Television: 1 PM CT, ESPN Classic
Internet: ESPN3.com
"Their D-line is tops in our conference, and shucks, I'd put them up there with anybody else in any other conference," Alabama State coach Reggie Barlow said this week. "They get to the quarterback and they get a lot of sacks."
For Alabama State to win its first Southwestern Athletic Conference title since 2004 when the two teams meet today at 1 at Legion Field, its offensive line must contain Texas Southern, the nation's leader in sacks and tackles for loss per game.
TSU: QB Arvell Nelson Will Not Be Allowed to Play in SWAC Title Game
Birmingham, Ala. - FOX 26 Sports has learned the Texas Southern Tigers will play Alabama State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game Saturday without starting quarterback Arvell Nelson. TSU athletics officials have chosen not to allow Nelson to play.
In a statement from the school's athletics department, released to FOX 26 Sports, TSU explained its position, but did not go into detail.
"Texas Southern University has discovered issues regarding TSU quarterback Arvell Nelson and his ability to participate in the SWAC Championship game. Because of concerns, the university has decided not to allow Nelson to play in the game. "This will be the only comment released by Texas Southern and its representatives on this issue at this time.
Cole eager to turn the page, hopes to lead Tigers to SWAC title
BIRMINGHAM, Al. - Texas Southern coach Johnnie Cole closed the chapter between him and Alabama State back in October when the Tigers downed the Hornets in Montgomery. Cole and his brother, L.C., had been fired by ASU officials following the 2002 season and he had never gotten over it.
After TSU downed ASU 21-7 back on Oct. 2, Cole said he no longer had an ax to grind. That was the before the Tigers and Hornets won their respective divisions in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and qualified for today's championship game at Legion Field. Kickoff is 1:05 and the game will be carried live on ESPN Classic.
TSU's shot at SWAC title a long time coming
Championship would be first in SWAC since 1968
At one point during Tuesday's send-off for Texas Southern, the seniors were allowed to address the energetic crowd of fans assembled at Durley Field on the TSU campus. When linebacker Dejuan Fulghum's turn came, he spoke for an entire class of seniors that previously could only dream of competing for a Southwestern Athletic Conference championship.
"We've come a very long way," said Fulghum, this year's SWAC Defensive Player of the Year. "I've been here since the bad days, the 0-11 days. "There isn't any more of that at TSU."
The Tigers (8-3) ensured their former losing ways were a thing of the past by winning their final seven regular-season games to earn the program's first SWAC Western Division title and the right to challenge Alabama State (7-4) for the league championship today at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala. One of those final seven wins was a 21-7 decision over Alabama State on Oct. 2.
TSU's Fulghum receives SWAC's top defensive honor
Cole named coach of the year
Texas Southern’s Dejuan Fulghum and Johnnie Cole hauled in two of the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s biggest honors when they were named Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively, on Friday.
Fulghum, a senior linebacker, led the SWAC in sacks (nine) and was third in tackles (91) and tied with three others for sixth in tackles for loss (15). He also recorded an interception and two forced fumbles while helping TSU finish the regular season with the Football Championship Subdivision’s No. 2 defense.
“It’s a tremendous honor,” Fulghum said. “It was one of my individual goals as a player coming into this year, but I also have to attribute this award to our team’s success.”
With look of a champ, TSU vies for SWAC crown today
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Tyler native Willie Hopkins came to Texas Southern University in 1953 to get an education, to play football and baseball - student athletes had to play two sports in those days to earn a scholarship — and to be part of a budding but already strong winning tradition.
Killeen-born Dejuan Fulghum came to TSU in 2007 to get an education, to play football — he didn't have any other college scholarship offers — and to be part of a program in which winning was an unfamiliar concept.
Hopkins joined a team that was the defending Negro national college champion. Fulghum, who was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year on Friday, started every game as a freshman on a team that played 11 games and lost 11 games.
Johnnie Cole Named Coach of the Year
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Texas Southern coach Johnnie Cole was named the SWAC Football Coach of the Year as announced by the league office on Friday.
Cole has led his alma mater to its first-ever SWAC Championship Game berth and the first 8-win season at Texas Southern since 2000. The Tigers can tie the school record with a 9th win Saturday. Cole is finishing his 3rd season at TSU with a record of 18-16 with the Tigers. He is 33-32 in his 6th season as head coach for his career.
Solomon: TSU QB takes wrong turn, then finds his way
Arvell Nelson knows trouble when he sees it. He could look at an older brother, now in prison, or his best childhood friend, now on the same Ohio cell block as his brother, and see where street life would inevitably take you. No one thought Nelson would go that route.
But for some reason, after he had realized one of his dreams — becoming a scholarship athlete at a Big Ten school — Nelson started slipping.
The Cleveland native posed in silly but infamous photos posted on Facebook of teammates and him holding up cash and bottles of liquor. A few months later, in the spring of 2008, the then-19-year-old redshirt freshman was arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession and dismissed from the University of Iowa, where he would have contended for the starting job at quarterback that next season.
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