NCAA comes down hard on TSU football

Houston, Texas - Texas Southern will lose 14.78 of the 63 football scholarships allowed for the 2011-12 school year because of its historically low performance under the NCAA’s Academic Progress Report formula, and an athletic department administrator said TSU could post a perfect APR score for the next two years and still run the risk of more sanctions because of past failures to retain and graduate football players.

TSU, which won the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s 2010 football title but dismissed coach Johnnie Cole this spring as it awaits the results of an NCAA probe that could include evidence of academic irregularities, suffered the most severe hit, in terms of lost scholarships, of any program sanctioned by the NCAA for APR shortcomings. Its football practice schedule will be cut from 20 hours per week to 16.

Across all sports, 103 programs received postseason bans, practice reductions or scholarship cuts. That group included NCAA Division I men’s basketball champion Connecticut, which will lose two scholarships...



Videographer: TexSouthern; TSU Commencement 2011 - Speaker John Silvanus Wilson, Jr., Part 1&2.

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Road trip helps TSU learn to handle adversity

 SWAC Championship, Dec. 11-Texas Southern vs. Ala. State 

Texas Southern men's basketball coach Tony Harvey was understandably fatigued when he and the team returned to Houston on Saturday. The Tigers had completed a six-game road trip to open the season, ending it with Friday's 84-60 loss at No. 4 Kansas State. They made stops in four states. And they did so with three key players out.

Senior forward Travele Jones and senior guards Harrison Smith and Justin Ray are ineligible because of compliance issues. The loss of Jones, the preseason Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year, is especially painful, as he was the team's leading returning scorer (13.7 points per game).

TSU Cole Talking Contract

After leading TSU to an 8-3 regular-season record and its first berth in the SWAC championship game, football coach Johnnie Cole stands to receive a raise and an extension of the four-year contract he signed after being hired in December 2007.

Athletic director Charles McClelland said Friday that the two sides would sit down after the Dec. 11 SWAC championship game to discuss the situation.

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Tennessee State shocks FAMU

The bus ride home to Nashville was a whole lot more fun than the ride back to Tallahassee, as Tennessee State shocked Florida A&M 29-18 in the Atlanta Football Classic on Saturday.

While it was bit of a surprise that Tennessee State won, what was startling was just how dominant it was over a team that had a better record this season and an eight-game win streak in this series. Tennessee State’s Preston Brown ran for a career-high 233 yards, which was also an Atlanta Football Classic record.

Big-game tested and accustomed to winning at the Georgia Dome, the Rattlers were surprisingly lifeless from the start. They had no answers for Tennessee State’s relentless pressure, as the Tigers sacked FAMU quarterbacks an astonishing 11 times

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• Atlanta Football Classic: FAMU-TSU

Tennessee State's Preston Brown sets Classic rush record

ATLANTA — Thanks to 11 sacks and Preston Brown's 233 yards rushing, Tennessee State broke an eight-game Atlanta Football Classic losing streak to Florida A&M 29-18 on Saturday at the Georgia Dome. Brown set an Atlanta Football Classic rushing record and equaled the third-best effort in TSU history.

"This is huge," first-year TSU Coach Rod Reed said. "One of the benchmarks for this program was beating Florida A&M. We came here ready to play this. I'm so proud of these gentlemen." On the game's second play, a crowd of 54,202 saw Brown take a handoff and race 71 yards up the middle for a touchdown.

Tennessee State runs past FAMU in Atlanta Classic

ATLANTA — So much for the win streak that Florida A&M had in the Atlanta Classic. The Rattlers played an uninspired first half and Tennessee State's running back Preston Brown was unstoppable all afternoon to carry the Tigers to a 29-18 victory in front of 54,202 at the Georgia Dome.

Not since losing to TSU by 20 points in 2001 has FAMU been beaten this badly by the Tigers. Ironically, that was the last time TSU beat FAMU. TSU exposed FAMU in every phase on an afternoon when the Rattlers were plain flat.

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Things looking up at Texas Southern University

Texas Southern University athletic director Charles McClelland has released a statement that Texas Southern and Prairie View A&M will play the 2010 Labor Day Classic at 4 p.m. Sept. 5 at Reliant Stadium. The game had been originally set for Sept. 4.

If the 2009-10 sports season is an indication, the turnaround of Texas Southern's athletic program is gaining steam. TSU's campaign officially ended last week when the baseball team fell in the semifinals of the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament. The Tigers set a school record for total wins (30) and conference wins (18) en route to capturing the SWAC's Western Division title.

The baseball team's season capped a year full of notable accomplishments for TSU. The football squad finished 6-5 for its first winning season since 2000. The men's basketball program improved to 17-16 from 7-25 the year before, advancing to the SWAC tournament final and falling one win short of its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2003. The softball team went 21-20 for its first winning season since 2002 and first Western Division title since 2000.

