So what now for Southern football?

Southern A.D. Greg Lefleur has some difficult days ahead.

At the end of a disastrous Bayou Classic, inside a largely empty Superdome that had all the buzz and life of a library, Southern right tackle Lee Almanza nosed his way through a crowd of players and found his buddy, center Ramon Chinyoung.

Almanza, a junior, threw an arm around Chinyoung, a fifth-year senior. After three seasons, the two Houston natives had grown close. Almanza said something nice to Chinyoung, offering words of sympathy to a player who didn’t want his college career to end like this — with a lopsided 38-17 loss to Grambling, the Jaguars’ third straight defeat at the Bayou Classic; and a 2-9 overall record in Stump Mitchell’s first season at SU, the worst in school history.

Hobbled SU women seeking consistency

Four games into this young basketball season, the Southern women have won twice and lost twice. The Jaguars (2-2) face Miami (5-1) at 6 p.m. today in Coral Gables, Fla., and naturally, they’d love to upset an Atlantic Coast Conference team on its own home floor. Win or lose, however, 11th-year coach Sandy Pugh would love to see a little more consistency from her team, even if Southern is nursing an injury or two.

Not even close

NEW ORLEANS — Untouched.

Saturday afternoon at the Bayou Classic, early in the third quarter of a game Grambling thoroughly dominated in a 38-17 victory over Southern, the Tigers swiftly and easily knifed their way to the Jaguars’ 16-yard line.

Hot-handed Charleston rips Southern men

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Kelvin Martin and Kenny Mitchell each scored 15 points to lead Charleston Southern to an 89-54 victory over Southern University on Saturday in the Chicago Invitational Challenge men’s college basketball tournament. Jamarco Warren added 14 points and Sheldon Strickland had 12 for the Buccaneers (3-4), who raced out to a 53-22 halftime lead.

Small Superdome crowd foreshadows lackluster game

NEW ORLEANS — When you put 40,000 fans in the Louisiana Superdome, it’s like dressing a kid in his father’s sports coat.

Saturday afternoon, the Dome hosted the 39th edition of the Bayou Classic. The game wore the same famous pageantry as usual, blaring bands and all. Problem was, it all seemed oversized. The empty seats in the crowd of 43,494 — the lowest attendance figure in Classic history — told the story of a blowout waiting to happen.

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