RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – On Tuesday, the Great American Conference, now entering its twelfth year, announced its preseason football coaches poll for the upcoming 2022 campaign. First-year head coach
Brad Smiley's Muleriders enter fall camp positioned in eighth place overall and as the fifth-highest rated Arkansas program after receiving 49 total points.
The Muleriders will be led by their third head coach in as many years, but optimism for a fresh start abounds around a program not far removed from a stretch of 39 wins across five 7+ win campaigns from 2015 to 2019. Last season, Southern Arkansas suffered just its second below-.500 finish to a season as a GAC member and its first since 2011.
"Preseason polls are preseason polls," remarked Smiley. "The poll is a good indication of how the conference shaped up at the end of last fall, but that's about it. We are excited to get our guys back on campus this weekend and are looking forward to the challenges that await this fall. We will see how it shapes up come November."
Southern Arkansas sits seven points back of arch-rival Arkansas-Monticello which received 57 total points to place seventh in the preseason rankings. Henderson State's 87 points were good enough to be positioned fourth in the poll, while Harding edged Ouachita as the preseason favorite receiving one more point and one more first-place vote than the defending league champion.
The Muleriders return three All-GAC performers from last year's squad. Redshirt sophomore
Jariq Scales, the 2021 GAC Freshman of the Year, and grad wideout
Micah Small headline the offensive returners for Smiley in year one. Both playmakers are coming off historic yardage campaigns a season ago, while graduate placekicker
Austin Wilkerson, a Division II Conference Commissioner's Association (D2CCA) All-Super Region 3 performer as a senior, returns to bolster the special teams unit.
In all, SAU returns 45 lettermen from the 2021 season, while the roster will feature 48 newcomers of which 13 are transfer student-athletes. The roster reports Friday, August 5 in preparation of fall camp.
The Muleriders open the '22 season at home against Northwestern Oklahoma State on Thursday, September 1 in a 6 p.m. kickoff from Wilkins Stadium at Rip Powell Field. The first month of the season features three of the Muleriders' four scheduled home games highlighted by Family Day and Homecoming on back-to-back weekends.
