READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.
HUNTSVILLE, AL - The men's soccer program at Alabama A&M will be cut after this season, The Times has learned. Sources says budget cuts have forced athletic officials to drop the program, which is an NCAA Division I independent and not sponsored by the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which A&M is a member.
It didn't take long for T.J. Lawrence to make a decision on where he'd be going next after getting his release from University of Florida last week. Lawrence, a former Kathleen High School star receiver, made a surprising announcement Wednesday that he will be suiting up for Florida A&M's football team this season while also getting his baseball career started back up with the Rattlers. “It's a big shocker because a lot of people wouldn't expect Florida A&M University, but I'm going there to be a two-sport athlete,” Lawrence told The Ledger in a phone interview. The redshirt sophomore said FAMU “kind of popped up” on his radar a couple of days after he got his release from UF, and he's looking forward to competing for a starting spot on the football field right away at the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) level. He'll also be looked at in the return game as well.
“I think that excites me more than anything the fact that I'm going to play this year because I've been waiting like forever,” he said. “That's the biggest excitement, the fact that I get to play with players I played with in high school and players I played against in high school.” Lawrence will be reunited with former Kathleen teammate Adrian Smith, who is also a receiver at FAMU. “I'm actually moving in with him,” said Lawrence, who will be in Tallahassee on Friday.
READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.
The T.J. Lawrence Story:
Within moments of the ball leaving Te'Shon Burton's hand, all 6 feet 3 inches and 195 pounds of Marcellos Wilder soared high above Jackson State's scorching practice field. A moment later, the junior receiver came tumbling down - the ball securely in hand.
When Stump Mitchell came to Southern University and brought in a new group of assistant coaches, linebacker Gary Chatman figured he’d have to make a few adjustments. Then he saw the new playbook. Hello, adjustments.
Former Bear Dakari Taylor-Watson will travel to Malaysia for 10 months to teach English to secondary scholars as a Fulbright Scholar. (Courtesy Photo/MSU Sports Information).
Dr. Earl G. Yarbrough Sr., President, Savannah State University
The Grambling State Tigers opened their fall camp on Saturday in preparation for the team's season opener on Sept. 4 against Louisiana Tech in Shreveport. The Tigers' camp, though, was somewhat overshadowed by the news on Friday that Grambling quarterback Greg Dillon's request for a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA was denied.
DOVER, DE -- Andre Caroll checks in at around 280 pounds.
Johnson C. Smith’s offense is under close inspection. After scoring an average of 18.7 points per game last season, the Golden Bulls have a new offensive coordinator in Maurice Flowers and nine returning starters. The most scrutinized of the lot will be quarterback Ryan Carter, who completed 97-of-182 passes for 1,024 yards and eight touchdowns in 2009.
Former Richmond Raiders Tedarrius Wiley, left, and his brother Derrick Wiley are quarterbacks on the South Carolina State 2010 football team.
All summer Joe Taylor could only go on second-hand information about the condition of the players on the Florida A&M football team. Taylor finally got a close up Tuesday as the team began preseason workouts. Under a blistering mid-afternoon sun, the Rattlers ran the 40-yard dash, a shuffle over 20 yards and zig-zag runs through cones. They will return at 6 a.m. today for more testing before starting walk-through drills later in the day. Tuesday's start impressed Taylor.
Time and again this summer, Southern University’s first-year coach has done the exact opposite. He has done it with three words: Twelve and zero. “That’s the goal,” he said. “We want to go 12-0 this year, and we think at the end of the season, we’ll be 12-0.”
As Winston-Salem State tries to settle into a groove in the early days of preseason football practice, Coach Connell Maynor is leaning heavily on veteran players. Linebacker Shawn Kearney and defensive back Marvin Bohannon, both redshirt seniors, are leading an 88-man roster that has plenty of new faces -- a move that Maynor calls natural because of their experience.
Not long after Mike Caldwell began coaching in the NFL, he was invited by Joe Taylor to talk with his football team. Taylor himself had a few questions, including one about what Caldwell would have done differently if he had to return to coach on the college level. The response from Caldwell, who coached several college teams, was pretty simple. More walk-through practices.
LORMAN, MS — Alcorn State head coach Earnest Collins noticed a big difference on the Braves first day of fall practice Thursday — more players. And Collins said that should have a big impact on the kind of season the Braves will have in 2010. “Last year we came into camp with 70 some odd players, which is not enough,” Collins said. “Now we’re about to capacity, and I feel a lot better about it.”
TSU Tigers Coach Rod Reed
Winston-Salem State hasn't changed its style on defense much, said new coordinator Kienus Boulware. Mike Ketchum, now the defensive-line coach, was the coordinator the past five seasons. "What Coach Ketchum's defense was based on last year is very similar to what we have this year," Boulware said. "He had more three-man fronts, but in the package we are running now, we have some of the same stuff."
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.”
After Donovan Rose's first season as head coach at Hampton University ended in a 5-6 mark and the Pirates' first losing record since 1996, a few shakeups took place. Most notably, a new, yet familiar, offensive coordinator is now calling plays in one of several changes on Rose's coaching staff. The tweaks will be tested right away, as HU opens the 2010 season at I-A Central Michigan on Sept. 2. Here are five key questions going into that game:
Ricky Carson, a former teammate of Jerry Rice at Mississippi Valley State, is now the head football coach and athletic director of NAIA Texas College.
READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.
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. 
