MAGNOLIA, Ark. – It was a long wait, but that wait is finally over. Southern Arkansas Football returns to the gridiron on Thursday night from Wilkins Stadium at Rip Powell Field as the Muleriders play host to Northwestern Oklahoma State in the former’s 104th season overall and 100th as one of the most unique mascots in all of collegiate sports. The Great American Conference week one opener against the Rangers ushers in a new era of Mulerider Football as Brad Smiley enters year one as the program’s sixth head coach of its NCAA Era (1995-96). Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. and live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
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.
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 and the program’s William V. Campbell Trophy nominee, returns to bolster the special teams unit.
Forty-five letterman return from the 2021 team with a dozen starters (5O, 7D) back for Southern Arkansas. Multi-formational and multi-personnel on offense, the Muleriders will feature a good mixture of familiar skill position players as well as several offensive newcomers set to impact early. Defensively, SAU boasts a deep and highly skillful front that reloaded after seeing two key pieces not return in 2022 and bolstered the next two levels with key transfers (J. Berry, S. Williams pictured above).
The Rangers, under seventh-year head coach Matt Walters, return 51 letterman, including 11 starters.
THE SERIES
Thursday’s tilt will be the 12th meeting between the two programs and ninth consecutive matchup. The Muleriders hold the series advantage at 9-2, have won three straight, are 4-1 at home and unbeaten in three contests against the Rangers since the latter joined the GAC in 2013.
SEASON-OPENING SUCCESSES
Since becoming an NCAA member in 1996, Southern Arkansas is 16-9 in season openers with an 8-4 mark in season-opening home games. In the team’s ten seasons in the GAC, the Muleriders are 7-3 in season openers having won six of their previous seven.
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY FOR RIP POWELL’S TITLE-WINNING ‘RIDERS
When you talk about the most dominant teams in program history, the 1972 Muleriders are at the top of the conversation. Legendary head coach Raymond “Rip” Powell led that year’s squad to an 8-2 record overall and a share of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference Title.
25 YEARS LATER, SAU’S GSC TITLE TEAM STILL PROGRAM’S NCAA STANDARD
Twenty-five years ago, the 1997 Muleriders laid claim to the program’s first and since only league championship as an NCAA program. Southern Arkansas went 9-2 overall, the most wins for the program in a single season since 1971 and earned a share of the Gulf South Conference title; the program’s first since winning the AIC crown in ’72.
100 YEARS OF THE MULERIDERS
In 1922, the Third District Agricultural School, now SAU, officially adopted “Muleriders” as the official mascot a decade after the moniker was first mentioned by G.R. Turrentine, the program’s first head coach, following his team’s Thanksgiving Day game in 1912. Throughout the 2022-23 athletic year, Mulerider Athletics will celebrate its rich history which has come under one of the most unique mascots in all of sports.