SU fans want wins

By SCOTT RABALAIS, Advocate sportswriter

SU VIDEO: http://media.swagit.com/s/wbrz/The_Advocate_Sports/08312007-25.high.flash8.html

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — With all that Pete Richardson has done for Southern — all the championships, all the Bayou Classic victories, all the glory — you would think the one question this legendary coach wouldn’t have to answer is “What have you done for me lately?”

If nothing else, and there is so much else, Richardson knows how the game is played. And the one thing fans expect when you win is to win more. When you start losing they ask why. Or they quickly ask you to leave.

“Apparently it’s the nature of the beast,” Richardson said. “People are not patient. They expect you to have success. And expectations should be big.”

Richardson freely admits he constructed the monster that threatens to consume him in his football laboratory. He took over a moribund Southern program back in 1993, one that had fallen far from the glory days of A.W. Mumford, and made the Jaguars into an instant winner. From 1993-2003 his teams won five Southwestern Athletic Conference championships and four black college national titles. Only Mumford, the man who has his name on Southern’s stadium, has a better résumé.

The last three years, though, the wins have come at a much slower trickle. Seasons of 8-4, 4-5 and 5-6 have left Southern fans fed on a bountiful buffet of winning, fans who had forgotten the struggles of the 1970s and 80s, feeling starved. Maybe Richardson had lost his edge. Stayed too long. Needed to give way to someone else.

Support from Southern’s administration has eroded to the point that his contract ends after this season. While no one is showing him the door, they aren’t showering him with praise, either.


If Richardson is frustrated by all of the criticism and second-guessing, he rarely lets it show. And, more importantly, he hardly seems ready to give in.

“I built a tradition at Southern,” said Richardson in a rare prideful moment. “You understand the expectations. It’s my responsibility to get it back where it needs to be.”

Looking fit and sharp Friday as he prepared to enter the ballroom for a luncheon to kickoff today’s SWAC/MEAC Challenge game here against Florida A&M, Richardson appears ready for a fight. Since having long-needed knee surgery a couple of years ago, he physically feels rejuvenated. And he is determined to stay long enough to see Southern finally enclose the north end zone of Mumford stadium, building well-overdue facilities that will benefit football and several other programs.

Construction, if it indeed ever comes (some trees on the site have recently been cleared) could be completed in less than two years. Of course, Richardson has been waiting far longer than that, showing blueprints and sketches to recruits who have often been lured away to other more well-equipped programs.

While the responsibility for winning football games ultimate stops with Richardson, he has consistently been asked to produce a diamond of a program in coal mine conditions. The notion that players will gravitate to Southern because it is Southern is false and dangerous.

For someone who has given so much to not only a football program but a university, you want things to end well for Richardson. That means going out on his own terms, and preferably at the top of his game.

Right now that looks like a reach. It was a devastating summer for the program, with 15 players having left since the end of spring practice. Depth has taken a major hit, and won’t make the task of getting off to a momentum-building start against a formidable FAMU team any easier.

Despite it all, the doubts and defections, Richardson appears energized on the eve of a new campaign.

“I expect we will play well” today, Richardson said.

It would be a start. If not, Richardson and Southern may not have too many tomorrows left together.