2011 Hampton football preview | Rose puts faith in high school coach

HAMPTON, VA - Hampton head coach Donovan Rose picked his first staff based on loyalty. His second, he based on history. Entering his third season, Rose is going with his heart.

The Pirates, predicted to finish in the upper half of the MEAC, spent the offseason overhauling the coaching staff for the third consecutive season, bringing on three new faces, including a new offensive coordinator for the third consecutive year.

“I looked around and, I know who I am as a person, but the program was not a reflection of who I am,” Rose said. “I wanted coaches with the same values as me. For the first time, I feel like the coaching staff is a reflection of me.”

The coaching changes are part of an effort to resolve an offense that has become less productive in each of the four years since coach Joe Taylor left the program for Florida A&M, bottoming out last year at 17.5 points per game, 103rd in the FCS.

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D.J. Williams earns starting nod for GSU

Grambling, LA - Doug Williams is a firm believer in picking a quarterback and sticking with him.

"I always say the quarterback," the Grambling State coach said. "During the course of a game, anything can happen, but I don't want any quarterback to go in and have to look over his shoulder. I don't think that's fair to any kid or anybody who's played that position to worry about, 'Am I going to get yanked?'"

The youngster who will not have to worry about that pressure when Grambling opens its season Saturday against Alcorn State in the Port City Classic will be Williams' son, D.J., a 6-foot-4, 193-pound freshman.

The younger Williams beat out Frank Rivers for the starting job.



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Towson University prepares for MSU Bears

Towson, Maryland - With pre-season camp behind them, the Tigers are preparing to open the 2011 season under the lights against cross-town rival Morgan State.

The Bears are members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and will travel less than five miles down the road to Tigertown Saturday night. Of the 22 times that Morgan and Towson have met, the Tigers have won 16 of those games. Despite the series history that is in the Tigers’ favor, Head Coach Rob Ambrose said that his team is not looking past the Bears.



“In the history of the Morgan game, you can pretty much throw the records away,” Ambrose said. “It doesn’t matter what the records were before, what the records were last year, or even what happened in the last game. It’s always a dogfight. It’s always something personal. We expect a hell of a game from them, and they should expect the same from us.”

In the offseason, Morgan State Head Coach Donald Hill-Eley installed a few wrinkles to the Bears’s offense in an effort to snap Towson’s six-game home-opener winning streak.

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Adrian says he's agreed to 2-year extension at NSU

NORFOLK, VA - Norfolk State football coach Pete Adrian said he has agreed to terms on a contract that will keep him coaching the Spartans through the 2013 season.

Adrian, who was heading into the final year of a five-year contract, said Wednesday that he and NSU athletic director Marty Miller have agreed on the structure for a two-year extension. Miller said the contract is in the university's review process.

"I'll be around here for a while longer," Adrian said. "I've agreed to it. President (Tony Atwater) has agreed to it. It's in the works. I can sign it tomorrow, next week. It'll happen whenever it comes back, probably September."

Miller said he did not want to go into details until ...



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South Carolina State Bulldogs: ‘Thorn in our side’

Orangeburg, SC - Buddy Pough is tired.

Tuesday evening, the best coach in black college football - all arguments invited however, over the last half decade or so, few can claim the consistency and overall excellence of Pough's program - told his team as much.

Five Septembers ago, Pough loaded his Bulldogs on to an airplane and flew off to Colorado to face Air Force. The excitement of playing that first FBS opponent was undeniable. There was lots of talk about Appalachian State, which had just done the unthinkable, knock off Michigan at Michigan.

The Bulldogs, like every other FCS college in American, wanted to be like the Mountaineers and pull off a shocker. But for all that excitement, the Bulldogs were handled with ease by the Falcons, 34-3. Two weeks later, South Carolina pounded the Bulldogs 38-3. S.C. State showed more against Central Florida to open the 2008 season but still lost, 17-0. Three weeks later, Clemson beat the Bulldogs so bad that the University's Board of Trustees argued the merits of playing FBS teams.

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Q&A with Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell

Baltimore, MD - It's been an unusual recruiting cycle for Coppin State men's basketball coach Fang Mitchell.

Mitchell guided the Eagles to a 16-14 record last season, but his team lost four scholarships -- three this year and one next season -- because of Coppin's Academic Progress Rate. With 10 scholarship players coming back for another season, Mitchell had no scholarships to give for the 2011 class.

Mitchell also had to deal with questions about his future at Coppin thanks to his expiring contract. In May, after months of uncertainty, the university gave the 63-year-old coach a three-year extension.

While there were no new recruits to talk about this year, Mitchell spoke to Recruiting Report last week about his 2011-12 Eagles squad:

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FAMU Football Anxious to Start Season

Tallahassee, Fla -- The Rattlers have waited nine months to get a chance to get after someone besides themselves, and Saturday the wait finally ends.

"I feel like a gladiator before a fight," says defensive tackle Padric Scott. "I'm ready for the cage to go up so I can run into the ring and show everything I've been training for."

"I'm kind of relieved," adds quarterback Austin Trainor. "All of this hard work that we've put in for the past six months, going to spring workouts, summer workouts, camps and everything, all the seven on sevens. Really we just get to go out and showcase it this week."

The Rattlers don't have to wait till week five for their home opener, in the first week of the season.



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