First-year Valley coach dealing with tough 0-14 start

The schedule was successful, raising about $550,000 in guaranteed payouts, almost twice as much as the previous record. But--at the cost of a 0-13 record for the Delta Devils and first year Coach Sean Woods.

The losses for Mississippi Valley State's first-year coach Sean Woods have come with such regularity, even he's having trouble keeping count. "I never thought my coaching career would start at 0-13," Woods said Monday during a presentation to the Greenwood Rotary Club. Actually, the Delta Devils' season-opening string of defeats ran to 14 Saturday, when Valley dropped its preseason SWAC opener to Arkansas Pine-Bluff.

Woods, who starred as a player at one of the nation's premier basketball powerhouses, the University of Kentucky, isn't used to such futility. "When you lose that many games in a row ... you forget how to win," Woods said. Woods, 38, inherited two major obstacles when he took over in July as the head coach, replacing James Green, who had moved on to Jacksonville State.

The cupboard of talent was fairly bare, with only three players returning from last year's SWAC championship squad, and not much time to replenish it. And he was handed a killer non-conference schedule - the third toughest in the nation, according to Woods. Except for the season-opener against Tennessee-Chattanooga, all of the other dozen non-conference games were played on the road.

CONTINUE READING, CLICK BLOG TITLE.

NEXT: The Delta Devils will host Alabama A&M at 7:30 p.m., Saturday

ASU 47, MVSU 7: Hornets gain 1st victory of season

Photo Galleries:

• ASU plays Miss Valley for homecoming
• ASU Hornet Walk
• ASU Pep Rally

After opening the season with three straight losses, the Alabama State football team needed something to go right. Enter Mississippi Valley State: the cure for every strug­gling football program. The Hornets (1-3, 1-0 in the SWAC) turned in their most dominating performance in years, as they breezed to their first win, 47-7, at Cramton Bowl.

"(The first three weeks have) been rough on us," ASU head coach Reggie Barlow said. "We needed (this game) bad. We needed the good feelings. We needed the confidence. This was very good for us, very good for our offense." It was very bad for Valley. For three hours Thursday night, the Delta Devils provided a clin­ic on how not to play organized football. And ASU took full advan­tage.

CONTINUE READING, CLICK BLOG TITLE.

Homecoming Attendance: 7,783 (31.8%) at Cramton Bowl, Montgomery, AL (Capacity: 24,500).

MVSU Totten retools attack

After 3-8 season, coach changes offense to better suit quarterbacks' abilities

Following an off-season of change in Willie Totten's Mississippi Valley State program, the Delta Devils seem set on a quarterback who can lead their offense. For now. That honor belongs to junior Ryan Burciaga. But if last year - when the team started three different QBs because of injuries and ineptitude - is any precursor, who knows how that'll wind up.

For the former quarterback Totten, whose Delta Devils open with Texas College on Aug. 30, the uncertainty at that position is troubling. Especially when the talented Paul Roberts, anointed as the starter as a freshman last season, is now the third-stringer. "It's a challenge for him," Totten said. "Either way you want to stay third string or you push up to challenge as the starter." MVSU ranked dead-last in the SWAC in total offense last year.

CONTINUE READING, CLICK BLOG TITLE.