TSU seeks offensive reboot after 2-win season

HOUSTON, Texas -- Wins have been slow to come by for Michael Haywood in his first two seasons as head coach at Texas Southern. The Tigers have won six times in that span and are coming off a 2-9 season in which they lost their first seven games.

“We’ve been in a losing funk the last couple of years and want to turn things around,” Tigers junior middle linebacker Julian Marcantel said. “We want to change the culture.”

Haywood has been changings things up a bit and in the offseason made two additions to his staff. Morris Watts, who Haywood said has been his mentor since 1995, is the new coordinator of an offense that averaged 17.5 points a game in 2017. Michael Slater, who comes from Arizona State, is in charge of the defensive line, a position the Tigers have addressed with several promising newcomers.

Offensively in the SWAC last year, TSU ranked seventh in scoring, eighth in offense (270.8 yards per game) and eighth in passing offense (144.3), going 2-5 in league play.

“I didn’t feel like we were unified and all on the same page last year,” said Haywood, who was head coach at Miami (Ohio) from 2009-2010.



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