FAMU football team pleased with depth at quarterback

Tallahassee, FL - Tyler Bass knows the wacky things that could happen in a football game, especially to quarterbacks. He saw a lot of it in his freshman year at the University of Memphis.

As best Bass, now a backup quarterback at Florida A&M, could recollect, three upper-class quarterbacks ahead of him went down in one game. He got the call to finish the fourth quarter of the game with East Carolina holding an insurmountable lead.

Such a scenario might not play out at FAMU with Austin Trainor as starter, but if Rattlers coach Joe Taylor should ever have to realize a coach's worst fear about his quarterback, he just might not have much to worry about.

For the first time in more than seven seasons, FAMU has a talented trio of backup quarterbacks. Taylor had been living on the edge with...

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Choose Jackson State University

JSU's McDonald making push to regain backup role

Jackson, MS - Dedric McDonald began his quest of regaining the spot as Jackson State's backup quarterback Sunday. For the first time in camp, he practiced full speed and donned shoulder pads.

McDonald, who was awaiting medical clearance to practice, lost the starting quarterback job to Casey Therriault last fall camp. He'll spend this one battling for the No. 2 spot with ex-Callaway QB Mark Thigpen and Tevin Chapman.



"It's going to be a great battle," coach Rick Comegy said. "It's exciting to see."

Comegy said Chapman, a sophomore from Hattiesburg, emerged as the No. 2 QB after spring drills. "That's how we felt," Comegy said. But the coach doesn't expect McDonald, a junior, to be the Tigers' No. 3 or 4 when the season opens ...

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S.C. Bulldogs return to the practice field today

Orangeburg, S.C. - South Carolina State will resume preseason football practice Monday evening at 6:40 p.m., following a day away from the field Sunday. The coaching staff and players used the day off to attend church services at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church.

The players also got in some light work in the weight room and some rehab with the Bulldog sports medicine staff.

The Bulldogs were scheduled to practice twice on Monday, however, head coach Buddy Pough gave his team the morning off. S.C. State will also work out on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m.

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Defense runs rampant in Tennessee State University scrimmage

Nashville, TN - The one thing Tennessee State did well last season was run the football. But the Tigers couldn’t do it during Saturday night’s scrimmage. The defense prevented the offense from getting into any type of rhythm for the better part of the scrimmage and left Coach Rod Reed with mixed emotions.

“We’ve got to start fast,” Reed said. “Offensively we didn’t wake up until way later in the scrimmage. The defense came out with good intensity and got after them. While I wasn’t happy with the way the offense started, I was pleased with the way the defense stopped the run. Any championship defense has got to be able to stop the run.”

The defense held the offense to 32 yards on the first 12 running plays. The defense also forced three-and-outs on the first three possessions and allowed only a field goal on the first 10 series. The offense didn’t score a touchdown until the 12th series.

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TSU Aristocrat of Bands performs at Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday, August 8, 2011. The band had also performed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton on the preceding Saturday and Sunday in support of TSU alum Richard Dent's enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of FAME.

Southern scrimmage ‘lovely’ for Mitchell

Baton Rouge, LA - This, Stump Mitchell concluded, was downright lovely. On another long summer afternoon, after the Southern football team finished its first preseason scrimmage Saturday - it lasted 2 hours, 12 minutes and 110 plays in hot, steamy conditions - Mitchell, the second-year coach called his team together on the practice field near A.W. Mumford Stadium, then openly praised his players’ effort.

No, the Jaguars are not perfect or polished, he said. But preseason camp is moving along well.

“Lovely,” he said. “I mean, people are out here watching us practice in the heat. Guys are going hard at it. And I think that as a football team, we’re better. ... We’re much further along than we were last year at this time.”

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OG Brown moved to first team

When two of Southern’s top offensive linemen missed preseason practice with minor injuries last week, freshman guard Zach Brown got an instant promotion to the first team. So far, coach Stump Mitchell said, Brown has made the most of his opportunity.

“No question,” Mitchell said. “Zach Brown was here all offseason. He was in summer school. He made two As and one B in nine hours. So he did a fantastic job there, and he’s doing a fantastic job now, stepping in for some injured guys.”

Brown’s promotion came when sophomore left guard Taylon Jones suffered a minor wrist injury and missed several practice sessions last week. Though Jones returned in time to play in Saturday’s first preseason scrimmage, Brown, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound Houston native, played mostly with the first team.

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Revisiting a legendary great! SU Human Jukebox Band Director Dr. Isaac Greggs

Extreme makeover?

OFFENSE BY POSITION

QUARTERBACK

RETURNEES: Dray Joseph, Jeremiah McGinty, Hasoni Alfred, Reid Sanders.

KEY LOSS: None.

TOP NEWCOMERS: J.P. Douglas.

PROJECTED STARTER: Joseph.

OUTLOOK: McGinty was the starter for much of last season, but Joseph came off the bench to lead Southern in both of its wins, and he also started three of the last four games. Joseph began training camp as the de facto No. 1, and while SU coach Stump Mitchell is high on Douglas, a true freshman, it appears that Joseph still has the edge. “Right now, I think he really has a pretty good grasp of the offense,” Mitchell said.

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Winding road leads Grambling State University's Brown home

Grambling, LA - Grambling State offensive coordinator Vyron Brown has been a traveling man.

Since he served as the running backs coach at Alabama State in December's Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game, Brown worked at two other SWAC schools before landing at the place he calls home.

"Shreveport and Grambling are home for me," said Brown, a 1997 Woodlawn High School graduate.

When he returned for his second tenure at the head of the GSU program, head coach Doug Williams quickly called Brown to fill his offensive coordinator opening. Brown was just as quick to accept.

"I was at Alcorn for about a month when coach Williams got the job," Brown said. "He told coach (Melvin) Spears, I'm going to call and ask him if he wants to come home. That was a no-brainer for myself."

Williams likes to say Grambling is family and Brown fits...

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