Southern irons out wrinkles with first scrimmage of fall

Southern running back Gary Hollimon runs away from defense during scrimmage.

OK, so maybe fall classes haven’t yet begun at Southern University.

But by Saturday morning, the football program had time to do a little bit of simple math. Between Aug. 3 and Saturday morning, the team had practiced 11 times during preseason camp. Each session lasted about 2 1/2 hours. That, in theory, gave the Jaguars some 30 hours to improve by the time Saturday’s first scrimmage of the season got under way. So what else, exactly, did the Southern football team learn about itself by the end of the scrimmage?

Two things, in particular. No. 1: This week, when a few key starters recover from some minor setbacks, the team will probably look a lot better. No. 2: No matter who returns and who doesn’t, the Jaguars have work to do between now and their Sept. 5 season opener in Orlando, Fla., against Delaware State. “This was really the first time it was a game-type atmosphere for them. So it’s good to get the jitters out,” first-year coach Stump Mitchell said. “We do have two more scrimmages, and that’s a good thing that I’m taking.”

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Southern Notes for Aug. 15, 2010

SU puts it on the line with sprints

Weather shuffles Southern practice

Out on the practice fields at Southern University, where the football team has spent most of its afternoons for the past week, players are not permitted to place their hands on their hips. Or, for that matter, on top of their heads. As the new coaching staff dutifully (and sometimes loudly) reminds them, those movements convey a message to the opponent. “You keep doing that,” strength and conditioning coach Thomas Hall said, “you’re telling them you’re tired.”

One other thing: Even with above-average temperatures and triple-digit heat indexes, players cannot talk about the weather. Which made Monday afternoon awfully awkward. Coaches and players hit the field just after 3 p.m. Monday, gearing up for what was supposed to be SU’s first practice in full pads this preseason. At the time, the temperature was 96 degrees with a heat index of 109, making it the second-hottest day of preseason camp thus far. Of course, conditions didn’t stay that way for long.

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SU quarterback coach stresses details

Each afternoon, the quarterbacks at Southern University begin practice with something so simple, so routine, it’s almost an afterthought to everyone else. It wasn’t an afterthought to Ted White. White, the Baton Rouge native and first-year SU quarterbacks coach, watches carefully as his players speak. Or, more accurately, he listens. Is the timing right? Do they sound OK? Do the quarterbacks bob their heads too much? White watches, listens and instructs.

The quarterbacks’ cadence is important, he says — not just to them, but to the entire offense.

It’s one of those details that might help the Jaguars’ new pro-style offense go from being average to being great. “If you want to run any type of offense, and you want the offensive linemen and receivers and everyone else to get used to your cadence, you have to practice it every day,” White said. “That’s what they do in the NFL. That’s what they did when I played college football. You try to bring those experiences from everywhere you’ve been.”

To read The Advocate's Southern University Preseason page, Click Here.

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Southern Offense By Position Southern Defense By Position SU quarterback coach stresses details Southern Notes for Aug. 8, 2010

Southern ‘D’ holds early edge at camp

SU Jaguars defensive coordinator, O'Neill Gilbert.

Fresh from a pair of beatings after the first two days of preseason practice, Southern center Ramon Chinyoung spotted his nemesis in the parking lot of the A.W. Mumford Field House late Thursday night. Walking toward the double doors, Chinyoung locked eyes with defensive coordinator O’Neill Gilbert. “Hey, coach O’Neill,” he said, pointing at Gilbert with his helmet. “Nice job today.”

As the Jaguars geared up for meetings and looked ahead toward their third day of football practice — they plan to wear shoulder pads for the first time today — first-year head coach Stump Mitchell made something crystal-clear: During team drills, the offense did not live up to his standards. Gilbert’s defense did. Mitchell offered a tip of the cap. Gilbert’s reaction: pleased, but not satisfied.

