Late Field Goal Dooms PV Panthers In 18-15 Loss To Alabama State

A 47-yard field goal by Andrew Lyons with 23 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter lifted Alabama State to an 18-15 road victory over Prairie View A&M on Saturday evening at Blackshear Field.

Leading 12-7 early in the fourth quarter and about to receive another offensive possession, the Panthers gave Alabama State new life after a muffed punt by Prairie View’s Brandon Bell led to an ASU fumble recovery at the PV 23. Four plays later, ASU moved ahead 15-12 on quarterback Devin Dominguez’s 7-yard pass to Nick Andrews at the 10-minute mark. Both teams traded possessions throughout the quarter with the Panther defense making a big stand by stopping the Hornets on 4th-and-1 with 4:29 remaining.

Prairie View took advantage of the stop and managed to tie the game at 15-all on Brady Faggard’s 42-yard field goal attempt with 1:55 left on the clock. Alabama State responded on its ensuing drive and drove 50 yards to set up Lyons’ game-winning field goal.

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State Fair Classic: Prairie View A&M 35, Grambling State 32

Prairie View A&M gets first win over Grambling State since 1986

The clock was ticking down, and the Prairie View A&M players were jumping. The program had waited a long time to celebrate against Grambling State. So when the game officially ended with The Panthers on top, 35-32, they stormed the field and tossed up a banner in the rain. Horns blared. Quarterback K.J. Black waved a golden champions belt. For the first time since 1986, Prairie View (2-1) had defeated Grambling (2-3), and this wasn't a celebration. This was catharsis, soaking-wet catharsis.

"People here have been waiting on this a long time," Black said. Black fooled them Saturday at the Cotton Bowl's State Fair Classic. He fooled everyone. His fake, one that hadn't worked all game, sealed the victory. It was fourth-and-1 with 1:22 to go. The Panthers needed a foot. Run it up the middle, right? Instead, coach Henry Frazier called a play that would let Black decide his team's fate. He took the snap with the option to hand off the ball or run it outside. Black saw a linebacker coming and sprinted outside for a major gain. No one saw it coming. "That was all K.J.," Frazier said. Black capped off his big day after running for two touchdowns and throwing for two more.



GSU loses to Prairie View

DALLAS — Greg Dillon did what Greg Dillon does against Prairie View. It just wasn't enough this time, as Prairie View won an historic State Fair Classic, 35-32. The Panthers hadn't beaten Grambling State since 1986 --- and had only bested its Southwestern Athletic Conference divisional rival 11 times since 1950. "The ball bounces a lot of different ways, and that has determined the winner," Grambling coach Rod Broadway said. "Prairie View has been good since we've been here."

Last year, Dillon secured the starting position in GSU's dominating win at the State Fair Classic. He found his long-lost rhythm again against these Panthers --- exploding for 293 yards and 3 touchdowns, two in the air and one on the ground. But Prairie View had this game in hand from the first, jumping out to a two-score lead, and only briefly falling behind as Grambling came alive in the third-period to make it interesting with three quick scores. "If you want to be the champs," Prairie View coach Henry Frazier said, as GSU's players silently filed off the field, "then you have to beat the champs."



State Fair Classic Attendance: 42,786 @ Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas

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Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University Marching Storm Band @ State Fair Classic 10/3/09, Dallas, Texas

Hundreds Gather to Remember Beloved PVAMU Band Director

Video: Hundreds Gather to Remember Beloved Band Director

A different kind of athlete, calls the football field at Prairie View A&M University home. An athlete with a high step, and a bold drum line Varian Howard knows all too well. Howard says he would not have developed a love, for PVAMU band at an early age, if it hadn't have been for one man. "He was definitely a father and friend. Some of his teachings I hold dear to me to this day," says former PVAMU band member, Varian Howard.

Howard, along with hundreds of others returned to Prairie View A&M University to remember band director, George W. Edwards. The man affectionately known as "Prof Edwards" died May 28th after suffering injuries in a traffic accident. Friday, memories brought tears and smiles to the faces of many, as memories of discipline fill the hearts of others. "He taught us how to walk, talk, and act like royalty, cause he accepted nothing less" says Howard.

It's the type of expectation, Howard saw first hand in the seventh grade, while attending PVAMU's band practice. He says at that time he not only learned band principles, but meaningful life lessons. "As far as music, I mean your education, he was a very positive influence on me" says former PVAMU band member, Ernest Biggers. Biggers performed under Edwards direction more than 10 years ago.


"George Edwards will go down as one of the 7-8 top black college band directors of the last 60 years," said John Posey, CEO of Urban Sports News and HBCU band historian. "He is in the conversation with William P. Foster at FAMU; Isaac Griggs at Southern; Frank Greer at Tennessee State; Conrad Hutchinson at Grambling; and Eddie Ellis at Morris Brown & South Carolina State.

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George Edwards, 60, dies of injuries from car accident. A native of Chattanooga, Tenn., Edwards earned a bachelor’s degree in music at Florida A&M University and his master’s from Michigan State University.

George Edwards, director of Prairie View A&M University’s Marching Storm band, died Thursday from injuries sustained in a car accident earlier this month. He was 60. Former students — many of whom followed Edwards’ example and became school band leaders themselves — were stunned to hear that the man they called “Prof” was gone.

“Everybody is still in shock,” said Christopher Knight, a member of the Prairie View band in the 1990s who now teaches at M.C. Williams Middle School in Houston. “You always suspected Prof would grow old in the position.” The Marching Storm, with its drum line and Black Foxes dance troupe, has performed around the world, including the inaugural parade for former President George W. Bush in 2001 and the Tournament of Roses parade in January. Houston audiences may be more familiar with the clash between the Marching Storm and Texas Southern University’s Ocean of Soul, a highlight of the Labor Day Classic football game between the two historically black universities.



