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Showing posts with label Coach Stump Mitchell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coach Stump Mitchell. Show all posts
Baton Rouge, Lousiana -- Twenty-one months ago, when the Southern University System Board of Supervisors approved a three-year contract for Stump Mitchell, one of its members had a question.
Darren Mire, then the board’s vice chairman, wondered aloud why Mitchell’s contract included a $10,000 bonus for winning the Bayou Classic — the same amount Mitchell would receive for winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference title.
Greg LaFleur, then the school’s athletic director, had an easy answer. “Because if you don’t win that game, you’re liable to get fired,” LaFleur said with a laugh. Mitchell has coached in two Bayou Classics since then. Last year, Grambling thumped the Jaguars 38-17.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana -- As Southern football coach Stump Mitchell noted last week, his wasn’t the only team to engage in questionable activity lately. Yes, a fight broke out after the Jaguars lost at Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Oct. 15. Yes, the Southwestern Athletic Conference suspended 16 Southern players and 25 UAPB players.
Maybe something’s in the air this month. On Oct. 14, Baker High and Parkview Baptist engaged in a third-quarter brawl. So did Bastrop and Carroll. Last week, a Georgia high-school coach, David Daniels, was beaten with a football helmet as he and his Warren County team returned to their locker room after a 21-2 victory over Hancock Central.
And the Pac-12 Conference suspended 10 players for their roles in a fight Thursday during the UCLA-Arizona game.
Nevertheless, Mitchell said, he’s doing what he can to convince players that fighting isn’t worth it, regardless of circumstances.
Baton Rouge, Lousiana - In the final moments of Saturday’s 22-21 loss at Arkansas-Pine Bluff last week, Southern coach Stump Mitchell had to make two crucial decisions. One of them was right on the money. One wasn’t.
With 2 seconds left, the Jaguars were down by seven points and had the ball at the UAPB 11-yard line. Southern lined up for a play, and UAPB took a timeout - ostensibly to take a longer look at the Jaguars’ offensive formation.
Mitchell then called for a throwback screen to Sylvester Nzekwe, which gave the Jaguars the touchdown they needed. The call, and the players’ execution of it, fooled the defense enough for Nzekwe to beat a lone defender and sneak inside the left pylon.
That, in turn, left Mitchell with another tough decision: Should he go for an all-or-nothing two-point conversion? Or try for the extra point and overtime?
Baton Rouge, LA - After a 21-6 victory against Alabama A&M last weekend, Southern is preparing for the biggest home game in Coach Stump Mitchell's two seasons, as Jackson State comes to A.W. Mumford Stadium for a 6 p.m. game Saturday.
"It's going to be a big game," Southern quarterback Dray Joseph said. "No matter where the game is located, when it's Jackson State versus Southern, it's important. We could be playing this at a high school stadium, and the magnitude of the game would still be great."
Jackson State (2-0, 0-0 SWAC) was picked to win the SWAC's Eastern Division in the preseason and returns Walter Payton Award finalist and preseason SWAC Player of the Year Casey Therriault, a senior quarterback.
Baton Rouge, LA - Southern University football players report for preseason camp Wednesday intent on restoring pride to their program. In years to come, they’ll fly across the country for big games against big teams, who will presumably cut some big paychecks.
SU coach Stump Mitchell said his program has agreed in principle to play two future away games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents - New Mexico in 2012 and Georgia in 2015. Yes, that’s correct: The University of Georgia.
“This class we’re bringing in right now - a lot of them will be (fifth-year) seniors when we play there,” Mitchell said. “These guys understand we have to take care of business now. But for them, that year is when they’ll go from being a young pup to a grown man.”
Mitchell said that without a permanent athletic director, he has taken temporary responsibility of scheduling future games, though he added that Chancellor James Llorens “has to sign off on it.”
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Southern football coach Stump Mitchell on Monday confirmed the loss of nine full scholarships spread among 19 players - the result, he said, of NCAA penalties brought forth because of SU’s substandard score in the Academic Progress Rate. Mitchell, however, said the team had yet to lose any players because of the predicament.
The blow was announced on the eve of this year’s Southwestern Athletic Conference media day and less than two weeks before his team starts practice, Aug. 4. Southern was susceptible to harsh penalties because its football team had a history of substandard APR scores.
The APR is a rolling four-year system that measures classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I team. Teams scoring below 925 can face penalties, and teams scoring below 900 are subject to “severe” penalties.