“We need to get stronger; we need to get in better shape; and we need to get in the playbooks,” Gilbert said. “We still have a ways to go in terms of learning what we’re looking for in the defense. We haven’t arrived. We just need to keep on, day by day, getting stronger and faster and continuing to learn.”

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Southern coaches, players ready for fall camp

BATON ROUGE, LA - After a 17 year run, a new day is literally dawning on the bluff. New head football coach, Lyvonia "Stump" Mitchell, is set to welcome his first class to campus for fall preparation. The Jags open the 2010 season on Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 12:00pm in the Citrus Bowl versus Delaware State in the MEAC-SWAC Challenge.

Stump Mitchell and staff are set to welcome 90 players to the north Baton Rouge campus. "For us, as coaches, it's the most important time of the year -- other than when you're trying to recruit the players here," Mitchell said. "Spring (practice) was important, too, as far as us getting to know what we had. ... But this is where you really get to practice."

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First-time head coach Stump Mitchell, Karl Morgan taking over at SWAC schools

Mississippi Valley State University coach Karl Morgan has one of the more difficult task in the SWAC in rebuilding the Delta Devils football program.

BIRMINGHAM, AL -- It's always been someone else's canvas, someone else's paint and brushes. It's belonged to Mike Holmgren and Jim Zorn and Terry Bowden. It's been Terry Donahue and Gene Stallings and Bobby Ross with the canvas. It's different now, going from assistant coach to head coach, after going from player to assistant coach. You're the artist. It's your canvas.

"The biggest thing," Stump Mitchell said, "you have to take a look at the picture and see what color you need to use, what you want to draw." "You've got control," Karl Morgan said. "I'm not a control freak, but whatever happens, good, bad or indifferent, you'll have a bigger part of it."

Mitchell and Morgan are the two new head coaches in the Southwest Athletic Conference, which held its annual media day Tuesday morning. Mitchell, an assistant coach in the National Football League for the past 11 years, is the new coach at Southern University. Morgan, a former captain of the UCLA defense, takes over at Mississippi Valley State. They bring to the SWAC an amazing stat that's likely not surpassed in any league. Half of the 10 SWAC head coaches are former NFL players.

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Southern's Mitchell eyes options at quarterback

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — As Southern University’s first-year football coach, Stump Mitchell gets plenty of questions. Usually, they’re of the let’s-get-to-know-this-guy variety. What will his program be like? How does he plan to attack a defense? And, naturally, can his team beat Grambling in four months? But as training camp draws near — the Jaguars are 13 days away from their first practice, but who’s counting? — Mitchell often is hit with one of the old preseason favorites.

Who will be the starting quarterback? Speaking at the Southwestern Athletic Conference media day Tuesday, Mitchell said he thinks he has the answer. But he’s not about to call the race when the gates haven’t opened yet. “I think it will be (Jeremiah) McGinty, but I don’t know,” Mitchell said. “Whoever plays quarterback, we’re going to win. That’s the bottom line.” The Jaguars head to training camp without a proven quarterback for the first time since 2007, when then-sophomore Bryant Lee edged Warren Matthews for the starting job.

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SWAC coaches pick A&M, Prairie View

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — How often does history repeat itself? It depends on the piece of history in question. In the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s preseason poll, released Tuesday at the league’s annual media day, voters predicted that Prairie View and Alabama A&M — last year’s division champions — will meet again at Legion Field in the championship game.

As for Southern ... well, voters apparently aren’t sold on a quick turnaround from first-year coach Stump Mitchell. The Jaguars will finish fourth, according to the poll. “That’s fine,” Mitchell said. “We know that others’ expectations for us aren’t the same as our expectations for us. We’re just going to focus on playing each game and trying to win them all.” Of course, SWAC preseason polls are not often clairvoyant.

In 2006, voters selected Alabama A&M and Southern as favorites to win their respective divisions. They were half-correct: Alabama A&M won the Eastern Division and reached the championship game, but Arkansas-Pine Bluff won the West. The following summer, Alabama A&M and Arkansas-Pine Bluff were preseason favorites. Voters went 0-for-2, as Jackson State and Grambling reached the SWAC title game.

