Faulkner Lifestyle September 2019 Issue

The Bears‘ home opener is scheduled
for September 14, 2019 at 6:00 p.m.
They will take on Abilene Christian
University. Grab your purple, put
your bear claws up, and head to
Estes Stadium for the game!
Ken Collums
Offensive Coordinator and
Quarterback Coach
”We must protect the football and
protect number three, Breylin Smith.
We‘ve got good enough players that if we
do both of those things, we‘ll have a solid
chance to win every game we play,“ on
his viewpoint going into the season.
—Ken Collums, Coach
Ken Collums joined the UCA staff in December 2017, and this
is his third time to coach the Bears. In fact, he began his career
at UCA as a graduate assistant in 1996-1997. The offensive
coordinator position is not new for Ken, having served in this
position for 14 years at UCA and Abilene Christian University.
He was also head coach at Abilene Christian University for
five years. Ken and his wife, Robyn, have been married for
23 years; they even met at UCA. They have two children;
daughter Anna is a senior at Conway High School (CHS) and
has committed to play beach volleyball at UCA. Son Layne is a
sophomore at CHS where he is a member of the football team.
Coach Ken Collum and his family
Give us the chance to exceed your expectations!
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How do you feel about your offensive line going into a
new season?
We basically have most of the same guys back, with the addition
of a transfer and some young guys with a lot of potential.
Part of developing an offense is learning how your guys up
front will fit into the pass/run schemes. Once you do that,
you’re able to keep them in the best position to be successful
in most scenarios. It’s a learning curve that coordinators must
go through when you coach new people. You find their
strengths and weaknesses and use that information to play to
their strengths. They are a year and-a-half into this offense,
and continuity always helps up front. We’ve got a good group.
They are significantly ahead of where they were last year
regarding their knowledge, experience, and endurance. That
will allow us to be sharper and more creative with our game
plans. Our guys are learning more and more how to work
together and help each other against these good defensive
fronts in our conference.
You lost some experience at the wide receiver position.
How do you feel the new group on campus will fill their
shoes?
I’m encouraged by the group of wide receivers we’ve got.
They look good in practice, and I’ve found if you look good
in practice on a consistent basis, you normally look good in
games. We’ve got a good mix of both speed and smaller guys
who create matchup problems because they are so shifty. I’m
also encouraged about our tight ends. We like to use them in
both the run game and pass game. Our guys can both block
and catch passes, which causes issues for defenses.
Nathan Brown has put together a great staff here at UCA.
Excellent coaches and great men. We all understand we are in a
profession that provides us the greatest single opportunity for
influence in our society. We take that seriously. We work daily
to develop quality student-athletes, but we’re also developing
men who will impact our community through their leadership
in their future homes and occupations.
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