Baton Rouge, LA - Chadwick Germany said when he took over as head coach at Capitol High Academy, he hoped it would lead to a college job. He got what he wanted.
Germany said Friday he has left Capitol to become quarterbacks coach at Southern University, where he’ll try to improve the Jaguars’ passing attack and strengthen their recruiting efforts in Baton Rouge, where they failed to sign a single recruit this season.
“(Friday) is my first day at Southern. Thursday was my last day at Capitol,” Germany said.
“When I got the job at Capitol, my plan was to stay five years, and I wound up staying six. The goal was to have a chance to coach on the college level, and I’m getting that Southern. I’m excited about it. I’ll also be recruiting the Baton Rouge area, and hopefully I can find a niche there.” That’s what Stump Mitchell has in mind.
Baton Rouge, LA - Repeating this week what he’d stated several times already, Stump Mitchell said his first season at Southern University didn’t exactly go as planned.
“I wanted to win every game here last year. I thought we could have done that,” said Mitchell, whose first season as the Jaguars football coach ended with a 2-9 record — the worst in school history. “I thought we could’ve been successful. What I didn’t know was the habits of the players. Some habits, they take a long time to break.”
Mitchell enters the second year of his three-year contract with SU, and Tuesday afternoon, even Mitchell conceded he needs a notable turnaround to prove his program is on the right path. Still, Mitchell said he’s undeterred, and very happy to be at Southern.
“We needed to break some bad habits,” he said. “Most of the guys are beyond that. Most of the guys are beyond making excuses for not getting something done. And they’re starting to get things done.”
Baton Rouge, LA - Last summer, when Stump Mitchell boldly predicted his Southern football team could go undefeated, he didn’t exactly win over rival coaches. When his team fell disastrously short, finishing 2-9 ... well, he obviously didn’t win over the Jaguar Nation.
Still, as this summer begins and Mitchell prepares for his second year at SU, you have to feel a little sympathy. No, seriously.
Thursday afternoon, Southwestern Athletic Conference presidents and chancellors voted to keep SU and Jackson State from participating in the league’s championship football game, essentially expanding a one-year postseason ban handed down by the NCAA. Now, some three months before the season begins, Mitchell has to find a way to motivate his 18-to-23-year-old players — to give them reasons to keep fighting on every down, in a season that can’t possibly end with a title.
Baton Rouge, LA - This was a good way for Casey Narcisse to announce his grand return. Friday night, long after sunlight had disappeared from A.W. Mumford Stadium, the Southern football team had one more play left in its final spring scrimmage.
Narcisse, a short-but-large defensive tackle who takes pride in playing with passion, suffered a torn knee ligament last October in a loss to Prairie View — one of many losses in Stump Mitchell’s first season as the Jaguars coach.
Back in action after surgery and rehab, Narcisse found himself in the flat, near the sideline, where a pass from quarterback Dray Joseph was zeroing in on tailback Dallas Fort. All at once, the ball, Fort and Narcisse met.
The Southern University football team will wrap up spring practice with its final scrimmage at 6 p.m. Friday in A.W. Mumford Stadium, and make no mistake:
The Jaguars have plenty of questions to answer if they plan on improving.
They’re coming off a 2-9 record in their first year under Stump Mitchell, finishing last in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division.
They came into the spring with two new assistants — offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Gerald Carr and defensive line coach Tayrone Odums.
The Southern football team will wrap up spring practice with its final scrimmage at 6 p.m. Friday in A.W. Mumford Stadium.
The Jaguars, coming off a 2-9 record in their first season under Stump Mitchell, started spring practice Feb. 21 with two new assistants: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Gerald Carr and defensive line coach Tayrone Odums.
Southern has also practiced without several veterans, including quarterback Jeremiah McGinty, who’s nursing an injury to his left (nonthrowing) shoulder.
SU opens its schedule next season Sept. 3 in Nashville, Tenn., against Tennessee State.
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Videographer: AaronMychael; 2011 NFL Draft Prospect Jordan Miller - DT - Southern U. Pro Day
The Southern University football team has long played in the Bayou Classic, matching up with rival Grambling every year. Now, the Jaguars will head east to play in the Bank of America Atlanta Football Classic.
100 Black Men of Atlanta announced Wednesday that Southern and Florida A&M will square off Sept. 24 in the annual game.
First played in 1989, the Atlanta Football Classic matches Historically Black Colleges & Universities in the Georgia Dome. Southern and Florida A&M have both played in the game, but it’s the first time they will face each other in it. The halftime show features a battle of the bands.