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Southern QBs to toss new balls

When he arrived at Southern University six months ago, first-year coach Stump Mitchell started to assess and review almost everything within the football program. Eventually, he even inspected the footballs themselves. Mitchell changed those, too.

When the Jaguars report for fall camp Aug. 3, they’ll break in a new set of footballs — the result of a new deal brokered between Mitchell and Wilson Sporting Goods Co., the Chicago-based firm that manufactures game balls for the NFL, not to mention thousands of other high school and college programs.

Mitchell said he made the move with two things in mind — quality and efficiency. “We’ve got to cut expenses around here. Everything is in cost-cutting mode at Southern,” Mitchell said. “So I had an opportunity to let our quarterbacks throw the Wilson. They liked it, and we just made the switch.” In recent years, SU had deals with Nike and Spalding, but the team was only allowed so many footballs per season. “With Wilson, we can get as many balls as we need,” he said. “The opportunity was afforded to me, and it worked out.”

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2010 MEAC/SWAC Challenge Tickets Now On Sale

ESPN Regional Television (ERT) has announced that tickets for the 2010 MEAC/SWAC Challenge football contest between Delaware State University and Southern University (La.) on Sep. 5 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, are now on sale through Ticketmaster and Anthony Travel.

Individual game tickets are $20 (plus tax and fees), and can be ordered by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or logging on to www.ticketmaster.com. Fans can also purchase travel packages through Anthony Travel's web page at www.anthonytravel.com or by calling 1-800-736-6377.

Delaware State University is also working with Anthony Travel on MEAC/SWAC Challenge packages for students, alumni and other Hornet fans. Information on the DSU packages can be obtained by logging onto http://www.desu.edu/meacswac-challenge or www.DSUHornets.com. The DSU travel packages include admission to Disney attractions.

The MEAC/SWAC weekend will include step shows, a career fair, parade and battle of the bands. Delaware State University will also host a tailgate and "fan center" in Orlando.

This will be Delaware State's first appearance in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, which pits a top team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference against one from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Southern will be making its second appearance in the challenge. The Jaguars defeated the MEAC's Florida A&M 33-27 in 2007 in Birmingham, Alabama.



Delaware State is 2-0 all-time vs. Southern. The Hornets, led by first-year head coach Bill Collick and All-American John Taylor, defeated the Jaguars 46-8 in 1985 in Baton Rouge, La. The teams met again the following year in Shreveport, La., with the Hornets coming out of top, 21-14.

The 2010 MEAC/SWAC Challenge will air on ESPN/ESPN HD and ESPN3.com. This will mark the first time this event will be televised on ESPN.

For more information about the MEAC/SWAC Challenge and for access to its Facebook page, please visit the official website: www.meacswacchallenge.com. Fans can also stay up to date on the event via Twitter: www.twitter.com/MEAC_SWAC.

Ex-QB Randall among 11 Southern University Hall inductees

As the sun dropped behind the Mississippi River late Saturday afternoon, scores of sharply attired Southern University alumni trickled into the Smith-Brown Memorial Union. Inside, Charlie Granger, chairman of the SU Sports Hall of Fame committee, sat on the edge of the dais, slowly, steadily directing some late traffic — folks who bought tables at the last minute or honorees who brought an extra family member. By the end of the day, Granger said, there were more people than tables, which made this event a success. Somehow, it all worked — and the best was still to come.

Long after the attendees dined, shared stories and listened to live jazz, they shared their loudest applause of the night for Eric Randall — star quarterback of the SU football team from 1992-95, one of the evening’s 11 inductees and now an assistant principal at Baton Rouge High. Hearing cheers long after he led the Jaguars to two Southwestern Athletic Conference titles, Randall made a strong, short speech, thanking nearly everyone in the city. But on the night before Mother’s Day, he gave high praise to three women in particular.

