Turkey Day Classic: ASU ends Tuskegee's 26-game win streak

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85th Annual Turkey Day Classic

Another Turkey Day, another Classic shocker. Alabama State came into Thursday's 85th Turkey Day Classic with a season's worth of disappointment and bad breaks on its back. Tuskegee entered riding an era of good fortune. As the fourth quarter wound down and the Golden Tigers marched down the field toward a potential game-winning touchdown, another Hornet heartbreak seemed almost written in stone. But this time, there was no ASU implosion. There was no cruel twist of fate. For once, ASU (3-8) got the breaks. And the Golden Tigers got the heartbreak.

Three Tuskegee passes into the end zone in the final seconds all fell incomplete. Then the fourth was intercepted, and the Hornets had shocked Tuskegee 17-13, winning their first Classic in four years and snapping the Golden Tigers' 26-game win streak. "This means everything -- it was just so important for these kids and these coaches," said ASU head coach Reggie Barlow. "Our guys fought so hard in this game, and they never gave up. That says something about them. It's hard to even put this into words." The Tuskegee (10-1) players and coaches were equally speechless, but for very different reasons.

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Attendance: 20,567 at Cramton Bowl, Montgomery, Alabama

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BAYOU CLASSIC: Grambling defense in championship form

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Grambling 29, Southern 14
Bayou Classic 2008 you cam I
Bayou Classic 2008 Halftime Show
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NEW ORLEANS, LA – Southern staggered Grambling State’s feared defense with two touchdowns in the first quarter of Saturday’s Bayou Classic. But that early flurry was all Southern could muster. Grambling produced four takeaways, three scoreless quarters and knocked Southern quarterback Bryant Lee out of the contest in a 29-14 win at the Superdome. "Sometimes games start off like that," linebacker Keefe Hall said. "But that’s why we play four quarters."

The victory was the first in a Bayou Classic for second-year coach Rod Broadway and propels the Tigers into the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game in Birmingham against Jackson State on Dec. 13. "It meant more than just bragging rights this time," said Carroll product Desmond Lenard, who had a fumble recovery and an interception in the win. "It meant that if we win, we go to the SWAC championship. It feels real good to win this game." Grambling won its ninth game in a row with an MVP-performance from sophomore quarterback Greg Dillon, who rushed for 136 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries and completed 9-of-13 passes for 151 yards and another score.

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Attendance: 59,874 at New Orleans Superdome

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2008 Bayou Classic Battle of the Bands - Grambling vs. Southern

Grambling State University Marching Tigers Band

Southern University Human Jukebox Marching Band

Thousands pour into New Orleans for Bayou Classic

Tens of thousands of people are pouring into New Orleans, and by the end of the weekend, they will have pumped millions of dollars into the New Orleans economy. The Bayou Classic is no ordinary game, and no ordinary event for New Orleans. A classic football rivalry between Grambling State and Southern University means one massive party in the city.

"GSU will win tomorrow. What's the score? It will be 30-12. Grambling State University, of course," said Rickey Burton. He and his wife Phyllis have been attending the rivalry game every year since he graduated from college in 1974. The festivities center around events at the Superdome. Friday night, the annual Battle of the Bands and Greek step show was the big draw, and adding a hint of New Orleans flavor was the Mardi Gras Indians as the event opener. The events draw thousands of fans.

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Bland scores 25 to lead A&T over Buffalo

Ta'Wanna Cook scored 21 points, seven assists and four steals in the Lady Aggies victory over Buffalo.

GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Amber Bland led a quartet of double-figure scorers for N.C. A&T on Friday night as the Aggies defeated Buffalo in the second contest of the Lady Pirate Invitational inside Minges Coliseum. A&T improved to 2-2 on the season while the Bulls fell to 3-3. Bland, the MEAC preseason player of the year, paced the Aggies with 25 points while Ta'Wanna Cook added 21 points, seven assists and four steals to lead the Aggies to an 85-76 win.

The Aggies play East Carolina Saturday night at 7 for the championship.

"After seeing this team on film all week, we felt like we matched up well with them,'' said A&T coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs. "We knew they had several shooters on their team and that they passed the ball really well, but we knew if we played good defense, we could disrupt what they like to do on offense. Our young ladies came through tonight and I'm proud of the way they got after them on defense. If you let a team like that run their offense with out badgering them, they will pick you a part."

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Voice of experience says S.C. State Bulldogs can win it

There's two and a half decades between the last one and this one. There were close chances in some years. Others weren't so close. Today, the South Carolina State University Bulldogs will take their place among the nation's elite in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) playoffs. It's been 26 years since the Bulldogs were last in postseason play. It was 1982. Ronald Reagan was president. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album had just hit the store's shelves and a postage stamp was only 20 cents. It was also the senior year for Orangeburg businessman Sidney Fulton, the owner of Popeye's restaurant on Chestnut Street.

In 1982, Fulton was coming off his own championship season. While he was at State, Fulton and his teammates captured three MEAC football titles. Fulton himself was voted All-Conference three times and All-American once. He is in the SCSU Hall of Fame. Fulton knows what the Bulldogs face in three-time defending national champion Appalachian State. "They wouldn't be App State and they wouldn't have a talented team if they weren't excellent," Fulton said.

South Carolina State Bulldogs Coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough is a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award.

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Bayou Classic, always important, has rarely meant more to Grambling

GRAMBLING, LA —- For all the talk this year about tiebreakers and coin flips, Grambling’s goals are actually quite simple: Win and you’re in. A victory in the Bayou Classic ensures GSU’s berth in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game for the sixth time in 10 editions. If only it were that simple.

“People around here,” second-year coach Rod Broadway was saying this week, “live and die with this game.” On two memorable occasions since the establishment of the SWAC title match, it was the latter. Grambling entered this emotional season-ending rivalry game against Southern in 1999 and again in 2003 needing a win to advance to Birmingham. Both times, GSU lost.

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