Hendrix College Football Reboot: ‘These First Guys Are Pioneers’

CONWAY – It is two weeks until players report to campus for the first Hendrix College football season in 53 years. The coaching staff is scrambling around to prepare, but there is just so much they can do at this point. All football teams are a bit of a question mark in the preseason, but a team in its first year – with no returning players – is the great unknown.

Justin “Buck” Buchanan was hired as the new Hendrix College football head coach in the spring of 2012. He came with a distinct qualification. Buchanan was on the staff at fellow Division-III school Louisiana College in 1999 for that school’s inaugural football season, and he stayed there for 13 years. Buchanan says he served at just about every position available at Louisiana College, from interim head coach to greens keeper.

“The biggest thing I learned is what not to do,” said Buchanan, formerly an undersized nose guard who teems with boundless optimism. “We had a lot of struggle there. We had some issues with donors who backed out and put us behind the 8-ball. We had great young men to work with and that made it all worthwhile. We went through a lot of growing pains. One of the biggest things is not to start with too many players. We started with 118.”

Hendrix will begin camp with between 55 and 62 players. The staff will be tasked with cramming a lot of information into a few short weeks of practice before the Sept. 7 opener at home versus Westminster. The Warriors’ 10-game schedule includes six home dates, as they compete in the Southern Athletic Association.

“Our whole goal here was to get the right players – academically, athletically and character-wise,” Buchanan said. “We looked at it as a three-pronged process. If you have 100 players, it’s great for practice. The reality is, you’re going to play 45-50 players and the rest will be sitting around. We have 25 practice opportunities to get it in, and we lose a couple of practices because of orientation. It’s a challenge, but we have smart guys.”

Reviving the program drew plenty of criticism from some corners of the Hendrix community, but the message from Buchanan and the athletic department is that football will help give the average Hendrix student a more well-rounded college experience. Plus, the rigid academic standards of the school are not being sacrificed.

“It’s 55 guys that were not going to come here otherwise,” Buchanan said. “I think we’re going to have a record freshman class this year, anyway. Hendrix didn’t start football just to put bodies in beds. We’re all doing this for the right reasons – to make Hendrix a better, more diverse place.

“We have nobody who couldn’t meet the normal standard. Our average ACT score is 27.5. We are a campus that prides itself on student diversity. This is another piece of that puzzle. Our players are doing the same thing that every other student does, but they have to practice every day.”

The initial football roster will be loaded with Arkansas natives, and that doesn’t figure to change. The aforementioned academic standards, while certainly a bar to a great many students, in some ways simplify the recruiting process.

“Our recruiting goal was if a guy had the grades in the state, we didn’t want to lose him,” said Buchanan, who will be in his first head coaching role. “We’ll have to go out of state some, but we’ll always look in-state first. A lot of people see it as a huge mountain, but it sort of makes recruiting easier. If we go into a school and they have three guys who can get in here, then that means there are 25 that we don’t have to recruit. It narrows down the pool.”

Hendrix could have had a group of redshirt freshmen, second-year players, going into this season. That would have allowed the Warriors to have spring practice this year. Buchanan felt that a lack of a redshirt year will not really hurt the program – it’s hard enough to get a D-III player to come back for an extra semester.

Still, the coaching staff – Buchanan and four full-time assistants, plus part-time coaches, volunteers and student assistants – has a pretty good idea of what its personnel will look like. They have an Xs and Os philosophy, but that will all be somewhat subject to change.

“Our biggest thing is we don’t want to put a square peg in a round hole,” Buchanan said. “We want to find what we’re good at as fast as possible, and then practice it. We’re going to have a multiple spread offense and get the ball in our playmakers’ hands and get them in space. On defense, whether it’s a 4-3 or 3-4, it’s going to be based on what we can do. We waited to do playbooks until June.”

Hendrix College last fielded a football team in 1960. Some simple arithmetic would leave you with the conclusion that the youngest living former player is in his 70s. But the new staff has already reached out to former Warriors, as bringing together the old with the new is vital.

“There are still some around, and we want to fit all that in,” Buchanan said. “The alums that were available have come by, and we will tie them in constantly. We have an unbelievable fan base. What we want to do is produce a quality product that makes Hendrix a better place and makes everyone proud.”

As a first-year program, Hendrix College football is certain to take some lumps. But everyone involved knew what he was getting into. That was part of the selection process in recruiting.

“At the end of the day, you have to find that mix of young men that want to live in the fish bowl, and have the faith that we’re going to do things the right way,” Buchanan said. “We have a unique group of young men, because they wanted to do that. Eventually, we’re going to get more guys to come because it’s established. These first guys are pioneers. “

Note: This is the first in a season-long series on the struggles and triumphs of a first-year college football team.