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Southern basketball class grows by two more

Southern University men's head basketball coach Rob Spivery.

All too often, during a long, grim season for the Southern men’s basketball program, Rob Spivery watched his offense disappear for minutes on end. The result was predictable. All too often, Southern lost. “There were times last year when we just couldn’t buy a basket,” said Spivery, who enters his sixth season as SU’s coach. So as the offseason began, Spivery made his top priority Spartan simple: He vowed to recruit a few scorers. In adding to his signing class Tuesday, Spivery said he believes he has found two more: Mike Celestin, a 5-foot-11 point guard from Mount Laurel, N.J., and Fred Coleman, a 6-5 forward from Memphis, Tenn.

Celestin spent last season at Trinity-Pawling, a prep school in New York, where he averaged 17.0 points, 4.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. He will have four seasons of eligibility. oleman spent the last two seasons at Marion (Ala.) Military Institute, where he averaged 12.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. He will have two seasons of eligibility. Celestin and Coleman join Arsenio Francis, a 6-foot-4 forward from Baton Rouge Community College; Marceis Davis, a 6-4 guard/forward from Richwood High in Monroe; and Lloyd Hickerson, a 6-6 forward from Western Nebraska Community College.

“I think all these guys we’ve brought in, they have that scoring element to them,” Spivery said. “I think we’ve got a pretty good crew.”

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Southern WR Stewart waits for call

Southern University's star receiver Juamorris Steward shakes off tackle by Florida A&M's Jason Beach.

Think Brandon LaFell had a long wait? Think about this. LSU’s star receiver didn’t go in the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday night, like he hoped. But he got a call the very next night, when the Carolina Panthers let him know they’d take him with their third-round pick. Meanwhile, Southern wideout Juamorris Stewart waits. And he waits. Realistically, he didn’t expect a team to take him during Thursday’s first round. That was a pipe dream. Friday’s second and third rounds weren’t likely, either. But today, he waits.

He’s gunning to be the first Southern player taken in the draft since 2004, when cornerback Lenny Williams went to the Buccaneers in the seventh round. If the forecasters are right, he might be a fifth-round pick. Or sixth. Or seventh. Or not at all. But if he’s worried about his NFL fate, the laid-back, joke-a-minute Stewart has done a fine job of hiding it. “I don’t get too much sleep, but that’s not because I’m nervous. That’s just how I am,” he said. “But I’ve been talking with a lot of teams, and I’m just looking for an opportunity.”

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Southern University Mitchell set to go 'Stumping Thru the South'

Although first-year Southern football coach Stump Mitchell has already earned a reputation as a workaholic — players and other coaches have noticed his car in the A.W. Mumford Stadium parking lot late at night and early in the morning — Mitchell has also become something of a man about town. During basketball season, he regularly watched games inside the F.G. Clark Activity Center. Last week, he threw out the first pitch at softball and baseball games, and for much of the past two months, he has checked in on Roger Cador’s team at Lee-Hines Field.

Saturday afternoon, Mitchell and some of his players volunteered their time and muscle, moving hurdles and equipment during the Davenport-Milburn Pelican Relays. For the rest of the month, however, Mitchell will become a man about several towns. Following through on a promise he made earlier this spring, Mitchell confirmed he’ll join the Southern University Alumni Federation on “Stumping Thru the South,” a tour through six cities in Louisiana and Texas later this month, with two more dates in May.



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Southern University women dominate in sprints

Friday night, as the first day of the 51st annual Davenport-Milburn Pelican Relays wound down, only a few dozen people filled the stands at A.W. Mumford Stadium. By Saturday morning, the west side of the stadium was almost full, packed with parents, coaches, fans and loads of high school, college and club teams who came for the second day, when the event picked up steam. Were anybody so inclined, he could have watched 11 hours of track and field.