Organizers of the Atlanta Classic ensured the revival of one of the oldest rivalries in college football Wednesday afternoon when they officially announced Southern University as Florida A&M's opponent in the September game.
The games between the two programs go back to the years when Ace Mumford coached at Southern and Jake Gaither at FAMU. When the Jaguars and Rattlers meet on Sept. 24 it will be their first since 2008.
Both teams signed a four-year deal in 2007, but had been able to keep the agreement because of conflicting commitment to their conferences. The 100 Black Men of Atlanta have signed both teams to a two-year deal to play in the annual Classic
Stump Mitchell, quite naturally, wants to win more than two games in his second season as Southern University’s football coach. Apparently, his team won’t grow fat on weak opponents. SU’s schedule for 2011 includes three games in NFL stadiums, home games against big rivals and a first month that looks like a doozy.
Southern opens its season in Nashville, Tenn., against Tennessee State in the John Merritt Classic at LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans.
After that, the Jaguars face Alabama A&M and Jackson State on back-to-back Saturdays, followed by an appearance at the Georgia Dome in the Atlanta Football Classic, against an opponent to be announced later (Florida A&M University Rattlers).
September
3 Tennessee State Nashville, Tenn.
10 Alabama A&M Baton Rouge
17 Jackson State Baton Rouge
24 Florida A&M Atlanta Football Classic Atlanta October
1 at Mississippi Valley State Itta Bena, Miss.
8 Prairie View Baton Rouge
Since elementary school, we’ve all known that, like snowflakes and fingerprints, no two words in the English language are identical. With that in mind, it’s important to remember that “memorable” does not always mean “enjoyable.”
Take, for example, the 2010 football season at Southern University. For fans and alumni, it was rarely enjoyable. But it was, indeed, memorable.
It started with the hiring of a bold new head coach in Stump Mitchell, who vowed to instill discipline in the SU program and, of course, win. A lot. The Jaguars, he said, had enough talent on hand to go 12-0. Instead, they won two times in 11 games, clinching their first nine-loss season in school history.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
BATON ROUGE, LA — Greg LaFleur chuckles a little bit, almost as if he knew the questions were coming. Does he regret hiring Stump Mitchell as coach? Did he pull the trigger too soon on Pete Richardson, who won 105 games, a national championship and five SWAC championships in 17 seasons at Southern?
Southern’s athletic director has sat through a difficult season, watching the crown jewel of his department — football — and the good friend he hired as coach struggle to a 2-8 record and a last-place finish in the SWAC Western Division.
Yes, of course it’s still a big game. It is, after all, still Southern and Grambling.
At 1 p.m. Saturday in the Superdome, the two archrivals meet for the 37th Bayou Classic — and while attendance has lagged over the past few years, and even though both teams are out of the running for the Southwestern Athletic Conference football title, none of that will probably mean much to the coaching staffs and players at kickoff time.
Videographer: Realwidit5 (GSU Homecoming Half-Time Show 2010)
Southern defensive tackle Jordan Miller peered across the ground floor of the Superdome late Monday morning, sneaking a peek at the main attraction for this year’s Bayou Classic.
There he was, neatly attired in a black sweater, with a mustard-gold “G” on his chest: Mr. Frank Warren, the leading rusher in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, a running back whom Prairie View coach Henry Frazier III once referred to as a “stud, plain and simple.”
NEW ORLEANS — By the time Stump Mitchell strolled into the Superdome, just before 10 o’clock on a beautiful Monday morning in this city of second chances, the New Orleans Saints logos had already vanished from the playing field.
A team of workers and their paint-removing chemicals had taken care of that, and with five days to go until the biggest game in black college football, the crew had started to transform this giant building into a place fit for the Bayou Classic, which, as always, gets under way at 1 p.m. Saturday, with a national television audience looking in.
Videographer: Wayla2010 (Southern University Marching Human Jukebox, 11/8/2010)
NEW ORLEANS — During last season’s Bayou Classic, then-freshman quarterback Jeremiah McGinty walked up and down the Southern sideline, watching fifth-year senior Bryant Lee run for his life against a dominant Grambling pass rush.
McGinty assumed that the next time the Jaguars played in the Superdome, he’d be the one in charge, trying to lead the Jaguars toward better results. Evidently, at the end of an up-and-down season, he’ll get that chance after all.
