By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN, Advocate sportswriterJacobs to fill in
Southern University has confirmed with the Southwestern Athletic Conference that its top offensive playmaker, wide receiver Gerard Landry, will have to sit out the first half of Saturday’s home game with Tennessee State, SU coach Pete Richardson said.
Landry was ejected for fighting after throwing a swing at a Prairie View player with 8:16 left in the fourth quarter.
According to Rule 9-5 of the NCAA rulebook, the penalty is “disqualification for the remainder of the game and the first half of the next game.”
“We called (SWAC Interim Commissioner Duer Sharp) and, in fact, I’ve got a fax back from him,” Richardson said.
SU (3-0) hosts Tennessee State (2-1) of the Ohio Valley Conference at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Landry leads Southern with both three touchdowns — one in each game — and 172 yards (on 12 catches).
“I’ll be ready to go,” said Landry, who has a catch in 28 consecutive games.
Senior RaShon Jacobs will start in place of Landry at the “X” receiver position.
“He’s about the same type of receiver,” Richardson said. “He catches the ball well, and he can knock some folks around.”
Jacobs has three catches for 53 yards. He averages a team-best 17.7 yards per reception.
Jacobs did not play last season after transferring from Louisiana-Monroe. Though he practiced last year at SU, he was held back in preseason camp after injuries to both feet, a chipped bone on the ankle in April and a fractured bone during camp.
“I think I’m OK. I’ll just go out there and play, take advantage of the opportunity,” said Jacobs, a three-sport star at Woodlawn High School who played football and basketball for three years at ULM. “I have to go out there and continue what I’ve been doing, make plays when I have to. That’s it.”
Chinyoung ineligibleSophomore center Ramon Chinyoung will be ineligible this season, Richardson confirmed.
Chinyoung’s process seeking to be declared eligible ended this week.
Chinyoung was to have been the team’s starting center. He finished in that role last season as a true freshman.
Instead, senior Demarcus Stewart, who started at center at the beginning of last season, has been Southern’s starting center this season. Stewart would have been the starting right guard, but Reuben Oliver moved inside from tackle to handle that role.
Chinyoung is the sixth offensive linemen to be ruled academically ineligible, joining junior guard Adrian Banks, junior tackle Allen Buckner, senior guard Jacoby Collins, freshman guard Joshua Keelen and sophomore tight end Joshua Nixon.
Also, freshman guard Brian Bridges practiced during preseason camp while awaiting a decision from the NCAA Clearinghouse, which rendered him a nonqualifier. Plus, three other signees who play offensive line are nonqualifiers this year.
Williams out for season
Richardson said sophomore Tremaine Williams, a reserve cornerback, is resting at home after having knee surgery Monday. Williams is out for the season. He severely injured the knee on kickoff return coverage in the third quarter Sept. 8 against Mississippi Valley State.
Richardson said Williams, who missed last season as a nonqualifier, will require additional surgery in six weeks.
Richardson said his staff was trying to find out if Williams could take correspondence courses for this semester.
Watch these two
Tennessee State senior cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Southern free safety Jarmaul George are both on the Buck Buchanan Award Watch List. The award honors the top defensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision.
Rodgers-Cromartie, a preseason first-team FCS All-American selection by The Sports Network, had six interceptions and five pass breakups last season and has eight tackles, three breakups and two blocked kicks this season.
Rodgers-Cromartie is also one of the best track athletes in the OVC.
TSU defensive backs coach Randy Fuller told The Tennesseean newspaper Rodgers-Cromartie could be a first-round pick in the NFL draft. If so, he’d be TSU’s first first-rounder since linebacker Waymond Bryant went to the Dallas Cowboys with the fourth pick of the 1974 draft.
“He’s a guy, when we needed a play to be made, he’s made that play,” Tennessee State coach James Webster said.
George, a preseason second-team FCS All-American selection and the SWAC’s preseason defensive player of the year, had 51 tackles, five interceptions and 10 breakups last season and has 20 tackles and two interceptions this season.
Notes
SU sophomore CB Ronald Wade will be out two more games. He is serving a three-game suspension for violating team rules. That suspension started Saturday. A Cincinnati Bengals scout stopped by SU on Tuesday.
