Bearcats back on the prowl in 2-5A

Jerrod Baugh wants the status quo to change for Ruston football.

It’s not a suggestion from the Bearcats’ head coach. It’s a demand — a call- to- action to his team that still has goals of repeating as state champions after last year’s historic run. But after falling 26-21 at home last week to Neville, dropping Ruston from No. 1 to No. 3 in Class 5A and snapping the program’s 20-game winning streak, just after surviving a scare from Ouachita two weeks ago, the Bearcats’ current course isn’t going to work in Baugh’s view.

Ruston (6-1, 1-1 District 2-5A) is still in control of its destiny ahead of the postseason, but if the current comfort the Bearcats seem to be practicing and playing with continues, Baugh knows his team will never reach their full potential.

In a move to wake the Bearcats out of their sleepwalking stretch, Ruston spent almost all its two-hour practice on Wednesday in a scrimmage of first and second team defense and offense, going through game scripts featuring live hitting, real down and distances, and more. No positional drills and limited contact like normal.

“ We were down in inside run, and that’s probably our most physical drill that we do, and they weren’t wanting to get after it. So, we just broke out in a scrim-mage. We did some goal line stuff and then we scrimmaged for a while, trying to get them motivated to get out here,” Baugh said.

“I don’t know what it is. I’m kind of at a loss. I’ve been alluding to that the last couple weeks, and you’re trying to give kids the benefit of the doubt,” he continued. “I’ve been telling them that if we don’t take care of our business in practice, it’s going to bleed over to the ball games. It has the last two weeks, really. And if that’s something we need to continue to do to get out of them what we need to, that’s what we’ll do. I’m not going to lower expectations of what it is they need to get accomplished during practice.”

In last week’s loss to Neville, the Bearcats committed a seasonhigh 13 penalties for 127 yards and allowed the Tigers to convert 8-of-12 third downs. Offensively, Ruston has punted on 10 of its last 18 drives and scored 6 touchdowns.

The lack of execution is clear, and Baugh isn’t going to allow Ruston to keep doing what isn’t working. There’s still a No. 1, state championship contender in the Bearcats. They just have to get back to that level. And Baugh believes it’s going to take sharp instruction to get back there.

“If we got out here and got prepared every day and took care of all of our stuff, I feel like we are still the best team in the state,” Baugh said. “You gotta be the best team all the time, in practice and in games. Maybe some guys have lost track of that.”

Ruston will have another big test tonight against No. 6 Alexandria Senior High (7-0, 2- 0 District 2- 5A) – a team that has showed no signs of slowing down with one of the better offenses in the state, scoring at least 40 points in every game this year.

The Trojans are led by senior running back JT Lindsey, an LSU commit rated as a top five player in the state by multiple recruiting services. Through seven games, he’s averaging 167 yards per game and 8.1 yards per carry – rushing for 142 yards and a pair of scores last week against Pineville. Last year, Ruston limited Lindsey to 19 carries for 57 yards and no touchdowns.

ASH quarterback Karsen Sellers, a sophomore, has thrown 17 touchdowns and 0 interceptions this season, connecting with his top target Darius Washington, a senior, for 545 yards and 8 touchdowns.

“You ain’t fixing to stop their offense,” Baugh said of ASH. “They have a good running back. They’re good on the offensive line. The quarterback and receivers and really good. You gotta pick your poison on what it is you want to do with them. Hopefully we can contain that some. We really need to execute well offensively and maintain possessions and run the clock and keep them off the field.

“It’s hard for offenses like that where they like to no-huddle and stay in pace but if you can keep them on the sideline and keep them off rhythm, that’s not what they want to do. I feel like last year we were able to do that in the first half but then we came out in the second half and though it was going to be easy, and they gave us a good fight in the second half, and we pulled it out,” Baugh added.

Ruston’s gut check is here. The question now is whether the Bearcats can keep the one loss what it is and not let it spill over. Under Baugh, losing streaks haven’t been much of a problem. The only instances of the Bearcats losing back-to-back regular season games under Baugh were the season finale in 2021 against West Monroe and the season opener in 2022 against Warren Easton and the first two games of the 2019 season against Neville and Acadiana. The Bearcats have also not lost to ASH since Oct. 25, 2019 — outscoring the Trojans 120-74 over the last three wins.

“They’ve heard the messages all along, and it’s like I said, we’re continuing to win games by the score but the nuts and bolts of what we’re doing we’re not improving enough along the way even though we’re winning games,” Baugh said. “We really lost the Ouachita game in my opinion. We just happened to get more points than they had. And eventually someone is fixing to show up with a good football team who can get more points than you and that’s what happened Friday. We’ll see if we’re ready to go this week because ASH is a really good team, and I know they’re going to come ready to play.”

No. 3 Ruston takes on No. 6 ASH (7-0, 2-0 district) tonight in Alexandria at J.L. “Butch” Stoker Stadium.