Grambling's next step: Operate like champions

GRAMBLING, Louisiana — Grambling's start to 2017 began just as it ended — the champions of black college football.

For players, and to some extent the coaching staff, Grambling is basking in the glory of an HBCU national championship, the program's first since 2008 and the first under coach Broderick Fobbs, who is leading a transformation from the ground up.

But just a few days after a Dec. 17 win over North Carolina Central in the Celebration Bowl to earn the label as the top HBCU team in 2016, Fobbs was already in his office with his mind set on 2017. There, he visualized the information he will later use in a PowerPoint presentation for the 2017 season. Preparations to repeat as champions began last week with staff meetings.

"2017 is more about motivating to be who we should be. Now that we’ve been crowned as the champions, now we have to walk in it and be in it," Fobbs said. "If you’re going to be the champion, you have to operate that way. You have to carry yourself that way. You have to do all the necessary things the right way if that’s what you are. A champion eats a certain way. A champion walks a certain way. A champion works a certain way. That’s what we have to get across to our players."

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