By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN, Advocate sportswriter
Fast Facts Coach: Rod Broadway
Record: 0-0 (First season); 33-11 (four years)
Location: Grambling
Stadium: Robinson (19,600)
2006 record: 3-8
Primary offense: Multiple
Primary defense:v 4-3
Starters returning: 9 (3 on offense, 5 on defense, 1 on special teams)
Lettermen returning: 35
Key players returning: QB Brandon Landers, WR Clyde Edwards, DB/LB Zaire Wilborn, K/P Tim Manuel, FS DeMichael Dizer
On the Net: http://www.gsutigers.com/
“Starting from scratch” isn’t what the Grambling faithful want to hear.
But that’s where the Tigers find themselves after an implosion last season.
Grambling sputtered to a 3-8 record and, amidst turmoil, fired Melvin Spears, two seasons into a five-year contract and a season after taking the Tigers to the Southwestern Athletic Conference and black college national titles with an 11-1 record.
Grambling had six losses by a touchdown or less, along with a blowout at Division I Houston and a 35-16 homecoming debacle against Alabama State.
“We were pulling in different directions as a team,” junior quarterback Brandon Landers said. “I don’t think we were together when it came toward the end of ballgames.
“We were torn from the inside. … Any time you have a team pulling in different directions, you’re going to have bad results. … Last year’s team, we had all the talent in the world. I just think we weren’t together.”
With that upheaval as the background, Grambling in January turned to Rod Broadway, who fashioned Division II North Carolina Central into a power, winning the black college national title last season.
The refashioning begins with Broadway reworking the roster. When he said Grambling would be “starting from scratch” this year, he meant it.
“We’re going to keep our good guys, like (senior free safety DeMichael) Dizer and Brandon, around, but we got rid of half the football team,” Broadway said. “We’re starting out with freshmen. We’re going to bring 90 guys into camp, and 45 of them will be new.”
Grambling’s post-spring roster had just 39 names. Among those, former starting quarterback Larry Kerlegan is being tried at wide receiver.
“You do what you think you have to do,” Broadway said. “We had a chance to evaluate the talent for 15 days (of spring practice) and we felt we could find better talent than what we had out there in the spring.
“The bottom line in football, it’s just about players. We have some good players, but we have to get more. We have to get better players than what we have.”
Photo: Grambling quarterback Brandon Landers passed for 2,138 yards and 17 touchdowns last season.
Grambling has to replace eight offensive starters and six defensive starters.
With Broadway and new offensive coordinator/line coach James Spady ditching the go-for-broke style of the Spears/Bruce Eugene years, finding a running game is key.
Mainstay Ab Kuuan is gone, and junior Michael Rainey (nine carries, 47 yards and one touchdown) is the only returning running back with carries. Six freshman running backs came this fall, Broadway said.
“When you have a really good offensive line, you can get away with an average running back,” Broadway said. “And if you have a great running back, you can get by with an average offensive line. We don’t have either at this point, but we’ll develop one and we’ll be sound in what we do.”
Finding depth for the offensive line and finding a tight end to fit the offense are priorities in preseason camp.
Senior wide receiver Clyde Edwards (789 yards, 11 TDs), an All-SWAC first-teamer, and Landers (2,138 yards, 17 TDs and 11 interceptions) headline the passing game.
“I can tell I’ve changed,” said Landers, entering his fourth year. “I’ve taken more of a leadership standpoint.
“Coming in for a consecutive year as a starter, the team kind of feels and knows what I bring to the team. I feel like I’ve taken the extra step of being the leader, trying to be more vocal, trying to be a show-and-tell guy, see me going to class, see me working out, see me throwing the ball, doing the little things the quarterback is supposed to do.”
The defense, run by former Southern defensive coordinator Cliff Yoshida, considers a deep line, led by senior tackle Jason Banks (from McKinley High), as a strength.
However, the linebacking corps, such a strength this decade, has to be rebuilt. And the secondary lost two starters as well. Dizer; Zaire Wilborn, a versatile senior (also playing linebacker); and former LSU transfer Jeffrey Jack, at rover, will be defensive backs to watch.
“We have enough talent that we can line up and be competitive,” Broadway said of the entire team.
With so many new players, preseason camp will be paramount. The schedule includes trips to Pittsburgh (Sept. 8) and Louisiana-Monroe (Nov. 10 — two weeks before the Bayou Classic) and, as usual, just three home games.
“We want to teach,” Broadway said. “We want our players to learn what to do, and we want them to do it at a fast pace. Teaching is going to be important for us. The scheme is going to be important for us.”
Having patience, though, is hard for Grambling fans, who are used to the penthouse. There was the late legend Eddie Robinson, of course, and there was the work Doug Williams and Spears, first as offensive coordinator, did in reclaiming glory earlier this decade.
From 2000-05, Grambling won four SWAC titles and three black college national crowns.
“This thing is bigger than me,” Broadway said. “It’s bigger than these kids.
“Our concern is to continue to grow and build a program all Grambling people could be proud of. It doesn’t matter where you coach. The bottom line is, you have got to win. … It’s no different from any other place. Every place you coach, they want to win. And if you don’t, they’re not going to keep you around very long.”
