College Football Preview '09: Grambling State Tigers

GRAMBLING, LA - Rod Broadway gets a great deal of credit for the recent revival of Grambling State football, and well he should. The Tigers put together an 8-4 record in Broadway's first year as head coach in 2007 and reached the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game, even though losses to Southern in the Bayou Classic and to Jackson State in the title game marred that debut season. GSU avenged those two setbacks in a big way last fall, as the Tigers handled Southern 29-14 in the Bayou Classic and pounded JSU 41-9 for the conference title. That capped an 11-2 season and convinced the voters in the Sheridan Poll to declare Grambling the black college national champions.

GSU Tigers head coach Rod Broadway, third year, 19-6.

Broadway's name and stamp is on those teams, but Cliff Yoshida should get his share of acclaim - especially last year, when the Tigers fielded a defensive unit worthy of mention with Grambling's all-time best. Yoshida, in his second year as defensive coordinator under Broadway, engineered a platoon that recorded 29 interceptions and 44 quarterback sacks (double the previous year's total). GSU held opponents well under 30 percent on third-down conversions, and led the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision with a plus-1.85 turnover margin. More importantly, 43 percent of the time that Grambling opponents penetrated the Tiger 20-yard-line, they didn't score.

2009 GSU Tigers Schedule

Sept. 6 South Carolina St. (1 p.m., Orlando), MEAC/SWAC Challenge
Sept. 12 Northwestern State (6 p.m.)
Sept. 19 at Jackson State (3:30 p.m.)
Sept. 26 at Oklahoma State (6 p.m.)
Oct. 3 *vs. Prairie View A&M (6 p.m., Dallas), State Fair Classic
Oct. 10 Alabama A&M (3 p.m.)
Oct. 17 *at Alabama State (TBA)
Oct. 31 *Mississippi Valley State (2 p.m.)
Nov. 7 *vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (4 p.m., Little Rock), Literacy Classic
Nov. 12 *Texas Southern (7 p.m.)
Nov. 28 *vs. Southern (1 p.m., New Orleans), Bayou Classic
Home games in bold. *denotes Southwestern Athletic Conference games

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