By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN, Advocate sportswriterWhen Bryant Lee edged Warren Matthews in a duel of sophomore quarterbacks this month in preseason camp, Southern University coaches said they’d plan to use both.
Asked how that would translate to the season opener, against Florida A&M on Saturday in Birmingham, Ala., SU coach Pete Richardson didn’t offer an exact plan, being perhaps expectedly coy so soon before kickoff.
Richardson wouldn’t reveal if the staff had scripted the alternation of quarterbacks.
“It all depends on how the game is going,” Richardson said. “I don’t think you can play scenarios on quarterbacks.
“Lee is our quarterback. He’s a young individual. He’s learning. Hopefully, we can get some help around him, so all the pressure is not on him.”
Injury, of course, is always a possibility and forced SU into three different starting quarterbacks last season.
With Southern’s quarterback expected to run more and thereby be exposed to more hitting, Lee, Richardson and SU offensive coordinator Mark Orlando talked much in the preseason about having Matthews ready.
Matthews has never played in college. A nonqualifier in 2005, Matthews joined the team last fall. He then developed rapidly in the spring and continued that progress in preseason camp to challenge Lee.
Lee started the final two games last season and went 1-1 while leading another victory when he came off the bench for an injured J.C. Lewis.
Lewis, a fifth-year senior who was the team’s No. 1 quarterback the last two seasons, is third on the depth chart. He has the most accurate arm of the three, but he has the least mobility.
George on Buchanan list
Southern senior free safety Jarmaul George is among 16 seniors on the Buck Buchanan Award watch list announced by The Sports Network. The award named for the former Grambling great goes to the top defensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA).
George is the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s preseason Defensive Player of the Year and has been a first-team all-SWAC member in his two other seasons at Southern. George had 51 tackles, five interceptions and 10 pass breakups last season.
Photo: #16 QB Bryant Lee vs. ASU '06West Virginia ties
Richardson said the staffs of both Southern and FAMU visited West Virginia over the summer. Richardson and staff used to visit West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez when Rodriguez was the head coach at Tulane. Calvin Magee, West Virginia’s assistant head coach/offensive coordinator and running backs coach, is also a former All-American and three-time All-SWAC tight end who is already in the Southern’s athletic hall of fame.
“It’ll be interesting to see which one can matriculate and operate it (better),” Richardson said.
Richardson said the FAMU and SU offenses are similar, depending on a quarterback who will run.
“It’s almost a mirror copy of what we do offensively,” Richardson said.
“They run basically the same thing we see every day in practice,” George said of the Rattlers.
Introductions necessary?
Though Southern and FAMU had black college football’s longest non-conference rivalry, running from 1946 to 2001, no current players have been in one of those games and the Rattlers have a new coaching staff.
“I’ve been in Baton Rouge, but I really haven’t heard too much about the rivalry,” said SU defensive end Vince Lands, of Glen Oaks High School.
While the rivalry seemed to be turning bitter toward its final seasons, Richardson said he’s happy to see the game back on the schedule.
“You’re talking about a rivalry that goes a long way back. I’m real excited about playing them again, because it’s a rivalry that’s surely needed between two great institutions,” he said.
Said FAMU coach Rubin Carter, who played at Miami, “There’s a great level of excitement going into the game. We want to represent the (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) well.”
Lagnniappe
The playing gear for SU sophomore center Ramon Chinyoung and junior running back Kendrick Smith was packed onto the team’s bus and went ahead of them as the Jaguars left Thursday, but Chinyoung and Smith did not travel, because they have yet to be cleared to play. If one or both get cleared by today, they could drive to Birmingham for Saturday’s game, SU spokesman Kevin Manns said. Southern’s defensive line has worked with its traditional four-man front as well as doing a lot of three-man looks in preseason camp (mostly because of a lack of depth). “However the situation plays out, we’ll be ready,” Lands said.
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