Date of FVSU vs. Benedict College Football Game Changed

Fort Valley, GA - The Fort Valley State University vs. Benedict College Football Game originally scheduled for Saturday, September 24, 2011 has been changed to Thursday, September 22, 2011. Kick-off for the Thursday night game is 8 p.m. at Charles W. Johnson Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina.

The game has been rescheduled to accommodate a televised broadcast by CSS, the regional cable provider which covers 13 Southeastern states. The game will be available for viewing by over 6 million homes who subscribe to Comcast Cable.

For more information about the game change, please contact the FVSU Office of Sports Information at 478-825-6437.

By FVSU Office of Sports Information

Search committee for Southern University A.D. named

Baton Rouge, LA - Southern University’s 10-person committee to search for an athletic director will be chaired by Doze Butler, Southern Chancellor James Llorens said Tuesday.

Butler is the interim dean of Southern’s College of Agricultural, Family and Consumer Sciences. He was recently appointed to the NCAA’s Champions/Sports Management Cabinet, which is a group that oversees drug testing and education, NCAA rules and Olympic sports issues.

Southern is beginning a search for a new athletic director at a time when the department is dealing with funding deficits, student-athlete graduation standards and off-the-field issues.

Former Southern Athletic Director Greg LaFleur was fired in April after being arrested in Houston on a misdemeanor prostitution count. LaFleur is currently suing the university for wrongful termination. Women’s basketball coach Sandy Pugh is serving as the interim athletic director.

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Williams, Rivers battle for Grambling quarterback job

Grambling, LA — Grambling quarterback D.J. Williams may only be a freshman, but he's certainly got the confidence of a fifth-year senior.

"I feel like the guys just rally around me," Williams said. "I'm good friends with all of the guys, on and off the field, and they just rally around me. I feel like I'm the best leader out there."

Williams and sophomore Frank Rivers have been battling throughout camp for the opportunity to be Grambling's starting quarterback when it opens the season against Alcorn State on Sept. 3.

The Grambling coaching staff has yet to make any statements about ...

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Florida A&M Rattlers hit field early for practice

Tallahassee, FL - Dew was still on the grass and sunlight was nowhere in sight – only the brightness of the lights inside Bragg Stadium lit up half of the practice field.

From a distance the Florida A&M football players looked like silhouettes. The constant sound of whistles was a reminder that for the second-to-last time in the preseason workouts the Rattlers were involved Tuesday in the early morning portion of a two-a-day drills.

Not a single player seemed bothered that they had to rise at a time of the day before most people make their first turn, though.

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3 QBs, one opening at JCSU

Charlotte, N.C. - Johnson C. Smith’s quarterback derby is now a three-man race.

True freshman Andrew Alexander has impressed coaches after a week of drills and is in line to contend for the starter’s job, head coach Steve Aycock said. Alexander, an Ardrey Kell High graduate, is battling redshirt freshman Maliek McCall and true freshman Keahn Wallace for playing time. McCall finished spring drills as the starter.

“It’s still up in the air,” Aycock said. “(Those) guys are fighting and pushing each other, but one guy that’s been standing out with the coaches is Andrew Alexander and he’s on Maliek McCall and Keahn Wallace’s heels like never before. He’s a take-charge kid…. He’s really grasping the game (offensive coordinator Maurice) Flowers has given him.”

Aycock said he wouldn’t rule out spreading playing time, but is leaning toward ...

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Could TSU stadium see new glory days?

Nashville, TN - Tennessee State interim President Portia Holmes Shields admitted her hopes of having some football games at Hale Stadium on campus in 2012 are “pie in the sky” at this point.

Still, she is making an extensive effort to make it happen. She wants the team to return to 10,000-seat Hale Stadium, known as “The Hole,” as part of the Tigers’ 100-year celebration of playing football in 2012.

The Tigers experienced their glory days in the 1960s and early 1970s playing in The Hole.

But TSU also would need to spend around $1 million for repairs to Hale Stadium to be able to play there again.

“The stadium has been sitting there dormant for years,” Shields said. “And so you wouldn’t expect to just go out there and hike the ball. There’s got to be some work done. But it wouldn’t take much money to play in The Hole next year.”

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FAMU's offensive line has experience

Tallahassee, FL - Offensive line coach Lawrence Kershaw hasn't felt this good about his unit as he does these days — even with a redshirt freshman as one of his starters. On Monday, Kershaw had to reach back two seasons ago, when he had two All-Americans to make his point.

Understandably so.

Injuries depleted the line after the opening game last season and it wasn't until the last three games of the year that the line featured those same starting five players.

Three of those starters are back this season, along with Lincoln High grad Steven Robinson, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury that required surgery. Aram Wynn is the lone freshman starter. He won the spot with an impressive spring and has been winning praises from his upperclassmen since.

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FAMU offensive lineman is all business

The idea was strictly hypothetically, but it demonstrated the passion that FAMU freshman offensive lineman Kawika Pieper has for business.

During his senior year in high school, Pieper drew up a business plan that included using casinos to market his native Hawaii. He not only outlined every detail of how such a plan would benefit the island's economy, but he illustrated how it would move through government bureaucracy to where it stopped short of senate approval.

The senate rejection has been a real-life occurrence for many who attempted to introduce casinos to the island, where state law bans gambling. But Pieper wanted to show the upside, which he said would entice more visitors to come to the island.

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Barbarino keeping Rattlers in shape, healthy

Some days, Florida A&M strength and conditioning coach Russell Barbarino sets up outside the locker room. Other days he waits inside at the entrance of the shower stall — always with an electronic scale on the floor and clipboard in hand.

It's a routine he does twice a day, checking the weight of FAMU football players going out onto the practice field and immediately after they've completed practice. It's the latest initiative that Barbarino has taken to make sure he gives coach Joe Taylor and his staff the strongest and best conditioned players he can.

That's not all, because the weight check also would give him and the training staff a sign that something might be physically wrong with a player. Barbarino has already spotted one player who had a 13-pound weight loss before he began showing signs that he might be dealing with a health issue.

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