Grambling State serves an athletic dose of humble pie to Arizona 'Cats

TUCSON, Arizona -- Traditionally, FCS schools aren’t supposed to have two advantages over Division I schools, better athletes and better players. For a large portion of Saturday night’s football game against the Arizona Wildcats, Grambling State appeared to have both.

Ironically, the Grambling State University Tigers, imposed their will on the Wildcats through their defense, using the same 3-3-5 defensive scheme that former Arizona defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel was run out of town for. The difference, Grambling played tougher and faster than the Arizona the entire first half, stopping the Wildcats on several fourth-and-short situations.

On the offensive side of the ball for the Tigers, quarterback DeVante Kincade, a transfer from Ole Miss, was near impossible to tackle and played every bit the part of a legitimate SEC signal caller. Kincade was 15-of-19 for 193 yards and two touchdown passes before pulling up lame in the second quarter with an apparent leg injury. “You can see why I tried to recruit him, he may be the most athletic quarterback we face all year, he is just, wow!”, said Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez. Kincade wouldn’t return and it would end up costing the Tigers dearly in the second half.

Between the third and fourth quarters the Tigers turned the ball over four times in a row and a total of six in the second half, leading to 28 consecutive points resulting in a 31-21 win for Arizona. “They took advantage of our mistakes, that is what good teams do … at the end of the day you just can’t turn the ball over like that.”, said Grambling State head coach Broderick Fobbs after the game.

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