you’ve either got a really good plan or you’ve run out of other ones.

Omolo’s throwing it fine, too. He’s hit 61% of his passes for 809 yards and six touchdowns.

Dakarai Anderson has 24 catches to lead the team. Tyrell Pollard has the most yards at 241. Ty Durham and Arlie Lee have each caught two touchdowns.

On defense it’s mostly been the Ashtyn Williams show. The linebacker has 56 tackles through five games, plus 3.5 for loss, a sack and an interception.

He’s averaging 11.2 a game, fifth-best in the FCS. That’s great for him. It also means the ball carrier is getting to a linebacker a lot.

The bye week is over

Nathan Brown is in his ninth season as coach. He’s had the extra week to get UCA ready for this one.

Rested legs ought to help a team that runs it as much as this one does.

Watch the kicking game, though. Brandon Perez is only 4 of 7 on field goals for Abilene Christian but one of the makes was from 51 yards.

Captains Kealen Juniel and Jacorey Jones previewed the trip for the school this week.

If you’re not driving to Abilene, it’s on ESPN+. The radio call is on The Bear 91.3 and The Point 94.1.

A win gets the Bears to 3-3 and 1-1 in the league. That’s a season you can still do something with.

A loss, and people will start comparing this fall to the last two. They won’t be wrong.