The Tigers faltered in some areas, notably women's soccer and the track and field programs, but Charles McClelland sees encouraging signs heading into his third year as athletic director. “The ironic theme is that approximately 90 percent of our student-athletes will be returning for next year's competition, so we're a young athletic program and a program that has made tremendous strides,” McClelland said. “We're extremely happy and positive about the direction that (we're heading in) after only two years.”

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TSU has offense for title run

Healthy Heffner holds hopes for Tigers

Tennessee State Coach James Webster drew laughter from the crowd and a bit of fear from opposing coaches while fielding questions at the Ohio Valley Conference Football Media Day at LP Field on Tuesday. Webster made a bold prediction when the subject turned toward the health of senior quarterback Antonio Heffner, who suffered a broken ankle against Eastern Kentucky in the seventh game of the season last year.

"A healthy Antonio?" Webster pondered. "Well, that's an OVC championship." Webster might not be too far off about the potential of his talented dual threat quarterback. Prior to his injury, Heffner led the conference in passing (212.3 yards per game) and total offense (260.4 yards per game). In his seven games in 2007, Heffner managed to complete 96 of 171 passes for 1,486 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also rushed for 337 yards and three touchdowns on just 94 carries.

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Former OSU QB Reid may get to come to Texas Southern University

Photo: Quarterback Bobby Reid,6-3/235 Junior, Galena Park North Shore High School, Houston, Texas

Former Oklahoma State quarterback Bobby Reid has declared for the National Football League Draft. However, he tells FOX 26 Sports if Texas Southern University is successful in its request for a transfer waiver from the NCAA, Reid says he may pull his name from the Draft and use his final year of college eligibility at TSU in his hometown of Houston.

"I'm fired up about it," Reid said. "If I gotta go, I'm going to go and take care of business the way I know how and try to bring a championship to TSU." Reid graduated in December from Oklahoma State with a degree in Education. He was replaced by Zac Robinson as the Cowboys starting quarterback two games into the 2007 season. He faces a Jan. 19 deadline to remove his name from the NFL draft should he choose to continue his college career and he says TSU is the only school he will consider.

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During his career at OSU, Reid played in 27 games throwing for 3,143 yards and 27 touchdowns. He also ran for 654 yards and five touchdowns. He ranks third in career passing touchdowns with the Cowboys and eighth in passing yards.

Photo Show: Jackson State University vs. Texas Southern University

Peay-TSU rivalry didn't die despite gap

Photo: Austin Peay's Terrence Holt returns a kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown against Bethel in the first quarter of the Governors' season opener. Holt, a freshman who was recruited by Austin Peay and TSU, said Saturday's game is 'a big deal.'

By JAMES D. HORNE, Gannett Tennessee

CLARKSVILLE — Terrence Holt may understand the renewed football rivalry between Austin Peay and Tennessee State better than anyone.

The current Austin Peay freshman, and former Maplewood standout, was recruited by both schools.

The Govs won that competition.

But won't be the last matchup between Austin Peay (2-0) and TSU (1-1).

The teams last met in 1996, a 38-14 TSU victory. The rivalry will be renewed Saturday at 6 p.m. in Governors Stadium.

The two schools met every year from 1988 to 1996 with TSU leading the series 6-3.

"We're right up the interstate from each other," said Holt, a wide receiver and kick returner, who took a kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown the first time he touched the ball this season. "Being so close, we (team members from Austin Peay and Tennessee State) sometimes run into each other, and especially when I go home, so it's a big deal. A lot of friends are going to be playing against each other. We've both been practicing hard, so whomever has practiced the hardest will come out on top."

And the atmosphere surrounding the Ohio Valley Conference opener for both teams makes it seem like there hasn't been an 11-year break.

For the Govs, who left the OVC and dropped scholarship football after the 1996 season, it will be their first OVC game in 11 years. Austin Peay's last OVC contest was a 55-24 win over Tennessee Martin on Nov. 23, 1996.

Already a rivalry

"It's a great rivalry to start with because they (TSU) are only 40 miles away and there's a lot of Tennessee State fans in Clarksville, and a lot of people here who have ties to Tennessee State," Govs Coach Rick Christophel said. "Plus, we're going to recruit in Nashville, so that will help build the rivalry over the years. Hopefully, it will be something good, something big and something the fans will really enjoy."

Check that, the Govs and Tigers are rivals, if you ask TSU Coach James Webster.

"We don't think it (this game) has a chance to be a rivalry, it is a rivalry," he said. "It has all the makings of a rivalry, and that makes it a rivalry. They want to beat us and we want to beat them."

TSU has 10 Nashville natives, and Austin Peay has 15 players with Nashville ties.

"This is a big game," said sophomore free safety Tremayne Townsend, a Brentwood Academy graduate who has 10 tackles.

"With our being 2-0 and getting back into the OVC, that makes it a big game, too. A lot of people are coming up just to see what I can do."

The Sgt. York Trophy will go to the winner of the round-robin series between Peay, Tennessee Martin, TSU and Tennessee Tech.