One of the day’s highlights, however, came during college sprints, where the Southern women dominated a field that included Grambling, Mississippi Valley State and Southern-New Orleans. One day after sweeping the women’s 200-meter dash, the Lady Jaguars swept the 100 meters. Jazzmin Sims finished first with a time of 12.05 seconds, followed by Lambreche Odeh (12.29) — running in the 100 for the first time. Teammates Sierra Richard (12.59) and Kayante Parker (12.81) were third and fourth, respectively.

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Stump Mitchell Interviews with ESPN

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Stump Mitchell with Moscona 4-7 PART 2

Stump Mitchell with Moscona 4-7 PART 1

Southern U preps for busy home sports weekend

A big athletic weekend is on tap on the bluff, as the Southern track and field, baseball, softball and tennis teams will all be in action. The 51st Annual Davenport/Milburn Pelican Relays will be held on Friday and Saturday at A.W. Mumford Stadium on Roscoe Moore Track. Friday events kick off at 4 p.m., and Saturdays events start at 9 a.m. Five collegiate women's and men's teams, along with 10 high school girls and boys track teams are set to participate in this annual event at Southern University. Cost for the event is $5 for adults, and children under 10 are free.

It is Throwback Weekend at Lee-Hines Field, as the Southern Jaguars will battle in-state rival Grambling State in a three-game series. Southern has hosted Grambling for its annual throwback weekend in every year but one, and the weekend has grown to include vendors, exhibits and visits from the likes of the legendary Negro Leaguer Buck O'Neil.

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SU football coach Mitchell focused on players' grades

Wednesday night, as he drove through Baton Rouge from one errand to the next, Southern football coach Stump Mitchell discussed priorities for the offseason. Nearly three months have passed since he took over, and in that time, he hired a staff of assistants, evaluated the current roster, instituted a winter workout program, signed 34 recruits and navigated the Jaguars through 15 sessions of spring practice — most of which happened before sunrise.

Nearly four months stand between now and the start of preseason training camp. Still, Mitchell said his No. 1 priority — improving the players’ grades — hasn’t changed. “We’re settling in now as coaches, and we’re getting an opportunity to learn these young men. They’re learning us, too. I think that’s more important,” Mitchell said. “These guys understanding that they’re going to get an education first. We’re not going to allow them to just get by so we can win a football game. It doesn’t mean that much to me.” Of course, winning football games still means quite a bit to Mitchell, and for the players, it’s not all about exams and research papers.

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Rebuilding effort begins at Southern

United and confident, the Southern men’s basketball team rolled into Hammond on a cool, breezy December night, ready to build on a bit of success. The Jaguars were coming off their best effort of the young season: a five-point home win over the University of New Orleans that was supposed to serve as a blueprint for the rest of their schedule: Work hard, play defense, rebound, and win games down the stretch.

But four days later, when the bus pulled up the University Center, a blowout awaited. From the opening tip, Southeastern Louisiana ripped Southern apart. The Jaguars changed defenses. They took timeouts. They tried different players. Nothing worked. By halftime, Southern trailed by 18 points. By the final buzzer, a small but happy crowd cheered as two walk-ons came off the bench in the final few minutes in a 94-48 disaster. It only got worse from there.

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Prairie View to play football in Shreveport

2009 SWAC champions Prairie View A&M has signed a two-year agreement to play a football game in Shreveport's Independence Stadium during the 2010 and 2011 football seasons, The Times has learned. The Panthers will play Southern University this fall and Jackson State next fall on the opening weekend of the State Fair. This year's game is set for Oct. 23.

"We are very excited to bring this event to Shreveport and Bossier City," Prairie View athletic director Fred Washington said. "We currently play Grambling during the Texas State Fair and draw in excess of 40,000 people for that. We're hoping for that type success here with all of the support we've already received." The contract is a three-way partnership between the Shreveport Regional Sports Authority, Prairie View and the State Fair of Louisiana. SRSA executive director Mary Ann Tice said the contract can be renewed for two more seasons with Prairie View playing the same two schools.

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Interview with SU football coach Stump Mitchell

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