Confident PVU comes to town undefeated

By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN, Advocate sportswriter

The last time Prairie View was 2-0 came in 2004 in its first two games under Henry Frazier III. That start, though, came to a crashing halt in the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, where Southern blasted the Panthers, 42-12.

“My first year, we were 2-0 and it didn’t matter,” said Frazier, who used that film, which he said showed the physical dominance of Southern, as teaching and motivational tools early on for his program. “Coach (Pete) Richardson and his staff don’t care about us being 2-0.”

Prairie View finds itself back at the same juncture, at 2-0 again, as the Panthers (2-0, 1-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference visits Southern (2-0, 1-0) at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Jaguars’ home opener.

Prairie View was last 3-0 in 1964, when the team went 9-0 and was the SWAC and black college national champion.

That’s also the last year PV had won consecutive games over Southern — winning three in a row from 1962-64.
“It’s the most experienced team he’s had,” Richardson said. “Individuals are buying into the system offensively and defensively. He’s got them excited and they’re playing hard. It’s a matter of them continuing to grow.”

Both teams want to find out how good they are and a showdown game like this will tell much.

Prairie View’s 2-0 start came against Texas Southern, which is 4-31 under Steve Wilson, and North Carolina A&T, which has now lost 18 consecutive games.

Southern, after going 2-0 and falling through a trap door of a 1-5 slide, isn’t taking any game for granted.

“It would be safe to say (PV is better), but we have a lot of football left to be played,” said Frazier, 13-21 at Prairie View.

“We do have better athletes. They’re in better shape. They understand the system a little better.”

Memories of Prairie View players gleefully taunting Jaguars after PV scored its first win over SU since 1971 serve as cautions for Southern.

“They understand what happened,” Richardson said. “There’s no personal vendetta. Our thing is to find a way to win. We know they’re improved.”

Prairie View didn’t follow up that stunner over SU, though.
The Panthers, 2-1 after that win, won just one more game.

Although PV had the best total defense and scoring defense in the SWAC, the Panthers’ weaknesses in special teams and the passing games hurt, leaving them with a 3-7 mark (after a promising 5-6 in 2005).

“Our guys showed we can play with the best in the conference,” said Frazier, whose team finished the season with a 13-7 win over eventual SWAC champion Alabama A&M.

Frazier said his staff harped on eight plays in the offseason, challenging players, “Are you working as hard as you can?”

Of PV’s seven losses, five were by a touchdown or less, including three games by three points and one by four.

The Panthers returned 55 lettermen and 16 starters for this season.

“They see we were right there,” Frazier said. “Now we have to finish what we started.

“We’ve laid out the plan as coaches. … We’ve got to ride it, see what happens. It’s going to be fun.”

Panthers honored

The Sports Network named Prairie View’s Val Ford as its Football Championship Subdivision national special teams player of the week for his returning of two blocked punts for touchdowns and making a tackle for a safety Saturday in a 22-7 win over North Carolina A&T. Previously, Ford was named the SWAC specialist of the week and Ford and Riante Jones, who blocked the two punts as well as a field-goal try, were College Sporting News’ national special teamers of the week.