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State Fair Classic to honor Eddie Robinson

By KATE HAIROPOULOS, The Dallas Morning News

State Fair Classic
Prairie View vs. Grambling St.
6 p.m. Sat., Cotton Bowl

Ex-Grambling coach to be remembered before State Fair Classic

The legendary, late Eddie Robinson coached his final game at the Cotton Bowl a decade ago, on Oct. 4, 1997.

"Long live Dallas and the football fans," Robinson said then. "I am aware of the fact Eddie Robinson has had a good life in football, and I am a lucky man."

Saturday, Dallas will honor Robinson's memory at the annual Southwest Airlines State Fair Classic between Prairie View A&M and Robinson's Grambling State.

Robinson died in April at the age of 88 after a long battle with Alzheimer's.

His Tigers' 33-6 victory over Prairie View in 1997 was the 407th win of his career. He finished with 408, a national record when he retired at the end of the 1997 season after 57 seasons.

Dallas mayor Tom Leppert will present Robinson's widow, Doris, with a ceremonial award during Saturday's pregame show. She will be escorted by former Grambling player and coach Doug Williams, the former NFL Super Bowl MVP.

The Grambling and Prairie View bands, best known for their halftime battles, will perform together before the game to honor "Coach Rob."

"Coach Robinson, what he was able to do at Grambling is remarkable, and I don't think you'll ever see that again," said Rod Broadway, the first-year Grambling coach. "He's probably 40 or 50 years ahead of his time of how he was able to build that program, take a little, small town in northern Louisiana and put it on the national map."

As usual, Prairie View will be the underdog Saturday, having lost 19 straight to Grambling.

Grambling won 53-7 last year and has scored 50 or more points each of the last four meetings.

Grambling is 2-1 with wins over Alcorn State and Alabama A&M and a 34-10 loss at Pittsburgh. Prairie View is 2-1 with wins over Texas Southern and North Carolina A&T and a 12-2 loss last week to Southern.

Broadway, who came from North Carolina Centraland and is experiencing his first State Fair Classic, said the Tigers' dominance in the series doesn't affect Saturday's game.

That's something fourth-year Prairie View coach Henry Frazier III, who touted the program's rebuilding efforts, stressed Monday.

"We promise you," he said, "this year, you're not going to leave after halftime."

Southwest Airlines State Fair Classic: Prairie View A&M (2-1) vs. Grambling State (2-1), 6 p.m. Saturday, Cotton Bowl (pregame festivities start at 5:15)

Confident PVU comes to town undefeated

By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN, Advocate sportswriter

The last time Prairie View was 2-0 came in 2004 in its first two games under Henry Frazier III. That start, though, came to a crashing halt in the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, where Southern blasted the Panthers, 42-12.

“My first year, we were 2-0 and it didn’t matter,” said Frazier, who used that film, which he said showed the physical dominance of Southern, as teaching and motivational tools early on for his program. “Coach (Pete) Richardson and his staff don’t care about us being 2-0.”

Prairie View finds itself back at the same juncture, at 2-0 again, as the Panthers (2-0, 1-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference visits Southern (2-0, 1-0) at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Jaguars’ home opener.

Prairie View was last 3-0 in 1964, when the team went 9-0 and was the SWAC and black college national champion.

That’s also the last year PV had won consecutive games over Southern — winning three in a row from 1962-64.
“It’s the most experienced team he’s had,” Richardson said. “Individuals are buying into the system offensively and defensively. He’s got them excited and they’re playing hard. It’s a matter of them continuing to grow.”

Both teams want to find out how good they are and a showdown game like this will tell much.

Prairie View’s 2-0 start came against Texas Southern, which is 4-31 under Steve Wilson, and North Carolina A&T, which has now lost 18 consecutive games.

Southern, after going 2-0 and falling through a trap door of a 1-5 slide, isn’t taking any game for granted.

“It would be safe to say (PV is better), but we have a lot of football left to be played,” said Frazier, 13-21 at Prairie View.

“We do have better athletes. They’re in better shape. They understand the system a little better.”

Memories of Prairie View players gleefully taunting Jaguars after PV scored its first win over SU since 1971 serve as cautions for Southern.

“They understand what happened,” Richardson said. “There’s no personal vendetta. Our thing is to find a way to win. We know they’re improved.”

Prairie View didn’t follow up that stunner over SU, though.
The Panthers, 2-1 after that win, won just one more game.

Although PV had the best total defense and scoring defense in the SWAC, the Panthers’ weaknesses in special teams and the passing games hurt, leaving them with a 3-7 mark (after a promising 5-6 in 2005).

“Our guys showed we can play with the best in the conference,” said Frazier, whose team finished the season with a 13-7 win over eventual SWAC champion Alabama A&M.

Frazier said his staff harped on eight plays in the offseason, challenging players, “Are you working as hard as you can?”

Of PV’s seven losses, five were by a touchdown or less, including three games by three points and one by four.

The Panthers returned 55 lettermen and 16 starters for this season.

“They see we were right there,” Frazier said. “Now we have to finish what we started.

“We’ve laid out the plan as coaches. … We’ve got to ride it, see what happens. It’s going to be fun.”

Panthers honored

The Sports Network named Prairie View’s Val Ford as its Football Championship Subdivision national special teams player of the week for his returning of two blocked punts for touchdowns and making a tackle for a safety Saturday in a 22-7 win over North Carolina A&T. Previously, Ford was named the SWAC specialist of the week and Ford and Riante Jones, who blocked the two punts as well as a field-goal try, were College Sporting News’ national special teamers of the week.