Fast Facts Coach: Rod Broadway
Record: 0-0 (First season); 33-11 (four years)
Location: Grambling
Stadium: Robinson (19,600)
2006 record: 3-8
Primary offense: Multiple
Primary defense:v 4-3
Starters returning: 9 (3 on offense, 5 on defense, 1 on special teams)
Lettermen returning: 35
Key players returning: QB Brandon Landers, WR Clyde Edwards, DB/LB Zaire Wilborn, K/P Tim Manuel, FS DeMichael Dizer
On the Net: http://www.gsutigers.com/
“Starting from scratch” isn’t what the Grambling faithful want to hear.
But that’s where the Tigers find themselves after an implosion last season.
Grambling sputtered to a 3-8 record and, amidst turmoil, fired Melvin Spears, two seasons into a five-year contract and a season after taking the Tigers to the Southwestern Athletic Conference and black college national titles with an 11-1 record.
Grambling had six losses by a touchdown or less, along with a blowout at Division I Houston and a 35-16 homecoming debacle against Alabama State.
“We were pulling in different directions as a team,” junior quarterback Brandon Landers said. “I don’t think we were together when it came toward the end of ballgames.
“We were torn from the inside. … Any time you have a team pulling in different directions, you’re going to have bad results. … Last year’s team, we had all the talent in the world. I just think we weren’t together.”
With that upheaval as the background, Grambling in January turned to Rod Broadway, who fashioned Division II North Carolina Central into a power, winning the black college national title last season.
The refashioning begins with Broadway reworking the roster. When he said Grambling would be “starting from scratch” this year, he meant it.
“We’re going to keep our good guys, like (senior free safety DeMichael) Dizer and Brandon, around, but we got rid of half the football team,” Broadway said. “We’re starting out with freshmen. We’re going to bring 90 guys into camp, and 45 of them will be new.”
Grambling’s post-spring roster had just 39 names. Among those, former starting quarterback Larry Kerlegan is being tried at wide receiver.
“You do what you think you have to do,” Broadway said. “We had a chance to evaluate the talent for 15 days (of spring practice) and we felt we could find better talent than what we had out there in the spring.
“The bottom line in football, it’s just about players. We have some good players, but we have to get more. We have to get better players than what we have.”
Photo: Grambling quarterback Brandon Landers passed for 2,138 yards and 17 touchdowns last season.
Grambling has to replace eight offensive starters and six defensive starters.
With Broadway and new offensive coordinator/line coach James Spady ditching the go-for-broke style of the Spears/Bruce Eugene years, finding a running game is key.
Mainstay Ab Kuuan is gone, and junior Michael Rainey (nine carries, 47 yards and one touchdown) is the only returning running back with carries. Six freshman running backs came this fall, Broadway said.
“When you have a really good offensive line, you can get away with an average running back,” Broadway said. “And if you have a great running back, you can get by with an average offensive line. We don’t have either at this point, but we’ll develop one and we’ll be sound in what we do.”
Finding depth for the offensive line and finding a tight end to fit the offense are priorities in preseason camp.
Senior wide receiver Clyde Edwards (789 yards, 11 TDs), an All-SWAC first-teamer, and Landers (2,138 yards, 17 TDs and 11 interceptions) headline the passing game.
“I can tell I’ve changed,” said Landers, entering his fourth year. “I’ve taken more of a leadership standpoint.
“Coming in for a consecutive year as a starter, the team kind of feels and knows what I bring to the team. I feel like I’ve taken the extra step of being the leader, trying to be more vocal, trying to be a show-and-tell guy, see me going to class, see me working out, see me throwing the ball, doing the little things the quarterback is supposed to do.”
The defense, run by former Southern defensive coordinator Cliff Yoshida, considers a deep line, led by senior tackle Jason Banks (from McKinley High), as a strength.
However, the linebacking corps, such a strength this decade, has to be rebuilt. And the secondary lost two starters as well. Dizer; Zaire Wilborn, a versatile senior (also playing linebacker); and former LSU transfer Jeffrey Jack, at rover, will be defensive backs to watch.
“We have enough talent that we can line up and be competitive,” Broadway said of the entire team.
With so many new players, preseason camp will be paramount. The schedule includes trips to Pittsburgh (Sept. 8) and Louisiana-Monroe (Nov. 10 — two weeks before the Bayou Classic) and, as usual, just three home games.
“We want to teach,” Broadway said. “We want our players to learn what to do, and we want them to do it at a fast pace. Teaching is going to be important for us. The scheme is going to be important for us.”
Having patience, though, is hard for Grambling fans, who are used to the penthouse. There was the late legend Eddie Robinson, of course, and there was the work Doug Williams and Spears, first as offensive coordinator, did in reclaiming glory earlier this decade.
From 2000-05, Grambling won four SWAC titles and three black college national crowns.
“This thing is bigger than me,” Broadway said. “It’s bigger than these kids.
“Our concern is to continue to grow and build a program all Grambling people could be proud of. It doesn’t matter where you coach. The bottom line is, you have got to win. … It’s no different from any other place. Every place you coach, they want to win. And if you don’t, they’re not going to keep you around very long.”
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