RUSTON — Grambling's championship hopes were on life support after the team's 41-34 overtime loss to Texas Southern on Nov. 11, and any remaining hope was dashed when Texas Southern beat Arkansas-Pine Bluff 20-13 on Saturday to clinch the SWAC's Western Division.
So there will be no championship for Grambling (8-2 overall, 7-1 SWAC) in 2010. But by no means does that mean the Tigers' season is over.
It is as routine and predictable as a punt on fourth-and-long: Coaches, whenever they face an underdog in a rivalry game, tend to heap truckloads of praise on the other team, hoping to keep their own players focused.
That, indeed, was the routine Monday for Grambling fourth-year coach Rod Broadway, who said Southern’s 2-8 record is deceiving. “I’m telling you: When you look at Southern on tape, they’re a better football team than what their record indicates. They really are, and I’m not blowing...
How did Southern coach Stump Mitchell measure his team’s progress after the Jaguars lost to Alabama State last weekend? Inch by microscopic inch, and flag by flag. Yet again, penalties were his topic du jour Monday. In a 21-19 loss at A.W. Mumford Stadium, Southern committed two crucial penalties in the final 16 seconds.
The first was a personal foul after the Jaguars scored their last touchdown, bringing them to within two points. Their two-point conversion attempt started at the 18-yard line, and SU failed to score.
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Videographer: Realwidit5
Videographer: gridiron111 Grambling State Fight Song
Fight for dear ole Grambling Fight, we're gonna win Light The Torch of Victory We will win this game, RAH RAH RAH
FIGHT for dear ole Grambling Fight, we're gonna win There's no doubt that we are The Pride of the USA!!
Southern quarterback Jeremiah McGinty learned a tough lesson during Saturday night’s 21-19 loss to Alabama State: What you see isn’t always what you get.
McGinty, who entered the Southwestern Athletic Conference game in the second quarter in hopes of sparking Southern’s offense, threw two interceptions — mistakes that free safety Kejuan Riley said his defense baited McGinty into attempting.
“I think he underestimated us,” said Riley, whose defense held McGinty and Dray Joseph to a combined 13 of 41 passing for 128 yards.
At long last, toward the end of a long, ugly, disappointing season, they seemed ready to deliver in crunch time. Instead, like so many times before, the Southern Jaguars were done in by a piece of yellow fabric.
Saturday night, in the closing moments of their 21-19 loss against Alabama State, some 8,482 fans watched the Jaguars struggling offense put together a strong fourth-quarter scoring drive when they absolutely needed one. They scored with 16 seconds left. They came within a two-point conversion of tying the game.
There were improvements on the field this week despite the fact that Southern University seemed to do just enough to stay out of the win column for the fifth consecutive week. Penalties and special teams play haunted the Jaguars, who still got a standout defensive effort before falling to Alabama State 21-19 Saturday night at A.W. Mumford Stadium.
The offense, which struggled a week ago in a loss to Texas Southern, sputtered for a half, but produced two long fourth-quarter scoring drives. Starting quarterback Dray Joseph was lifted in the third quarter as Southern coach Stump Mitchell decided to shake up his lineup.
It’s been a long time since Southern had a record like this. And the Jaguars haven’t had a record like this very often. Saturday night at A.W. Mumford Stadium, Alabama State handed SU its eighth loss this season with a 21-19 victory.
It is the first time Southern has lost eight games in one season since 1981, when the Jaguars went 3-8 in Otis Washington’s first year as coach. Washington went 8-3 the next season and finished 35-30-1 in six years as Southern’s coach.
First quarter
SOUTHERN: LaQuinton Evans 9 pass from Dray Joseph (Josh Duran kick) at 10:09. DRIVE: 3 plays, 36 yards, 1:15. KEY PLAYS: A long punt return by Richard Wilson allows Southern to start at the ASU 36-yard line. Joseph hits wideout Corderious Gregory on a 27-yard gain down the seam. Evans scores on a simple slant pattern. Southern 7, Alabama State 0.
BATON ROUGE -- Considering that Southern entered Saturday night's game against Alabama State last in the SWAC in penalties, it shouldn't be a surprise that penalties cost the Jaguars a win against the Hornets.
Southern (2-8, 1-7 SWAC) scored a touchdown with 16 seconds left, putting itself a two-point conversion from tying the score at 21. But fullback Brian McCain was called for a personal foul, pushing the Jaguars back 15 yards for their conversion try.
When Southern’s football team came out the locker room after halftime Saturday night at A.W. Mumford Stadium, the goal was to close a 13-point gap against a brutally physical Texas Southern football team. The Jaguars believed they could do it. They had faith.
“The coaches told us to keep fighting. We weren’t out of the ballgame,” safety Anthony Wells said. “They told us to keep mistakes to a minimum and play hard.”
Southern needed a spark, a turnover, a big special-teams play. Something. Anything. Nothing good happened. By the end of the third quarter of a thoroughly convincing 54-7 blowout, the pep in Jaguars’ step was long gone and so were most of the 8,329 fans who bothered to show up.
Call it intuition, call it foreboding. Whatever it was, the smallest crowd of the season was on hand to watch the most lopsided home loss for Southern University in recent seasons, a 54-7 defeat at the hands of Texas Southern.
Texas Southern brought in the second-ranked defense in the Football Championship Subdivision, and the Tigers acquitted themselves nicely. Southern’s offensive statistics all came in below the meager averages already allowed by Texas Southern.
This was not the way Southern intended to make history. In dominating the Jaguars 54-7 on Saturday night in A.W. Mumford Stadium, Texas Southern earned its most lopsided win in the history of the TSU-SU football series, which dates to 1946. Before Saturday, the Tigers’ largest margin of victory was 37 points, achieved in a 37-0 win in 1972.
Think Southern’s 54-7 loss to Texas Southern on Saturday night was bad? Linebacker Shomari Clemons said it should have been worse. “We could have held them to zero points, we could have held them to a goose egg,” said Clemons, the LSU transfer who scored the first of Texas Southern’s two defensive touchdowns — outscoring Southern’s offense. His defensive teammates agreed.
First quarter TEXAS SOUTHERN: Shomari Clemons 3 fumble return (Robert Hersh kick) at 14:08. KEY PLAYS: On Southern’s third play from scrimmage, defensive lineman Jonathan Hollins, a Redemptorist graduate, sacks quarterback Dray Joseph, forcing a fumble in the process. Clemons, a former LSU player, scoops up the fumble and walks into the end zone. Texas Southern 7, Southern 0.
Texas Southern has spent much of this season fighting to earn respect. Southern, a once-proud program, is doing all it can to keep the respect it has left. Thus, it will be an unusual matchup when the two Southwestern Athletic Conference programs meet today in Baton Rouge, La. TSU (5-3, 5-1 SWAC) has won four consecutive games and remains on track to challenge Grambling State for the SWAC Western Division crown. The Tigers have the SWAC’s No. 1 and the Football Championship Subdivision No. 2 defense (223.6 yards per game) to go with a power rushing attack (232.8-yard average the past five games) that continues to stymie defensive coordinators.
The Southern Jaguars have lost three consecutive games and sunk into last place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference's Western Division. That's the bad news for the Jaguars. The good news? Well, there's not much good news — at least not this week. Texas Southern (5-3, 5-1 SWAC) brings a four-game winning streak into Mumford Stadium in Baton Rouge to face Southern (2-6, 1-5). "They are one of the best defenses in the SWAC and in the country when you talk about statistics," Southern coach Stump Mitchell said. Worth repeating: Johnnie Cole In a teleconference earlier this week, Texas Southern coach Johnnie Cole discussed Saturday's game against Southern, the rise of his football program and an upcoming showdown against Grambling, likely for control of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division: The Wright change
Marcus Wright employs a simple yet effective rushing style, a method which has transformed Texas Southern’s offense. “I’d rather hit them before they hit me,” said Wright, who is listed at 5 feet-10, 210 pounds. Strong words for a running back, but his coach, Johnnie Cole, said he can shoulder the load. So much so that Cole, whose offenses are known for their passing, opted for the change in philosophy midway through the season.
You first meet Roddrell Stewart — a massive fifth-year senior guard, a mainstay of the Southern University football program, a jolly young man with a neatly trimmed beard, an ever-present grin and no visible neck — and you see any number of things.
You see a natural-born character. He is a 6-foot-3, 315-pounder whose size is only outmatched by his personality. Think of a cross between Keenen Ivory Wayans and George Foreman, and you’re in the ballpark.
Baton Rouge, Lousiana -- Twenty-one months ago, when the Southern University System Board of Supervisors approved a three-year contract for Stump Mitchell, one of its members had a question.
